As I mentioned in the previous Happy Halloween Post, I was unsuccessful in buying a pumpkin last night. This morning I tried again. 5 grocery stores to be exact. No luck. Just as I was about to head home, I saw big bins of beautiful looking pumpkins at Michael's craft store. I was surprised that they would have vegetables there, but I figured pumpkin carving is more or less a craft, so it didn't seem so strange.
As it turned out, they were artificial pumpkins at 50% off. They looked pretty realistic, but I wasn't sure you could carve them. The only clue was a sticker on the bottom that said "pumpkin is flammable". I went inside to ask if it was possible to carve these pumpkins. The girls at the cash register said they'd never done it, but they'd heard that "Martha Stewart can!". That was good enough for me. There weren't any examples for me to look at so I just went about carving it the same way I would a regular pumpkin.
Yesterday I was thinking about what to carve. I wanted to do something I hadn't done before, but still sort of fit in with a Halloween theme. Since I've gotten kind of interested in birds lately, I decided to carve an owl. I knew I could draw an owl, but it would take a while and I wanted a sort of cartoon owl anyway. So I checked my favorite free clip art website and found a design that I thought would be good for carving.
Then I printed it out, taped it to the pumpkin, used a pushpin to transfer the design to the pumpkin, and connected the dots with a pen. Then it was time to start carving. Cutting the plastic foam material was a bit more difficult than cutting a real pumpkin, and there were a lot of little fuzzy edges on the cuts. I stopped twice to rest for a minute because my wrist was tired. The good thing about the artificial pumpkin was that it wasn't slippery so I didn't have to worry about cutting a critical piece off accidentally.
After I was done carving, I used a small file to get rid of most of the fuzzy edges. Then I put two LED candles (also from the craft store) in the pumpkin so I could take a picture. The results are pretty realistic. I might even consider carving another artificial pumpkin next year.
As it turned out, they were artificial pumpkins at 50% off. They looked pretty realistic, but I wasn't sure you could carve them. The only clue was a sticker on the bottom that said "pumpkin is flammable". I went inside to ask if it was possible to carve these pumpkins. The girls at the cash register said they'd never done it, but they'd heard that "Martha Stewart can!". That was good enough for me. There weren't any examples for me to look at so I just went about carving it the same way I would a regular pumpkin.
Yesterday I was thinking about what to carve. I wanted to do something I hadn't done before, but still sort of fit in with a Halloween theme. Since I've gotten kind of interested in birds lately, I decided to carve an owl. I knew I could draw an owl, but it would take a while and I wanted a sort of cartoon owl anyway. So I checked my favorite free clip art website and found a design that I thought would be good for carving.
Then I printed it out, taped it to the pumpkin, used a pushpin to transfer the design to the pumpkin, and connected the dots with a pen. Then it was time to start carving. Cutting the plastic foam material was a bit more difficult than cutting a real pumpkin, and there were a lot of little fuzzy edges on the cuts. I stopped twice to rest for a minute because my wrist was tired. The good thing about the artificial pumpkin was that it wasn't slippery so I didn't have to worry about cutting a critical piece off accidentally.
After I was done carving, I used a small file to get rid of most of the fuzzy edges. Then I put two LED candles (also from the craft store) in the pumpkin so I could take a picture. The results are pretty realistic. I might even consider carving another artificial pumpkin next year.
2 comments:
Wowie, Sara, that's BEAUTIFUL! You ARE Martha Stewart!
Thanks. Except she has all kinds of maids and assistants to make sure she has her pumpkins before she needs them. :)
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