Two months into the school year and Easton finally brought home a school project I could get behind: Literary Pumpkins.
For his school’s annual Pumpkin Fest, families are asked to decorate a pumpkin to look like a favorite book character. The pumpkins are displayed in the library for a week before Halloween, including during Pumpkin Fest so all the parents and kids can marvel at the handiwork. The project is totally optional but this one was screaming my name.
The problem? Getting Easton to sign off on my ideas. It is technically his school project after all.
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I first suggested Pete the Cat. I was envisioning how easy it would be: paint a pumpkin blue, throw on some ears and maybe some whiskers.
I was wholeheartedly rejected.
“I want Stick Dog, Mom!” he told me excitedly.
This was not what I had in mind. Stick Dog, while a fabulous book series by Tom Watson, is hardly the iconic children’s literary character I had in mind. Plus…Stick Dog is a stick figure drawing. How do you translate a character made of boxes and lines into a three-dimensional pumpkin?
I futilely suggest If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. I was thinking painted-on overalls, some mouse ears, and a big cookie. Once again, I was rejected.
“Mom, it says your favorite book character and mine is Stick Dog.” Easton declared.
So it did. And wasn’t the whole purpose of this project to get your kids excited about reading? With a sigh, I acquiesced and started thinking about how to translate the sharp angles and geometry of Stick Dog into the roundness of a pumpkin.
It turns out I need to trust Easton’s vision more often because he and I had a great afternoon putting together his pumpkin. He cut out Stick Dog’s favorite foods, taped them to toothpicks, and placed them just right on our Stick Dog-pumpkin. He drew and colored triangle ears. He “helpfully” told me I didn’t have the eyes quite right and then gleefully screeched when I finally got them perfect. Together we painted and glued and admired our finished project. Then we snuggled up on the couch and read a few chapters of Stick Dog Tries to Take the Donuts. (Also pictured: Stick Dog Wants a Hot Dog and Stick Dog Chases a Pizza — our favorite foods from the 6-book series.)
I guess these elementary school teachers really do know what they’re doing because they got us bonding over crafts and reading in a way that we haven’t in a long time.
Easton’s excitement over Stick Dog led to Sawyer insisting that he have his own “book pumpkin”, so I got my wish to create Pete the Cat as well. I’m already brainstorming ideas for next year …
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How to Transform Pumpkins Into Your Favorite Book Character
While Stick Dog might not be your child’s cup of tea, the idea to combine a love of reading with a pumpkin you don’t have to carve probably is your cup of tea as a mom. The older your child, the more independent they can be in the creative phase. Here are a few tips for success when creating the pumpkin version of your favorite book character:
1. Choose a medium to small pumpkin (think the size your child can carry), especially if you have to paint it. It’s just easier to work with than the largest pumpkin in the patch, and much less surface area to cover in paint. (See #3 below.)
2. Select your book character wisely. Think about what will translate into a general pumpkin or gourd shape well. The head of your favorite character is one of the easiest ways to make this work. Other great ideas we saw at Pumpkin Fest this year: Harry Potter; Pigeon (of the Mo Willems series); Where the Wild Things Are; Charlotte’s Web, The Cat in the Hat, just to name a few. But the possibilities are endless.
3. Sketch with pencil the outlines of what you are going to paint so you have a plan before jumping in with the paintbrush. You can even erase the pumpkin’s surface if you mess up the first try. Then use a fine-tip paint brush to paint the outlines before filling in.
4. Use washable paint like Crayola Washable Kids Paint. This wipes right off hard surfaces and washes out of clothing. Earlier this season, Easton painted a pumpkin at an outdoor festival where the paint was NOT washable — and we have a ruined Spider-man baseball jacket to show for it.
5. You may need 2 coats of paint for full coverage. If painting small areas, glob the paint on thickly. It may crack later but not to noticeable effect. Pete the Cat required two full coats of blue to get the correct color; one coat left him a sickly greenish-brownish-teal. Let the paint fully dry in between coats or else you will be brushing away the initial coat.
6. Do not carve or puncture large holes in the pumpkin as part of the creative process if you plan to display this inside for any length of time. We learned the hard way last year that carved pumpkins left in the house rot in record time. On the flip side …
7. Do not leave your painted pumpkin outside! As previously mentioned, Easton painted a pumpkin at a fall festival a few weekends ago. We left it outside to finish drying, and it rained overnight. Needless to say, there were tears and also a permanent paint spot left on my sidewalk where it washed away.
8. Accessorize with paper cut-outs, old clothing, fabric, and any other odds and ends you can have around the house. Stick Dog and Pete the Cat both have very distinctive illustration styles so I printed out clipart I found in Google Image Search to replicate Stick Dog’s snacks and Pete’s red sneakers and guitar.
9. Use hot glue to attach accessories, but know that hot glue doesn’t adhere super-permanently to the smooth surface of the pumpkin. So, use A LOT of hot glue or consider using toothpicks or stickpins to anchor accessories into the pumpkin. We used toothpicks and then added hot glue on top for extra staying power. (That being said, one of Stick Dog’s ears still fell off during transport to the school library, and there was catastrophic meltdown — Easton, not me, although I was close. Thank goodness for a library volunteer who found me a piece of Scotch tape to make him good as new again.)
10. Display inside in a cool spot away from direct sunlight for maximum shelf life. Pete the Cat is sitting in my kitchen window where the cool outside temperatures keep the pumpkin fresh. Stick Dog is in the school library until the end of the week.
The best part about these literary pumpkins is that there was no carving involved. No guts to be scooped out. No seeds everywhere. Just paint, markers, paper, and hot glue.
Who is your child’s favorite book character that would make a good pumpkin? Share your ideas with #NeverDoneWithFun! I still have many years ahead of me at this elementary school with lots of Pumpkin Fests to participate in.
Happy Halloween from Stick Dog, Pete the Cat, and our family.
