Shiver me timbers!  It’s a pirate pumpkin!

Yes, I have a child obsessed with pirates and all things pirate!  When I saw this little foam kit to make a pirate pumpkin at Michaels I knew it would be a big hit.  He really enjoyed this craft and is so proud of his pirate pumpkin.  This one is very simple; it’s one of those foam craft pumpkins and a kit that has all the self adhesive pieces and two pipe cleaners to stick on and create the pirate face.  It only took ten minutes to create and he did quite well himself (he’s almost 4) with only a little prompting from me about what to stick where.

My son’s pirate obsession started around two years old after watching Peter Pan.  One day last year we made newspaper pirate hats.  We traced a milk bone dog treat on the front to make the crossed bones.  He loved that hat.  However, I cannot find any pictures of him wearing it, only a sassy video of him right after we made it.  Here’s some instructions from DLTK’s website:

Fold the paper or 1/2 sheet of newspaper in half

Fold down each side to make triangles

Fold one bottom flap up, flip over and fold the other bottom flap up.  Use a bit of scotch tape to hold it in place if you want.  Adding the pirate skull and cross bones picture to the front will make it even more authentic.  Family Fun Magazine has some neat printable images here for making stickers or tattoos.

For more pirate craft fun the Funschool website has instructions for Popsicle stick pirate puppets.  We are going to make some of these to stick into one of the pumpkins on our front porch.  I will cut out the pieces and he will glue them together, should be fun!

Last year we thoroughly indulged my son’s pirate obsession by throwing him a pirate birthday party complete with pirate ship and pirate island cake.  This cake was so fun to make and the inspiration came from the Family Fun website.

If you have a child that likes pirates, or maybe you like them and would like to get your child more interested, check out these crafts and give them a try.

Have a great day you landlubbers!

Andrea (visit my blog for more crafty ideas each day)