Pumpkin carving?

[lumpkin]

I''m going to carve some pumpkins on Monday night for Halloween night. If anyone is interested in doing this, post pictures of your jack-o-lanterns!

One of our neighbors last year had the most amazing jack-o-lantern arrangement at her front door. This year the kids have me doing it, and it''s my first year. We''ll see how it goes, I''m sure it will be fun even if the results aren''t a work of art, hehe.

 

[canuk-gal]

HI:

I am a bit fan of carving--and have created my own designs as well as using patterns found online or in retail stores. Very time consuming, but worth it in the end--the parents and kids love seeing the carvings! Best of all, our city has a pumpkin recycle program (with leaves), so pumpkins find a another use after their beauty fades....

cheers--Sharon

 

[Mannequin]

FI and I carved our pumpkins yesterday.

Chandler got a little white "ghost" pumpkin. He helped clean his pumpkin out...

Finished jack-o-lanterns:

 

[Mara]

omg eq...i love chandler''s pumpkin!!! i just told greg we should do one like that for P so it''s obviousl the pumpkin is a doggie. i think we are getting ours today and will probably carve tomorrow night.

 

[Cind11]

Oh the pumpkin that looks like a cat face is so cute! As is Chandler with his leg in the pumpkin. My DH likes to use those pumkin masters kits to carve his pumpkin. I usually don''t have the patience. I like to draw a face on it, carve it and be finished.

 

[canuk-gal]

HI:

EQ--your pumpkins are sweet! Love the kitty.....but how do you keep them "fresh? If I carve too early they get drooooooooopy......

cheers--Sharon

 

[sevens one]

Date: 10/29/2006 2:05:39 PM
Author: canuk-gal
HI:

EQ--your pumpkins are sweet! Love the kitty.....but how do you keep them ''fresh? If I carve too early they get drooooooooopy......

cheers--Sharon

Hey Sharon
As soon as I carve I grease down the cut parts with vaseline. It helps to keep the pumpkin.
It also helps to keep them in a cool place.

 

[canuk-gal]

Date: 10/29/2006 2:34:44 PM
Author: sevens one

Date: 10/29/2006 2:05:39 PM
Author: canuk-gal
HI:

EQ--your pumpkins are sweet! Love the kitty.....but how do you keep them ''fresh? If I carve too early they get drooooooooopy......

cheers--Sharon

Hey Sharon
As soon as I carve I grease down the cut parts with vaseline. It helps to keep the pumpkin.
It also helps to keep them in a cool place.

Nan!

Thanks for the tips!

cheers--Sharon

 

[lumpkin]

Thanks for posting your pics, EQ!!! I thought this thread was dead, so I didn''t notice right away that you posted them.

I''m carving tomorrow, bwaaahaaahaaaa. I''ll post when mine are done.

I kinda went crazy. I carved one early because the kids could not wait and we had gotten one of those packaged carving sets. Well, mine got all bent -- maybe we have tough pumpkins. I decided to go get a handle with small saws (woodcarving section) and a handle with some gaugers and I''ve been on the Martha Stewart website. After all that I''ll probably carve some very average looking jackolanterns, but hey, at least my blade won''t bend! I''m excited to try it.

Thanks for the tip about the vaseline! I was surprised that I didn''t see anything on Martha''s site about preserving the pumpkin. Maybe it was in her magazine. I miss the old Martha Stewart Living before she was incarcerated. I think she was a lot more thourogh and her stuff was so much more elaborate and elite, and although I didn''t do much of the stuff, I LOVED seeing it. What''s in there now is closer to common.

 

[Julian]

Those pumpkins look GREAT!!!! It looks like you had so much fun. And the kitty is adorable!

 

[canuk-gal]

HI:

I''ve tried all sorts of gadgets for carving and the best tools I''ve found have been, metal skewers (for poking holes), and my Henkel fillet knife (for the carving).

cheers--Sharon

 

[monarch64]

AW, cute punkins! We did ours last weekend with friends we get together to carve with annually...I''d post pictures but I didn''t take any, lol! Two of us carvers, (myself included) had the misfortune of having ours fall apart--we were trying to get a little too intricate and had imbibed a little too much hot mulled cider, he hee.

