School Pumpkin Decorating Contest

Jonathan's school is having a pumpkin decorating contest in conjunction with their Book Fair. Each pumpkin must be decorated as a character from a children's book, no carved pumpkins (for obvious reasons!). Children must do a lot of the decorating, but we were encouraged to make it a family project.
Jonathan has always loved the book "Go Away Big Green Monster", so we based our pumpkin on the green monster in the book. We completed it Saturday evening and delivered it to the school yesterday.
We originally planned to paint the pumpkin green, but the paint just wasn't doing the trick. So here is what we decided to do.

We used green paper napkins torn into strips, applied with Mod Podge, to cover the entire pumpkin It was the perfect shade of green. Next we cut facial features from the appropriate color papers, and eyes and teeth were given some dimension using a foam produce tray to cut them from. Yellow craft foam and googly eyes completed the eyes. I traced them on the foam with a pencil and Jonathan cut them out and glued them together. We used purple curling ribbon for the "scraggly purple hair". My sister was spending the night with us, so she got in on the fun, too.

Here is the finished pumpkin before it was dry.

Yesterday I drove him to school so we could take the pumpkin to the library to be entered in the competition. They will be judged by staff for K-1, 2-3, and 4-5 grade levels, with three prizes in each level. Prizes are gift certificates to spend at the book fair.

There will be some tough competition, judging by this cute Arthur pumpkin!

We had so much fun making this! Next up: they are encouraged to dress as a character from children's literature one day next week. I'm having trouble coming up with a boy's outfit comfortable enough to wear all day at school and be easy to get back into after bathroom breaks. I'm thinking maybe Paul Bunyon, but Jonathan's not too sure about that! Any ideas???