Paint a pretty pumpkin

Happy Halloween!
While I work on culling through the one million adorable pictures of our Trick-or-Treating adventure, I thought it would be fun to share a little craft we did last weekend.

I was torn on what to do this year, because the kids are still a bit young for pumpkin carving, but Piper is old enough to want to do something, so I planned to paint pumpkins instead. I was originally thinking we'd just get some mini pumpkins and let the kids go to town, but then I came across this project on Martha Stewart's instagram (yes I follow her!) and the decision was made!

Martha actually has a tutorial on her site...But I bet you can guess the steps:

• Pick a pumpkin
• Tape the pumpkin. 
• Paint the pumpkin. 
• Let the pumpkin dry. 
• Remove the tape from the pumpkin. 
• Enjoy the pumpkin! 

So easy an almost three year old can do it. (and so can a 16 month old. As long as you watch to make sure she doesn't eat all the paint). Now that you've seen the professional result...let me show you our rendition:

She's a beaut, isn't she?

We didn't have any super narrow tape, so we just used some 1" wide tape we had on hand (it's something Dustin had from some old project or costume...but it's similar to painter's tape). We actually taped two pumpkins, but decided it was easier to just have us all work on one big one. It ended up taking us about a half hour, which is pretty much the entire attention span I can expect from the kiddos, so it worked out perfectly.

 As for other materials, we just used some washable kids' paint and some old brushes we already had. I'm pretty sure this means we can't leave the pumpkin out in the rain, but that risk is well worth it because it meant I could let these two animals get paint on anything they wanted (which was everything) without worrying.

It was the nicest October day Ohio has ever seen, so we elected to do the activity outside. We plopped their picnic table out in the backyard, partly because it would be easy to hose off, and partly because the lighting was awesome for pictures. Basically- Happy Dustin, Happy Courtney.

We got them suited up in giant bibs/smocks, gave each kid a plate of paint (eliminating waste and squabbles), and set Piper up with a cup of water so we could at least humor the idea of not mixing the colors, and set them loose. I didn't even have to show Fin what to do...these kids take to mess making, like ducks to water. She did manage to keep most of her "art" on the pumpkin or the plate, minus a few taste tests here and there.

Piper took her job very serious (no surprise there) and the set up of the table worked out perfectly to give each one of them a side of the pumpkin all to themselves. Days later, I'm still shocked they didn't get in a single fight, but keeping them separated seemed like the key to success.

We even managed to rock out a timer-pic of the whole family. Giant win.

Fin's attention span was a bit shorter than her sister's (I blame the doggies next door...she's equal parts fascinated/in love/terrified by them, so she has an eye on them pretty much at all times). But after she was done painting, she was plenty happy wiping paint all over her bib/the table/me.

But nothing a few wet wipes couldn't fix. And our group masterpiece was looking good.

Once Piper finished her side of the pumpkin, she set to work on her plate...

 She was exceptionally proud of that plate. We brought her project, and the pumpkin inside, leaving them on the kitchen table for a day or two until all the major gobs (of which there were many) were dry.

Then off came the tape, and out went the finished product.
Not a direct match to our inspiration piece, but it was fun, and at least has a bit of an artsy vibe mixed with the toddler chaos.

If you've still got pumpkins, it's a fun project to do, even with the littlest of littles.

So Happy Halloween and Happy Weekend...see you next week for the wrap up of this year's #costumeweekspooktacular!