Pumpkin eyes for halloween. How to carve a pumpkin for Halloween, carving hacks. Preparatory stage: what you need to make a lantern and how to choose and process a pumpkin

Carved from a pumpkin in the form of a frightening head. Everyone can create their own drawing to decorate a pumpkin for Halloween. To develop the creative abilities of your child, you can make DIY pumpkins together.

The autumn holiday is coming soon and you will think, what could be done beautiful and unique with your own hands? The solution to this issue is described in stages in this article. We read and gradually make beautiful do-it-yourself pumpkin crafts on.

It doesn't matter if you are a child or an adult; if we're talking about carving a holiday pumpkin, the process is messy, difficult, and frustrating when the art starts to rot after a few days anyway.

In order to save yourself and your little one a tearful goodbye to your pumpkin friend, here are a bunch of simple tricks that will make Halloween pumpkin carving a much more enjoyable experience for the whole family.

From ways to make the process easier, to tips on how to extend the life of your masterpiece, here are 16 hacks you need to carve a Halloween pumpkin.

Spray the inside of the pumpkin with the vinegar solution

This tip is for those who like to carve their Halloween pumpkins ahead of time. Vinegar will help prolong the life of the "shimmering Jack".

Apply vaseline ointment to intricate patterns

One of the most important Halloween pumpkin carving hacks. A small amount of petroleum jelly applied to the edges of the pattern will keep them from drying out and curling.

connect the dots

If you are using a stencil, transfer the stencil onto the pumpkin itself with a marker so you have a clearer idea of where to cut to carve your Halloween pumpkin nicely.

Don't use permanent marker

Drawings on a pumpkin are best done with the most common erasable marker, in case the baby changes his mind or makes a mistake.

Try bleach (chlorine)

If you don't have pets in the house and you're going to store your artwork outside, spray your finished, carved pumpkin with bleach. This one will save your artwork from bugs and mold.

Experiment with cookie cutters

What if instead of using a knife, you could try cutting holes in a pumpkin with a cookie cutter? A little force and the picture will appear in a split second!

Also use a drill

Fantasy is not over-imagination - change drills and create your own unique Halloween pumpkin design.

How about a plastic jaw?

Don't force your child to fight with every single tooth - just put a plastic jaw on the pumpkin when you decorate it for Halloween.

Start at the bottom, not at the top

Instead of cutting off the top and starting to peel the inside of the pumpkin, try making a hole in the bottom. This will make it easier to clean and install a candle or flashlight inside.

Use the floor cleaner too

Tail will do everything for you

Mister Pumpkin's permanent nose! You don't even need to think of anything.

A bag of gel balls will also come in handy.

Remember the little bags of silica gel you usually put in your pockets or shoeboxes? Place just such a specimen inside the pumpkin to prevent mold from forming. Just remember, if you have a small child, it is better to put a pumpkin with silica gel so that the baby does not reach it and cannot swallow the gel balls.

Toys are on the move

Some extra toys, like Mr. Potato Head or colored puzzle pieces, can be safely attracted when you carve a Halloween pumpkin with your child.

Another way to cut off the top of a pumpkin

Starting to cut the top, also cut off a piece of the back wall of the pumpkin. This will make it much easier to clean the insides of the berry when you carve the pumpkin for Halloween.

Stock up on glow sticks or flashlights

If you're nervous about candles or want something a little more original, glow sticks are the way to go. Simple and fun.

Use an ice cream scoop

If your child intends to carve a Halloween pumpkin himself, it will be much easier for him to clean out the middle of the pumpkin with an ice cream carve.

We hope the article was useful for you and you can easily and beautifully carve a pumpkin for Halloween. And your family and guests will appreciate the originality of pumpkin crafts at the highest level.

Halloween is a bright and spectacular holiday that came to us from the Anglo-Saxon countries and was enjoyed by both children and adults.

Every year on October 31, costume parades, carnivals, photo sessions, school lights and corporate Halloween-style parties are held in many European cities, in North and South America, Mexico, Japan and China, as well as in Russia.

The traditions of the celebration are distinguished by national color, rituals, mass character, decorations, but still the main attribute of the evening - a luminous pumpkin - remains the same recognizable symbol and decoration for all participants in the festival.

From known legend, which underlies the so-called "pumpkin" tradition.

According to her, an Irishman named Jack was rejected by higher powers and sent to wander in eternity, illuminating his path with a pumpkin lantern. Since then, the carved pumpkin symbolizes Jack's lamp and creates an unusual entourage of magic and mysticism.

