Puffy Paint Pumpkin Craft

Crafts that focus on the process are my kind of crafts, I don’t mind making end products as long as the process is worthwhile and engaging for the children. This puffy paint pumpkin craft fits the bill perfectly. The children ( my daughter and a friend) helped me make the puffy paint, fine-tuned the color , and were given the tools to make the stem not a precut piece. In a class, it’s not always easy to be that open especially if their cutting skills aren’t perfected yet. Instead, have various precut stems available so they can choose one they like.

Gather your materials. You will need some shaving cream, plain glue, orange or yellow and red paint ( we used all of the above), a paper plate, scissors, and some green paper.

Start by mixing a big dollop of glue and the paint. The ratio I stick by is 3:1 ( shaving cream to glue 1.5 cups of shaving cream to 1/2 cup of glue) but after years and years of making it, I eyeball it.

Add that shaving cream in. This was the kids’ favorite part of making the puffy paint.

We decided to add more red, and yellow to get “Just the perfect shade for the pumpkins they could see in our garden from the Maker Space window.

Once it was just right it was time to grab the paper plates.

I loved that one child carefully added the puffy paint with a spoon while the other went all out with her hands. Make sure you have spoons available for children that do not like getting their hands mucky, which is much more common than most adults realize and totally normal.

For more sensory seeking kiddos like my daughter who refers to this as “hand painting” not finger painting, you might want to have a scrap piece of paper under their pumpkin.