Pumpkin Puffy Paint

This scented pumpkin puffy paint is a great sensory activity as well as a fun way to create fall artwork. I used real pumpkin (canned although I’m sure cooked pumpkin leftover from a jack-o-lantern would work just as well) and added pumpkin pie spice. These two ingredients give the paint its smell. For me, the smell of pumpkin and spices brings me back to my Gramma’s kitchen and her muffins.

To make this pumpkin puffy paint recipe, stir together:

• 1/2 cup pureed pumpkin (fresh or canned)
• 1 cup shaving cream (unscented)
• 1 cup white school glue
• 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (you can use a blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice if you don’t have this spice blend)
• optional: orange food coloring or food paste for extra colour

When you stir the ingredients together, don’t over mix so as to keep it nice and fluffy. There will be specks of texture because of the spice blend but this will only add more realism to the painting.

We used fingerpaint paper but any paper would do. I let the kids have complete freedom on this one to create in whatever way they wanted to. Some of them poured the paint onto their paper, others used a spoon to scoop it on and two of them just got right in there with their fingers. Granola Girl was hesitant at first but really got into the sensory experience!

As in most of the activities that I plan for them, the kids came up with ideas that I hadn’t thought of to make things more interesting. Snuggle Puppy discovered that once he had waited for his pumpkin to dry just slightly, he was able to create a face in his pumpkin just by blowing on it!

It worked really well and the pumpkin’s face stayed that way once the paint had completely dried. Snuggle Puppy told me that he added little flecks of eraser to make the face look scarier…that boy has a way of making me laugh!

This puffy paint is great as a sensory activity as it includes both olfactory (scent) and tactile feedback. It is also just a plain fun craft! Once the creations are dry, kids could also cut around them and use them for fall decorations.

If you are looking for other easy and fun sensory recipes, just input your email in the box below to get a sample of our Sensory Play Recipes eBook.