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Sugar Skull Pumpkin | No-Paint White Pumpkin DIY

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With a powerful meaning behind this Mexican tradition, the sugar skull designs of “Calavera” deserve special attention and respect. In admiration, we tried to embrace this beautiful idea with a fall craft. You can make a no-paint sugar skull pumpkin using a “Casper pumpkin” (white pumpkin) in your own nod to Day of the Dead (Día de Muertos).

Sugar Skull Pumpkin - white pumpkin decorated with flower stickers and sticky rhinestones
Sugar Skull Pumpkin – white pumpkin decorated with flower stickers and sticky rhinestones for our daughter’s 6th birthday

By the way – if you are unfamiliar with the culture and traditions, you can find some great information about Day of the Dead in Oaxaxa, Mexico! (Simply translate the webpage to English.)

We came up with this white pumpkin craft for our daughter’s birthday in 2021. After missing some previous festivities due to Covid, we hosted her party at a corn maze with campfire hotdogs and s’mores.

At the party, all the kids made a DIY sugar skull pumpkin craft!

They turned out absolutely amazing!

White Sugar Skull Pumpkins on pink tablecloth
The kids did a great job decorating the white pumpkins like Día de los Muertos skulls!

Here’s exactly how we did it!

Sugar Skull Pumpkin Design Materials

Gather these materials so your kids can make their own sugar skull pumpkins:

White pumpkins decorated like Mexican sugar skulls and arts and craft supplies
We loved this white pumpkin craft so much we would do it all over again! Here you can see some of the supplies we used.
  • Real White Pumpkins (White Pumpkin / Casper Pumpkin)
  • Foam Flower Stickers
  • Sticky Rhinestones
  • Permanent Markers
Smiling hand-drawn sugar skull pumpkin with rhinestone gems
Here is my older daughter’s smiling hand-drawn sugar skull pumpkin with rhinestone gems

Of course, you could use glitter glue and real paint products to decorate sugar skull pumpkins if you really wanted.

Personally, I am firmly in the camp of less mess for the win, at least at a birthday party!

Flower Skull Pumpkin
Here is my younger daughter’s Flower Skull White Pumpkin with foam stickers and rhinestones

DIY Sugar Skull Designs for Pumpkins

Flower shaped foam stickers work perfectly to create pumpkin sugar skulls, especially around the eyes.

This no-paint pumpkin decorating method works great in crowds of littles to keep the mess to a minimum.

Smiling birthday girl with decorated white pumpkin
Here is the birthday girl! I love this picture so much – I think it was so sunny she had to close her eyes! But, she looks SO happy! 🙂

Follow these steps to make your own sugar skull pumpkin:

  1. Wipe off the pumpkin so it’s nice and clean. Allow it to dry or help dry it.
  2. Use flower stickers in the center to make the eyes.
  3. Surround the flowers with rows of rhinestones.
  4. Make a nose with an upside-down heart sticker.
  5. Use stickers or sticky rhinestones to symbolize teeth.
  6. Create fancy designs elsewhere on the face using rhinestones and flowers.
  7. Write the child’s name on the bottom right when he or she finishes the sugar skull pumpkin.
Boys adding gems to white pumpkins
Boys decorating white pumpkins at my daughter’s birthday party

Sugar Skull Pumpkin Tips

Try these sugar skull ideas for pumpkin decorating:

  • Add Sparkle – Coat the entire pumpkin in glitter Mod Podge for an authentic, sugary look.
  • Be Detailed – Add lots of designs and details to your sugar skull pumpkins. Allow the kids freedom to choose their own color combinations, placements, and how many stickers and gems they use.

    Little hands decorating a white pumpkin with foam flower stickers
  • Focus on Flowers – Some foam flowers stickers give an authentic sugar skull design vibe.
  • Make a Second Face – If you’re still feeling creative after one face, design another sugar skull pumpkin face on the back of your white pumpkin.
Long table with many white pumpkins for sugar skull craft
We decorated white pumpkins as sugar skulls at my daughter’s 6th birthday.

White Pumpkin Halloween Craft

The white Casper pumpkins worked out perfectly for the base of our DIY sugar skull activity. I imagine the name is Casper pumpkin as a nod to Casper the Friendly Ghost!

Pumpkin Decorating Party
Pumpkin Decorating Party!

(I’m not dating myself, am I…?)

Well, anyway, all of the kids at my daughter’s birthday party loved making sugar skull pumpkins. Some of them even asked if they could take an extra pumpkin home to make another one!

Lots of decorated white pumpkins for Halloween birthday party
So many great sugar skull pumpkin designs and beyond!

This Halloween themed craft was so easy and had virtually no mess!

The trickiest part was being outside and the wind kept whisking away the sticker wrappers. Aside from that, everything worked out perfectly!

Closeup of white pumpkin sugar skull design

I really loved this fun fall decorating craft and especially enjoyed seeing my daughters’ creations sitting on my front doorstep.

My girls had so much fun!

Little girl showing off the pumpkin she decorated
Showing off the pumpkin she decorated!

I would definitely recommend letting your kids create fun and colorful sugar skull pumpkin designs this season.

Older daughter decorated a white pumpkin like a sugar skull
Here’s my older daughter and her white pumpkin design!

If you’re interested, you can check Facebook Marketplace for local white pumpkins and check out Amazon for great pumpkin decorating supplies!

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Flower eyes pumpkin face
Happy Halloween!

By the way – if you enjoyed this fun pumpkin decorating idea, you might also like my sentimental glow-in-the-dark Handprint pumpkin keepsake craft using fake pumpkins!

If you do, be sure to hit us up in the comments and let us know how it went! We love hearing from you!

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