KidGlue Craft: Mess-Free Jack O’ Lanterns That Don’t Go Bad

By Sarah Matheny on October 12th, 2009

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I’ll admit, I’m kind of a Scrooge when it comes to messy holiday traditions.  Part of the beauty of being vegan now is that I have an even better excuse for not dying Easter eggs.  As far as jack o’ lanterns go, I’m not a big fan of gutting a giant seed-filled gourd and then handing my kid a Sharpie and a knife, only to have them then want to put an open flame inside of their creation.  I cringe just thinking of it.

Still, once October hits, pretty much every day between the 1st and the 31st I get asked 8 times if it is time to “do pumpkins” yet.  Why yes, my pretties, it certainly is.  Here’s a mess-free, EASY and fun craft to keep your kids happy until you actually do get around to carving pumpkins.

Materials:

• orange, black and green construction paper
• washable markers
• glue
• stickers
• safety scissors

Directions:

Draw a pumpkin shape on a piece of orange construction paper.  Cut a stem out of green construction paper and glue on top.  Using a marker, draw curved lines down the front of the pumpkin to show depth and shape.

Using black construction paper, cut out triangles, circles, hearts, stars, eye brows, mouth shapes, etc. and help your child arrange and glue the shapes on their pumpkin to make a face.  Let your child draw with markers, add stickers and any other trim to decorate their pumpkin.  Hang your pumpkin in your window to greet trick-or-treaters.

Sometimes a little imagination is all it takes to procrastinate on your less desirable parental duties.  Trust me, I’m an expert.