Pumpkin Carving, Part 7: This Year’s Carves

UPDATE September 19, 2015: Want to learn how to carve pumpkins like these? I’m creating a set of step-by-step video tutorials. Check out Carve Awesome Pumpkins for more info!

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Welcome to seventh and final post of my Carving Pumpkins series for 2012.  I can’t believe Halloween is over already.  Sometimes I wonder why I put so many hours into creating these pumpkins for just a few hours of display one night of the year. Then I look at them all lit up and smile. 🙂

This week I’m just going to post pictures of the pumpkins I’ve carved this year. Some you’ve already seen, some you haven’t. I did take pictures of my progress while carving the real pumpkins, but I’ll save them for a How-To/Tips post for next Halloween. They probably won’t do you any good now.

In case you missed any of my previous posts in this series:

Foam Pumpkins for 2012

 YA Book Covers

Paper Towns Pumpkin Divergent Pumpkin Divergent pumpkin

These Paper Towns and Divergent patterns were created by Kate Hart and are available for free download. (Yes, I carved 2 different Divergent pumpkins.)  All 3 of these pumpkins were given away as part of contests.

 

Beautiful Creatures Pumpkin

This pumpkin was also given away as part of a contest. I created the pattern and it’s available for free download on my FREEBIES page.

Harry Potter

 Dumbledore Pumpkin

Both of these patterns are from Stoneykins.  The Harry Potter pattern is free for download, and the Dumbledore pattern must be purchased.

Hunger Games

My favorite carve of the season! This is the most intricate pattern I’ve carved so far, but the effort was so worth it.  Pattern from Stoneykins.

You Can’t See Me

You Can't See Me pumpkin

Although I carve mostly for me, I try to do at least one pumpkin for everyone in my family each year.  (Sadly, my husband got left out this year because I ran out of time, but he can appreciate the Hunger Games and Harry Potter pumpkins. 😉 )

This one I did for my son, who is a fan of WWE Wrestler John Cena.  “You Can’t See Me” is Cena’s catch phrase and this is the logo on the hat he wears.

I created the pattern by hand. If I had a digital file for it, I would share it for free download. It’s a simple pattern to make yourself, though. You can find an image of the logo on the internet to use as a basis for the pattern.  Cut out the letters and shade the circle crossing out the “C”.

Vampire Diaries

I’m a huge fan of Damon on Vampire Diaries (I’ve loved Ian Somerhalder for a long time…since he was a “freak of the week” on Smallville way back in Season 1 or 2) and really wanted to carve a Damon pumpkin last year but couldn’t find any patterns.

So I was really excited when I saw that Ultimate Pumpkin Stencils added a Vampire Diaries set to their store this year!

 

 Real Pumpkins for 2012

Elmo

Elmo Pumpkin

This is the pumpkin I did for my daughter who is 2.  She would have loved a Caillou pumpkin, but I couldn’t find a pattern and didn’t have the time/energy to make my own.  Elmo was the next best thing. 🙂

This pattern is from Ultimate Pumpkin Stencils’ Sesame Street set. The characters are also available separately.

General Halloween

Trick or Treat pumpkin

Usually one of the real pumpkins I carve has something that represents the year for our family.  For example, last year I did a Mickey and Minnie pumpkin because we took the kids to Disney for the first time.  This year, I couldn’t think of anything that really symbolized “2012” for us, so I went with a generic Halloween pattern. I’m really pleased with how it came out.

The pattern is from Stoneykins, and warning: I did leave off part of the pattern to make it more family-friendly. 😉

Breaking Dawn Part II

Breaking Dawn Part II pumpkin

I have carved a Twilight pumpkin every year since 2008. I have done a pumpkin for the movie poster of each Twilight movie, but when I saw the poster for Breaking Dawn Part II, I was too busy laughing to try to make a pattern from it.  (Seriously, what were they thinking?!)

Still, the night before Halloween I was feeling sad that I wouldn’t have a Twilight pumpkin this year.  Then I saw this pumpkin from the Miller Tree Inn and was inspired to carve one myself.

(Side note: in less than 2 weeks I’m going to visit a friend in Seattle for the Breaking Dawn Part II premiere. We’ll be spending one night in Forks, staying at the Miller Tree Inn aka “the Cullen House.” Very excited!)

 

The Best Part of Pumpkin Carving!

Okay, here’s the REAL reason I carve real pumpkins! 😉

I made two batches:

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds with Sugar and Spice (very yummy, but too sweet. Cut down the sugar.)

Spiced Pumpkin Seeds (yummy!)

 

 

Pumpkin Carving, Part 3: Twilight Patterns

Twilight Pumpkin

UPDATE September 19, 2015: Want to learn how to carve pumpkins like these? I’m creating a set of step-by-step video tutorials. Check out Carve Awesome Pumpkins for more info!

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Twilight Pumpkin Carving Patterns

Welcome to week 3 of my Pumpkin Carving series.  First, I shared some tips for carving.  Last week, I shared links to young adult book cover carving patterns. I also announced a contest.

This week, I’m sharing the Twilight pumpkins I’ve carved as well as links to the carving patterns.

 Twilight Pumpkins I Have Carved

It started innocently enough in 2008. I carved the Twilight movie poster onto a pumpkin. Since then, my Twilight pumpkin collection has grown a little…

It looks like this will be the first year since then that I won’t be carving a Twilight pumpkin. But we’ll see.

Twilight Pumpkin Carving Patterns — Free

This article has links to several free Twilight pumpkin carving patterns, including the Edward & Bella  and the Alice Cullen pumpkins  shown above from Pumpkin Wizard.

I created the pattern for the Breaking Dawn Part 1 pumpkin shown above.  I’m happy to share it freely, just remember that I’m a better carver than I am pattern maker. 😉

Twilight Pumpkin Carving Patterns — To Purchase

Free patterns are great, but they aren’t always the best patterns for carving.  There are some really nice patterns available for purchase, and the prices are reasonable.

Ultimate Pumpkin Stencils has several Twilight patterns available in sets or individually. The Eclipse Movie Poster, Jasper, and Alice pumpkins above are from Ultimate Pumpkin Stencils. Their prices range from $2-$5 if you buy the patterns individually, but if you buy the package, the patterns are cheaper. This year, they’ve added 4 patterns for Breaking Dawn, shown here:

 

 

 

 

Zombie Pumpkins has Edward and Bella pumpkins. Patterns are $1 each or cheaper, depending how many you purchase.

 

 

 

But my favorite, favorite, favorite source for patterns — Twilight and otherwise — is Stoneykins.  Six of the pumpkins shown above are from Stoneykins, and he has a few more that I haven’t carved. Click on the picture to go Stoneykins’ website for purchase:

There’s hundreds of patterns every year at Stoneykins.  His prices are incredibly cheap: they are on a sliding scale based on how many patterns you purchase.  Packages range from $3-$25 — and you’ll never pay more than $0.60 per pattern no matter what package you buy. Here’s a coupon you can use at Stoneykins:

stoneykins coupon

Check Out This Carving Master!

Alex the Pumpkin Geek is a professional pumpkin carver. He does some really awesome work — both in the carving and in the creation of the patterns.  If you’re interested in having Alex carve you a pumpkin, you can contact him through his website. Check out the Twilight pumpkins he’s carved:

Next Week?

Part 4 of my Pumpkin Carving series will feature Harry Potter pumpkins. Check back next Sunday!

There’s only one week left to enter my pumpkin contest. Have you entered yet?

 

For the comments: Have you carved any Twilight pumpkins? Want to share pictures?