Fall kid's crafts: paper bag pumpkins

Fall kid’s crafts: paper bag pumpkins

This very cheap and super fun craft is something kids of any age can do!

By Angela McKendree

This fun and easy craft idea is something that kids will love to do and parent will love to put out as decoration.

Materials:

Brown paper sacks, small ones for small pumpkins, grocery sized for big pumpkins

Brown or green yarn or raffia

Orange washable tempera paint

Black washable tempera paint * optional

Green washable tempera paint

Yellow or white tempera paint * optional

Brown tempera paint* optional

Green construction paper* optional

Stuffing- this can be old newspaper, paper scraps, pillow stuffing or anything else you have

Paintbrush

How to: step by step instructions

1) Cut up the paper scraps if that is what you are using for this project as the stuffing. If your kids are especially young, this can be great cutting practice for them. If this is not the material you are using for stuffing, skip this step.

2) When the stuffing is ready, fill up the paper bag about three-quarters of the way full with stuffing.

3) Bunch up the top of the bag where there is no stuffing and twist it several times to make the stem of the pumpkin. Then tie the top closed with the yarn or raffia.

4) If you are using yarn, you can wrap it around a pencil and curl it. Let it hang down over the front of the pumpkin. If you are using raffia, which is more stiff, you can curl it and let it stick out from the pumpkin’s stem horizontally. This will be a little piece of the vine left on the pumpkin.

5) Now comes the fun part- painting! All of the paper sack under the yarn or raffia should be painted solid orange with the orange washable tempera paint.

6) The stem should be painted green with the green washable tempera paint. Or if you would rather use brown you can paint the stem brown. Yet another option is to mix a little of the green and brown together to make a new color to paint the stem. Kids love mixing paint colors together.

Optional steps:

7) While you are waiting for the pumpkin to dry, you can start on this optional step. If you have some green construction paper, you can cut out several leaves in various sizes and set them aside. When the paint has dried you can fasten them to the pumpkin with a little glue, or you can tie them on with more yarn or raffia.

8) When the orange paint has dried, you can turn your pumpkin into a jack o’ lantern if you choose. For this you will need to optional materials black and white or yellow tempera paint. Outline the jack o’ lantern face (black triangles or the eyes, a jagged smile, etc) with black paint.

9) With the yellow or white paint fill in the shapes ( triangle eyes, etc) to make the pumpkin look like it is either hollow inside (white) or glowing from candle light (yellow)

These pumpkin would look adorable for a Halloween parties, in elementary school classrooms, on covered porches for trick-or-treaters’ enjoyment, and anywhere else. It is the perfect project for children who love to paint.

They could also be stuffed with candy and make excellent party favor bags. There are just so many things you can do with them, you just have to try it this year.