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Give your Halloween pumpkins some bling

Posted by Cathy James on 13 October, 2011

Topics:: Playing |; Food and drink |; Editor's picks

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Traditional Jack-o'-lanterns are so 2010. This year why not add more bling to your pumpkin?

We love decorating pumpkins for Halloween but this year we decided to bring a bit of glamour to the festivities. Step aside traditional Jack-o'-lantern faces and make way for pumpkins with bling!

Pumpkin care

If you are sticking with tradition and carving your pumpkin, do this as close to Halloween as you can, because once cut the pumpkin will only last a few days before it starts to sag. To prolong the life of your carved pumpkin, you could try rubbing on a thin coat of petroleum jelly or spraying it lightly with a bleach and water solution. Your display will last longer if you set it up in a cool, dry place, so a front porch is perfect.

Child-friendly pumpkin decorating

Kids love to do rather than just watch, so make the pumpkin decorating as hands on for them as possible. Many supermarkets are selling smaller culinary pumpkins which are less expensive than the larger display pumpkins. We used these smaller, cheaper ones and were able to get one for each child to customise themselves. If you have a large group of children joining in, you could even go for satsumas or peppers.

If you want to carve your pumpkin but are concerned about letting the kids loose with knives, have them draw their own design on the pumpkin skins with a pencil and then you can do the cutting out. An alternative is to use cookie cutters as stamps to punch out a design. Let the children choose the shapes and use a wooden spoon or hammer to bang the cutters through the pumpkin skin to create their design.

Pumpkins with bling

To add some glamour to your pumpkin you can use henna to make a beautiful design, and acrylic paints work very well too.
Stick-on gem stones add instant mess-free bling. They’re available from lots of craft shops and are very easy for kids to apply
My daughters believe everything looks better with sparkle so we used glitter and sequins. You can sprinkle them on to acrylic paint before it dries or apply a layer of clear drying craft glue and add the glitter on top.
Hardware stores often have great craft supplies too. We found some cup hooks which make great monster noses and hair, or you could create a design with nails.
Drawing pins are very easy to push into the pumpkin skin and you can use them to draw a design, make faces or spell out words.

Maximise your pumpkin fun

If you’re carving your pumpkin, make sure you save all the flesh you scoop out to cook with. You could try our favourite pumpkin muffin recipe. And don’t throw your pumpkin away as soon as Halloween is over because a decaying pumpkin makes a great science experiment.

Photo: Cathy James