Cork Your Excitement! It's Pumpkin Painting Time!

Calling all crafty kiddos (and grown-up helpers)! Fall is in the air, and that means pumpkins are everywhere! But this year, why not skip the mess of carving and try a fun, textured pumpkin project using everyone's favorite leftover - wine corks?

Looking for a fun and festive fall craft for the kids? Look no further than cork pumpkins! This project is perfect for little hands and even littler attention spans. It's easy to set up, uses recycled materials, and lets kids unleash their creativity. Plus, it's a great way to introduce them to painting in a tactile way.

Here's what you'll need:

• Wine corks (enough for each child to make a pumpkin)
• A paper plate
• White paper
• Orange paint
• Paint brushes
• Green paint
• Black paint 

Pour a quarter sized drop of paint onto a paper plate.

Offer your little artists the corks, and encourage them to begin by stamping a circle shape with one color of orange paint.

Encourage the kids to now fill in the large outline of a circle by dipping their cork into orange paint and stamping it in.

When the pumpkin is filled in, dip the side of the cork into the green paint.

Slide the cork upwards to form a stem. 

Let the kids dot the stem with the wine cork.

Allow to dry and display on the fridge.

These are so cute and fun that you might want to make a few and share with a special neighbor or a grandparent.

Building Fine Motor Skills

Grasping a wine cork is a great way for little hands to develop the strength and dexterity needed for important tasks like writing and buttoning clothes. The wide, rounded surface is easy for children to hold, allowing them to focus on the creative process rather than struggling with grip.

Encouraging Exploration and Experimentation

Cork painting is all about having fun and getting messy! There's no right or wrong way to use a cork stamp. Kids can experiment with different dipping techniques, applying pressure to create lighter or darker prints, and even using multiple colors at once. This freedom to explore fosters a love of learning and experimentation, which are essential for a child's development.

Find more favorite cork painting projects here:

Cork and Button Apple Tree Art

Christmas Tree Stamp Painting

Hungry Caterpillar Process Art

Apple Process Art

It's that time of year again - leaves are changing, pumpkins are popping up everywhere, and what better way to celebrate than with a fun fall craft project? This activity is perfect for keeping little hands busy and creating some adorable apple artwork!

What you'll need:

• Construction paper
• Red, green, and brown paint
• Shallow dishes or trays for paint
• Wine corks
• Baby wipes or paper towels (for clean-up!)
• Optional: Glitter, markers, googly eyes for decorating

Let's get stamping!

Prepare your canvas: Unfold a large piece of construction paper. This will be the background for your giant apple!

Cork transformation: Pour a small amount of red paint into one of your shallow dishes. Now comes the fun part! Press the flat end of the wine cork into the red paint, making sure it gets a nice, even coat.

Stamping time! Carefully, guide your child's hand as they press the painted end of the cork onto the construction paper. This will be the body of the apple. Repeat this process, creating multiple red circles close together to form a large apple.

Stem and Leaf: Use a paintbrush and green paint to add a long, curvy stem coming out of the top of the apple. For the leaf, dip a corner of the paintbrush in green paint and make a few small teardrop shapes next to the stem

Browning time (optional): Fall apples often have brown speckles on the skin. Use a brown paintbrush to gently dab small dots around the red apple to create this effect

Decoration Extravaganza! Now comes the fun part - decorating! Let your child unleash their creativity. They can add glitter for a sparkly apple, use markers to draw stripes or a cute face, or even stick on googly eyes for a silly apple friend.

Pro-Tips:

• Safety first! Cover your work surface with newspaper or a tablecloth to avoid paint splatters.
• Little artists, big messes: For younger children, use washable paint and have plenty of baby wipes or paper towels on hand for clean-up.
• Get creative! Don't limit yourselves to red apples. Experiment with other fall colors for a variety of apple creations!

This easy and engaging craft is a fantastic way to spend quality time with your kids this fall. It allows them to explore their creativity, practice hand-eye coordination, and celebrate the beauty of the season. Plus, you'll end up with some adorable apple artwork to proudly display! So grab those wine corks, unleash the paint, and get stamping!

Find all of my favorite fall crafts here:

Play Doh Pumpkin Faces

Lego Stamped Pumpkins

Sunflower Stamped Pumpkins

Fun and Creative Kids Activity: Stamping Bunches of Grapes Process Art

 Looking for a fun and creative kids activity that is both educational and festive? Look no further than stamping bunches of grapes with pencil erasers and wine corks! This activity is perfect for kids of all ages, and it can be enjoyed indoors or outdoors.

We love to paint with all kinds of things! From wine corks, to dried flower heads, and everything in between. This easy painting project is perfect for kids of all ages. Little ones will love working on a few bunches or grapes, while tweens and teens can create more elaborate works of art.

What is Process Art for Kids

Process art for kids is a type of art where the focus is on the process of creating the art, rather than the finished product. This type of art is often open-ended and allows kids to be creative and expressive. There are many different types of process art that kids can do, such as:

• Painting
• Drawing
• Collage
• Sculpture
• Performance art
• Installation art

Process art is a great way for kids to explore their creativity and to learn about different art materials and techniques. It can also help them to develop their fine motor skills and their problem-solving skills.

Here are some tips for doing process art with kids:

• Provide a variety of art materials and let kids explore them.
• Don't be afraid to get messy!
• Encourage kids to be creative and expressive.
• Don't judge their art.
• Celebrate their creativity.

