Fall is here and it is time to bring out everything pumpkin! For this fun activity, we will be making a mini pumpkin out of yarn, glue, and balloons. This yarn pumpkin starts off a bit messy, but in the end you will have your very own mini pumpkin to show off during all of Fall!
Supplies:
Orange Yarn
Elmer’s Glue (or any kind of kid friendly liquid glue)
Green pipe cleaners
Small twig/stick
Balloons
A bowl
Paper plate
Safety Pin
Scissors
Activity Steps:
Step 1: Start off by bringing all of your supplies to an open and clean place that you can build your pumpkin on!
Step 2: Now, take your paper plate and place it in front of you. This will be what we set the pumpkin on to keep our space clean when things get messy! Then, take your bowl and pour the glue from the bottle of glue into the bowl and set it aside next to your parchment paper/ aluminum foil!
Step 3: Next, grab 1 balloon and blow it up to the size of a softball, then tie the open-end into a knot so the air doesn’t escape! Set your balloon on your paper plate
* If you need help blowing up your balloon and tying the knot, ask an adult.
Step 4: The next step is to take your orange yarn and carefully (or ask an adult to help) cut pieces of yarn the length of your arm. To do this, hold one end of the yarn in one hand and pull the yarn up along your arm until it is the same length as your arm. Cut 15 pieces of yarn. Once you have your 15 pieces of yarn, cut another long piece and set it aside for later.
*It is okay if they are not all the exact same length!
Step 5: Now, take your pieces of yarn and lay them by your bowl of glue, try to keep them all in the same direction so that they do not get knotted together!
Step 6: This step is the messiest step! Grab one piece of string at a time and dunk it into your bowl of glue! If your sting has a lot of glue on it, you can pinch your fingers along the string to squeeze off any extra glue. Then using your piece of string with glue, wrap it around your balloon! Keep repeating this step with each piece of yarn. Wrap the yarn up, down, and around until you have most of your balloon covered and you run out of string! Take your time and have fun with the mess! And remember you can always set the balloon on the paper plate if you need to use two hands!
*It should look like a crossing pattern with openings that you can still see the balloon underneath!
Step 7: Once you are done wrapping your string around your balloon, gently set it on your paper plate and grab that last piece of string we cut and set aside. Tie one end of the string to the top of your balloon where you made the knot, and tie the other end from a cabinet or shelf where it can hang! Place your paper plate under your hanging yarn balloon to catch any dripping glue. The glue will take about 5 hours to dry, but while you wait you can wash your hands and clean up your bowl of glue.
Step 8: When your yarn is completely dry, grab an adult and your safety pin. (You want to be very careful when using the safety pin, because it is very pointy!) Take your yarn balloon down from it’s hanging and using the pointy end of your safety pin poke through one of the openings of the string into the balloon and watch the balloon deflate! Then, carefully pull out the flat balloon through one of the holes! Because we used glue and let it dry, our string should stay in the same shape as the balloon!
*Fun Tip: leave the string that you used to hang your balloon up attached so that you have an easy way to pull the balloon out of the yarn when it deflates!
Step 9: Now, we need to turn this orange ball into a pumpkin! Take your stick or twig and gently push it into one of the holes. You can use some more glue to hold it in place if you need to! This will be the stem of your pumpkin!
Step 10: Next, we need to add some of the green vines that pumpkins have! To do this, take your green pipe cleaner and wrap it around your finger until the whole pipe cleaner is wrapped! Then, carefully remove it from your finger and pull gently to make it look more like vines for a pumpkin!
Step 11: Now, gently make a small loop in the middle of your vine and slip it over your twig stem so that you have one end of the pipe cleaner on the left side of the twig and on the right side of the twig!
Step 12: You are all done! Your pumpkin is complete and you now have a brand new Fall decoration to add to your room! You can even use another piece of string and hang your pumpkin up, or maybe find some pretty Fall leaves and push them through the holes of your pumpkin!
~Made by Mollie L.