No Carve Faux Pumpkin Vintage Cat and Happy Pumpkin Pals

Haris·1 October 2026

One cute way to decorate faux pumpkins is to create pumpkin pals. They are so adorable and are a fun addition to Halloween decor with a vintage twist! Their main bodies are faux pumpkins with sculpted styrofoam ball heads. Embellished with felt cut outs, these can be personalized and dressed up and customized in all kinds of ways. This is also a great way to do a no carve pumpkin! You could make the heads on a longer dowel and put them on real pumpkins. Then just pull them off once the season ends and store them away for next year!

Two Halloween-themed pumpkin decorations, one painted as a jack-o’-lantern with a collar, and the other as a black cat with a bow tie, displayed in front of a framed painting.

Supplies to Create Your Faux Pumpkin Pals:

-Faux Pumpkins with the stem removed (we found ours just pulled off and left a nice hole)

-2″ long by 1/4 round dowel rod

-4″ styrofoam ball

-Acrylic paint in a variety of colors inlcuding black, white, yellow, orange, pink

-3 dimensional paint in yellow, black and orange

-Toilet paper

-Thin brushes

-White glue or decoupage medium

-Felt/paper pieces and other accessories

-Scissors

A hand places a white paper towel over a round paper mache form on a stick, which is inserted into cardboard.

Prepare the Head

To prepare the head, place it on a dowel rod and glue it in place, apply a coating of white glue or decoupage medium over the top of the foam ball, layer toilet paper on top and then brush another layer on top of that. Let dry. This will be your base for the head.

A hand holds a white, textured ball on a wooden stick over a table with craft materials.

Apply a Base Coat of Paint

Apply the base coat layer of paint on the foam ball. Black for the cat and orange for the pumpkin. At the same time the stems can be removed on the pumpkins, and a base coat can be applied to the pumpkins.

A paintbrush applies black paint to the surface of a white pumpkin. A glass jar and greenery are visible in the background.

They may need several coats of paint for full coverage. Set aside and let dry.

A brush paints black paint onto a white foam ball held on a wooden stick over a table, with chairs and curtains visible in the background.

Outline the Features with Dimensional Paint

Outline the features using the dimensional paint. We used the dimensional paint from the Love Color line by DeooArt. This will give it a raised and 3D effect when painted over later. by painting in half circle eyes, a triangle nose and a mouth. You can copy ours or try painting your own. Let the outlines dry. They may look a little terrifying at this point. Lol.

A foam brush paints a small pumpkin face on a round object mounted on a stick, with “Jennifer Rizzo” text in the corner.

Paint in the Features

Paint the features by the inside of the eyes, mouth etc. several coats of paint may be needed for complete coverage.

A round object painted black with yellow and orange facial features resembling a jack-o’-lantern, placed on a stick on a messy work surface.

It’s also a good rime to clean up around any features with the base color of paint.

Hand holding a round orange craft with a painted yellow and black jack-o’-lantern face on a stick. “Jennifer Rizzo” is written in the bottom right corner.

Add Facial Details

At this point, you can paint in the finer details such as outlining the eyes, and adding additional detail such as teeth,

A hand paints the eye of an orange papier-mâché pumpkin face on a stick. The pumpkin has a wide yellow grin and triangular nose. “Jennifer Rizzo” is written in the corner.

Or whiskers of the cat or eyebrows.

A hand holds a round object painted with a black cat face on a yellow-orange background, mounted on a stick. Art supplies are visible in the background.

Make the Physical Details

While the faces dried, we cut out felt bow ties and mittens, We also created a paper, ruffled collar for the cat (that went on the dowel before gluing the head on). You can have all kind of fun with the creative details. See this post on how we made the paper collar from a rosette.

A close-up of a handmade black cat Halloween decoration with an orange felt bow tie and a ruffled paper collar.

Attach the Head

Use what craft glue to attache the head to the pumpkin body. Removing our stem left a nice hole in the top so we just added glue and the dowel there.

A hand applies craft glue to the top of a painted black pumpkin; a painted cat head decoration is attached to a stick above the pumpkin.

Glue on the Embellishments

Once the heads are dry and then felt embellishments are created, the fun part comes! Start gluing them on. We also added a cute little stick with a felt hat on top of the pumpkin head. You can get really creative with these and make them so adorable!

Close-up of a handmade pumpkin craft with painted eyes, a green felt stem, and a small stick on top. The name “Jennifer Rizzo” appears in the lower right corner.

We also gave the cat a set of felt ears.

A hand holds a black, cat-shaped craft with painted white, orange, and yellow facial features.

A black cat head with painted orange and white features sits atop a black pumpkin, with a pink frilled collar at the base. Art supplies and paint brushes are visible in the background.

Have fun being really creative and explore other Halloween characters such as witches, ghosts and even Frankenstein.

Two Halloween-themed pumpkin decorations, one painted as a jack-o’-lantern with a collar, and the other as a black cat with a bow tie, displayed in front of a framed painting.

A black pumpkin decorated as a cat with an orange bow sits on a book next to two unlit candles in brass holders.

They two No Carve Faux Pumpkin Vintage Cat and Happy Pumpkin Pals are certainly the best of friends!

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