Monday, November 11, 2013

Pumpkin "Minion" Decorating

What is Halloween without Pumpkin carving/decorating?

Its like Halloween without costumes or trick-or-treating.

INCOMPLETE....

So we just had to do it.

In our house we try not to do any activity without involving our daughter. Saanvi is only 5 and she can't (or I won't let her) use carving tools to carve out Pumpkins. The second best choice is decorating the pumpkins, and since my daughter loves to paint we decided to do an afternoon filled with painting and decorating pumpkins.

Saanvi loves Minions (Ok, Ok, so do I). In fact a few weeks before we decided to decorate our pumpkins into Minions, she got her nails painted as minions. Cool huh!!

Our inspiration came from Pinterest, of course.. Although it did not show any how-to's so I improvised.

So here is the supplies list:
(I had most of the supplies in my house (what can I say, we love painting and crafting) although you can find most of these in a local crafting store like Michaels or Hobby Lobby. But if you like to shop online then just click the links).

Ready with all the Supplies
Pumpkins ready to be decorated

Saanvi did the 1st coat of yellow paint on both Pre-Minion-Pumpkins. My husband did the 2nd coat of yellow, while I painted the inside of Mason jar lids white and pasted googly eyes on them.



1st coat underway


I tell my daughter to go for up and down motions while painting,
 it gives a neater look.
2nd coat underway


I used a brush and paint to mark out lines for black strip behind the eyes and the blue overalls, then filled them in with colors. After the paint was dried off I outlines them with permanent marker (no need to make it look perfect, as cartoonish look is never perfect). Then I made buttons and pocket on the overalls using the marker as well. Made a mouth, some teeth, tongue, etc, In fact there was a hole in the pumpkin where the mouth was going to be, so I incorporated that and showed it as a missing tooth (tickled my husband's funny bone ;).







Then my husband super glued the eyes (hold them for a minute or 2). We also tilted the pumpkin and let it dry for 10 minutes, to make sure the eyes are stuck properly.

Last step was to paint the stem black (for hair) and Saanvi did an awesome job with it.

And voila Minions are ready.



Happy and Sad Minions
It took us a good 4 hours to finish these minions. And we all were buried into doing something or the other to create these Minion Pumpkins. Of course Saanvi was getting bored so she painted 5-6 of her own little pumpkins, some cute some scary. But In the end we loved spending time together and creating something together.


Saanvi's creations
Corn on the Cobb- Pumpkin Painting

Pumpkin getting dressed for the contest
Gold antique paint and boutonniere pins

Last year since Saanvi couldn't paint properly, we went for stickers. Easiest pumpkin decorating ever.

Pumpkin decorating 2012

Ugliest Pumpkin :)

We sure enjoyed Halloween season this time around. Lets see what we will do next year. Till next post ciao.



Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Painting and Potting...

After 28 month gap I am back to doing what I loved doing most. Blogging being one of those things. Having fun with my daughter while she learns something new tops that list. So here I am combining the 2 favorites.

A friend of mine gifted Saanvi with a small present a few years back. That time she was too young to use it so I saved it. "Design-a-flower pot" is the name of the toy/gift. It was a small flower pot with a paper inlay that kids can color themselves. (I cant find it online anywhere, Sorry!! Otherwise I would have shared the link here). Then kids can plant something in the flower pot.

Supplies ready to color
Saanvi loves to color (just like her mom :). She had 3 paper designs to choose from (that came with the flower pot). She had a blast coloring them and getting the flower pot ready for gardening. We used washable colors (she likes to paint herself more than the paper) but would recommend colors that wont wash off after watering a few times.

3 designs to choose from

Flowerpot is ready for planting

We had bought a few plants earlier that day so that her dad can teach her how to plant it in a flower pot. Some potting soil, plants, flower pot and a willing to teach Dad/Mom is all you need. 

She loved planting the flowers
Even enjoyed watering her new Pots/Plants.
End result: Few hours well spend coloring and learning to plant flowers. 
Happy Kid!! 
Happy Parent!!