by Lisa Fillers

Created on: November 01, 2007

Thanksgiving Pilgrims for your table:

Thanksgiving decorating can be fun and something the whole family can be included in. A fun project for adults and children alike is making pilgrims from the pumpkins that didn't get used through Halloween or for cooking. They make wonderful table decorations! The pilgrim can be used as the centerpiece and set on a dark green, brown or wine table runner or tablecloth. To make these lively pilgrims for your holiday table you will need the following:

Assorted sizes of pumpkins
Black felt bought by the yard, not squares
Black felt tip permanent markers, medium and fine point
Acrylic paints in white, red, blue, brown, light green, etc for facial details
Gold Metallic Acrylic paint
Glue gun
Scissors
Yarn in red, yellow, black or brown for hair
Plain poster board
Assorted children's artist brushes

Directions:

Begin first by painting your pumpkin. It is not necessary to paint the entire pumpkin with a base color. You can leave it natural and just paint the facial details. You will be using the whole pumpkin as the pilgrim's head. Begin with the eyes, allowing enough room to set a pilgrim's black hat on the pumpkin's "head". In painting the eyes, use white paint to paint the shape of the eye itself. Next paint the iris with blue, brown or a light green paint. Use black acrylic paint to paint in the pupil and outline the eyes. Add eyelashes with black paint. Next paint the mouth with red acrylic paint.

Make the pilgrim's hair by cutting strands of yarn in the hair color of choice and attaching to the top of the pumpkin with a glue gun. It is not necessary to make a full head of hair but do use several strands. Cut the lengths so the hair hangs down to about the pilgrim's eye level or a little below that.

To make the hat, first cut a circle out that will, when the entire hat is finished, be the brim of the hat. If using a large pumpkin a dinner plate is a good guide to begin with for a circle. If it's a slightly smaller pumpkin, use a salad plate instead. You can draw the circle onto the black felt by using a white tracing marker found in sewing goods. Once the appropriate size has been cut use the glue gun and glue the center of the circle to the top middle of the pumpkin, covering where you attached the pilgrim's hair.

Next cut a rectangular shaped piece of felt the width you want the height of the hat to be. You can check by rolling the felt rectangle over to where the cut ends would meet to see if it's the appropriate size before completely

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