Mess-Free Halloween Pumpkins

I absolutely love carving pumpkins, but will be the first one to admit that gutting them is really gross.  So, a couple of years ago my boyfriend and I started painting pumpkins instead and made them into witches, black cats, bats & spiders.  It's a great way to be creative without the mess.  Here are a few ideas in case you're interested.

{photo courtesy of The Finer Things}

Creepy Crawly How-To:

Paint black, super glue two googly eyes,

and then cut 4 black pipe cleaners in half jamming each set of 4 on

each side of the pumpkin for legs.  And oula!

Black Cat How-To:

Paint a small pumpkin and medium sized pumpkin black. (Avoid using paint with water because then you'll end up with cracks like me).  Remove the stem from the larger pumpkin and fill the area with lots of hot glue.  Then, attache the smaller pumpkin and let dry.

Using hot glue, attach 2 googly eyes and a button for a nose to the head.  The whiskers are actually 6 sewing pins pushed into the pumpkin.  For the ears, cut a black  pipe cleaner in two and jam them into the pumpkin.  You can stabilize them with a little bit of super glue or hot glue.  For the tail, take two pipe cleaners and twist together one end while curling the other end.  Stick the twisted end into the pumpkin. 

To make the tie, simply use a pipe cleaner and tie it around the cat's neck like a necklace. Then, cut a tie shape out of felt and glue to the pipe cleaner.  For added flair, you can decorate the tie with stripes or polka dots.