You know we love a good jack-o-lantern! But carving pumpkins can be a bit limiting, especially if you want to use your pumpkin decor outside of Halloween. This time of year they are abundant and make great fall décor on the porch, or inside your home throughout the season. So, we turn to these fun and creative pumpkin decorating ideas without carving to create pumpkin masterpieces that look great and last much longer!
Skipping the carving tools means less mess and more opporutnity for creativity. And since the pumpkin remains intact, it’ll last longer. No more limp, sad pumpkins after just a week or two! So get inspired to decorate your own pumpkins some awesome inspiration! Check out these no-carve pumpkin decorating ideas, and use them to express your personality! Oh, and did I mention? These are kid-friendly projects as well!
Painted No-Carve Pumpkin Decorating Ideas
If you don’t want to deal with the mess of carving pumpkins, why not paint them instead? Ok, so it might be almost as messy as carving, but at least you won’t need any sharp instruments. Plus, these painted pumpkins look absolutely gourd-geous!
Painted White Pumpkins With Sequins
You can save yourself some time and effort if you can find naturally white pumpkins, but they’re not common in some areas. If you can’t find a white pumpkin, paint an orange one white! Love how the gold sequins give a glam, even Christmasy feel in this idea from Sugar & Cloth!
No-Carve Pumpkins With Craft Paint
How cool are these?! All you’ll need is painter’s tape and craft or acrylic paint, plus a foam brush to create these patterned pumpkins! From ‘Country Living‘.
Stenciled No-Carve Pumpkins
These black & white pumpkins are painted, and this is about as easy as it gets. The white pumpkins are painted with stencils, and the black ones are painted with satin black paint, then stenciled. Unfortunately, the tutorial isn’t available anymore, but we’ve left the pic here for inspo!
Neon Painted No-Carve Pumpkins
You might not necessarily associate neon colors with Halloween, but these pumpkins are certainly a vibe! You’ll just need some white spray paint, paint brushes, and of course, neon paint! Find the steps over at “A Night Owl.”
No-Carve Pumpkin Decorating Ideas With Tape
If you’re looking for pumpkin decorating ideas without carving, you likely want to avoid a messy project. So maybe the paint ideas weren’t for you. But, do you know what’s even easier than painting? Tape! You’ll be amazed at what you can do with some crafty, decorative tape, and it’s a great project for young kiddos who might not be ready for carving or painting yet. Here are our favorites!
No-Carve Pumpkins With Washi Tape
Use the new patterned washi tapes (try the craft shop) to create stripes or a plaid look. Try using a dry-erase marker to draw your pattern first. You can find the tutorial over at “Real Simple.”
Double-Sided Tape No-Carve Pumpkin Decorating
Use double-stick tape and inexpensive ribbon to wrap these pumpkins with decoration. If you try this on large pumpkins (and you should!), use larger ribbon! This idea came to us from The Party Dress blog, but it’s no longer published. Luckily, the idea is super simple to replicate without a tutorial!
Duct Tape Halloween Pumpkins
“Creating Really Awesome Fun Things” has another great idea with these super simple duct tape pumpkins. Why spend hours carving a pumpkin (and then cleaning up all the mess!) when you can make these?!
No-Carve Pumpkin With Shattered Tape
This is fun, and it couldn’t be easier! You could use any color of tape you like, but I love the contrast of the teal and the orange in this example. Black would also look great! You can probably figure this one out on your own, but if you’d like some tips, find them over at HGTV.
No-Carve Pumpkin Decorating With Ribbon
Ok, so it’s not exactly tape, but the principle is the same! You can use a glue gun to glue ribbons onto your pumpkins for a nice decorative touch. Either use some ribbon lying around in your craft box, or treat yourself to some Halloween-themed ribbon to really get into the spirit! Thanks to BHG for the inspo!
Unique No-Carve Pumpkin Decorating Ideas
If you really want your pumpkins to turn heads, we’ve got just the inspiration you’ve been looking for! These projects will give you one-of-a-kind pumpkins that are the perfect addition to your fall or Halloween decor.
Adorable Cindarella Coach Pumpkin!
You have GOT to love this! Cinderella’s coach with junk metal and tiny pumpkin mice! We originally found this on BHG, and even though the tutorial isn’t there anymore, you can use the picture to come up with your own take on it!
String Art No-Carve Pumpkins
This is a cute idea, and a great one for the kids. The trick here is to draw your outline first, as you’ll learn in this tutorial from HGTV.
No-Carve Pumpkin Decorating With Thumb Tacks
Sure, they’re sharp, but pumpkin decorating doesn’t get any easier than this. Thumb tacks give your pumpkin a fun texture, and the only real limit is your imagination! Get some inspiration and tips over at “Creating Really Awesome Fun Things.”
Unique No-Carve Pumpkins With Wire
Ok, so the tutorial for this one also isn’t available anymore, but how cool are these wire pumpkins?! You can use any type of craft wire – just bend it into the shapes you want and poke the ends into your pumpkin.
No-Carve Pumpkin Decorating Idea With Bats
Cut mini bats out of cardstock, or buy precut craft foam bats, and attach with one dot of glue from your glue gun in the center of the bat. Once dry, bend the wings outward to create the appearance that they are flying. From ‘Spoonful‘.
Stunning Image Transfer Pumpkin Decorating
Ok, now this is cool. It’s a little bit spooky, a little bit elegant, and a whole lot of awesome. If you’re not familiar with image transfer art, don’t worry! HGTV has all the details and tips you could ever ask for.
You Don’t Need to Carve Pumpkins for Halloween!
So don’t carve those pumpkins (yet), try these pumpkin decorating ideas without carving instead! Looking for more fall fun? We think you will also love our posts 11 Pretty Painted Pumpkins and 18 Classy Fall Decorating Projects! Then, keep your fall DIY decor streak going by checking out these gorgeous DIY fall wreath ideas or get crafty with with nature – check out these awesome pinecone crafts!
These are great! Unfortunately the link to the curved metal tutorial didn’t work 🙁 . I’m going to try some o these!
Author
Thanks for letting us know Ann! We will check on that tutorial link!