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?

 

Friday Finds: 4 Romances, 1 Writing Craft book (October 5, 2012)

FRIDAY FINDS is hosted by Should Be Reading and showcases the books you ‘found’ and added to your To Be Read (TBR) list… whether you found them online, or in a bookstore, or in the library — wherever! (they aren’t necessarily books you purchased).

Some weeks I add several books to my list. I’ll be limiting my Friday Finds posts to 5 books each week. Those that don’t make this week’s list will be on next week’s. So many books, so little time!

 

Twin Sense by Lydia Sharp
[cover not revealed yet]

Why I Added It: I’ve been following Lydia’s blog for a while now and am looking forward to reading a book from her. I love the voice in the summary, and young adult with a gay theme is always something that catches my eye. Usually I go for gay boy characters, but perhaps it’s time to broaden my horizons and try some lesbian characters. 🙂

Goodreads Summary:

two boys + two girls = one big mess 

As girlfriends of the Taylor twins, Layna and Sherri have only been friends by association. But when Sherri breaks up with Keith (for real this time), and Kevin gives Layna a promise ring (whoa, what?), Layna’s whole world spins off balance. She avoids Kevin’s unwelcome pressure to commit by spending more time with Sherri.

Without the twins around, Layna and Sherri are tempted to go beyond friendship status. Then Keith tries to win Sherri back, and Kevin apologizes for rushing Layna. Now she’s stuck inside a double-trouble love quadrangle that has her reaching for the consolation cheesecake. The only way to sort out this mess is to make an impossible choice—between the one she wants and the other one she wants—or she might end up with no one.

 

 

Send by Patty Blount

Why I Added It: Romance with a redeemed bad boy. Also, it tackles a very relevant teen topic: cyber-bullying, but from the (former) bully’s perspective rather than the victim’s.

Goodreads Summary:

It’s been five years since I clicked Send.
Four years since I got out of juvie.
Three months since I changed my name.
Two minutes since I met Julie.
A second to change my life.

All Dan wants for his senior year is to be invisible. This is his last chance at a semi-normal life. Nobody here knows who he is. Or what he’s done. But on his first day at school, instead of turning away like everyone else, Dan breaks up a fight. Because Dan knows what it’s like to be terrorized by a bully—he used to be one.

Now the whole school thinks he’s some kind of hero—except Julie. She looks at him like she knows he has a secret. Like she knows his name isn’t really Daniel…

 

 

Passing Shadows by M. King

Why I Added It: Originally I was intrigued by the protagonist  murdering his abusive father, but the devoted boyfriend sealed the deal. Sounds like an angsty romance novel, which usually isn’t my thing, but there are some thematic similarities between this and my WIP and it’s important to know what’s already out there so you don’t unknowingly repeat something.

Goodreads Summary:

After serving six years for murdering his abusive father, Tommy Hawks is released from prison. He moves back in with what’s left of his family and tries to negotiate a new life with them and his partner, Brett, who has stood by him through everything. But moving on isn’t so easy.

For six years, Brett Derwent sacrificed any chance of a normal life: he spent his college fund on defense lawyers, drove hundreds of miles to visitation days, and had his love letters read by strangers and his phone calls monitored by jailers. Now he and Tommy are faced with the monumental task of starting over as adults when they hardly had the chance to begin together as teens.

Resentment simmers just below the surface, but so do gratitude and guilt. Brett and Tommy need to give each other the time and space to discover who they are individually, and Tommy especially needs the opportunity to stand on his own—even if that means another separation.

 

 

Breaking Faith by M. King

Why I Added It: I discovered Passing Shadows first, then learned that it’s a sequel to Breaking Faith. Like Passing Shadows, there are similar themes to my WIP.

Goodreads Summary:

Soon-to-be medical student Brett Derwent thinks he has everything all planned out. That is, until he meets Tommy Hawks. Over the course of one incredible summer in Northern Montana, this easy-going, kind-hearted guy turns Brett’s life upside down…but Tommy isn’t everything he seems.

Brutalized by his violent father, desperate to protect his mother and four siblings, and terrified of losing the love he never expected to find, Tommy is pushed to the edge.

When Tommy’s father is found dead, Brett must face some impossible questions: how much is he willing to sacrifice for Tommy, and will having faith in him be enough?

 

 

Fiction First Aid by Raymond Obstfeld

Why I Added It: I found this in the library, but didn’t have a chance to do more than flip through a couple chapters. What I did see looked very good, despite the “Get Rich Quick” feeling of the subtitle (Instant Remedies for Novels, Stories and Scripts).

Goodreads Summary:

Just like a first aid manual, this reference quickly offers writers easy-to-follow steps and specific remedies for fixing the parts in their manuscripts that “just aren’t working.”

ONE MORE WEEK! The Vampire Diaries Season 4 Begins October 11, 2012

Who else is excited for The Vampire Diaries‘ return next week? It’s the only TV show I watch anymore (aside from the 5 last episodes of Smallville I still have yet to see) and I can’t wait.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1HAb34nBKI&rel=0

What do you think? Will Elena become a vampire? Will her friends be able to find a loophole and save her?

I’m not sure what to think.  TVD is known for its plot twists, so I could definitely see an 11th hour save preventing her transition and turning her back to human.  But I could also see a little “Vizzini logic” happening — “The audience will be expecting a loophole, so we won’t give them one!”  What I’m hoping for? Something completely new and different — Elena becomes something that is neither human nor vampire.

(If you didn’t get the “Vizzini” reference, why have you not seen Princess Bride yet?)

Teaser Tuesday: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi (October 2, 2012)

Teaser Tuesdays with Should Be ReadingTeaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I was 14 years old when they finally got rid of me. When they stood back and watched as I was dragged away for a murder I didn’t know I could commit.

~ Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi, pg 78

Here’s the summary from Goodreads:

“You can’t touch me,” I whisper.

I’m lying, is what I don’t tell him.

He can touch me, is what I’ll never tell him.

But things happen when people touch me.

Strange things.

Bad things.

No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal, but The Reestablishment has plans for her. Plans to use her as a weapon.

But Juliette has plans of her own.

After a lifetime without freedom, she’s finally discovering a strength to fight back for the very first time—and to find a future with the one boy she thought she’d lost forever.