Enough seriousness. Let's be silly. What are your Punkin Plans? Are you going to carve, or paint? Do you carve free hand or with a stencil kit? Crude triangles or some freehand masterpiece? Ever entered into a contest? Last year I did one with The Rangers T and one of The Dallas Cowboys helmet using stencils. The kids didn't like that, they wanted an old fashioned, hand drawn and carved with a kitchen knife. So we did one that looked like it was throwing up. We put it on a pedestal and made Xes for eyes and a round hole for a mouth with pumpkin guts and seeds coming out into a puddle of punkin guts. It was so funny. We got the most compliments on that one. This year, I don't know. We may paint it green attach a knobby gourd for a nose and put a witch hat and hair on it. Maybe. What are yalls punkin plans or do you even do jackolanterns?.
DVM That's my kind of punkin! Can I steal that idea? I love it!
OHHH those junkins are cool. Thanx for posting that. It'll be a great recycling lesson for the kids.
I am going to carve a pumpkin with a freaked-out scared face - staring at a can of canned pumpkin pie filling, whip cream and pie crust placed next to it.
ETA: Anyone else who wants to do this too is more than welcome to it - there is also a website called www.extremepumpkins.com that is awesome for some off-the-wall ideas! It's where I got this one!
no pumpkins for me this year, we moved to a high traffic neighborhood that has a sidewalk, one of the rare blocks. For some darn reason Teens in the city find it hilarious to smash them. So we tried on the deck and the darned squirrels in the city EAT them. This year, fake pumpkins with lights.
We went to a pumpkin patch at a local farm and with the $7 admission we each got to take a pumpkin home. These pumpkins are small like a sugar pumpkin, but they are not as dark, so I am leery of baking with one, but they are kind of small to carve. We did buy a small stencil kit, but that was because we needed the tools. I think we will end up doing something simply like a classic face.
My girls and I will each carve our own.....after we clean it out (something the girls don't love to do!) then we all free hand draw the faces on our own hand picked pumpkin then go to town with the little carving tool. I love seeing how their faces come out. 2 years ago my then 5 y/o made a jack-o-lantern that ended up having a cleft lip....SO cute!!!
We don't really have a pumpkin budget, but we did buy one really big one. No carving, that just invites the squirrels over for a pumpkin buffet. Usually we draw faces on with Sharpie markers, but since there's only ONE pumpkin this year, it's naked :) I'm sure my husband and I will get tired of staring at it and tripping over it by Thanksgiving (if it lasts that long), and do something awful with it when the kids aren't around. Last year we made a huge sling shot out of exercise bands and launched them into the river... the year before that we chucked them off the roof of our old 3 story house to watch them splat ;)
Carving with a stencil kit. We have an annual pumpkin carving contest - this will be our 17th one. Some years I get to carve, some years I am too busy with the party.
We do Jackolanterns!
I usually carve them--freehand. But I have done the stencils, as well. Those are fun too!
We usually "do" 3-5 each year.
We used to do the regular carving (I love to use the seeds and cook them with butter and seasoning). I did the same vomiting pumpkin you did one year - thought it was funny but to lose all those yummy seeds! Ahh. This year, I like the "junkins" idea. http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/junkins-pumpkins-1024711/ Pumpkins are so expensive though - can only buy one or two. $4 for the small ones, $8 for the large!
DVM - when you do that, will you send pictures?? I have some co-workers that are pumpkin pie freaks and I would love to put that picutre in the rooms!
We've already done some pumpkins here this year - for little one's school storybook character pumpkin contest. Those cannot be carved - but decorated any other way. There are a couple average size ones on the porch for decoration, so far - will decide later if she'll paint those as well or want me to attempt to carve!
As to carving - have done the quick kitchen knife jack-o-lantern to some pretty decent free-hand designs also done w/similar knife. Got a little kit one year and that was kinda fun, too! (and have also done the pukin' punkin!!)
