Paper Plate Pumpkin Patch

We are really starting to get into the Halloween spirit here!  After our first attempt at Halloween art using cookie cutters, we were ready for more.  I have a simple Halloween craft for you today.  You have already heard me rave about the versatility of  cookie cutters, food coloring, and straws.  Well, lets talk about paper plates.  In the past I used paper plates when I ran out of clean dishes.  A normal person would just wash the dishes, right?  Well, not me.  I would resort to paper plates and when those ran out I would beg my husband to wash the dishes wash the dishes.  But I am trying to me more environmentally friendly these days, so I have a stack of paper plates that are no longer being used.  If you have some paper plates too, go grab them along with some orange paint, a brush, and black and green construction paper and meet me back here.

Wow, you're fast.  You might want to put your kid in a smock too.  I mean what kind of mom would let their kid do a paint project without a smock?  Oh yeah, this one.

To be fair, we only have two smocks.  We never got a 3rd after little C arrived.  If one of the twins is wearing a smock, the other one needs to also or a big fight will ensue.  So I figured we were better off having C in the smock since she had the greatest chance of getting messy.  See?  Look how clean she looks?

Pretty simple directions on this one - paint the paper plate orange.  It doesn't matter what side of the plate you paint.  I had the kids paint the part you eat of off and just pushed the edges out when it dried for a cute plump pumpkin look.  I was very impressed with how "A" took her time to make sure she painted the entire plate. Oh and notice the orange paint on A's smockless self.  *sigh*  

I cut some eyes, noses and mouths out of black construction paper.  If you have older kids this would be a fun step for them to do themselves.  

I thought I was going to have to wait for the plates to dry before we could glue on the faces, but I got this crazy idea that maybe we can just put the pieces on the wet paint. Sure enough they stuck with no glue.  

Once the plates did dry I cut some stems out from the green construction paper and taped them on the back of the plate.  All that's left is to hang and admire your new pumpkin patch!

Can you guess which pumpkin was made by Little C?  

Linked to Play Academy