Puffy Paint Jack 'o Lanterns

It's halfway through the month, and we still haven't carved our pumpkins yet!  We went to the pumpkin patch at the end of September, but this month is really flying by.  We got a couple big pumpkins for carving and we also got several small ones for painting.  We used our Homemade Puffy Paint recipe.  This time I added washable tempura paint to the recipe, so I could use festive colors and make them vibrant.  Since the paint is washable, you can easily rinse the pumpkins in the case of mistakes.

No matter what the project is, using our Homemade Puffy Paint is always a favorite for the boys.  I think it's the squeezy bottles.  Shh, don't tell them the squeezing is good for fine motor skills.  They think they are just having fun.

Like the title of the post, when I set up this invitation my plan was to paint faces on our pumpkins and make jack o' lanterns.  JZ (5) and J-Bug (3) were much more interested in squirting the paint all over the pumpkins.  For some reason JZ really enjoying covering the stems in paint.  He wasn't very happy that J-Bug wouldn't let him paint his stems, too.  Anyway, as I say again and again the boys are free to create however they want.  

Even when I have an end picture in mind I never steer their art.  Sometimes I sit quietly with them and participate.  In this instance I made my own jack 'o lantern.  They both thought it was really cool, but neither felt the need to make his own.  As you can see from the photo, the paint dripped a tiny bit.  I worked the mixture to make sure it was thin enough to squeeze out of the bottles but thick enough to dry in place without dripping.  For the most part it worked.

Glitter was the best part as far as my boys were concerned.  Can you tell?

I used cookie sheets from Dollar Tree for their work surfaces.  They have both gotten great at being slow and careful with the glitter.  I don't mind if they use a lot, but I don't like waste.  By teaching them good habits and giving a little freedom for mistakes they are learning more each day.

You can see in the photo at the top how the glue dried.  It wasn't as vibrant as it appeared when we were painting, but the pumpkins still turned out nicely.  Most importantly, we had a lot of fun.  For more creative, Halloween fun check out the Milk Jug Monsters we made.

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