Glowing Jack-O-Lantern
When you have young kids around, carving a jack-o-lantern isn’t always the safest activity because it involves sharp knives and a medium, i.e. the pumpkin, that can be hard to work with. Painting pumpkins has always been a good alternative that lets the kids get creative without having to cut anything. Making a glowing jack-o-lantern is just as easy; you just use glow-in-the-dark paint.
Here’s what you need:
- A pumpkin
- Glow-in-the-dark paint
- Paintbrush
- Masking tape
- Scissors
- Pencil or Magic marker
- Black light
Here’s what you do:
- Using the pencil or magic marker, draw your jack-o-lantern’s face onto the pumpkin.
- Using the scissors, cut the masking tape and then cover the areas you’ve drawn for the eyes, nose, mouth, etc.
- Using your paint and paintbrush, cover the rest of the pumpkin in the glow-in-the-dark paint.
- Allow to dry and remove masking tape.
Once your jack-o-lantern is painted, you simply need to charge the paint and watch it glow. The one downside of this project is that the non-toxic glowing paints will only glow for a short period of time. If you want a more continuous glow or a better effect, then you’ll have to set up a black light. Do some research before buying your paints to get the most bang for your buck.
Jack-O-Lantern Jars
I found this picture on Pinterest and loved the idea. Instead of carving a pumpkin, make a cool Halloween jack-o-lantern display with some old glass jars. You can even save these and use them year after year. Halloween fun and recycling all in one…score!
Here’s what you need:
- Glass jars
- Black contact or adhesive paper
- Scissors
- Measuring tape or ruler
- Multi-colored tissue paper
- Mod Podge
- LED light string
- Black, green, and/or gold paint
Here’s what to do:
- Measure your jar(s)
- Cuts strips of tissue paper to cover jar(s)
- Place one strip at a time vertically onto the jar and paint a layer of Mod Podge over it to hold it in place.
- Repeat #3 until the entire outside of the jar is covered.
- Let Mod Podge dry for 24 hours.
- Paint the top area of the jar, where the lid would screw on, with your choice of colored paint and let it dry.
- Then, repaint that same top area with a coat of Mod Podge to make it glossy and let it dry again.
- Cut out faces using your black contact paper and adhere them to the jar.
To display:
- Line your jars up in a row.
- Starting at one end coil your LED light string into the first jar, then the next, and so on so they are all lit.
- Plug in the lights.
- Enjoy.