You can spray WD-40 on the inside of the pumpkin after it''s hollowed out to keep it longer by a few days...also I''ve read petroleum jelly does the same trick. And no, neither one will catch fire if you put a candle inside the pumpkin--just don''t spray the WD-40 on the lit candle.

 

[FireGoddess]

Love the kitty pumpkin!!!

When I was in Houston we used to spray the insides of the pumpkin with Lysol to prevent the mold from growing so fast (there you''re lucky if the inside of the pumpkin isn''t hairy in 2 days).

I didn''t do this one but it cracks me up every year. It''s a little gross if you think about it, but hysterical!!! FAIR WARNING!!!

 

[LizzieC]

Equistrienne- those pumpkins are awesome! I love the kitty!

Firegoddess- too funny! The first pumpkin DH ever carved (a couple of year ago) was a puking one too.

www.extremepumpkins.com is an AWESOME site for some craaaazy and very funny pumpkins.

 

[Mara]

here's ours...greg's is on the left, portia's is in the middle and mine is on the right. portia's has 2 whiskers on either side but the 2nd one doesn't show up very well on the right. hers also has little spiky eyebrows but again they don't show up that well.

 

[Mara]

lumpkin i loved your idea of the ghost pumpkin for the pet, esp since portia is 'white'. so we got her one. this is a better shot of the details. greg says she is howling. hehee.

 

[Mara]

the master at work. he carved both P''s and his and i did my own...he is way more creative than me!!

 

[Mannequin]

Thanks for the comments on my pics, everyone. It''s nice and chilly in Michigan in October, but I may have to put some stuff on the jack-o-lanterns because it is an unusually warm day for Halloween. Good suggestions for products...

FG and Mara, your pics are great too! Mara the face on the Portia pumpkin is really cute!

For those who want to carve without the mess, try this site:
http://www.cubpack81.com/images/carve_pumpkin.swf

 

[lumpkin]

I LOVE them!! Thanks for posting your jack-o-lanterns, ladies!

EQ, I love the pics with Chandler. I think he likes the pumpkins, too!
Mara, how fun you got hubby involved. You guys really prepared your table, with the newspaper (looks like) taped around the edges of the table! I would not have thought of that, and my kids definitely scoot the newspaper around when we do projects. Amazing what you learn at PS, LOL! Nice pics, too!

You guys have given me some inspiration. I really love the pet pumpkins and Firegoddess! OMG I can''t believe that pumpkin that looks like it''s barfing! I would do that but it would freak out my 5 year old, but *I* LOVE it!

I still haven''t carved ours and it''s Halloween morning. I''m room parent for my 9 year old''s Halloween party at school, which I''ve never done before, and this little 1/2 hour party has taken me many hours to plan and prepare for. I''m sure other moms have this down pat and can get it together in a few hours, but I''ve spent, no lie, over 12 hours. I''m such a goober!!!
Anyway, that''s pretty much done. I think I''ll be able to start carving this morning and I promise to take pictures!

Thanks for posting yours and I hope others will also post.

 

[Maria D]

Nice! I love all your jack-o-lantern''s -- especially the ghostie Chandler & Portia! Are "white" pumpkins a west coast thing? I''ve never seen them around here.

Great tip about looking for tools in the wood carving section. Every year I buy a carving kit and bend those silly little orange tools. I''ll try and post a pic of ours later.

Happy Halloween!