There are many different ways of carving pumpkins, and now it is already a whole art, which “in American style” sounds like pumpkin art (pumpkin art), and the more common name is “carving”.

But the simplest and most uncomplicated pumpkin can be carved even by a child with the help of an adult mentor. Such crafts will perfectly decorate the holiday, and joint creativity will bring a lot of joy to its performers.

Preparatory stage: what you need to make a lantern and how to choose and process a pumpkin

There is a wide variety of professional carving tools.

But in order to make a pumpkin lantern on your own, at home, you need to stock up:

ordinary kitchen and stationery knife,
candle or flashlight
spoon
felt-tip pen,
alcohol,
and cotton or sponge.

You should pay attention to the choice of pumpkin: a complex pattern will look good on a large one, but for the first time it is more convenient to take a medium-sized pumpkin.

The color of the pumpkin can be anything: bright and pale orange, yellow, white.

The procedure for making a pumpkin for Halloween:

Before creating a “masterpiece”, it is necessary to wash the fruit well, dry it and degrease it with alcohol and cotton wool.
Next, the “hat” is carefully cut out, and the pulp is removed with a spoon. The better the pumpkin is cleaned and the thinner its walls become, the longer the festive lantern will last.
Then we cut out the actual pattern. But first it is better to apply the contours with a felt-tip pen.

A pattern or picture is drawn on a pumpkin, and then carefully cut out with a thin kitchen or stationery knife. If you have a bit of talent as a draftsman, just draw while looking at examples. Otherwise, use templates.

It's better to carve the pumpkin in advance so that it has time to dry well, 12 hours will be enough.

Can be used as backlight small candles or flashlight. As an option - wrap New Year's garland of LEDs glass jar or just put a garland in a pumpkin.

The fantasy of carving masters is limitless. The traditional occupation has become a real art. Carving the most ordinary pumpkin is not very difficult, but a holiday is a holiday to surprise, delight and inspire!

Simple masks are a classic solution

The most elementary drawing on a pumpkin is a mask or a face, although there are many ways to keep originality here.

Having completed all the stages of preparing the future "Jack Lantern", you should think about how the mask will look like. She can be funny and funny or really inspire fear and horror with her monstrous grin.

At the end of the material, we offer you several ready-made templates for drawing on a pumpkin, which can be opened in a new browser tab and downloaded. The finished drawing must be printed on a printer, cuts are made along the edges so that the ornament fits well on an uneven surface and fixed with an adhesive tape on a pumpkin.

If you cut through the details in the template by making a stencil, then you can simply circle the desired contour with a felt-tip pen. Or you can leave the downloaded drawing as it is and pierce the contours with a sharp awl or other tool.

But it is much more interesting to connect your creative thinking and create a unique and inimitable “face”. Try scribbling on a piece of paper, or invite your child to get creative.

Often, when making masks, they use geometric patterns.

The nose and eyes of the face may be triangular in shape, and the grin may be in the shape of a zigzag. The complexity of this pattern lies in cutting corners.

In order not to spoil the work, you should carefully pierce the peel with a thin knife and then make small cuts.

No need to turn the knife to cut a corner, it is better to remove the tool from the pumpkin and pierce the peel in a new direction of movement.

To make a kinder and prettier pumpkin mask, you just need to get rid of sharp corners by adding smooth lines. The grin will easily become a smile if neat square “teeth” are cut out instead of triangular “fangs”.

The eyes can be made round using a small penknife or chisel (found in art stores) as a smoothing tool.

In addition to frightening humanoid masks, carved faces of animals and fairy-tale creatures, for example, the mystical cat Behemoth or Pokemon, look very interesting.

A Pokemon without its sharp ears will be unrecognizable, so you can try and cut two wonderful “ears” from another pumpkin. In order for the "locators" to hold well and not fall off during noisy festivities and covens of any "evil spirits", you need to make cuts in the pumpkin and fix the "ears" with toothpicks.

Not always only "Jack's lantern" is made from a pumpkin. A simply carved mask without illumination also looks colorful if the work is done subtly and skillfully.

Of course, such a pumpkin may well decorate a holiday in the daytime, but in the evening the “fiery heads” placed on a reflective glossy surface look much more impressive.

By choosing a bright orange pumpkin, you can make an excellent mask. The figures on the pumpkin look spectacular, differing from the main body of the pumpkin in color and even in shade. For example, in order to get large white teeth, you need to peel the top layer of the peel and then cut each tooth separately. It is very good to do this work with thin and sharp Thai knives.

