Designs on the luminaries being crafted from pumpkins today are more elaborate than a face with triangle shaped eyes and a toothy smile or frown.
Pumpkin carving tools now include patterns plus exacto knives, various saws, scrapers, drills and pokers. The designs might be anything from traditional Halloween designs like a cat or a witch to haunted houses with lots of intricate detail. There's patterns with faces of sports figures, movie stars, rock stars, and politicians. Flags and patriotic symbols are also popular.
There's a great number of websites dedicated to pumpkins. Many include pumpkin carving directions and free printable pumpkin carving patterns....
Whether your carving a pumpkin to sit on your door step for Halloween or hosting a pumpkin carving party, at Pumpkin Carving 101 you'll find everything you need to know to carve your own pumpkins into spooky masterpieces and have a lot of fun doing it!
The Pumpkin Wizard has over 220 pumpkin carving patterns available for download - absolutely free! They have directions for pumpkin carving, printing the patterns, lighting a pumpkin, and tips for making your pumpkin last longer. The Pumpkin Wizard also offers pumpkin carving tools plus personalized and custom made patterns.
The Pumpkin Nook is a comprehensive guide to everything pumpkin. It includes a great pumpkin cookbook. Don't miss "Halloween Central".
SpookMaster offers free pumpkin carving stencils including Mix n' Match patterns for creating your own jack o' lantern designs.
See
Pumpkin Masters for a wealth of information about carving the
perfect pumpkin. They also have 3 free pumpkin carving patterns to download.
A Howling Good Time.Com has
pictures and step-by-step instructions showing how to carve a "designer" pumpkin. It also shows carving tools and pumpkin carving examples. They have many free, unique, printable pumpkin carving patterns.
You can use your computer to create pumpkin patterns featuring some of the many great, free designs from The Pumpkin Lady. She also offers helpful Pumpkin Carving Instructions and Tips
eHow.com also has free pumpkin carving templates for regular and fancy pumpkins. To learn how to use these templates, see "How to Carve a Pumpkin Using a Pattern." Learn how to print a pattern, and follow their tips to carve an ordinary pumpkin into an impressive Jack-O'-Lantern.
Go to
Swan's Pumpkin Farm for
pumpkin carving ideas and how-to's, complete with printable templates to
guide you. Kids can build their own virtual pumpkin online here too.
National Geographic Kids has expert Halloween pumpkin carving tips to show kids how to carve a bat-mouthed pumpkin or any pumpkin.
At Walt's Pumpkin Carving Secrets
learn how to choose a pumpkin, get the right carving tools, choose patterns or make your your own original pattern from a skilled pumpkin carver. Walt also shares carving techniques and information about preserving your masterpiece, adding special effects, and pumpkin photography.
Go to Rad's Pumpkin Carving to see the work of a dedicated pumpkin artist.
Pumpkins-A-Glowing also shows many examples of beautifully carved pumpkins.
Pumpkins are for more than just carving!
They're very nutritious and they're an excellent source of vitamins, especially vitamin A. Use pumpkins to make delicious breads, muffins, pies, soups and more.
When you carve your Halloween pumpkins or cut up a pumpkin to make puree for cooking and baking, don´t discard the seeds. Save them for a tasty fall treat.
See my article about Jack O'Lanterns at Bella Online to find out how to roast Pumpkin Seeds and for a recipe for Sweet and Spicy Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
See
Fall is for Pumpkins for lots of pumpkin information. See some of the newest varieties of cooking and baking pumpkins, step by step directions for making your own pumpkin puree to use in recipes, and lots of pumpkin recipes
