It seems like it may never turn fall here in North Carolina! It is making it hard for me to get into the spirit of putting out my decorations. We did have a very nice weekend a few weeks ago and painted some pumpkins.
I thought it would be fun to do marshmallow painting on the pumpkins. Visions of perfectly painted polka dot pumpkins were in my head! 🙂 This Marshmallow Painting Pumpkin Craft is super fun and great for toddlers and preschoolers. The marshmallows make it easy for them to paint. They are perfect for little hands!
Best tip for painting on pumpkins!
The night before we painted the pumpkins I spray painted the pumpkins with white paint. This makes it easier for the paint to show up on the pumpkins. I think it also helps the colors to appear more vibrant.
Marshamallow Painting Supplies
When we were ready to paint, I gathered all of our supplies and took them outside. We used acrylic paint, paint brushes, marshmallows and assorted glitter.
I encouraged them to paint the pumpkin a solid color with the paint brushes and then we would use the marshmallows to make really cute polka dots!
Well, once the supplies started coming out, things started to get a little crazy! My first instinct was to stop them and get them back on track. We were supposed to be making polka dot pumpkins! Didn’t they understand?
Then I remembered that this was supposed to be a fun activity and they would enjoy it way more if they could let their creativity run wild. That is way more important to me than having perfectly painted polka dot pumpkins for my blog!
Add a little glitter!
We ended up having the best time. We painted all over the pumpkins with all the colors using paint brushes and marshmallows. Then we poured on some glitter!
You know what? They absolutely love these pumpkins and think they are characters from the show Shimmer and Shine! They are right….these pumpkins are beautiful!
Process Art is always a good idea!
After we were finished with the pumpkins, we still had some paint left on our plates. Well, you can’t let perfectly good paint go to waste. I looked down and saw the paper bag I had used to spray paint the pumpkins on. It was the perfect canvas so we painted it too!
Process art is always so much fun! There is no expectation on how it should turn out. It’s even better when we can incorpate recycled materials!
Sometimes I am so bad about having an idea in my head about how things should go. We all know that is so dangerous because things never go like you think they should.
One of the things I am working on is letting go of perfection. Let the kids get dirty. Let them play and use their imaginations. Am I the only one who struggles with this? If so, please give me some tips on letting go!
The Marshmallow Painting Pumpkin Craft is a great start to just letting go! Have fun painting with kids of all ages. This is also the perfect craft for toddlers and preschoolers.
This post does include affiliate links. That means I could earn a tiny portion of any sale that is made through clicking on any of these products with no additional cost to you. All support is greatly appreciated!
This looks super fun! Different than the typical carved pumpkins. I’ll have to try this with my small people this year!
What a fun craft for the younger kids to be able to make. Using marshmallows is fun and they can easily hold onto them to paint with.
I love this idea! It sure looks fun to do with the kids.
It’s killing me how little NC feels like Fall right now 🙁 Ugh.
I love this idea for pumpkins though. So cute!
Very cute! This would be great for edible paint too so the kids could eat the marshmallows when they are done! LOL.
My family has been painting pumpkins for years and these are adorable!
Using marshmallows is such a fun idea!! I’ll have to try that next time my little one asks to paint a pumpkin 🙂
How fun! These turned out great!
I never would have thought to use marshmallows. But I am totally loving it!
I am so doing this! I have two huge pumpkins I’ve done nothing with yet so this will be a great project to use them for.
My daughter will LOVE this! Especially if I can keep her from eating the marshmallows with paint on them. LoL!
This is such a unique, pretty idea! So inspiring : )
It’s taking a long time to feel like fall over here in Pennsylvania too. I think it’s great you just let him go crazy and have at it. There’s been so many times where I tried to control a fun situation and didn’t turn out so fun. Looks like these girls had lots of fun
This is such a good idea. And it looks like heaps of fun too!
These are adorable! I love the idea of using marshmallows to paint! Especially polka dots and pumpkins are the perfect canvas for the season.
This is such a fun and unique idea! My 2-year old son loves to paint and I think he will absolutely love this. Thanks for an awesome idea!
We just got done painting out pumpkins. I can’t tell you the last time I took the time to crave a pumpkin.
This looks SO fun! I love decorating pumpkins more than carving them. It’s easier and more fun! Thanks for sharing!
Oh wow this is such a creative and beautiful idea. I am gonna do this with my girls.
My daughter was just talking about painting pumpkins (we usually carve) she wants to get two pumpkins and do both! This looks like a great idea. I like to do crafts like these as much as possible outside! I hate mess. What kind of paint did you use?
We love crafting outside! We used acrylic paints that we found at Target. They actually had a beautiful selection of paints!
Ah! How fun! I love how cute the dots come out! What a great idea!
Pretty! My six year old would love this! We may just have to try.