Last Minute Creative Pumpkin Decorating Ideas
Since Halloween is right around the corner, I thought it would be fun to share a few of my favorite pumpkin decorating ideas that I have found over the years. I usually attempt to pin on those silly templates to the side of the pumpkin and carve along the dotted outline. Somehow it NEVER looks as cool as it did in the photo and it is ALWAYS such a let down. The worst is when you’re with a bunch of creative friends who end of creating pumpkin masterpieces with a toothpick and a spoon… like how did they do that?! These 4 different quick and easy decorating styles are fool proof and creative, you’ll be impressing those artsy friends of yours in no time 😉 Remember there is always a video tutorial on all of these at the end of the post!
1. “Brad Pitt” Pumpkin
Materials:
- Mini pumpkin (you can try this on a normal size pumpkin but just note that you will need A LOT more brads!)
- 2 packets of 50 gold brads (100 total)
Step 1: Pin it up!
- This is the easiest one of them all! Just push your gold brads into the side of the pumpkin. You can make a design if you want, or you can just randomly spread them out like I did.
2. Polka Dot Drill Pumpkin
Materials
- 1 Pumpkin
- Carving knife
- Spoon/pumpkin scooper
- Ballpoint pen
- Power drill
- 1/4″ drill bit
Step 1: Remove the top & clean it out!
- Using your carving knife, cut out the top of the pumpkin so you can clean it out completely.
- Scoop out all of the insides of the pumpkin and scrape the inside walls of the pumpkin until they are as bare as possible. This will be helpful when you get to drilling your holes!
- Using your carving knife you can trim off the messy part of the pumpkin lid.
Step 2: Trace
- With a ballpoint pen trace out holes where you want to drill. DO NOT use a Sharpie… it won’t come off of the pumpkin! I wanted to go for the clean, modern look with simple vertical lines, but again you can make any pattern or fancy design you want!
Step 3: Drill!
- Using your power drill, drill holes into your pumpkin according to your outline. I recommend using a 1/4″ drill bit or larger so the candle light can shine through easily.
Step 4: Clean & light!
- Remove the drill bit and use it to clean out any clogged holes.
- Place one large candle or several tea light candles inside your pumpkin and light them up!
3. Spooky Jack-o-Lantern
Materials:
- 1 Pumpkin
- Carving knife
- Spoon/ pumpkin scooper
- Ballpoint pen
- Toothpicks
Step 1: Remove the top & clean out!
- Using your carving knife, cut out the top of the pumpkin so you can clean it out completely.
- Scoop out all of the insides of the pumpkin and scrape the inside walls of the pumpkin until they are as bare as possible to keep it from rotting quickly.
- Using your carving knife you can trim off the messy part of the pumpkin lid.
Step 2: Trace & carve
- With a ballpoint pen trace out two rounded square eyes, a nose, and a wide rectangle for the mouth. DO NOT use a Sharpie… it won’t come off of the pumpkin! Using your carving knife, carve out the traced areas.
Step 3: Toothpick time
- Take your toothpicks and push them into the top and bottom of the mouth.
- You can break the toothpicks in half for varied heights of jagged teeth!
Step 4: Clean & light!
- Make sure the bottom is flat inside the pumpkin before you place your candle(s) in to light!
4. Glitter Dipped Pumpkin!
Materials
- 1 Pumpkin (we only had a pre-white spray painted one left — if you don’t want to spray paint yours white you can do this with a plain orange pumpkin too)
- Painters tape
- Mod Podge
- Paint brush
- GLITTER!
Step 1: Tape off the bottom
- Use painters tape to section off the bottom half of your pumpkin
Step 2: Make it stick
- Take a paint brush and lightly cover the taped off section of your pumpkin with one coat of Mod Podge.
Step 3: Glitter time!
- Cover the bottom half of your pumpkin with glitter
Step 4: Coat it
- Add one more coat of Mod Podge on top of the glitter to seal it. This will help avoid getting glitter on absolutely everything! Don’t worry if it’s white at first, it will dry clear!
Watch our Pumpkin Decorating Video Tutorial!
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