Easy Pumpkins

• These simple crafts are quick and easy. Make a toilet-paper pumpkin by placing a full toilet-paper roll on a 20-inch-square piece of orange fabric or tissue paper. Tuck the ends of the fabric into the hole in the roll. Roll a small piece of brown construction paper into a tube and wrap a curly green chenille wire around it to secure. Place it into the hole to represent a stem and vine. You can also make coffee-filter pumpkins. Paint or color a coffee filter orange and place a ball of crumpled tissue paper in the middle. Gather the coffee filter ends around the ball, twisting them at the top. Secure with a clothespin and draw a face on the coffee-filter ball.
  
  

Paper Pumpkins

• Paper pumpkins are simple and inexpensive. Stuff a paper lunch bag with newspaper and tie the open end shut with twine. Draw or paint a face on the bag to finish the pumpkin. Paint the outsides of two paper bowls orange. Glue or staple the rims of the two bowls together to form the pumpkin. Draw a face on one side. Punch a hole in the top and attach a string to use the craft as a hanging decoration. To make egg carton pumpkins, cut two cups from a paperboard egg carton and paint the outsides orange. Glue the rims of the cups together to make a three-dimensional shape and draw a pumpkin face on one with black marker.
  
  

Pumpkin Containers

• Make three-dimensional pumpkins from empty containers in your home. Collect milk jugs and small plastic food bins and paint them orange. Paint pumpkin faces using a black color. Use them for storing Halloween candy or place an electric tea light inside. You can also paint a pumpkin face on an upside-down flowerpot. Place a fat stick in the flowerpot's hole to represent the pumpkin's stem. To make a pumpkin craft from glass jars, paint a black pumpkin face on the outside and fill to the brim with orange confetti, candy corn or orange juice.
  
  

Crafts Using Real Pumpkins, Oranges and Acorns

• Decorate real pumpkins without the mess of carving. For a pumpkin candle holder, remove the stem of a pumpkin to create a depression just large enough to place a tea light or candle. Another strategy is painting the pumpkin black and carving a relief pattern in its skin. It's also possible to carve oranges to look like pumpkins. Cut the top off an orange and remove the fruit inside, leaving the skin intact. Use a craft blade to carve a face from the skin. You can also make mini-pumpkins from acorns. Remove the acorn's cap and paint it orange. After it dries, draw a face on it with black marker.