Try Some Fun Halloween Pumpkin Crafts
By Joy J. Fine
There are more to Halloween pumpkin crafts than the basic carving of two eyes, a nose and a toothy grin on your pumpkin. It is fine when carving your pumpkin if what you want to begin with the standard face. But, what if you want to try something different? Whether the reason is to surprise your family, your students or just make your home that much more interesting this Halloween there are so many designs you can consider. Are you a sports fan or maybe is your partner? Why not make your pumpkin into a baseball or football player. This is really simple. Begin the way you would for any carving project and cut off the top. Then get rid of everything inside. Once this is done make the eye sockets. Instead of leaving them hollow like you do for most carvings pin white paper behind them. Take a black marker and make a circle to represent the eye. Then draw a black line below each eye. After that put a baseball cap or football helmet on and you will have a pumpkin athlete ready for Halloween night.
Another fun thing to do with pumpkins involves buying smaller ones. Then give each one to a member of your family to carve in their own likeness. Get your kids to even give the pumpkins not just features of themselves but something that make them unique. Does one of them wear glasses? A couple of piper cleaners can easily be shaped into glasses. For the hair you can use colored wool or something from the garden. This can be flowers or leaves. You can even include grandparents in this activity.
Not all Halloween pumpkin crafts need to include carving. So many people enjoy pumpkins seeds and now you can make them yourself. Remove the seeds from the inside of the pumpkin; this is something you need to do anyway if you are going to carve your pumpkin. Then wash all the wet stuff off of them. After that you can steam them for about a half an hour to softer the shells before cooking. This step is optional. Some people say this improves that taste while others prefer to simply roast them. Put the seeds on a metal tray and sprinkle salt on them. How much you use depends on how salty you want them to taste. Some people use a little oil before putting them in the oven; others prefer nothing more than the salt. Place the sheet on the middle shelf of your oven at a medium heat. It should take no more than a half an hour to cook them, but you need to start checking after twenty minutes. Take them out when they are just browning.
There are so many different Halloween pumpkin crafts that you can work on as the season approaches. You can make pumpkins that are carved into endless shapes or with endless designs. If you are looking for something different there are lots of websites that you can go to for ideas. Should you decide that you do not want to purchase a pumpkin you can still make pumpkin decorations out of paper or cloth. Make a stuffed pumpkin and embroider a scary face. Use a paper bag to draw your pumpkin on or get printable pumpkins online to color for your children who can then make numerous different faces with their colored pencils or crayons. Or you can make cookies in the shape of pumpkins and use orange icing to give them that holiday spirit.The possibilities are endless.
