Pumpkin time is upon us again. And when the kids are looking for ideas it’s good to have some inspiration. You can find tons of ideas online. These pumpkins are just some fun ideas that my kids and I have done over the years. Maybe you’ll see something that inspires you! 😉🎃
Carve Or No Carve?
Whether you decide to carve or not carve, there are lots of pumpkin ideas that you create.
We have always opted for no carve pumpkins but as my kids are getting older they are getting more adventurous. Especially my son! For smaller children a no carve pumpkin is usually easier and more manageable.

So here are a few ideas that might help you decide this halloween.
The Gruffalo
When it comes to pumpkin ideas this was one of our favourites. If your kids have not yet read the Gruffalo, you should definitely introduce them to this story. Such a sweet twist on a monster story, children will love the Gruffalo and mimic the words as you read it to them.

The only part that we carved was his mouth, which we then painted black and stuck on foam fangs.
We used styrofoam balls and Pom Poms to add for details once we painted it. Toothpicks come in handy for sticking objects into a pumpkin. Or good for using as whiskers etc.


Ninja Turtles
When my son was 4 years old he was obsessed with teenage mutant ninja turtles. So what better inspiration do you need than when your kids have an interest or a favourite tv show! These were pretty easy to do and as this pumpkin is a no carve, kids can pretty much do a lot of it themselves.
Other than painting our turtles, we just used builders tape and markers. My son was able to draw teeth onto white tape for the mouth and we used tape for the turtles mask. They turned out super cute!



Mummy
To make a mummy pumpkin all you need is lots of glue and some bandages. And some googly eyes and a marker.


Gru & Minion
When looking for pumpkin ideas, it often helps to watch your favourite movies or tv shows to get the inspiration you need. My kids love the minions so it was inevitable that we would eventually make one of our pumpkins into a minion.

Very easy to do. Using the stalk as Grus nose, just paint your pumpkin peach and draw on a mouth. We used felt for his eyebrows and hat. We painted his eyes on.
For the minion we painted him yellow and used a jar lid for his 3D eye. We then put tape around and drew on a mouth.
They turned out awesome!
Pig & Unicorn
My daughter LOVES unicorns and LOVES anything pink. So we decided to pink up some of our pumpkins. This pig and unicorn are both no carve pumpkins and were fairly easy to do.
We put a stick into the unicorns head and wrapped it with the clay. My daughter also wanted to use yarn for the mane. Felt was used for the eyes and nose and we drew on a mouth.
For our pig we covered a paper cup in felt and stuck on felt nostrils. The eyes were cut out foam, pink of course lol! We used a pink pipe cleaner for the pigs twisty tail and gave it googly eyes.


Spider & Ghost
For traditional scary halloween pumpkin ideas, how about these! For the spider we used styrofoam balls for the eyes and large pipe cleaners for the legs. This can be a no carve pumpkin however we did carve circles for eye holes so that the spiders eyes didn’t stick out too much.
Our ghost turned out pretty cute in the end. We painted it white and with rosy cheeks and eye lashes, my daughter decided to make it into girl pumpkin lol! We scooped the insides out and carved out a mouth and two little eyes. My daughter also wanted to paint the top part black so it was like a hat.


Mr.Potato Head
Smaller children also like to get involved in decorating their pumpkin. These Mr.Potato Head pieces came in really useful when doing our toddler friendly pumpkin. When my daughter was only a couple years old, I gave her a paint brush to colour her pumpkin in.
We had these Mr Potato pieces lying around and I thought they were perfect for her little hands. With a small wooden hammer to knock them into her pumpkin, she was able to do most of this herself.
You can get these Mr.Potato Head characters from most toy stores or online. If you’re really lucky sometimes you can pick them up in local thrift shops.


Rainbow Pumpkin
This colourful pumpkin was an easy to do no carve pumpkin. We painted stripes of colour using acrylics all the way around the pumpkin and covered it in glitter glue. Pumpkin ideas are endless and you can get so create when deciding on what to do.

Some tips & tricks when decorating your pumpkins;
- Cover your pumpkins in Mod Podge or glue if you are painting it. It will stop the paint from chipping and washing off in the rain.
- If you are deciding to carve your pumpkin don’t carve it too early in the month. We have carved our pumpkins at the beginning of October and by Halloween they have gone all mushy & moldy and don’t hold up well. You want your pumpkin to be on display for those trick or treaters when you’ve gone to so much work to decorate it.
- When you have decided what you want to carve, use a marker to draw the areas on the pumpkin where you want to cut out. We have made the mistake of carving out pieces and then my kids have gotten upset because its not where they wanted their ‘eye’ or ‘nose’. Believe me drawing their idea out first will give them and you a better idea of where to carve. Alternatively have your child draw a picture on paper of what they want theirs to look like.
- To discard your pumpkins once halloween is over, you can easily compost it. We have taken our pumpkin seeds into our local woods for all the squirrels and other animals to eat. This is usually if we have carved our pumpkins and not painted them. Fill them with acorns and the animals will flock to them.


And here is another fab idea for pumpkin decorating ideas. Melted crayons to create a rainbow effect.