Painting Pumpkins

We used regular poster paint when we did this last year with our daughter. She loved it, but make sure you keep the pumpkin inside in a dry place. We had ours inside for the holiday but afterwards I put them outside and I noticed that all her paint peeled off. It looked like it got moist, and just started coming off.

HI A.-
I don't have a reply to the paint, but just wanted to emphathize with you about all the allergies. My daughter was allergic to milk protein, peanuts, treenuts, and oats for the longest time. She only has the peanuts and treenuts now.... A lot more manageable! If you ever want to trade info, drop me a line!
Good Luck!
L. Melvin
____@____.com

Hello A. my name is S.. I just wanted to let you know that there are a few different types of paints that you can use. I preferably would go with Acrylic paints, but you can also use latex paints. Acrylic paint seems to go on better and be a little thicker for making the design stand out. I would suggest that if you want something that can be seen even at night that you use glitter paint, it will reflex any light that shines on it. You also might want to look into glow and dark paint. I have not used it but was considering using it this year with my 3 year old. If you need any stencils for painting your pumpkin let me know, I have at least 20 different designs.

Also, you do not just need to use paint. You can use just about anything you find in a craft department to decorate a pumpkin. The only thing that I would not use is something that would stick in the pumpkin because then it will spoil faster.

I hope that I helped

Hi A.,
This what I did with my 16 month old son. We put round (or any shape) stickers on the pumpkin, we used those stickers you can use to price things, and then painted the whole pumpkin black. We used Acrylic paint. After it was dry we pulled the sitckers off and we ended up with a black pumpkin with orange poke-a-dots. My son loved putting the stickers on the pumpkin. Just another idea.

Crayola makes really great first paints for toddlers. They are chunky, fitting into a toddlers hand perfectly and are washable. They are great for any art projects and would probably work on a pumpkin just fine. I must say that I too was skeptical about letting my son carve a pumpkin, as he is only 10 months old. At his daycare this week they let the kids explore by putting their hands inside a pumpkin and even at their young age they really enjoyed the gooey mess.