The work performed by the following carving method does not require illumination at all. In this case, the pulp may not be extracted from the pumpkin. It is enough to work out the drawing with high quality using sharp tools, cutting out only the upper layers of the peel.

The desired effect is achieved due to different pressure force and depth of cuts.

Since the hat is not cut off, the pumpkin tail can imitate the ugly nose of an old sorcerer.

Compositions from pumpkins

Of course, a pumpkin head standing alone will look boring, even if it is done very talentedly. The compositions of the lanterns look much more interesting.

Large and small pumpkins, placed at different heights, decorated with branches and autumn leaves, will decorate any interior or photo zone on All Saints' Day. An interesting idea is to put pumpkins on large shelves for flowers or fruits.

You can make compositions of several pumpkins according to the "one in one" type. In such works, a large pumpkin "villain head" is first carved, and then small faces are placed in the slits in the "villain's" jaws. You can fix parts of the composition with toothpicks or canapé sticks.

Characters and images

Halloween is the night before All Saints' Day, at which time the boundary between the earthly world and the world of higher powers is blurred. Accordingly, the spirit of the holiday is reflected in the work of masters of artistic carving of pumpkins.

Here are cute ghosts, either alone, like Carlson, or in cheerful companies.

And ugly, fearsome and terrifying, bats, owls, spiders and other creatures with mystical powers.

And where to go on this holiday without witches, their magic potion, black cats and fire-breathing dragons?

Compositions of pumpkins in the form of witches' houses look great. Windows, a door are cut out with a penknife, with the help of cut-out hotel elements, attics, verandas, and a door are completed. The light in the windows seems to remind all Halloween fans that many mysterious creatures do not sleep that night.

It should be pointed out that with the proper skill, complex magical scenes with witchcraft motifs, rich in details, can be carved on a pumpkin for Halloween. We will show some below.

The headless horseman... Scary! Terrible! But how beautiful this image looks, carved on the main symbol of Halloween!

One of the most popular and successful films about sorcerers, magicians, sorcerers and the school of wizards is Harry Potter. Why not use ideas from this movie to decorate pumpkins?

Traditionally, motifs or characters from comics or books are often used. Fabulous and mystical is the character of Spider-Man. In addition, in the photo below is the entrance to a certain fiery hell. Perhaps this is the Cave of Doom in Mordor from Tolkien's popular book.

Lovers of apple gadgets can make a pumpkin lantern with the emblem of their favorite iPhone for Halloween.

And the motives of death and the underworld are heard in Gothic works that will find their admirers.

Well, the very reminder of Halloween is celebrated on Jack lanterns in the form of images of pumpkins, inscriptions and other festive and symbolism.

Coloring technology

Often, when creating original works from pumpkins, dyeing technology is used.

You can shade individual elements of the composition using ordinary food coloring or paints for Easter eggs.

And you can draw patterns with ordinary gouache or paint parts of the picture.

Attention! Careless strokes are easily removed with alcohol and cotton wool.

Pumpkin for Halloween made of paper - simple and original!

If the carving technology seems too complicated and overwhelming, and you really want to decorate the interior for the holiday, then the ideal option would be to create a paper pumpkin from papier-mâché.

In order to make a paper pumpkin with your own hands you will need:

paper (preferably colored)
balloon,
office glue,
thread,
marker,
stationery knife,
led flashlight.

It is necessary to tear the paper into small pieces, then inflate the balloon and paste over it with several layers of paper. The topmost layer should not be smeared with glue too much.

The finished paper ball is hung by a thread and left to dry for 10-12 hours. Once the paper gourd is dry, you can pierce the inside of the ball, make a small cut, and carefully remove it.

If there is time, then you can mold the base of a more complex shape from plasticine. Then you have a chance to make not just a flashlight, but a real work of art.

You can also draw a face on a paper pumpkin with a felt-tip pen or marker, then cut out the resulting drawing with a thin clerical knife or small nail scissors.

By placing an LED flashlight inside, you can achieve a great resemblance of paper props to a real Jack's lantern.

In no case should you put a candle inside such a lamp, the paper is flammable, and an unplanned “fire show” can happen. As mentioned above, it is better to use an LED garland.

A paper pumpkin is a great alternative to crafting from a real fruit.

It is almost weightless, easily attached to the ceiling. Party guests will be delighted with sweets or small surprises placed in a papier-mâché pumpkin.

Despite the fact that Halloween came to us from the United States, it is widely celebrated in our country. This gives a unique opportunity to show imagination, unleash your creative abilities and just have a great time with close friends.

Discover new talents in yourself and do not believe in prejudices!

