Thread: Carving fake pumpkins

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I hope this is posted in the right place. If not, I apologize. I bought a couple of those fake pumpkins at Michaels. My question is this, How do you all carve them? I would love to hear all the different methods and if you have pictures of what you've done, even better!

I did one of these a few years ago but my pumpkin come from Wal-Mart. I used a cheap pumpkin carving kit that had some templates that you trace onto the pumpkin, then carve using the cheap tools included. This worked real well and I was very happy with the result. I'd never done anything like this before (not even on real pumkins, it was my first halloween) and the design I chose was quite complicated. When it was done I put a battery light inside it. Looked great.

You can use the little saws that come with the carving kit, or even an Xacto knife if you prefer.

But the best thing for the foam pumpkins at Michaels is to use the Versa-Tool (use a 50% coupon, next time one's offered), which literally cuts through the foam like a hot knife through butter. Makes the entire process go so much faster.

I carved my first Michaels craft pumpkin about a week ago. I used an Xacto knife and heated the blade with a BBQ lighter. The heated blade sliced through the material pretty easily.

Have fun carving! Mt Michaels has all craft pumpkins on sale with 50% off original price!

I plan on using an orange marker or highlighter on the "flesh" of the pumpkin when I carve mine, those white edges just look weird to me.

I used a Dremel tool on mine with a cutting bit (looks like a drill bit). Make sure that you use a medium speed and position yourself and the pumpkin so that you are always "pulling" rather than pushing.

First thing I did was go to a site (like this http://www.zombiepumpkins.com) that had pumpkin patterns. Then I took the pattern, cut the straight edges off of the 8.5 x 11 paper and used white glue to adhere it too the pumpkin. This way the pattern lays down nicely in all the nooks and crannies. Once it dried, I traced it with an x-acto knife, put it under some warm water to wash of the pattern (rub with your hand, don't use anything abrasive) and used then used the Dremel to cut it out. Be sure that you are in an area with good lighting when you cut it out with the Dremel otherwise your x-acto edges will be difficult to see.

Here is a picture of mine:

Originally Posted by Xane

I plan on using an orange marker or highlighter on the "flesh" of the pumpkin when I carve mine, those white edges just look weird to me.

Xane, Sounds like a great idea. I will tell you though that with a light inside and at night you will never notice the color of the edges. The one thing that I have thought of though is to airbrush them so that they aren't so shiny.

Guys....been carving the michaels gemmy pumpkins for years now.

Not trying to pimp any specific site, as there are numerous great sites out there that have tons of help like how to sections as well as forums that allow the poster to ask any and all questions you might possibly come up with. I've mostly concentrated on http://www.stoneykins.com/index.html for the last three or four years (though I was a member of Zombie pumpkins as well as Jamminpumpkins http://www.jamminpumpkins.com/ for alot of that time too). Stoney's has a phenominal 'how to' section (linked here:http://www.stoneykins.com/How_To.html) that describes how to print, glue and then carve any pattern on to the pumpkin.

Most of us who go this route producing carved pumpkins use dremels. I cant recommend using them enough. If I was doing a straight cut through pattern, it would take longer for me to glue the pattern on the pumpkin and for it to dry, than it would take me to cut it out completely using the dremel. With the proper bits, it is about as easy as it can be....and the results can be phenominal. Using the hot knife method, it would add 30-45 minutes to that completion time, so again, I cant recommend enough using a dremel. The hot knife method isnt a bad method, so dont misunderstand me.....but using a dremel is THAT much better. Really, the most difficult thing about using the dremel is getting the right bits and attachments so that you have a nice comfortable set up that allows you to work well and easily.

As far as carves based on shading...it is definitely a step up on the difficulty level. But you can produce eye popping results your very first time out and well worth the effort IMO.

This carve was infact the very first carving I ever did on a gemmy as well as the first shading attempt:



Further, as even more examples....I did two videos that I'll link....one that is a combo of 2006 through 2009, and the second from last year.

The first one, from 2006 through 2009, I was carving on real pumpkins using patterns for Zombie pumpkins and Jamminpumpkins with good results and linked below. In 2008, I then switched over to gemmy pumpkins from Michaels because I hated to see all the hard work (crammed into two long days prior to Halloween) end up rotting away after just a few short days. Once I switched to the gemmy pumpkins I also found the Stoneykins site. I've never looked back since.





Its a GREAT site, with both cut out patterns as well as shaded ones and heck, just this year he's added over 500 new patterns, and thats not just a 'this year' kinda thing. He does this pretty much every year (so yeah, there are thousands of patterns of pretty much any subject).

So here's last years pumpkin results based on patterns from Stoney's site from my 2010 display:




Obviously, any cut out pattern or shading can be used on the gemmy pumpkins from Michaels as well as on real pumpkins though using a dremel on a real pumpkin could prove 'messy' to say the very least. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to send me a pm or visit some of those sites linked above. Zombie's site as well as Jammin pumpkins are 100% cut outs.....Stoney's has both cut outs and shading...so if you arent sure what your interested in learning or doing, make sure to visit all the sites and take the time to compare. There are plenty of us on the forums that are happy to help out however possible.


Andretti

I'm airbrushing a white one today, Savage.

Andreti, those are sweet. Can you take a pic of the bits that you use with the Dremel?