These no-carve pumpkin decorating ideas are insanely cool—and there's no gooey mess to clean up when you're finished!
With just a little imagination and simple art supplies, you will wow the neighborhood, and have fun doing it! Plus, you’ll not only spare your kitchen table from a stringy, gooey mess, you’re bound to get more bang for your buck with no-carve pumpkins because they last longer. Did we convince you yet? Hope so. Here are 3 no-carve pumpkin ideas we love.
Nothing beats the awesomeness of a hot glue gun when it comes to crafting (it's easy to use, too!). You won’t care about any of those excess glue strings with this pumpkin design because the more melted glue and glue strings, the better. The hot glue gun is like a stencil you don’t have to pre-cut or stick on—just let your hands squeeze the trigger, and start designing—the hot glue gun will do the rest!
What You’ll Need:
- Pumpkins
- Hot glue gun and hot glue sticks
- Spray paint, dark blue, teal and aqua
How-To:
1.Using a hot glue gun, create spider web designs on the pumpkin. You can create large, medium, and small webs, and even a spider hanging from a web. You will find the hot glue ooze is really fun to make webs with.
2.The glue will quickly dry, so once the design is set, spray the spray paint in a well-ventilated area over the webs. You can make each web a different color, or create an ombré effect over one large web.
3.Wait about 20 minutes for the paint to dry, and then carefully remove the hot glue gun webs. It will easily peel off the pumpkin to reveal your cool web design.
Grab the entire family to partake in this pumpkin decorating activity. It’s time to let the kids get messy, and leave their fingerprints all over the pumpkin. There are no fingerprints too small large, small, round, or thin for this project—every fingerprint makes the cutest, more colorful monsters ever!
What You’ll Need:
- Pumpkin
- Acrylic paint, pink, yellow, green, blue, purple, red
- Paintbrush
- Sharpie, black
How-To:
1.Paint a thin to medium layer of paint on your thumb, or any fingertips with the colors of your choice, and press it on to the pumpkin.
2.Continue until the pumpkin is covered in polka dots of fingerprints.
3.Once the paint is dry, begin to make silly faces, eyeballs, feet, and wobbly hands with a Sharpie marker on the fingerprints to make mini monsters.
Trendy foliage inspired by a non-traditional fall color palette makes this pumpkin centerpiece swoon worthy. There is no watering necessary with this arrangement. The cotton stem is a nod to the farmhouse chic designer Joanna Gaines—we all want to have a little Gaines in us when it comes to our home decor, right? An added bonus is that this pumpkin can be made prior to company arriving, and the flowers will last forever.
What You’ll Need:
- Pumpkin
- Faux floral stems, such as eucalyptus, cotton, peony, mum, rabbit’s ear, and maroon tree leaves from a craft store
- Hot glue gun and hot glue
- Chalk paint, Martha Stewart Eucalyptus
- Acrylic paint, Americana paint in Cactus
- Foam paintbrush
- Bristle brush
How-To:
1.With the foam paintbrush, paint the pumpkin with chalk paint. Let dry and paint one more layer.
2.Once the chalk paint is dry, use the bristle brush and paint the pumpkin with the Cactus color. Be sure to wipe the excess paint on a paper towel before painting—this will create a texture all over the pumpkin.
3.Begin to hot glue the flowers on top of the pumpkin. Start with the leaves, and when the base is full, glue the cotton stem, and finally top it off with the flowers. This arrangement can be made however you like, so play around with it until you like what you see, and begin to glue in layers.