This year we fancied getting started with our pumpkin decorations early but there aren’t any pumpkins for sale in our local shop yet! So, we’ve solved the problem by making our own pumpkins to decorate instead, with this easy HANDPRINT AND PAPER BAG PUMPKIN CRAFT!
These paper bag pumpkins are stuffed, so they are nice and plump just like real pumpkins! We’ve had a lovely time decorating them with all sorts of different faces, some scary and some just fun and silly.
My favourite thing about these paper bag pumpkins is the handprint leaves. I think they are such a cute addition!
We’ve made our pumpkins from a mix of large orange paper bags and small orange paper bags. Some of ours came with handles but we just snipped them off before crafting with them. If you can’t get orange bags you could always use ordinary white or brown bags and paint them instead.
We love our homemade pumpkins but we do love real pumpkins at Halloween too. The trouble is, pumpkin carving is lots of fun for grown-ups but it’s actually really tricky and nigh on impossible for little hands! In the past we’ve opted for painting pumpkins or making wax resist pumpkins instead. They are both excellent pumpkin carving alternatives that even very young children can enjoy.
Paper Bag Pumpkin Craft Tutorial
Supplies to Make Pumpkin Halloween Decorations
- Large Orange Paper Bags
- Small Orange Paper Bags
- Old Newspaper
- Black Paper
- Yellow Paper
- Green Cardstock
- Brown Cardstock
- Green Pipe Cleaners
- Glue
- Sticky Tape
How To Make A Paper Bag Pumpkin
1 – Stuff your orange paper bag with scrunched up old newspaper. Leave enough space to close it by folding the top over and gluing it down.
2 – Cut out some eyes, noses and mouths from your black or yellow paper. To make the pumpkin mouths we cut a semi circle shape first and then snipped out random teeth shapes.
3 – Glue on the pumpkin eyes, nose and mouth.
4 – To make the pumpkin leaves, draw around your hands onto green cardstock and cut the out.
5 – Cut a pumpkin stalk from the brown cardstock and twist the pipe cleaners into spirals to make the tendrils. Wrapping them around a pencil works really well.
6 – Glue the pumpkin stalk, leaves and tendrils onto the top of the paper bag.
Now you can put your finished paper bag pumpkins out on display! Aren’t those handprint leaves a cute finishing touch?
More Fun Halloween Crafts To Try:
Handprint and Paper Bag Pumpkins
Paper Bag Pumpkins are so easy to make and look super cute for Halloween.
Materials
- Large Orange Paper Bags
- Small Orange Paper Bags
- Old Newspaper
- Black Paper
- Yellow Paper
- Green Cardstock
- Brown Cardstock
- Green Pipe Cleaners
- Glue
- Sticky Tape
Instructions
- Stuff your orange paper bag with scrunched up old newspaper. Leave enough space to close it by folding the top over and gluing it down
- Cut out some eyes, noses and mouths from your black or yellow paper. To make the pumpkin mouths we cut a semi circle shape first and then snipped out random teeth shapes.
- Glue on the pumpkin eyes, nose and mouth
- To make the pumpkin leaves, draw around your hands onto green cardstock and cut the out.
- Cut a pumpkin stalk from the brown cardstock and twist the pipe cleaners into spirals to make the tendrils. Wrapping them around a pencil works really well.
- Glue or sticky tape the pumpkin stalk, leaves and tendrils onto the top of the paper bag.