50+ Best no carve Pumpkin decorating ideas. Make easy Halloween crafts for kids & adults, & creative fall & Thanksgiving decor with pumpkins!
When it comes to pumpkin decorating ideas for fall, Halloween & Thanksgiving, we often think of carved pumpkins, which take some time and skills to make, and last only about 2 weeks.
This fall season, let’s try some no carve pumpkin decorating ideas! Some of these are really fun crafts for kids & family, some are beautiful DIYs for anyone who loves creative home decor.
What can you use to decorate a pumpkin without carving it?
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All you need are some simple materials like acrylic paint, craft felt (good for outdoors), paper, pom poms, flowers, leaves, glitter, googly eyes, and some imagination!
You can use many types of glue on pumpkins such as hot glue, craft glue such as Mod Podge, super glue, and spray adhesive.
Pumpkin animals
Make these lovely woodland animal pumpkins with paint and craft felt and spray adhesive, and use let them greet your guests on the front porch. Such simple and easy fall crafts for kids & adults. ( Via Simple as That )
Decorate pumpkins with fall leaves
Gather some real or faux fall leaves to make this beautiful pumpkin for fall & thanksgiving, great for indoor and outdoor decorating.
Decorate pumpkins with Washi tape
Washi tape comes in so many patterns and colors. You can use them to create stylish colorful designs (via Made with Happy) , or cover the entire pumpkin. This is also a fun way to decorate lots of mini pumpkins. ( via Mom4Real )
These modern style pumpkins are decorated with a few simple stripes of washi tape: easy, fast and glam! Black and white colors are great for Halloween pumpkin decorations. Tutorials here and here.
Mysterious Halloween pumpkin with eye mask
Put a masquerade mask ( you can buy one or cut one from felt or paper) on a pumpkin to add some fantasy and mystery to your fall and Halloween decorations in less than 2 minutes! Tutorial here.
No carve Disney pumpkin decorating ideas for kids
There are so many wonderful Disney characters to inspire us when we decorate pumpkins! From Star Wars to fairy tales, the magic never ends.
Paint a Nemo pumpkin
It’s easy to transform an orange pumpkin into one of the most loved little fish: Nemo! Paint this Nemo pupmkin with black and white acrylic paint, and glue on a fin made from paper or felt.
Olaf pumpkins
Such a playful & creative way to make a painted Olaf pumpkin for Halloween decorations! ( I can’t find the link to the original tutorial, please let me know if you find it! ) Based on this photo, an easy way to pro up his head is to use a couple of branches secured into the lower pumpkin. It may also be a good idea to use a lightweight faux pumpkin to make the head.
2 more pumpkin Olaf ideas to make using just paint, pompoms, pipe cleaners, and googly eyes. Tutorial here and here.
You may also want to try these ideas: 20+ creative pumpkin decorations from paper, wood, recycled cans, and other fun materials!
Disney pumpkin inspired by Elsa from Frozen
Another great pumpkin decoration & crafts to make with kids! This beautiful Elsa pumpkin is made with lots of sparkling glitters and mixed rhinestones, via A Pumpkin and A Princess.
Disney princess pumpkin decorations
This Disney princess pumpkin is inspired by Cinderella. You can use a Cricut or a simple butterfly punch to make these magical 3d butterflies and glue them to the pumpkin.
Minion pumpkin decorating ideas
Want the most adorable fall decorations? Make some Minion pumpkins for your door steps! They are easy to paint! Don’t forget to play with different cute facial expressions. Tutorials here and here.
You can paint the eyes or make 3d eyes like in this tutorial, from canning jar lids for you pumpkin Minion decorations.
No carve Pumpkin decorating ideas for Halloween
The next group of DIY pumpkin ideas are playful, slightly spooky but not too scary. They are really easy & fun Halloween decor and crafts for kids and adults.
Peek-a-boo pumpkin
This Peek-a-boo pumpkin with black felt hands and giant googly eyes is easy to make and so delightful! Trace two hands onto black felt and cut out. Using crafts glue, attach the two hands to the pumpkin. Adhere large googly eyes in place using crafts glue.
Mummy pumpkins for Halloween
You can make Mummy pumpkins with scrap white fabric or cheese cloth and a couple of big googly eyes, tutorial here.
Here‘s a really cool Mummy pumpkin variation with fully covered face, just spooky enough for Halloween.
Cute pumpkin monsters and aliens
All you need are some mixed size oogly eyes to create a pumpkin monster or alien like this. It’s just a little scary and totally lovable at the same time.
Painted Halloween pumpkins
Use a Stencil or trace a cutout to paint a Halloween themed silhouette such as this black crow on a pumpkin. Such an easy way to create haunted forest Halloween decorations.
Black cats Halloween pumpkin decorating ideas
There are many ways to make pumpkin cats for Halloween without carving Jack-o lanterns. The easiest way is to stencil or paint a black cat. Tutorial here.
Another way to make a black cat pumpkin here: paint or spray paint the pumpkin block first, then add eyes with white paint markers, and use paper or felt to make the ears.
