Easy Pumpkin Craft for Kids – Jack-O-Lanterns

This Jack-O-Lantern Stamping activity is a fun, festive, and easy pumpkin craft for kids! You might be surprised to see what we used as the stamp!

Easy Pumpkin Craft for Kids

Sometimes, it can be tricky to know which Halloween crafts are just right for kids. You don’t want them to be too scary, but you also want to stay on the festive holiday theme!

For that reason, I love incorporating pumpkins into my Halloween kids crafts. They’re so cute, kid-friendly, and on-theme. Plus, they can be used all fall long as a harvest-themed craft.

But for now, I’m leaning more into the “spooky” side of things with this Jack-O-Lantern Stamping Activity! This easy pumpkin craft for kids is adorable and simple to make. I mean, look at those smiling Jack-O-Lantern faces. How cute is that?

Best of all, you only need a few simple supplies to recreate it yourself. For the pumpkin stamp, we actually used an apple!

Pumpkin Stamping with an Apple

When you cut an apple vertically through the middle, you’re left with a perfect pumpkin shape on the cut side. I’ve used apple and potato stamps before with my Apple Stamping Pumpkin Craft and Potato Stamp Ice Cream Cone Craft, and I knew I could make something great for Halloween with the same technique!

All you need is an apple, paint, cardstock, and a few other simple supplies to recreate this easy pumpkin craft for kids. It’s great for crafting at home, at school, or at a kids Halloween party. Without further ado, let’s get into the tutorial!

Directions

Follow these simple directions to make this easy pumpkin craft for kids! 

1. Start off by cutting your apple in half from top to bottom. You will want to do this with a sharp knife since you’re cutting through the entire apple. Be careful and let the adults handle this step! Also, try to make the cut as straight as possible so the apple stamp is straight. This way the stamp will press down on the paper evenly.
2. Next, pour some paint into a shallow container. A paper plate works great! Then, dip the cut side of your apple in the paint and smush it around until it’s fully covered. 
3. Stamp your apple onto a piece of white cardstock. You might have to rock it back and forth slightly.  Repeat this three times.   
4. Allow the pumpkin shapes to dry.
5. Cut your Jack-O-Lantern noses and smiles out of your black cardstock. Once the apple shapes are dry, cut around them leaving a small white border. This ensures that your entire pumpkin stamp makes it into the finished product and gives the art a more polished look.
6. Then, carefully rip off a strip from the long edge of your green paper. This will be your pumpkin patch’s grass. My strip of paper was about 2 inches thick. Remember, it doesn’t have to be perfect — ripping it gives it a little rustic dimension!
7. Glue the strip of grass to the bottom of your black sheet of paper. Next, glue your pumpkins to the top of the green paper. Add pumpkin faces, a brown paper stem and a curly green pipe cleaner. You may need to use hot glue to get the pipe cleaner to stick.
8. Finally, add your white foam stars to one side of the black paper and a moon shape in the corner of the other side. You can cut the moon shape out of white cardstock or a larger piece of foam, whichever you prefer!

What kind of apple is best to use for this craft?

Simply put, it depends on how big you want your Jack-O-Lanterns to be! If you want smaller pumpkins, opt for a smaller apple like Gala or McIntosh. For larger pumpkins, go with a larger apple like Golden Delicious or Granny Smith. I recommend going to the store and browsing the different kinds to find just the right size since they can vary a lot. If you’d like, you can even pick up a few different kinds to make your pumpkins all different sizes! But if you’d prefer to keep things simple, use any apple you have for this easy pumpkin craft for kids.

More Halloween kids crafts

Need more inspiration for all your spooky fun? Check out these other kids activities for Halloween! From fun games to easy treats, we’ve got something perfect to entertain your little monster:

• Halloween Trick or Treat Gift Bags
• Kid Friendly Halloween Luminaries
• Halloween Tic Tac Toe
• Chocolate Covered Halloween Strawberries
• Jack O Lantern Treat Bags