Holidays

Make Your Own Pumpkin Patch

By Ellen Baker

Make your own miniature pumpkin patch with these salt dough pumpkins. Remember the salt dough ornaments you made as a kid? Same thing, Halloween style. A simple and pretty project that’s just gooey enough for kids to love. You can find most of the supplies around your house.

Supplies you’ll need:

(makes about ten 1 ½” pumpkins)

Salt, ½ cup
Warm water, ½ cup
Flour, 1 cup (not self-rising)
Toothpick for shaping dough
Acrylic paint, orange and black
Paintbrushes, large and small
Small sticks for pumpkin stems, about 10

Instructions for Making Pumpkin Patch

Step 1: Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Mix warm water with salt in a mixing bowl until salt dissolves. Add flour and let the kids mix by hand.
Step 2: Let the kids roll the dough into small balls and make the pumpkin striations with the side of a toothpick. Poke a hole in the top for the stem (which will be inserted later).
Step 3: Bake on an ungreased pan for 2-2 ½ hours.
Step 4: Allow to cool. Paint with acrylic paints. Be sure to have your kids wear their paint clothes as acrylic paint stains. Insert the small sticks or branches into the tops of the pumpkins. Done!
Tip: Be sure to store your pumpkins in an airtight container after Halloween so the critters don’t try to take a bite!

Some variations on this project if you want to take it a step further:

Roll the pumpkins in glue, then glitter.
Make a pumpkin person doll by putting the pumpkin on top of a wooden doll pin (poke a hole in the bottom of your pumpkin before cooking the dough).
Make ornaments for a pumpkin tree by inserting a metal ornament hanger in the top just after the pumpkins come out of the oven.
Add leaves to the top or twisty stems made from green pipe cleaners.