Who's ready to carve some pumpkins?

[A Reefer's Girlfriend]

I love Halloween, and I lucked out - my boyfriend's family loves it even more. His mom's birthday is November 1st, so she considers Halloween her special celebration. As a result, his family (plus any other suckers they can rope in, aka me) spends 2-3 days straight carving around 50 pumpkins and decorating the entire street. All the neighboring houses have grown kids, so they kick in for candy, and all the kids who come to visit take 5 pieces each out of the big cauldron at the end of the street.

These photos are from a couple years ago. We do different patterns and themes every year, but there are always a few favorites. I'll see if I can locate the ones from last year. I'd love to see what everyone else does for Halloween too!

 

[steelheader.262]

WOW, that's awesome.
I always try to get the biggest pumpkins I can and carve them up with my family.
Great that your neighbors get involved as well.

 

[jasonandsarah]

Love carving pumpkins with the family!
I think I'm going to try to find a stencil for the Jacko lantern with the candle in its mouth you posted! Really like that one!

 

[reef_grrrl]

Uuuuugh I love your pictures so much! Halloween is my jam, but my husband grew up without it and gets annoyed at my fanaticism.. I tried growing giant pumpkins this year, but the vine borer beetles got them.

 

[RMS18]

Dam makes mine look like a kindergartener made it lol

 

[ReefMadScientist]

Not me. Its been 100 degrees and 102 today.

 

[veselym]

It has been unseasonably warm in Montana as well...70's in October is not normal so hope it cools down

I do love Halloween and now I finally live in a house so we get kids coming to the door

 

[A Reefer's Girlfriend]

Love carving pumpkins with the family!
I think I'm going to try to find a stencil for the Jacko lantern with the candle in its mouth you posted! Really like that one!

Thanks! That was my favorite one from that year. I got the pattern from stoneykins.com. They have tons of cool patterns. That one really helped to have a thin-skinned pumpkin that glowed well. Made the scraping parts a lot easier. Here's the link to that pattern: http://www.stoneykins.com/Patterns/products/Inside-Out-Pumpkin-Carving.html

Uuuuugh I love your pictures so much! Halloween is my jam, but my husband grew up without it and gets annoyed at my fanaticism.. I tried growing giant pumpkins this year, but the vine borer beetles got them.

Awww thanks! If it helps, we use strands of Christmas lights (in yellow, orange, and red) to light the pumpkins - they give a more consistent and brighter glow than candles, plus there's no risk of them blowing out! I loved Halloween growing up too, but my family was never as enthusiastic about it as me :p I was beyond thrilled to get sucked into the pumpkin madness!

Dam makes mine look like a kindergartener made it lol

Yours looks great! We have plenty of more simple ones that go up too - the ones up top were just the cream of the crop. Never get to do faces though - my boyfriend's mom doesn't like them! (I got away with the inside out one :p) We use oodles and oodles of those saws from the Pumpkin Masters carving kits for all the cuts, and a linoleum cutter for the scraping parts. So much easier than the kitchen knife method (and safer too)!

 

[jasonandsarah]

Mine from last year

My wifes

And my oldest daughters

Took me awhile to dig these up lol we're not experts but we enjoy doing it.

 

[A Reefer's Girlfriend]

Some of those look familiar to me! I think we did them too :) And really all that matters is that you enjoy it. My boyfriend's carvings blow mine out of the water (jerk), but I still have fun :)

 

[jasonandsarah]

Some of those look familiar to me! I think we did them too :) And really all that matters is that you enjoy it. My boyfriend's carvings blow mine out of the water (jerk), but I still have fun :)

Haha I know right, How dare he! They probably look familiar because we normally buy those master pumpkin carver books every year after Halloween(super cheap!). Plus we save all our old ones till they're torn to pieces. [emoji3]

 

[psirex]

Awesome

 

[A Reefer's Girlfriend]

We do the same. There's a master log of all those old Pumpkin Masters patterns, and copy upon copy so the originals are always safe!

 

[Ahruk]

Awesome thread! Love to see all the creativity :D I love carving pumpkins, definitely one of my favorite activities but not sure if I'll get a chance this year so I'll just have to enjoy others works :) Here's a picture of my boyfriend with his pumpkin a couple of years back

 

[A Reefer's Girlfriend]

Found some of last year's photos. My dad did me a favor and did photos (sparing me from being out in the cold around midnight), but that means not as many closeups:

 

[kacrocorals581]

wow !

 

[Ahruk]

:eek:Those are some crazy awesome pumpkins! Love the peacock one and umm...all of them xD

 

[A Reefer's Girlfriend]

Thanks! The peacock was my personal favorite from last year, but oh my God, it nearly killed me. That pattern is best on one with thin skin (because of all the scraping to show the different feather patterns), and that particular pumpkin flat out refused to glow no matter how deep I scraped it! I almost want to try it again just to prove it can be easier!

 

[Reefloco760]

Found some of last year's photos. My dad did me a favor and did photos (sparing me from being out in the cold around midnight), but that means not as many closeups:

The Genie is dope!

 

[dallas reefer]

That baby dragon ;) how do ya do that? Just scrap the hard shell and leave the flesh?