October is certainly a great month of the year. The nights are crisp and cool; the days are usually sunny and full of many activities, such as putting the garden to bed, watching the leaves change color and, of course, getting ready for Halloween. If you're looking for new and imaginative ways to carve your pumpkins, take a look at the two ideas listed below for unique pumpkin creations.
Twinkling Pumpkins
Light up your porch with these creative pumpkin lanterns. Rather than carve a face, drill small holes into a pumpkin. Turn the pumpkin on its side, and use a keyhole saw to carve out a round opening in the bottom large enough to enable your hand to reach inside the pumpkin. Use a dry-goods scoop or a spoon to remove the flesh and seeds. Scrape away the inner wall of the pumpkin until it's about 1/4- to 1/8-inch thick.
Then place the pumpkin right-side up. Using a 1/4-inch drill bit, drill holes randomly across the skin or (using tape as a guide) create a pattern. Place a string of tiny white lights through the bottom of the pumpkin, and insert one bulb into each hole, pushing bulbs through so that they extend slightly from the holes. Bunch the remaining lights together inside the pumpkin, making sure that the cord and plug run out from the bottom of the pumpkin. Plug into a socket or a sturdy extension cord, stand back and watch the magic occur.
These twinkling pumpkins make fantastic lights for entertaining on an autumn evening and are stunning as either indoor or outdoor displays. If you make these in quantity and place them on a Halloween buffet table or next to your front door, you'll have a most unique Halloween decoration. If you plan to incorporate carved pumpkins into your Halloween decor, remember that once a pumpkin is carved, it will rot quicker than an uncarved pumpkin.
Mix-and-Match Jacks
Use the variety of pumpkins and gourds from the pumpkin patch to construct your own pumpkin creatures. Here's your chance to play Dr. Frankenstein this Halloween and give "life" to stacks of pumpkins, gourds and squashes.
You'll only need to carve the heads; if the body parts you select don't remain secure when stacked on top of one another, level off the bottom, then hammer wooden dowels into the flesh to assemble them. Before attaching the head, insert a battery-operated light to provide illumination, or insert a jelly jar wrapped with white lights and plug your creature into an outside electrical outlet or heavy-duty extension cord.
