painted pumpkins

I've got about a thousand and one things to do to get ready for the Mini Maker Faire this weekend. That being said, I'm committed to doing at least one art project with Max each day. He's been collecting pumpkins for the past few weeks and has quite the pile now (we buy one small one every time we go to the grocery store). 

Last night after dinner, instead of watching his one episode of Dinosaur Train before books and bed, we painted pumpkins. I was impressed at how long he worked on these (he completely forgot about Dinosaur Train and that's saying something!). When he was done, we put them up to dry and this morning gave them a nice top coat to make them shiny and weather resistant. 

What do you think? This is a pretty easy one and perfect for toddlers who like to get messy!

PS

Some really wonderful pumpkin painting ideas for slightly older children. 

And a yummy pumpkin bread recipe to go along with all the other pumpkin activities! (We made this last week and it was gone in a flash!)

materials:

acrylic paint

sparkle glue (optional)

spray gloss (optional)

paint brushes

pumpkin

paper plates

paint cloth/paper

get to work:

1. Place the pumpkin on the paper plate. This way the kids can rotate their pumpkin while painting it, and not get super messy. 

2. Squirt a little bit of paint onto another paper plate. (Mix the sparkle glue in with the paint to make it shiny). 

3. Paint!

4. After the pumpkins are dry you can use a gloss to seal the paint and keep the colors vibrant. (I used Krylon Low Odor Clear Finish - which you can spray inside, although I'd still recommend doing outside). 

Nothing like a little farmer's tan!