2009 Pumpkins!

These are assorted pumpkins, from Canadian Thanksgiving---to Christmas. There is always an occasion that deserves a pumpkin!

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving

Carved this pumpkin today as a gift to the friends who are putting on the Canadian Thanksgiving party!

Ill get some action pictures up soon of me in the middle of carving.

Also...on this pumpkin i used a linoleum carving tool...it really helped! I also used a temporary spray adhesive. This was good because the stencil was very flimsy and there were a lot of pieces to it, but at the same time it made using the marker a lot harder when tracing he stencil onto the pumpkin.

Nothing says Halloween like Jesus

Took me over 7 hours...but I couldn't ask for a better Jesus pumpkin.

WOOOOOOO!

Pumpkins from last season

Here are other pumpkins I've done.

Remember the best part about carving pumpkins....ITS FUN!!!!

Cut and finish!

Once you are done swearing and getting frustrated with the stencil, it's finally time to cut! woooooo!

Get your box cutter ready (i used the smaller one first) and follow your stencil.

Once you are done getting it cut, you can go back to deepen and clean all the cuts with the bigger box cutter.

Once that's done get some candles and light that sucker up!

The Stencil: the hardest part

Now we are back to the stencil. This is the most frustrating and time consuming part.

The stencil should be cut and ready and your pumpkin should be ready for carving.

1. Tape the stencil to the pumpkin.
--This is frustrating because the stencil wont lay flat, you have to bend certain areas so it will lay flat, but do so without manipulating the design. You might have to tape it a few different times. I know I get really really frustrated and end up free handing it once I take the stencil off.

2. trace the stencil with a sharpie.
---Make sure you are careful not to mess up the design too much, you are going to lose definition and the whole thing will be a bit fatter.

***when you look at the stencil once it is traced it looks really confusing which is why we do the next step...be hopeful it it looks overwhelmingly hard***

3. fill in where you are going to cut out so you don't get confused

Now you are ready to start cutting! YIPPY!!!!

Hollow out the pumpkin

Now that the stencil is ready we are going to take all the seeds and muck out the the pumpkin.

Start by drawing out where you are going to cut the top.
Because my stencil is large i am going to cut more out of the back than the front.

If you make the hole to small then its really frustrating to hollow it out.

I also add shapes in the back to prevent it from from falling into the pumpkin.

Cut all the gross stuff off the lid of the pumpkin

I put the seeds into a bowl because they are good to bake, or give to health nut friends.

All the stuff on the inside i put into a bag to compost it....or you can just throw it out

****When you carve out all the inside the purpose is the thin the inside and get all the gooey stuff out. Make sure you thin the walls, if you dont it will be a lot harder to cut the stencil out.