35 No-Carve Pumpkin Decorating Inspirations

Pumpkins are an essential part of fall decorating, especially for Halloween! But let’s face it, they can be a pain to carve – from the mess, to the time investment, to the difficulty level. If you’ve got young kids, carving pumpkins can be a daunting task! And sadly, hollowed out pumpkins often become a pile of mush far before we’d like them to. If you’re ready to give no-carve pumpkin decorating a try, here’s loads of awesome inspiration for you!

1. Tissue Paper Damask Pumpkins – All you need is some mod podge and tissue paper to make some fancy damask-patterned pumpkins.

2. Glow in the Dark Pumpkins – These super fun pumpkins look great during the day and glow different colors at night! They’ll be a hit with kids.

3. Tissue Paper Spotted Pumpkins – Here’s another idea with mod podge and tissue paper – just punch out circles and paste them on. Overlap for a fun polka dotted look.

4. Candy Corn Chevron Pumpkin – tape off a few lines of chevron and use puffy paint for a fun distressed effect.

5. Golden Paper Doily Pumpkins – Use cut up gold paper doilies for some gilded pumpkins with no effort.

6. Potato Head Pumpkins – Use actual potato head pieces to dress pumpkins up as characters! Just pre-drill small holes in the general facial feature spots. Young kids will love this!

7. Yarn Wrapped Pumpkins – Wrap your pumpkins up for a fun, comfy cozy look.

8. Felt Pumpkin Costumes – These felt pieces are glued on, or attached to toothpicks and then stuck into the pumpkin. It’s a fun way to get the kids involved and create lots of different characters.

9. Fancy Masked Pumpkin – Here’s another fun way to create different characters with your kids – use magazines, glue and masks (along with any other craft supplies you have like pom poms, feathers and sequins) to make funny masked pumpkins. The cool thing about these is that the decorations are removable, if you decide you want to paint them differently later or use them for Thanksgiving next month!

10. Gold-Flecked Pumpkins – Here’s a grown-up, subtle, gilded pumpkin – just paint white and add flecks of glitter with glue.

11. Washi Tape Pumpkins – You can add washi tape to just about anything – including pumpkins! These too are impermanent, making them a great cross-over decoration going into November since you can decorate them differently later.

12. Doily Stencil Pumpkins – Use paper doilies as a stencil and sharpie around your pumpkin top for a fancy, detailed look.

13. Finger-paint Toddler Friendly Pumpkins – Let your little one go to town with finger-paints! He’ll love looking at his masterpiece all month long!

14. Crayon Melt Pumpkin – Take the crayon melt artwork off the canvas and put it on your pumpkin this year! This is a messy, fun and creative way to decorate a pumpkin.

15. Ombre Spider Web Pumpkins – These spiderwebs were created with skinny tape, then painted over with a sponge brush in two different orange colors. It’ll only take minutes to do.

16. Toddler Friendly Chalk Pumpkins – These pumpkins have a secret. It’s CLEAR chalk paint! Keep the orange of the pumpkin for Halloween, but allow your kids to chalk them up as much as they want!

17. Lashes and Staches Pumpkins – These pumpkins have a lot of personality – and all it takes is cardstock, scissors and double-sided tape!

18. Lace Stocking Pumpkins – Save your black lace stockings or stock up when they’re on clearance! Stuff your pumpkin inside and close the top around the pumpkin stem with a black rubber band or ribbon! They look classy and gothic.

19. Black and White Striped Pumpkin – Here’s a fun black and white pumpkin you can paint with normal craft paint.

20. Ribbon Pumpkins – The ribbons on this pumpkin are hot glued directly to it – from stem to bottom – along the veins. It’s cute and easy!

21. Neon Paint Dipped Pumpkins – For something totally different than the normal orange and black, try these neon dipped pumpkins in all sorts of fun colors!

22. Button Pumpkins – These pumpkins are – dare I say it? Cute as a button! All you need is glue and some buttons you don’t mind giving up.

23. Duct Tape Face Pumpkins – Cut sheets of duct tape into facial features and stick it on for an easy, personalized pumpkin face.

24. Masked Owl Pumpkin – Make your pumpkin a cute felt owl mask to wear; and make sure to glue on some googly eyes!

25. Thumbtack and Sharpie Pumpkins – Make a sharpie spiderweb by following the pumpkin veins, or create a ghost out of white thumbtacks!

26. Chalkboard Word Find Pumpkins – Using chalkboard paint and letter stickers you can create a word find pumpkin that all bibliophiles will love! Use spooky, Halloween-y words. Then, switch out the letters and use Thanksgiving words for November decor!

27. Rhinestone Pumpkins – Using jewels and tiny rhinestones, you can glue on a fancy, sparkly design.

28. Pumpkin Totem – Stack your pumpkins up, paint on some eyes and glue ricrac mouths on for a super cute Halloween totem.

29. Confetti Dot Pumpkin – These confetti dots make a plain white pumpkin cute and festive! Pop by your office supply store, because they’re an unexpected decoration – colored brads!

30. Sunflower Pumpkin – Decorate your pumpkin with fake sunflowers for a look that will carry all through fall, not just Halloween.

31. Tangled Web Pumpkins – Wrap your pumpkin in a bit of twine and glue on a spider for some easy, creepy decor.

32. Donut Pumpkins – These little pumpkins are painted like sprinkled donuts for an unexpected and unique twist.

33. Mummy Pumpkin – You can use gauze or paper streamers to make your pumpkin into a mummy!

34. Marbled Pumpkins – Instead of painting your pumpkin, use nail polish instead. Get instructions for how to create a marbleized look.

35. Googly Eye Pumpkins – For a subtle yet fun pumpkin the kids are sure to love, hot glue different sized googly eyes all over!

Here are some more no-carve pumpkin ideas you’ll love!

Kimberly Mueller is the “me” over at bugaboo, mini, mr & me, a blog that highlights her creative endeavors. She especially likes to share kid crafts, sewing attempts, recipes, upcycled projects, photography and free printable gift tags/cards. When she’s not enjoying being married to her best friend, chasing after the natives (AKA her three kids) and attempting to keep the house in one piece, you can find her with a glue gun in one hand and spray paint in the other. Aside from DIY pursuits, she also enjoys writing, reading, music, singing (mostly in the shower) and the color yellow. Kimberly recently published a craft book entitled Modern Mod Podge. You can also find her on Facebook, Pinterest,Bloglovin’ and Instagram. Email her at: bugabooblog(at)yahoo.com

Title picture courtesy of Better Homes and Gardens. Get more ideas at the link.

Here’s some more pumpkin and Halloween themed ideas!