Paint a Pumpkin Shaped Candy Dish

Our Hearts for Hearts  doll, Rahel, has had too many sweets to eat this Halloween. She's so tired,
she hasn't even changed out of her mummy costume! If your dolls go trick-or-treating, be sure to
warn them about eating too much candy all at once!

       Wouldn't your dolls love a giant bowl filled to the brim with tiny candies for Halloween? However, you must be careful not to let them get carried away with these kinds of munchies. They are sure to go to bed with sore tummies if young mothers don't set limits on candy consumption!

I painted my old Jello mold using acrylic paints and then sealed this
 hand painted surface with Mod Podge. I then painted the inside
 using yellow spray paint.

 Supply List:

• old tin, Jello mold shaped like a pumpkin or an optional plastic bowl from the dollar store.
• acrylic paints: yellow, orange, green
• Mod Podge
• white school glue
• small paint brushes
• yellow spray paint (for the interior of the mold)
• colorful foam beads purchased from dollar store
• masking tape

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. To make this craft look exactly like ours, you will need an old Jello mold. So if you have one of these, you are ready to go. Clean it with warm soapy water and then dry it off thoroughly.
2. If you don't have a mold like the one shown above, you can use an ordinary, small plastic bowl to replace the one suggested in this craft. These are available in packs at the dollar store.
3. I spray painted the inside of my mold bright yellow to mimic the inside of a carved pumpkin and let it dry til the paint hardened. This took several days.
4. Then I used three colors of acrylic to paint the outside of the mold to look like a pumpkin shell: green, orange and yellow.
5. As you can see in the photo above, I painted the cracks green, the ridges orange and then I layered a second coat of yellow on top of the orange. 
6. Take a dry, clean brush and delicately smooth the paint colors together slightly. If you make a mistake just wait for the paint to dry and repeat the process. This doesn't need to look perfect in order to look like a convincing pumpkin. Some pumpkins have all kinds of surface blemishes and modeled colors!
7. Let the paint dry and then coat a layer of Mod Podge over the outside surface for protection. Let the Mod Podge dry thoroughly.
8. Turn the faux pumpkin shell over and fill it with crushed newspaper or tissue paper. Mask off this outside surface with tape.
9. Squeeze white school glue onto the top of your crushed and masked filling. 
10. Sprinkle the colorful foam beads on top of the glue and let the filling dry overnight.
11. After you have the surface covered as you like it, brush on Mod Podge to protect the faux candy surface for play.

Left, Craft Foam Beads in rainbow colors.
Right, the crushed and masked mound newsprint inside my old Jello mold.