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Pumpkin Carving


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I used to carve pumpkins every year about a week or so before Halloween. Every one was a hard one to carve! :banana: Now I've bought the plastic, lighted ones and call it a day! :banana:

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I used to, but haven't for several years. I do want to go to Michaels in a couple of weeks and get a couple of the carvable pumpkins so that i can make miniature scenes in them. Alas my paycheck was terrible this time so i'm broke or i'd do it now!

Do you carve pumpkins Tracy?

Photos of pumpkin carving make cute scrapbook pages!

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Nope, I don't carve pumpkins :banana: That's why I was wondering about this. I was wondering how long does a carved pumpkin last. I have bought some of the ones from Micheals. I want to do a Peter Peter Pumkin eater scene inside of one :banana:

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Tracy, that sounds so adorable! Can't wait to see your pictures!! I'd definitely go with the Michael's carvable pumpkins . . . you wouldn't want to use a mushy real pumpkin for that. :banana:

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Nope, I don't carve pumpkins :banana: That's why I was wondering about this. I was wondering how long does a carved pumpkin last. I have bought some of the ones from Micheals. I want to do a Peter Peter Pumkin eater scene inside of one :banana:

That would be a great idea!

Depending on how cold it is outside, i think pumpkins can last about a week after they are carved.

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We used to always carve pumpkins - last year though we didn't carve a single one - We did have pumpkins set out - just not carved. I used to really like the Pumpkin Masters patterns :) And I have to admit some of the Disney patterns (I think Pumpkin Master's also makes those but doesn't sell them in the stores) are Way Cool! I can't remember the one I carved that was the hardest - probably the Giant Pumpkin I carved but that was just a simple face - it just was a lot of pumpkin to cut up 200lbs and for a giant pumpkin that's pretty small - but it was the biggest on our block :D They've got one at teh grocery store I"m sorely tempted to buy :D

This year I got my son a battery operated pumpkin carving tool so he's on his own (with supervision) but he'll get to carve his very own all by himself this year - finally :D

Oh and we always carve them Halloween day.. or the day before at the earliest - the weather thends to be warm here in October so they don't last a long time once they're cut into

-David

Nope, I don't carve pumpkins :banana: That's why I was wondering about this. I was wondering how long does a carved pumpkin last. I have bought some of the ones from Micheals. I want to do a Peter Peter Pumkin eater scene inside of one :banana:

I should have added - my sis carves on the ones from Micheals - they last forever and they carve pretty good too - I think she uses her dremel on them for carving and you can get pretty detailed! I think it's the way to go :banana: for detail carving - on a real pumpkin that's just too much work for something that lasts a couple of days before getting moldy :banana:

-David :banana:

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Used to carve pumpkins -- well, DH & the boys did it, not me :banana: They don't last too long -- at least they didn't in Virginia where it's still relatively warm in late October. I've opted for the light up ones -- one-time investment, y'know? But I love the looks of the real ones with the candles flickering inside - so spooky!

Ooo, Tracy has another project? Love to see a Peter Punkin Eater scene -- what a hoot!

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Well I have used pumpkins as a decoartion outside the door and the last few years we have carved some as well. I liked that a lot so I think I will have a go at it this year as well, hmm last year we carved skulls out if it and that looked real sppoky and the kids coming to the door for thtrick or treating appreciated it a lot. Over here Halloween is a slowly growing tradition so we take baby steps towards the decoration possibilities, still a huuuuge lack of those plastic skellies and such ;)

Hugs

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We carve 4-6 every year. Well, the older kids do and dh helps the 6yo. I don't carve them though. My jobs is to clean them out because I roast a huge batch of pumpkin seeds. They make the house smell so good and they're way better than storebought ones!!

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We carve 4-6 every year. Well, the older kids do and dh helps the 6yo. I don't carve them though. My jobs is to clean them out because I roast a huge batch of pumpkin seeds. They make the house smell so good and they're way better than storebought ones!!

Do you use the pulp for pies? I've never personally done that, but I'm told it makes marvelous pies ;)

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I haven't but my mom does every year. The kids carve, I get the seeds, and I take the rest of the innards to my mom's house. It's a good thing for all involved!! Fun carving, roasted seeds, and great pie!

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I try to carve at least one pumpkin for Halloween. As another poster mentioned, it's a last minute thing in warm climates. If you carve, then wrap in plastic and refridgerate, it will be a fresh a couple days later. One of my neighbors carved theirs a couple weeks ahead of time, and by Halloween had nothing but pumpkin jelly on their porch. It was scary, but not in the way they intended. I get a bit creative with my carvings, but one year my pumpkin was too scary and a few kids were afraid to come to the door--not what I intended!

Jeri

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before we did the spookhouse we always set up a nice display

3 haybales with mums and pumpkins

till the weekend before Halloween than the mums left and the pumpkins were carved...we were the first to have pumpkin master pumpkins because we happened upon a kit in another town. but we did those every year after that. and spider webs and dummies. now we set up a display to attract victoms to our lair.

and NOOOO time to carve pumpkins. :banana:

so my question is...can the carvable pumpkins be carved with a pumpkin master kit?

I would LOVE to be able to make new designs every year till I had a whole pumpkin patch for the spookhouse. :ghost:

nutti ;)

oh and :offtopic:

Anna...you talk about the lack of things you can purchase for Halloween decorations?

how about making stuff

I am including a link we were given our 2nd year we wanted to haunt.

http://www.halloweenmonsterlist.info/

we get ideas off of this site all the time. and we make our things from what my hubby "collects"

our 6 manikins were dug out of a trash bin after the store were they had been displayed for years burnt.

our newest prop is one of those girls and she looks fab because of the monster mud treatment we gave her and it is EASY to do.

our 2 free standing props are made from things we had laying around the house

have fun exploring the link!

