Hello! This is a quick and easy way to decorate a zombie pumpkin if you're looking for an alternative way to decorate or are just terrible at carving like myself.

Supplies

Paint - I used acrylic paint, I got bottles from Walmart for 60 cents each- I ended up only needing one bottle of each color for a medium sized pumpkin
- White
- Red
- Black
Shoe
Pant leg- I took a pair of old joggers and cut off the leg at thigh level
Something to carve the pumpkin
Cardboard box - I used a cracker box
Disposable brushes
Battery Candles
One perfect looking pumpkin

Step 1: Cleaning the Guts

First things first, you're going to cut open the top of the pumpkin to pull out all the seeds and guts inside. When you cut the top, cut a little notch in it to make it easier to put back on.

I threw away my seeds and guts but I definitely regret that. I would recommend saving some of the guts and dipping them in red paint and pushing them through the mouth, leaving them hanging out. I only thought of that a few days later and felt like it would work wonderfully for next time.

Step 2: Making Your Outlines

The fantastic thing about making this pumpkin is that it doesn't have to be perfect to look good. Take a sharpie and mark two spots for eyes, one hole for the mouth, and a squiggly line for the mouth.

Keep in mind when you make the hole for the mouth, that it will hold the leg and larger will look better.

Step 3: Carving Out the Outlines

Just follow your outlines and adjust until you're happy with what you have. I ended up making my mouth a bit bigger after seeing it carved out compared to the eyes.

I would test out the hole to see if it's big enough before you begin painting. To do that just make your cardboard box into a cylinder and shove it in the pant leg. Get it to a size that pleases you and hold it against the mouth to see if it will even fit, or if you want it to be bigger.

Step 4: Layering the First Coat

Paint a thick coat of black around eyes, painting the inside too.

Next start painting white around the rest of the pumpkin. Every few strokes dipping into the black paint around the eyes to slightly mix it into the white to give it a better overall color. If you mix too much black in at one spot you can keep adding white to balance it back out.

Step 5: Adding Red Paint

Since the pumpkin going to be eating a leg, paint the insides of the mouth and put a layer around the mouth like the eyes. Except this time you're going to spread the red out in all directions, making it splotchy in some spots while thicker in others.

Along the mouth add a thin line of black and spread it out to outline the mouth.

Also add a few globs of red around the mouth and use the same technique of spreading it around to make sure it doesn't look uniform.

As a final touch put red paint on the tips of your fingers to drag across the pumpkins face.

Throughout the process of painting I ended up putting too much paint here and there and didn't like the outcome so I waited a few minutes for it to dry a bit and painted over it again to try to get a combination I was happy with.

Step 6: Putting in the Leg

To do that just make your cardboard box into a cylinder and shove it in the pant leg if you haven't done so already. Push the fake leg into the mouth deep enough where the pumpkin will hold the shape of cardboard for you and have the leg stick out to a happy length.

Step 7: Attach Your Shoe

Find a home for your pumpkin, stick the shoe on the end of the leg, and throw your candle inside. Just like that and you have a wonderful pumpkin painting/carving!