Process art can be a lot of fun for kids. It's a great way for them to express themselves and to learn about art. So get creative and let your kids explore the world of process art!

Supplies:

• Purple Paint
• Green Paint
• A paper plate
• A pencil eraser
• A wine cork
• White paper

Begin by stamping one purple dot, then on the next row, stamp two. Repeat thru 4 to 5 rows of grapes.

Repeat until your paper has plenty of purple bunches of grapes. 

Now grab your wine cork and dip into the green paint.

Fill the blank space in between grapes with green dots for leaves. When you are finished your paper should look like this.

So pretty! Let this dry and display it somewhere in the house. You could stick it on the fridge, but this turns out so cute you might want to frame it.

This is a perfect spring or summer craft for kids of all ages. It is easy, and needs no special supplies. I know you will have fun with this process art project.

Find more fun kids craft ideas here:

Pineapple process art

Cork and Button Apple Trees

Here are some process art for kids ideas:

• Painting with natural materials: Gather some natural materials, such as leaves, flowers, twigs, and grass. Dip the materials in paint and then stamp them onto paper.
• Collage: Collect a variety of materials, such as magazines, newspapers, fabric, and yarn. Cut out shapes from the materials and then glue them onto paper to create a collage.
• Sculpting with playdough: Playdough is a great material for sculpting. Kids can use their imaginations to create anything they want, such as animals, people, or objects.
• Performance art: Performance art is a type of art that is performed in front of an audience. Kids can create their own performance art pieces, such as dances, songs, or plays.
• Installation art: Installation art is a type of art that is installed in a specific space. Kids can create their own installation art pieces, such as sculptures, paintings, or photographs.

These are just a few ideas for process art for kids. There are many other possibilities, so get creative and let your kids explore their imaginations!

Sunflower Stamped Pumpkin Patch Art

 

This adorable pumpkin patch art is great for kids of all ages! Made with simple supplies like paint, paper and a sunflower head, this is a great way to create art using nature!

Harper and I love to paint together. We have been crafting side by side since she was just a tiny toddler, strapped into a high chair for safety. We have painted pineapples, apples, baskets of fruit and even Christmas trees. We usually use corks to create our process art, but we had a bouquet of sunflowers that had seen better days, and well, inspiration hit.

We decided our fridge just had to have a pumpkin patch scene. We are all about creating refrigerator masterpieces . 

Supplies:

Orange paint

Green paint

A sunflower head

White paper

A paper plate

Pour orange paint and a small amount of green paint onto a paper plate.

Invite your child to press the sunflower head into the orange paint.

Encourage your child to press the sunflower onto the paper.

Use a stem, petal, or other small item to form the stem of the pumpkin with the green paint.

Allow the paint to dry, then

These were so much fun to make! And I think they turned out really cute! Harper was very proud of her efforts. Preschoolers can handle this project, as well as elementary aged kids like Harper. Your kids might also like to draw little pumpkin faces on these after they have dried.

I hope you get a chance to try this project with your family, it is the perfect project for a fall afternoon!

Find more fall ideas here.

Lego Stamped Pumpkin Art

 Harper and I love to paint with, well, anything but a paint brush! Last week she came home from school and asked me if I wanted to make something with paint, and how could I resist the invitation? This lego pumpkin idea was just the thing. It pairs cute and creepy together just right.

This is such an easy activity, and it is fun for kids of all ages! Even Rolf, who is 12 now, was curious about this and told us it was a "cool idea" before dashing back to his busy preteen activities. 

Supplies:

Orange Paint

Black Paint

Green Paint

Legos

Paper Plate

Paper

Directions:

Pour a small amount of orange, black and green paint onto a paper plate.

Offer your child legos in assorted sizes and paper.

Encourage your child to dip a lego into the orange paint and make the shape of a pumpkin.

Now, fill that shape in with more lego stamps.

When you have filled in the shape of the pumpkin, dip a lego into the black paint and make a face.

Next, give your pumpkin a stem with the green paint.

Allow to dry and display.

These were a really fun, kid led Halloween craft. I know your kids will love making pumpkin art this way.

You can find all of my Halloween crafts here

Painting projects here:

Reader favorites include:

Pumpkin Window Clings

Ghost Play Dough Ornaments

Pineapple Process Art

 This pineapple painting project is perfect for little ones. It takes only a moment of set up and it creates such a cute art project! Kids are going to be so proud of their efforts and want to display this project on the fridge door gallery!

Harper and I love to get creative together. We are always crafting, painting or baking something. 

You might remember we made this adorable apple process art with a cork.  Well, we ran across the cork again and decided that it was so fun to paint with it, that we would give it another go. We came up with this cute pineapple art. We love it because it can work for a summer day project, or pull this out around the new year to bring good luck to your space.

Supplies:

Paper Plate

Yellow and Green Paint

A Cork

Copy Paper

Pour a quarter size drop of several shades of yellow and a shade of green onto a paper plate.

Offer your child the cork and encourage the child to stamp a pineapple shape with the yellow paints.

When the pineapple is shaped encourage the child to form the stem of the pineapple with green paint.

                                                             Allow the art to dry then display.

This is a fun project for summertime, but I also love to make these with the kids in anticipation of new year since the pineapple symbolizes a warm welcome, celebration and hospitality.

You can find more process art ideas here

Basket of fruit process art

Cork and button tree art

If you want to learn more about why process art is important for kids this is a great resource from Messy Little Monster