 

[Mara]

lol woops i said lumpkin and meant eq for the ghost chandler!! pumpkin confusion. haha.

yeah carving pumpkins for us is something we do every year...we were both pretty tired last nite and i had to go to 2 places to get the pumpkins after work, but greg said ''we have to do it, it''s tradition!!''....so he set everything up and cut out my top for me and after that i was pretty motivated...hehe. we actually carved them on top of our kitchen island and yes greg is very ''prepared''...i don''t know if he taped the edges (but it looks like it huh!) but he''s always hovering over me telling me not to cut myself and that he doesn''t want to make a trip to the ER...

lol! i am always saying ''gosh, whatever did i do for the 25 years before i met you!?''...he''s so silly. but the end result was great and we were both very proud of our creations this year!! hopefully we get some kids, it seems like less every year.

oh and we are taking P in her witches costume to a local doggie store where they are doing a pet parade and trick or treat this evening so that should be fun. i will have to post a picture of P in her costume later! oh the torment.

 

[lumpkin]

Date: 10/31/2006 11:10:18 AM
Author: Mara
lol woops i said lumpkin and meant eq for the ghost chandler!! pumpkin confusion. haha.

yeah carving pumpkins for us is something we do every year...we were both pretty tired last nite and i had to go to 2 places to get the pumpkins after work, but greg said ''we have to do it, it''s tradition!!''....so he set everything up and cut out my top for me and after that i was pretty motivated...hehe. we actually carved them on top of our kitchen island and yes greg is very ''prepared''...i don''t know if he taped the edges (but it looks like it huh!) but he''s always hovering over me telling me not to cut myself and that he doesn''t want to make a trip to the ER...

lol! i am always saying ''gosh, whatever did i do for the 25 years before i met you!?''...he''s so silly. but the end result was great and we were both very proud of our creations this year!! hopefully we get some kids, it seems like less every year.

oh and we are taking P in her witches costume to a local doggie store where they are doing a pet parade and trick or treat this evening so that should be fun. i will have to post a picture of P in her costume later! oh the torment.

OMG, they actually have pet halloween parties??? How funny! You will definitely have to post photos of that!

I will hopefully have photos of my son''s party. I''m really nervous about it. It''s in 2 1/2 hours. I hope the activities are long enough. We have 1/2 hour. We''re going to do a gross-out feely box and Halloween lotto. And of course the requisite refreshments. After school I''m going to do the pumpkins and my husband is goiing to do a quick cleaning of the house -- my mom and sister are coming over to hand out treats while we take the kids around the neighborhood. Hope the kids don''t hyper out on me before hand, or this Halloween we will have uncarved pumpkins.

 

[flopkins]

we had a carving party at my house saturday night.

here are mine (DH helped a little too).... can you tell who they are?!!!

 

[flopkins]

here is one done by a friend who had never carved before!! I think she did a pretty good job... w/the help of a template!!

 

[flopkins]

these two were done by another couple, the wife did the cute one on the left, and the husband did the one on the right... do you recognize the right one?!!

 

[Mannequin]

Date: 10/31/2006 4:12:49 PM
Author: flopkins
these two were done by another couple, the wife did the cute one on the left, and the husband did the one on the right... do you recognize the right one?!!

Yours are Wallace and Gromit, of course. And who could miss Darth?

Great job, they''re awesome!

 

[FireGoddess]

Love the Wallace and Grommit pumpkins! Did you get a pattern somewhere or do it freehand?

 

[flopkins]

hehe... I love wallace and gromit. can''t you tell by my avatar?

FG - I looked at a pic on the web and sketched it out so I could figure out how I wanted to carve it... so is that freehand?

it was so much fun. I love Fall!

 

[Mara]

lol those are awesome flopkins!!! i have ZERO pumpkin creativity skills....so mine this year was my ''best ever''..kind sad huh!?!?! i love the cute one that the wife did on the left.

more pumpkins!!

 

[flopkins]

mara - i am usually pretty boring too, but I stole the idea from someone else this year! of course, mine aren't as fancy as this dude's:

http://www.pumpkingutter.com/

I love the animal ones... 'Chandler' and 'Portia' are adorable! If only I could have a dog... (our rental doesn't allow it, and our house isn't very pet friendly!!)

oh, and the cute one by my friend on the left is supposed to be a pig.