Skip the Carving This Year, and Make These Easy Decorated Pumpkins Instead

Jack-o'-lanterns are the best part of Halloween decorating, but if your carving skills are subpar, you're worried about your kids handling sharp tools, or you simply don't have the time to deal with scooping out pumpkin guts, you can still create a winning pumpkin for Halloween. All you need is an uncarved pumpkin, little inspiration, and a bucket full of craft supplies.

From painted pumpkins that would fit right in at a modern Halloween wedding, to funny pumpkin faces that kids will love creating, adults and children alike will love these easy, no-carve pumpkin decorating ideas. So, what can you use to decorate a pumpkin? The sky's the limit: pom poms, paint, glitter, fake spiders, cobwebs, twinkle lights, rickrack — there's pretty much nothing you can't use to decorate your gourds this fall. Ahead you'll find all kinds of ideas for decorating big and mini pumpkins, whether you're up for some light carving work or just want to keep it simple with a few well-placed stickers. Up for more Halloween craft ideas? Check out our favorite Halloween crafts for kids, our free Halloween pumpkin stencils, and the best DIY costume ideas.

Fill clear jars with candy. Decorate small to medium pumpkins with rickrack, googly eyes, buttons, felt, and zippers to create features and wardrobe. Use pins and hot glue to attach. For baseball cap, cut a 1½-inch Styrofoam ball in half. Cut four to five white felt triangles to form dome and a semicircle for brim. Attach with glue and add rickrack for embellishment.

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Stack two French heirloom pumpkins atop one another, and create eyes with pine cones. Finish it off with some leaves for feathers.

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Cut the tops off of two larger pumpkins, then stack them atop one another. Top them off with a smaller pumpkin, stem still attached. Grab your glue gun, and start attaching various sizes of buttons to create the shape of a piece of candy corn across all three gourds.

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Though this cool little design does require a little cutting, it's not technically carving. Start by painting your pumpkin white (unless you bought a white pumpkin, in which case, go onto the next step). Draw any sort of wrap design on it, and then etch the lines with a linoleum-cutting tool. Glue googly eyes onto a couple Ping Pong balls and draw red veins. Finally, cut out the eye sockets so that the balls fit inside of it.

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Few creatures are as Halloween-y as spiders with all of their eight-legged creepiness. Use tweezers and the adhesive to secure the sequins to the pumpkin.

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Keep your Halloween decoration out for a little longer with this fall-friendly decal that you can just stick on a pumpkin.

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Fall means there's plaid just about everywhere, and that includes your pumpkins! Get yourself some orange and white pumpkins and use duct tape to paint on the cozy designs.

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This shiny design looks great on any pumpkin, but works especially well on a green heirloom pumpkin. Outline several maple leaves onto Fanci Foil wrap and cut them out. Then use Mod Podge to adhere them to the pumpkin. To get the realistic leaf look, use a toothpick to draw on veins while the leaves are still drying.

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Place a smaller green pumpkin on a larger green pumpkin. Hot-glue on leaves and pine cones for eyes, brows, wings, and breastplate, and a popcorn kernel for each pupil.

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Use gold permanent marker to draw tree on tall white pumpkin. Add bat stickers, and you're golden!

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Make these candy cuties by hot-gluing pieces of Halloween candy to mini white pumpkins. Make the feet and ears out of foam sheets.

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For a sophisticated front porch display, or romantic altar decorations for a fall wedding, arrange uncarved pumpkins of various sizes on steps and in terracotta pots. Cover a select few with glitter blast spray paint.

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For this motley crew, bumpy, odd-shaped gourds take center stage. To make eyeballs, cut small Styrofoam balls in half, then hot-glue hard candy in the center; attach with pins or hot glue. Hollow out gourds for ears. Use twigs for teeth and legs.

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Keep it low key with a simple arrangement of white pumpkins splattered with gold paint, arrange atop wheat on your mantel. Paint the stems gold, too, for an extra sparkling touch.

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Turn a squash into a cute little hedgehog by sticking toothpicks all over the top. Add tiny acorns for eyes and a nose.

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Use a skull stencil, then grab black spray paint or matte acrylic paint to cover the rest of your pumpkin in the dark hue.

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Make use of the old magazine you have sitting around the house by cutting out eyes and mouths to use on your pumpkin. Simply use some craft glue to stick the faces on and voila! You've got yourself a funny pumpkin that took no time at all to make.

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You can never go wrong with a witch theme when it comes to Halloween. Paint a witch silhouette on a white pumpkin, then cut out the middle of black doily, and hot glue the frame around your witch.

SHOP BLACK DOILIES

Set your stoop ablaze by stringing white outdoor holiday lights around regular pumpkins. It's a simple way to set a spooky mood — and illuminate your walkway!

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More adorable than creepy-crawly, this spider queen deserves her own pedestal. Make the eyes with round studs and the mouth, lashes, and legs from 12-gauge aluminum wire.

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Paint any mini pumpkin all black, use pumpkin seeds for teeth with a hint of blood, of course, cut his ears and wings our of cardstock and glue googly eyes on top of eye-shaped paper cutouts.

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Use highlighter to spell out BOO on a pumpkin. Outline letters with straight pins, leaving about a ½-inch of pin sticking out. Wrap LED copper string lights around pins; repeat two to three times. Tuck battery pack behind the pumpkin.

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All you need to make these stunning and spooky pumpkins is aluminum wire, your favorite paint colors, a few pumpkins, and some twigs from your yard.

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If you've got a scrap piece of black cloth and a witch's hat sitting in your dress-up drawer, then you've got all you need to put together this adorable pumpkin stack.

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Make tissue paper confetti with a circle craft punch, then adhere it to a pumpkin using Mod Podge.

