Pumpkin Seed Art

If you have some pumpkin seeds left from your pumpkin carving, why not turn them into art?




In anticipation of Halloween, we checked out Lois Ehlert's Boo to You! from the library.  The mice are having a harvest party but the cat's not invited!  The kids liked the story but what really got their attention was the cat's teeth made from pumpkin seeds on the front cover.



After carving our pumpkins, I saved some of the seeds, rinsed them, left them to dry and then we squish painted them.  We used plastic baggies and two kinds of paint:  washable poster paint and acrylic paint from Craft Project Ideas.  Both worked well.  I didn't put much paint in the bags and made sure to spread them out on the waxed paper to dry so they didn't stick together.



This was by far their favorite part of the activity.


When the seeds were dry, I planned on letting the kids glue the seeds onto paper however they liked, but apparently they were feeling uninspired. When I suggested we make trees, my 4 year old got interested.  I cut a piece of brown construction paper to look like a tree trunk and branches and he used the seeds as leaves.


We also made some flowers for his sister. He did the glue and I arranged the pumpkin seeds.



18 comments:

  1. That's what I should have done with all those pumpkin seeds I had two nights ago. We baked some, but had so many I through out some. They seem to take the color very well. Look really nice.

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  2. What a great idea! They look so effective once they are painted. Must try this one :)

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  3. Beautiful!
    I'd love to have you join my PIN MEme Linky Party that starts Friday at 8am because this is very Pin Worthy! I'm going to pin it now! I am following you via GFC, FB, Twit, & Pin too!

    Diana
    Diana Rambles
    Bento Blog Network
    Link Rink

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  4. Awesome! I wish I had seen these before we carved pumpkins. I'm tucking this away for next year.

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  5. Those colored seeds are really beautiful!

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  6. This is a wonderful way to reuse the seeds! Thank you for linking to Read.Explore.Learn. I am sharing this post the Read.Explore.Learn. Facebook page today.

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  7. We did this too this week, but used food colouring, vinegar and a little cinnamon (to mask the vinegar). We haven't used them yet as I need to get some glue.

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  8. Love the way you painted the seeds!

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  9. I love Lois Ehlert! Thanks for linking up to The Children's Bookshelf.

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  10. What a fantastic idea for an art project! The color of the seeds really turned out well. Visiting from The Children's Bookshelf. :)

    Renee
    http://motherdaughterbookreviews.com

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  11. This is such a clever idea! We always have way too many seeds to eat so this is great! What a fun tree!

    I featured this at TGIF this week here: http://livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com/2012/11/tgif-linky-party-552-weeks-long.html

    Thanks for sharing your creativity and linking up at TGIF!! Have a great weekend,
    Beth =-)

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  12. This is a great idea. I have never thought of painting the pumpkin seeds (we usually eat them). :) My kids will love it.

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    Replies
    1. I wish my kids would eat them, but I'm the only one who likes them here. :)

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  13. What a great idea to use pumpkin seeds! I'm just letting you know that I am showcasing this on my Fall activity roundup on Simply Creative Kids if you don't mind.

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