Hallowe'en Jack-o'-lantern Inspiration! - Keeping Creativity Alive

Hallowe’en was a blast! I want to share a bit of inspiration that came over me yesterday as we were carving and decorating our pumpkin at the eleventh hour!

While Violet was at school yesterday afternoon I went out and picked up a pumpkin. (Note to self: next year get a pumpkin early so that you don’t pay a premium at the local overpriced fruit market to get one of the last pumpkins in town.) Before I picked her up from school I did a quick search on Pinterest for Jack-o’-lantern carving ideas. (I’m completely addicted to Pinterest!) Then I came up with an idea that was inspired by a brilliant creative idea from Child’s Own Studio that I heard about last year but saw again here a few days ago: stuffed toys made based on kid’s drawings.

I particularly like what creator, Wendy Tsao, of Child’s Own Studio says about her main inspiration:

…children draw to please themselves. They don’t care if the arms are too long or the legs are too skinny or if the eyes are mismatched. They’re more interested in the message of the drawing. These drawings are often very original. As adults, we can’t draw like children anymore.

Getting back to our pumpkin.. With the idea of letting my child design our Jack-o’-lantern, we pulled out her sketchbook.

She chose the design. She’s really into drawing V’s and zig zags these days.

We scooped the inside saving the seeds.

Lastly, Violet went to town painting it.

Watching her concentrate on painting the entire pumpkin was amazing. She carefully chose her colours and covered the entire thing.

The final masterpiece! Ta – Da!

We’ll definitely do this again next year. Will be fun to see what she comes up with next!

Author
Recent Posts

Lina

Lina Pugsley is a graduate of the Creativity and Change Leadership Program and a candidate for a Masters of Science in Creativity degree from SUNY Buffalo State. For the past 8 years, Lina has been researching and exploring ways to nurture creative skills and attitudes in children to promote creative confidence and resilience. She is passionate about supporting parents on ways to cultivate children's creativity starting in the early years.