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Consider this the easiest Jack-o'-lantern you'll ever make: Just hot-glue black rickrack onto your pumpkin in the shape of a mouth, nose, and eyes.

Prefer your pumpkins to have a bit of glitz and glamor? Use metallic gold paint to create this fun look. Apply stick-on letter stencil to the pumpkin and use a paintbrush to create the drip design. Once dry, peel the stencils off.

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Bring some shimmer and shine to your pumpkins this year by creating designs with stick-on jewels on a white pumpkin.

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This fun decorative idea lets you try out several designs that all still have a cohesive look, thanks to the matching gold paint. You can mix and match your polka dots, stripes, or any other design you'd like.

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Let out your inner artist this Halloween and use washable poster paint to create your desired design.

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All you need is black paint and chalk to replicate this chalk-board-inspired pumpkin. Simply coat your pumpkin in black paint and use chalk to write or draw whatever your heart desires.

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Even if you're not a big fan of eating the classic Halloween candy, you will love this adorable candy corn-inspired design. Visually divide an orange pumpkin into thirds and spray paint the top third white and the bottom third yellow.

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Perfect for small pumpkins, this technique uses things you likely already have on hand: warm water and nail polish. Simply pour a few drops of polish into a bowl of warm water and gently swirl it around with a toothpick. Hold the pumpkin by the stem and slowly twirl it through the water.

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This easy design will give your pumpkins a witchy feel. All you have to do it hot glue a black doily on the bottom or top of a pumpkin. If gluing it on the top, remember to cut a hole for the stem!

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You may need to use some carving to make this design look exactly as pictured, but you could easily use orange ribbon to make the snail's shell design, instead of carving, and lay the pumpkin on its side. Cut the bottom of a butternut squash, so it sits flat, then insert pipe cleaners with Ping-Pong-ball eyes into the squash.

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Carefully remove the stem from a sugar pumpkin and paint it black. Trace bottoms of two waterproof red LED lights onto black paper, then cut out and punch hole in center; fit paper on lights.Hot-glue LED eyes and beak to pumpkin. Hot-glue wood skewers to backs of children's black feather angel wings; push into pumpkin to secure.

You can use a permanent marker and lipstick to pull off this minimalist pumpkin look that's sure to get you a few compliments.

Have an artsy side? Let it out by using paint pens to draw a fun design onto white pumpkins.

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This trio of pumpkins — complete with a mini-gourd nose — is a dead ringer for a spooky witch when topped with a pointy hat and trash bag cape.

Decorating your Jack-'o-lantern can be as easy as peeling stickers and sticking them on your pumpkin to look however you want it to.

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Going for a bit of humor with your Halloween decorations? This silly and easy pumpkin idea is the way to go. Just paint on a "face mask" and print out cucumber images from the internet and tape on.

You can never have too much candy on Halloween! Print out your favorite candy labels online, then cut them into 1-inch strips and attach to your pumpkins with Mod Podge.

Let your kids' imagination run free with these pumpkin characters that they can either build as instructed or mix and match to create unique creatures.

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Covered in black paint, these pumpkins create a sinister-looking backdrop for spooky stenciled decorations.

Get the Spooky Stencil Pumpkins template.

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Print the template, place over doily, and cut along lines with craft knife. Apply to pumpkin with decoupage glue, cutting notches around edge so it lies flat. Use glue dot to attach plastic spider.

Get the Spiderweb Pumpkin template.

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Carve two small holes in butternut squash for eyes and push in dried black beans for pupils. Hot-glue a kidney bean horizontally for a nose and carve mouth.

For feet, cut off ends of mini cucumbers at an angle and secure with toothpicks. Trace the gnome hat template onto burlap fabric and cut out; roll into cone and secure with hot glue.

For ears, slice skin off bottom of squash and cut into 2 half-circles; secure with toothpicks. For beard, hot-glue 2 rows of dried pumpkin seeds. Cut burlap belt and hot-glue around base of squash. Cut buckle from cereal box; glue in place. Cut strip of burlap for apron, then glue half-circle of burlap to underside; hot-glue in place.

For hair, cut a length of natural raffia, glue middle of bunch to top of squash, then tie ends into pigtails with thin cotton ribbon.

Get the Gnome Pumpkins template.

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Print out a silhouette on regular paper, cut it out, paint it whatever color you'd like, then attach it to the pumpkin with glue or double-sided tape. To add an extra touch, grab any lace you have laying around the house and use it as a frame around the silhouette cut-out

Get the Silhouette Pumpkin template.

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Bring back the party with these fun, retro-painted pumpkins.

Get the So Retro Pumpkins tutorial.

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Wrap a pumpkin in cheesecloth to create an ominous-looking mummy's head. Black construction-paper eyes add to the eerie image.

Get the Menacing Mummy Pumpkin tutorial.

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Whoo's cuter than this guy? Fashion an adorable owl out of a stack of pumpkins, paper and other basic craft supplies.

Get the Night Owl Pumpkin Stack tutorial.

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A mash-up of holidays makes for a very stylish display. Gold antlers and a Rudolph-inspired nose will take your gourds well into winter.

Get the Merry Mix-Up Pumpkins tutorial.

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Turn three gourds on their side to make this spider. Button eyes and branch legs complete the creepy crawly creature.

Get the Spindly Pumpkin Spider tutorial.

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Feeling spooked? Brighten your space with these classy pumpkins outfitted with drip pillar candles.

Get the Night Light Pumpkins tutorial.

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Cotton kitchen twine and few plastic spiders transform pumpkins from bright and cheery to creepy-crawly in a matter of minutes.

Get the Tangled Web Pumpkins tutorial.

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