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no photos of our pumpkins

I mean I have some somewhere but that was before digital camera

as for the props we have made I think most of my photos before last yr are on

the yahoo group for Haunters I moderate.

Rippers Halloween Club

its for home haunters like myself.

great place for info.

nutti ;)

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Nutti - you might enjoy GhostDroppings - ever visit it? Great site for home haunters! Lots of do it yourself projects and people who enjoy setting up home haunts! If I'm not here now, I'm usually there :banana:

As for pumpkin carving - I do that a week before Halloween - here in Maryland like Virginia it's still pretty warm and the bugs get to it pretty quickly. I prefer real pumpkins- I got a giant pumpkin once (expernsive!) and carved a great big face on it... very detailed. But my favorite a couple years back was a detailed carving of the Headless Horseman riding his horse. I either forgot to take pictures, or they didn't turn out.. but I know it wasn't hideous, I recall several people asked me where I bought it! ;)

I love making creative things that don't need to be stored afterward - sand castles, food (love rice krispy sculptures!) and of course pumpkins!

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I carve a day or two before Halloween. I like to keep em fresh until the big day. Dont want to deal with the lil gnats.

I usually do a couple that are standard, and then I will have one or two that are more intricate. I saw some pics of pumpkins that were carved with tile cutters. Very cool. I think I will do that this year. You dont completely dig all the way into the pumpkin.

Walmart has a cool thing for lighting pumpkins. There are lil oil lamps with wicks that stay lit for 20 hrs. Cost about $1.25 each.

I use the seeds to roast.

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...

so my question is...can the carvable pumpkins be carved with a pumpkin master kit?

I would LOVE to be able to make new designs every year till I had a whole pumpkin patch for the spookhouse. :ghost: ...

I wanted to double check before I answered this. I remember when my sis first tried carving the everlasting pumpkins - she tried using the pumpkin master's tools and it seemed they didn't work - so I asked her to double check - she said they don't work well at all - the outside skin of the fake pumpkins tends to rip and it leaves a really rough edge on the inner foam part too. She suggested using a dremel or a new blade on an X-acto and changing it often. She said with the X-acto it's a slow tedious job but it does work. She really likes using the dremel on it instead. You can use the pumpkin master's patterns though or you can make your own.

Last year on Ebay there was a guy selling a program and I bought one it's pretty cool it's called "Me On A Pumpkin" and it will turn any photo into a pumpkin pattern :blush: Of course you can do this yourself with a paint program if you know how to. Sis does she made her own patterns a couple years ago... but for me the program is WAY easier to use :lol:

-David

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When I was teaching, October included a trip to the pumpkin farm every year. There was a farmer in the community that had raised a crop of pumpkins every year for close to 30 years. The sole purpose of that crop was to give to the local school kids. Every year, all the schools would bundle pre-k, kdg and 1st graders into buses and take a trip to the farm. When we arrived, the kids would spill out of the buses into the field and search for that perfect pumpkin. It was a sight to see those kids laughing and bouncing around and making that all-important choice. Mr Korrey would come out when he was able to and watch. It was a toss up as to who enjoyed it more. In his last years, he wasn't able to go out to the fields, so we'd take the buses up to his house so the kids could tell him thank you. He always handed out lollipops to each one of them. His children have continued the tradition in his name so future generations can have that golden childhood memory of making the trip to the pumpkin farm.

Deb

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Hi Deb,

That's an awesome story! Don't you just love those special people who go out of their way to give stuff to the future of their community? There's a gal back east who does a home haunt every year and she makes sure it's kid friendly. The schools do field trips to her house in the day time so the little kids can see the "monsters" up close and personal - there's lots of treats for the kids in the way of fun and no real scares and she does it cause there's not much in the are for kids to do but on Halloween they can come to the green witch's house sit in the big monster chair, get their pictures taken, go through the dot room and romp around the 'grave yard' with the seesawing skeletons. She works on her props year round and some of them do double duty for the Christmas season too - her FCG (flying crank ghost) becomes a jolly waving snow man :blush: .

-David

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I used to carve pumpkins with the kids when they were little - one of my sons never really wanted to do it - the other one loved to. Once they hit their teens, the one who loved doing it took over for the family. He has made several neat looking pumpkin faces - me - I never had any talent in that dept. they were just goofy faces trying to look scary!

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One of my early memories from when I was very small & young my grandparents had been given a HUGE pumpkin (Grandpa was a social worker, it might have come that way, this was just after WWII) and after she scooped out all the pulp she carved a simple face on it and put a candle stub in it and Hallowe'en night it was lit. I remember her making about a dozen pies from the pumpkin pulp. I think the seeds went to various neighbors to plant in their gardens.

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so my question is...can the carvable pumpkins be carved with a pumpkin master kit?

I would LOVE to be able to make new designs every year till I had a whole pumpkin patch for the spookhouse. :ghost:

things we had laying around the house

have fun exploring the link!

Just an update to my earlier answere - today I was at Micheals and found a set of carving tools by Pumpkin Masters espeically made for carving imitation pumpkins! Cool! :drool:

Thought I'd let everyone know. I'm curious how well they work but I didn't buy them - I already had my quota of craft stuff on my bill - ouch.

-David

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