One of the fun things about the month of October is that there are tons of awesome autumn and Halloween craft activities to choose from. You’ve got pumpkin pie scented play dough, autumn leave pressing, bug motels, and so much more. But what about that fridge of yours? Ready for some new decor? Check out the instructions below to make your very own polymer clay pumpkin magnets.

You Will Need:

• Orange, brown, black and white polymer clay
• Toothpick
• Small round magnets
• Hot glue gun
• Baking paper
• Baking tray

Instructions:

1. Make a thumb-sized ball with the orange clay
2. Use your fingers to gently flatten the ball, leaving the center thicker than the edges
3. Make the classic vertical lines on the pumpkin by pressing the side of a toothpick into the semi-flattened ball
4. Next, take a small pinch of brown clay and roll it into a cylindrical shape to make your stalk
5. Push the stalk into the top of the pumpkin allowing it to leave a little indentation on top
6. Put the pumpkin body aside and get started on the eyes–you can also use googly eyes in instead
7. Take two healthy pinches of white clay and roll them each into a ball
8. Take two smaller pinches of black clay and  roll them each into a ball to make pupils
9. Place a pupil on each eyeball
10. Place the eyes onto the pumpkin and push through the centre of each pupil with the tip of a toothpick. Make sure that you only go through the black and do not puncture the white or orange clay (this can pull the colors through the black, which is what you don’t want when making convincing pumpkin eyes). This should stick the eyes securely to the pumpkin.
11. Preheat your oven to 365 degrees
12. If you’d like your pumpkin to have a noise, you can roll a small amount of orange clay into a ball and press it firmly onto the middle of the pumpkin 
13. For the mouth, you can either draw the mouth on or get a ¼” piece of black clay and roll it into a ball. Press the ball onto the pumpkin, this should make it look like the pumpkin is making a “Wow” face
14. Line the baking tray with banking paper and place the pumpkin onto the tray
15. Bake for 30 minutes
16. Let cool and glue magnet onto the back of the pumpkin
17. And you’re done!

For more fun DIY activities for adults with special needs, check out our other posts below! 

About Stephen’s Place

Stephen’s Place is an independent apartment community for adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities, located in Vancouver, WA (7 minutes from Portland, OR).

If you have a loved one with developmental or intellectual disabilities, who is looking for a community to live in, please contact us for more information. 

Stephen’s Place is a private-pay apartment community due to our state-of-the-art amenities and programs. We are a nonprofit and do not profit from our community. We are private pay because we spend more than some housing communities to ensure that our residents are comfortable and can safely live their lives with independence and dignity.