How adorable are these mini pumpkin people? They’re soooo simple to make for Halloween, Autumn or Fall. They make a great harvest season craft too.
This DIY toy craft is designed for kids aged 6 and up, but adults and teens will also enjoy making them. Each pumpkin person is a unique character with a personality to match.
Get the printable template here
Take a look who I found in the pumpkin patch …
Mini pumpkin people are a bit like fairies, but instead of hanging out in forests and flower gardens, they prefer to live amongst pumpkins. And they can’t fly. And their magic is a little hap-hazard because they’re clumsy and usually thinking about food.
They are harvest babies, after all.
Pumpkin people are shy at first, but they make loyal friends. Once you get to know them they can be very cheeky.
If a pumpkin person takes a liking to you, they might even pose for a photo or two.
Here are a happy couple my daughter made. Their names are Jack and Jacqueline. They’re newly wed and off to live in their deluxe pumpkin house.
We made these pumpkin characters using our mixed printable pumpkin shapes and Halloween eyes. You can do it this way, but to make it easier for our readers I’ve combined the shapes and eyes used into one downloadable set complete with printable instructions and photographs.
With the bead threading, I’ve used two bead colours for each pumpkin person and patterned them alternately. I haven’t specified this in the steps because kids can use any bead colours and thread them in any order they like (it’s more fun that way). We’ve used pony beads, but you could replace these with any bead of a similar size with a wide enough hole to fit over pipe cleaners.
Younger kids will need an adult to help with the hot glue step, or use low temp hot glue guns.
We’ve printed the pumpkin head shapes to orange card stock. If you don’t have orange, print to white card stock and colour the shapes orange. Paper would be too flimsy for this craft.
Our pumpkin faces are drawn in black felt tip markers with the addition of Posca pens for the cheek spots and stalk colours. The Posca pens are optional. While I love using them in general, they’re what I call a luxury craft product and not necessary for this project so I haven’t included them on the list of materials.
How to make Mini Pumpkin People
You will need
- Card stock in orange for the pumpkin head shapes (or colour them orange)
- White paper or card stock for the eyes
- Felt tip marker in black
- Scissors
- Glue stick
- Hot glue gun
- Pony beads (or a suitable alternative that has a wide enough hole to thread onto a pipe cleaner) – 35 pony beads per character
- Pipe cleaners – 1 and a half per character
- Paper straws, cut into 2.5cm/1” pieces – 1 piece per character
- The Pumpkin People printable set, available from our printables store and TPT store
How to
Fold a pipe cleaner in half to make your body and thread your paper straw piece onto the folded end. Fold the tip of the folded end over it to keep it from slipping off.
Thread one pony bead beneath the paper straw piece. This is for the head and neck.
Wrap half a pipe cleaner around the body directly beneath the bead to create arms.
Thread 6 pony beads below the arms.
Separate the legs, and thread 8 pony beads onto each leg. On each leg, bend the remaining tip of the pipe cleaner into a circular foot shape and tuck the end back into the base bead in the row.
Thread 7 pony beads onto each arm and bend the end into a circular hand. Tuck back into the end of the last bead in the row.
Cut out a pumpkin shape for the head. Glue a set of eyes on and draw a nose and mouth with felt tip pens. Optionally, add cute cheek spots in pink and colour the stalk green.
Hot glue the head to the straw piece. The straw enables the head to turn from side to side.
Give your pumpkin person a name!
More pumpkin crafts for kids
- Create gorgeous pumpkin sponge art using our masking template. It includes a tutorial for natural pumpkin art and jack-o-lantern art
- Create a paper pumpkin village using our printable set with mix-and-match windows and doors
- Make a paper pumpkin basket for yummy Halloween treats
- These tissue paper pumpkins are fun to make for trick or treaters
