Halloween often comes with lots of scary decorations, but with a few simple supplies, you and your kids can craft your own garland full of pumpkin faces. Make them as silly or spooky as you want!

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You will need:

orange and black paper
straws
string or ribbon
glue stick
tape
scissors
decorative punches (optional)

Use a large circle punch to make a bunch of orange circles. You can also trace a lid or bowl to make whatever size pumpkin faces you want, then cut them with scissors, but a punch like this does save a lot of time!

From the black paper, punch and cut shapes for the face. I started with hexagons made using my punch, then I cut them down in other shapes. For very young children, it will help to have several shapes (and plenty of them!) prepared in advance. Children who are comfortable using scissors can cut their own pumpkin facial features.

Let your child plan out, and then glue down the pieces. It may help if you make one or two to get them started and give them ideas. But don’t be surprised when they design some of the cutest and craziest pumpkins you’ve ever seen! I don’t think I would have come up with a kitty pumpkin, but my little sister did!

Make a whole pumpkin patch of silly faces!

Cut the straws into 1-inch pieces, and tape a piece to the back of each pumpkin. Be sure that it’s towards the top of the face. The straws will allow the pumpkins to hang without twisting, but they will also slide around a fair amount. If you’ll want to hang your garland so that it drapes, you may want to skip the straws and simply tape the pumpkin faces to your string or ribbon.

Thread the string or ribbon through the straws, and get ready to hang them for display.

By hanging the string fairly taut, the pumpkins will swing and sway, without bunching up.

The best part is that your child will be able to proudly point out the fun decorations that they helped make!