How to Carve a Cat Face in a Pumpkin for Halloween using a Pattern

As an avid cat lover, I enjoy almost everything cats! Pumpkins are no exception. To carve a cat faced jack o lantern for Halloween, supplies needed include:

1. Large pumpkin, preferable round with a good stem
2. Carving knife
3. 2 bowls (1 for pumpkin seeds, the other for pumpkin goop)
4. Tea light candle
5. Match
6. Newspaper

For less mess, one can carve the pumpkin outside. If carving inside, lay down old newspaper or garbage bags to catch the mess. Then, carefully cut open the pumpkin by carving out the stem. My children and I have always cut a zig zag pattern round the stem so it’s easy to tell how the lid fits into place. Then, clean out the pumpkin using a spoon or your hands. If desired, separate the pumpkin seeds from the “goop” to cook later..

To begin carving the cat face in the pumpkin, download and print the cat carving pattern available here:

http://www.zankat.com/halloween_carving_pattern_cat.pdf

To carve the cat face, do the following:

1. Tape the entire piece of paper with the cat face on to the pumpkin.
2. Carefully cut out the black shapes of the cat face on the piece of paper

At dusk, light a tea light in the pumpkin to see the cat face glow.

How to Carve an Olaf the snowman Pumpkin for Halloween

A popular theme for Halloween this year will include those characters from Disney’s hit animated movie, Frozen: Princess Anna, her sister Princess Elsa, Kristoff the outdoorsman, Olaf, Sven the reindeer and Hans the handsome royal. Instead of creating a typical scary face jack o lantern, be unique and build your own snowman … Olaf! Olaf is the friendliest snowman to walk the mountains above Arendelle and he likes warm hugs. 

To create an Olaf the Snowman Carved Pumpkin, supplies needed include:

- 3 pumpkins: 2 oval shaped pumpkins, 1 round pumpkin
- Carving utensils (poker, scooper) available on Amazon.com
- Carving knives
- Newspaper
- 3 flameless tea lights
- Large size peanut butter jar lid
- Pencil
- Two twigs for arms, 3 smaller twigs for hair
- Olaf face template, available here

To create the Olaf jack o’ lantern: Pick out 3 pumpkins (2 rectangular shaped and 1 round). Many grocers offer deals on pumpkins during the Fall. For example, I purchased 3 good size pumpkins for $10 at Kroger. Carefully cut open each pumpkin and clean out the inside. If desired, set the pumpkin seeds aside for baking.

Using the circular peanut butter jar lid, trace 2 circles on one of the larger pumpkins. Trace one circular shape onto the round pumpkin. With carving tools, or a small sharp knife, carefully cut out the circles.

Tape the Olaf face template onto the last oval shaped pumpkin. Using a pumpkin carving poker, trace the design on to the pumpkin by poking holes along the pattern. Then, starting from the inside design of the face, carefully cut out the black shaped patterns of the template, creating Olaf’s face.

On the bottom pumpkin (with 2 holes), cut a large opening at the top of the pumpkin so the smaller round pumpkin fits snug on top. On the round pumpkin, cut a fairly good size hole at the top so the last large pumpkin sits securely on top. If the holes are big enough and cut properly, Olaf should stand on his own with the pumpkins stacked.

Locate two twigs for Olaf’s arm and 3 smaller twigs for his hair. To add the twigs to Olaf, use the poker carving tool to poke holes and place the twigs inside. If desired, create a small sign with “I love warm hugs – Olaf” on it is obvious the creation is Olaf and not just any snowman. After dark, light tea lights (or purchase battery-operated tea lights) to see Olaf glow!

How to decorate pumpkins like an ice cream cone

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! Make it a triple scoop this Halloween by decorating not one, but three pumpkins as an ice cream cone in chocolate, vanilla and strawberry flavors. Supplies needed to create this tasty treat that will turn heads this Halloween include:

·         3 round pumpkins in big, bigger, biggest size

·         3 cans of Great Stuff foam insulation

·         rubber gloves

·         Pink, off-white and brown acrylic spray paint

·         6” – 8” clay pot

·         pot sox to cover the clay pot

·         hacksaw

·         foam board

·         foam squares

·         Hot glue sticks and hot glue gun

·         large apple

To begin, clean the pumpkins removing any dirt. There is no need to clean out the inside of the pumpkins unless one is concerned about how heavy they may become. We chose to not clean out the pumpkins as an uncut pumpkin will not rot as quickly. Using the hacksaw, cut off the pumpkin stems.
   

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Carefully spray paint each pumpkin a different color and let dry. Once the pumpkins are dry, place each pumpkin on a white foam board and trace a circle larger than the pumpkin. Cut out the circles with a sharp knife or scissors. This foam circle will be used as the bottom of each scoop and will hold the foam insulation.

WEAR RUBBER GLOVES, as the Great Stuff foam insulation is nasty and will NOT come off of one’s skin if it makes contact. Carefully spray the foam insulation just underneath the pumpkin to hold the pumpkin to the board. Then, spray the foam around the circular shape and up the sides of the pumpkin. On the top scoop, spray more foam around the stem as this will be the “cool whip” on top of the cone. Let the foam insulation dry.

Once the foam is dry, spray paint the foam to match the attached pumpkin. Let dry. Using hot glue, attach an apple to the dried foam insulation on the top scoop. This is the cherry on top. For added decoration, put a few sprinkles on the cone by cutting strips of foam squares into rectangles and attaching them to the pumpkins.

Cover the clay pot in the basket weave pot sox. Then, carefully stack the pumpkins one on top of the other.