I already started brainstorming what I could get all of the members of my school’s hospitality “club”. Since I am in charge this year…I’m always thinking about what I need to do. ALWAYS. Food seems to be the easy go-to, but teachers are always on a diet. ALWAYS. I thought this could be a cute and cheap alternative. There will be candy and sweets everywhere. Hopefully they will think these are cute. I didn’t make that many starting out because I wanted to see if I actually could make them.

I bought a little one a few years ago at a craft fair and used that as a guide. You can see him sitting there on my cutting board. I loved the little green stems I made. They looked like a whole bunch of pickles all lined up. That made me smile. I always find pickles funny. No idea why,

You can see they are far from perfect…but it was my first time and I can always say it gives them a little character. The only tools I used were my hands, the back of a dinner knife and a chop stick. The back of the knife helped me make the lines in the pumpkins and mouths. I used the small end of the chop stick to make a hole in the top for the stem to rest in before baking.

One I had them to this point I put them in the oven at 230* for 30 minutes. No, they didn’t stick to the cookie sheet. Just let them cool for a little after you take them out. They should be good and hard.

Now for the faces I brushed on red acrylic paint with a paper towel for the rosy cheeks. I used the same small chop stick part for the black eyes. It made a perfect circle and was so much easier than using a brush. Then I used the end of a ball point pen in white paint. (all of the paint was normal acrylic craft paint)

This is what they look like so far. I still have quite a few ahead of me I need to make this weekend, but I am happy with my start. I’m pretty happy with the cost too. I think it is going to come out around $10-$15 total (plus my oh so precious time) to give cute little hello gifts to 40+ people.