Post by MJ of Pars Caeli

Pumpkins of all colors and shapes have arrived in all of our local stores, next to the mums and the shelves of Halloween candy! And one of our favorite Halloween activities is carving jack-o’lanterns. That time will be on its way fast enough, and until then, we’re finding ways to incorporate that fun without the mess (and smell) of the holiday gourd.

To add some fall spirit to our home in the meantime, we created these DIY Pumpkin Magnets to sit on our fridge and magnetic spaces! They require few supplies – likely a ton of which you have around from other craft projects – and can be created in a few minutes. The simplicity of this project and the sweetness factor make this an ideal Halloween craft for kids!!

To make the pumpkin magnets, you’ll need:

• Orange yarn of any kind
• Half foam balls (I cut three inch foam balls in half with a kitchen knife)
• Scissors
• Black felt
• White crayon or chalk
• Glue
• Magnet
• Pipe cleaners in green, brown, or black

Step One: Wrap the ball with yarn. Hold the foam ball with one hand as you wrap the yarn over and over around the ball. This process is the same as rolling a ball of yarn, and you don’t have to be particular about keeping all of the strands going in any particular direction. Continue to wrap at all angles until all of the white is covered.

Step Two: Secure the loose end of the yarn by interweaving it through the back threads and secure with glue (craft or hot glue will work well here).

Step Three: Make a face for your jack-o’lantern. We made ours pretty jolly, but you can make yours any way you’d like. These are small faces so I had our kids draw with white crayon on the black felt. I first traced the circle shape of the foam ball so they could see how small the face needed to be, and then they drew the features. With a little assistance from me, we had eyes, nose, and a toothy grin ready to go.

Step Four: Cut a one-inch piece of pipe cleaner for the stem. Cut away a bit of the fuzz from one end and stick it into the foam ball. Twist it into a spiral for a fun finish to your pumpkin!

Step Five: Glue the face on the front (again using craft or hot glue) and then turn over to the back and glue on your magnet!

These pumpkins turned out so well that we went a little overboard and decided to use them in other Halloween projects. With an entire skein of yarn, you can easily create two dozen of pumpkins! So, why not?

Happy crafting!

M.J. is a graphic and product designer, wife, and proud momma to three. She founded Pars Caeli (meaning a piece of heaven), a delightful blog and shop, to add more creative to the everyday. M.J. worked with our team to bring her lunchbox jokes to life in our product Lunchtime LOL Notes, now available at Land of Nod to bring on a case of the giggles!