Keep summer vibes goin’ with these DIY no-carve pool float pumpkins! Free printables for swans, flamingos, parrots, toucans and rainbow unicorns included!
Sometimes trends just fly right by and that is usually a good thing. But sometimes a fad holds on to its popular crown for several seasons at least. That’s right, I’m talking about the ever-popular pool float! Specifically the ones that are shaped like birds and unicorns. 
Since I’ve barely stepped in to a pool the last…nine years…(ugh!) I haven’t had an excuse to hop on one of delightful pool pals yet. In Mexico earlier this spring, I almost bought a bomb pop shaped one cus I hadn’t seen one before and my family LOVES bomb pops. But I decided against it since I didn’t really want to pack it home. And aside from that trip, I haven’t spent much time pool side. But! That doesn’t mean I don’t love seeing everybody else on Instagram have the time of their lives on a giant flamingo.
Seriously, the flamingo and swan pool floats have been all the rage, on social media at least, for the last two summers. And, as someone who loves nothing more than the gentle rocking sensation of floating on water, I can see why! Not only that, they are so super cute. Even as someone who is pretty much over the flamingo craze, I don’t hate the inflatable ones one bit. This year we even saw a few new pals enter the scene: the rainbow unicorn, the toucan, the parrot, and all-new swan colors!
So what’s one float-less gal who doesn’t want to kiss summer goodbye to do? Make fall decorations that channel the trendy summer pals of course! Plus, maybe you live somewhere where it’s summer NOW and these will fit right in? :D
Regardless, you really can’t go wrong with a flamingo, a swan, a toucan and a rainbow unicorn now can you? Nope. Nope you cannot.
I only made those four for this post but I also whipped up the printables for a gold swan, a black swan, and a parrot. I wanted to make them all! But I searched through all the pumpkins at two stores and there just isn’t a great variety yet. I took all four of the ones I could find that were similar in size and had the flatness I was going for. Assuming that you’ll be making your pumpkins closer to Halloween, I’m betting you’ll have better luck! But you probably won’t need more than four pool float pumpkins either will you? haha!
Materials
- Flatter shaped pumpkins //
- Printables (linked below) //
- Paint in coordinating colors //
- Hot glue and gun //
Instructions
- I used fairly small pumpkins for these so the printables I have are perfect. But you can go larger or smaller and just print yours out accordingly. You can choose from: a rainbow unicorn, a swan, a flamingo, a black swan, a toucan, a gold swan, or a parrot.
These pumpkins are meant to be seen from the side but I made the printables each facing both ways so you can choose which side they’ll be seen from!
Facing Right:
Facing Left:
- Paint your pumpkins in coordinating colors. I used spray paint cus I love it but craft paint is fine! Remove the stems first! I just used a generic black and white gloss and Krylon Ballet Slipper for the pink. I’ll be honest, I wish it was darker so if I did them again, I wouldn’t use that pink.
- Print out your desired pool float printables and cut them out.
- Cut along the bottom edges of your pieces so they’ll fit around the curve of your pumpkin. I just slowly cut out half circle shapes until they fit where I wanted them.
- Hot glue along the bottom edge and adhere to your pumpkin. Refer to pictures for placement.
- The last photo shows that the back of the pumpkins are all blank. Unless you print out both printables for the same float and glue them together before gluing to your pumpkin!
