Thread: Pumpkins

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I just made my first pumpkins in 30 plus years! I bought these from Michael's, these are the foam type. I searched the web for neat templates but was sadly disappointed. So I decided to do these two and put them out each night till the big show!

This is my first, I made him as basic as possible so I could learn. I bought this 3 LED flashing light from Michael's too. Tried it and man, was it lousy! So I dug out some of my extra candles, put three in and it is ..... okay

http://www.halloweenforum.com/member...-just-okay.jpg

Being unhappy with the lighting on my first one I went nuclear on the second. I cut a hole in the back and installed a Green CFL bulb! I drew a happy cat / vampire on it. Now this glows!

http://www.halloweenforum.com/member...-big-night.jpg

Now that I got my "feet wet" so to speak, does anyone have any cool templates? Also, does anyone have any "tricks" to carving?

Thanks

The only trick that I have is to use an emory/finger nail board to cleanup any jagged edges.

BeaconSamurai, Do you have dollar tree where you live? Yesterday I picked up a pumpkin carving pattern book for 1.00

Cool!!!!!!

How fun is that! Pumpkin carving never gets old.

You can get free patterns at www.pumpkinlady.com You have to find the free ones at the bottom of any download page. First click on "Products" then "Patterns" then pick any pattern pack. There should be free ones at the bottom of the page. She changes the free ones every week, so check back every week to keep getting free patterns.

I've been able to collect quite a few free pumpkin templates courtesy of google images. The World Wildlife Federation has a great tiger template I'm doing this year. I've also used some of the zombiepumpkins templates - the only ones I've thought were worth paying for.

This year, I've got a Captain Rex done as well as a Stormtrooper - good uses for white pumpkins. Captain Rex is an original, but the Stormtrooper was a free template.



In fact, that's what started the whole decorating for Halloween thing. I did a few interesting pumpkins, then bought some tombstones, and this year I'm building two 18" x 4' columns and about 80 feet of graveyard fence! I've attached a few from years past. The Headless Horseman was an original, as was Cinderella's carriage, the ballerina and the hockey player (daughter's and son's activities of choice).

Sorry, meant to delete

Thanks guys. I have a book from Michael's and most of the templates I saw on the web just aren't that .... shall I say, inspiring? I love the headless horsemen from jayhawke, now that I would love to carve!

Check out all the template books. This year the Carving Party Kit from Pumpkin Masters (I bought mine at Menards) is six bucks, and had a very similar template of the Horseman. It'd be easier to carve than mine (the mane, tail, and hoof detail is cool, but a pain!) and you'd be set.

The Kit I'm speaking of has 16 patterns, 26 pieces total, and the horseman is between "Trick or treat" and a one eyed monster on the second row. A good trick I use for online patterns is to print them out on full-size label sheets and just stick'em on the pumpkin. I can tweak the sizes to match my medium and see the whole image right there.

Captain Rex I had to cut out with paper first to check for stability of the image and to see how it looked before I carved it.