Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Repurposed Pumpkin Turkey



Somehow, the pumpkin my daughter painted for Halloween survived into November without being smashed or going bad.  To celebrate, I thought it would be fun to transform her gourd into a Thanksgiving decoration.  Thus, the Pumpkin Turkey was born.






Nail Holes
The first step is for parents only, but don't worry, it's easy!  Take the fastest nail you can find, and hammer holes where you would like your child to add the feathers.  If all you nails you have are too thin, you can just hammer the nail in the same area a few times to make a bigger hole. 

Note: For my daughter's pumpkin, we thought it looked best laying on it's side with the stem out.  However, every pumpkin is different, so just position it in the way you like best!

Feather the Bird
Let your child insert the ends of the feathers into the holes.  You should be able to find feathers at any craft store, or the craft department of places like Walmart.  

Make Your Turkey Face
Use a compass or bowl to trace a circle that is proportional to the size you want on your pumpkin.  This turkey's face is made out of construction paper, but you could probably also use poster board or felt.  You can draw or glue on eyes and a beak.  For this bird's beak, we used a diamond shaped piece of yellow construction paper folded in half, and then glued onto the circle.  

For the wattle (red dangly thing), we just painted the stem red (we used finger paint because that's what we had on hand, but craft paint or tempera paint would probably also work if you have that).  You could also draw and cut one out.  Underneath, we cut out a brown piece of construction paper for the neck.  

I pinned the construction paper to the pumpkin with a couple of sewing pins.  They actually went in really easily by hand.  No hammer was needed for this step.

Materials:
  • pumpkin
  • hammer and nail
  • face: paper, poster board, foam board, or felt
  • eyes: google eyes or marker
  • glue
  • sewing pins
  • red paint
  • feathers





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