These stacked pumpkin cats are so adorable! ( I can’t find the link to the original tutorial, please let me know if you find it!) Based on this photo, I don’t think it would be too hard to make these black cats. You will need dark craft paint, felt, ribbon, pipe cleaners for the tails, and white floral wire for the whiskers.
No carve Spider pumpkin decorations for Halloween
Here’s a really creative idea: make some spiderweb string art with pins or nails on a pumpkin , add a few Dollar store black spiders.
You can also use a simple black spider sticker on a pumpkin, and add it to your outdoor Halloween decorations with black and white painted pumpkin and potted mums. (via bhg)
Easy DIY Halloween pumpkins with bats
Another easy way to decorate pumpkins for Halloween without carving, is to make some black bats with ribbons or paper, and hot glue them to white or orange pumpkins like this.
You can also use toilet paper tubes to make Halloween bats to decorate your pumpkins…
Or make some cutouts paper bats for your Halloween pumpkin, tutorial here.
No carve Halloween pumpkin with witch’s hat
Decorate a pumpkin with a Halloween witch’s hat. A really easy no carve pumpkin idea to make here!
Beautiful Fall and Thanksgiving pumpkin decorating ideas
The next group of pumpkin decorating ideas are easy and beautiful, perfect for fall and Thanksgiving.
Modern hand lettered pumpkins
If you love modern, boho, or farmhouse decor, these brush marker hand lettered pumpkins are easy to make and perfect for fall.
Not good at hand lettering? You can also trace and paint in the letters on a pumpkin. Tutorial by Aubree.
No carve pumpkin decorating with glitter
It’s easy to make glitter pumpkins with spray adhesive or glue, and some glitter in a shake bottle. (via hgtv)
You may also love: how to use pumpkins to decorate a beautiful Thanksgiving table!
You can also create lettering quotes, patterns and many designs on a pumpkin, using just some craft glue and glitter! Video tutorial below, and here.
Painted fall pumpkin decorations
This painted pumpkin has a beautiful blend of folk art and boho style! Step by step tutorial at PMQ for Two
Boho Floral painted pumpkin
Love artistic and beautiful decorations for fall and Thanksgiving? Make this gorgeous painted floral pumpkin by Lucy at Craftberry Bush.
Decoupage fall leaf pumpkin
Cut some colorful fall leaves from tissue paper and make this decoupaged pumpkin for easy beautiful fall and Thanksgiving decorations!
Modern glam pumpkin painting ideas
These painted pumpkins are so easy and stylish! All you need are 3 paint colors – black, white and gold, and some simple brush strokes.
Blue and white pumpkin modern farmhouse decor
If you love blue and white ceramics, you will love this painted pumpkin by Lucy at Craftberry Bush.
Related: blue and white DIY oyster trinket dish- easy and free!
Colorful boho pumpkin decorating ideas
More and more people are drawn to a colorful boho style that is so creative and refreshing. When it comes to fall and Thanksgiving decorations, we are certainly not limited to just orange pumpkins!
Pompoms are so easy to make ( how to make pompoms in batches ) or buy on Amazon. Choose your favorite colors and use them to decorate your pompom pumpkins! Tutorial here.
Polka dot pumpkins
A simple way to make modern boho pumpkin fall decorations is to use colorful stickers. You can also make confetti pumpkins by brushing the pumpkin with glue first.( via Handmade Charlotte)
DIY unicorn pumpkin
Add some extra joy and magic to your fall decorations with an easy DIY unicorn pumpkin via Kara Creates.
Pineapple pumpkins 2 ways
Pineapples are so chic and trendy right now. Here are 2 ways to make pineapple pumpkin decorations! Tutorials here and here.
There are lots more creative ways to use pumpkins to decorate for fall, such as pumpkin house numbers, planter accents, etc, which you can check out here!
Happy creating! See you soon!
Thank You for all the great ideas. Keep up the good works!! Barb 😊♥️
thank you Barb! 🙂 happy fall season to you!
Oh I can’t wait to try some of these no carve pumpkin decorations this year with our 3 kids! Thank you!
Wow, what a great collection! Our carved pumpkins rot too quickly. These are perfect for our warm fall weather here in Florida!
We are going to make the pumpkin animals. So cute! Our whole family would love them!
Thanks for this valuable information.
They look amazing. Thank you for sharing with us.
What a beautiful collection of ideas for Halloween and fall. I have printed out the “Boo” pumpkin with the witch’s hat, the the one with the big spider on it (and the black and white striped pumpkin) and the one with the raven painted on it. I’ll paint them and put them in my flowerbed with my mums for Halloween. Thanks for all this inspiration!
hi Barbara! so happy you are able to use these ideas!! 🙂 happy decorating!
I loved reading your article on 50 amazing no carve pumpkin decorating ideas. I think this is a great idea and I’m excited to try some of these no carve pumpkin decorating ideas! My favorite was the heart-shaped pumpkin!
That’s a Raven, not a crow on the one pumpkin.
Pretty cool, though.
What a great collection of projects, Thanx for collecting them for us!
thank you Kathy! well, it’s almost as fun as making all of them! 🙂
wow, some of these pumpkins look so beautiful and not cheesy at all! These are really amazing ideas. I am going to try some this fall.
Appreciate all the creative pumpkin and Halloween ideas you’ve shared on your blog!