Halloween is coming up, and that, of course, means jack-o-lanterns. So tell me, what are you planning to do to your jack-o-lantern? My idea is this: I’m going to carve an ugly face, complete with warts, and top it with a paper witch’s hat with a hole in the top. That way, the smoke coming out of the top of the jack-o-lantern will come out of her hat.
Last night I drew up a pattern to make a Hogwarts crest for our jack-o-lantern. Yes, I am an adult who’s probably a bit too excited about the next Harry Potter movie being released next month.
The stick in its mouth is to signify that it’s smoking. It’s a used car salesman pumpkin. Imagine it’s wearing plaid pants and red suspenders and a yellow tie.
I’m not doing one this year, but if somebody (at this late date) is still looking for an idea, here’s a description of a previous design I had some luck with in the past.
First, when cleaning it out, don’t cut off the top – cut out the back. Make the hole bigger than it would be on top. Add a couple of small chimney holes on top, but otherwise leave it intact.
The reason to cut open the back is to give you access to the inside of the front. Rather than cutting all the way through, just dig out the white “meat” down to just shy of the skin. You can stick the plug back into the rear with toothpicks or something.
That way, the front of the pumpkin looks unblemished, but when you put a candle in it, your design magically appears, flickering and glowing as though inside the skin.
It’s pretty hard to do well (the first time, I made the mistake of cutting out the top as usual, so I was limited in how well I could control my work in the front), but the result is quite worth it.
While searching for pumpkin carving stencils for my kids, the best site I came across was this which included a Hogwarts stencil in the Kids & Teens section.
Lots of really great ones here.
I went to a halloween party where someone carved the Bono jack-o-lantern here which turned out great.
We always cut the bottom of the pumpkin and then set the completed pumpkin over the candle.
I always save the pumpkin guts and then have then cascading from the jack-o-lantern’s mouth, as if he’s puking his guts out. A knife in the side of the head is a good touch too.