Halloween is getting closer and closer, and we have not yet talked about the most important Halloween decoration - the pumpkin. In fact, anyone can make an original pumpkin for Halloween with their own hands. And here you don’t need any special creative inclinations - the main thing is your desire and good mood.

So, today we will consider two ways to make a pumpkin for Halloween with your own hands.

First option: cut. And you can cut anything you want - it all depends on your imagination. To begin with, a small guide - a diagram.

Actually, everything is clear in the photo: we remove the “insides” from the pumpkin, draw a “face” or something else with a marker and cut holes along the lines with a knife. We put a candle or fluorescent sticks inside. It turns out we can say not just a pumpkin, but a spectacular lamp or even a candlestick for Halloween.

Another way is even simpler and faster than the first. But here you will need fluorescent paint (glow in the dark). And by the way, you do not have to wield a knife. We just make a template out of paper, glue the pumpkin over it, and apply paint. As the paint dries, we rip off the "template" and enjoy the result. Agree, it turned out quite original. At the same time, it's gloomy just in the spirit of Halloween.

True, this decor is intended for some kind of late party. And for those who want to bring a touch of Halloween to the interior of their home, room on this day. You can paint the pumpkin in an original way with ordinary paint, draw some kind of drawing, or even stick a beautiful pattern as in the photo below (the pumpkin is painted white, the tail is black and we glue the black pattern). In my opinion, this is a great option to make a pumpkin for Halloween).

And don't forget about decoupage - Halloween pumpkin decoupage is very beautiful.

In general, as you can see, a pumpkin for Halloween is easy to do with your own hands. Below are some more inspiring photos.

The main attribute of Halloween is the pumpkin head. In fact, few people know why a pumpkin with carved eyes, a mouth and a candle inside is considered a symbol of the holiday. It turns out that there is a legend about Jack, who managed to deceive the devil. The cunning drunkard Jack cannot get into either hell or heaven, so he wanders the earth, lighting his way with a flashlight made from a pumpkin. Hence the name of the pumpkin - Jack-o'-lantern. Now let's figure out how to cut a flnarik for Halloween correctly.

Let's see how this is done in the presented video in Russian, since now Halloween is also celebrated in Russia, and not only in the USA, Ireland and other countries that love this holiday.

To date, there are a large number of ways and recommendations for carving a pumpkin for Halloween. What happens as a result - you can see in the photo:

A master class will help you understand how to carve a Jack-o-lantern from a pumpkin.

How to carve a pumpkin for Halloween: a master class for beginners

Materials:

pumpkin;
sharp knife;
scraper or regular spoon;
awl or thick needle;
paper;
marker;
scissors.

1) When choosing a suitable pumpkin, it is necessary that the fruit has a dense and smooth surface without spots and defects. It is desirable that the vegetable has a height of more than 20 cm, is ripe, symmetrical, with a hard dry stalk at least 5 cm long.

2) Use a felt-tip pen to draw a round, square or other shaped cover. A hole for a candle is made on top of the pumpkin, and for a jar of lanterns - from the bottom. Cut out the painted cover with a sharp knife and carefully remove it, taking it by the tail.

3) Clean the inside of the vegetable from pulp, fibers and seeds with a special scraper or spoon until the walls are 2-3 cm thick.

4) To give the pumpkin a facial expression, you need to come up with a face and draw it on paper. Places to be cut out, paint over with a marker. Attach the image to the pumpkin with tape and pierce the contours with an awl.

5) With a sharp knife, cut out the picture, carefully adhering to the borders that you drew.

6) It remains to do the lighting. You can use an ordinary candle by placing it in a glass. To prevent the vegetable from burning, the lid must be removed. A lamp in the form of a cord with light bulbs, which should be wrapped around a glass jar, is also suitable. Put the lamp inside the pumpkin, at the same time bring the wire through the hole from below and plug it into the outlet.

It is believed that such a talisman on the eve of the holiday should be placed near your home so that no evil spirits could come close. This is why a pumpkin is carved on Halloween. Unfortunately, the Jack-o-lantern made from pumpkin will sooner or later have to be thrown away, as the vegetable may begin to deteriorate. A great alternative to such crafts is a paper pumpkin.

Let's look at some ways to make it.

Making a paper pumpkin

A paper pumpkin can be cut similar to paper snowflakes. You will need a piece of orange paper, scissors and a pencil. Paper is suitable for matte colored or decorative paper with a corrugated texture. Fold a sheet of paper in half with the front side inward and draw a half pumpkin with any face from the fold line. Next, cut out the pattern along the outline. Unfold the sheet and align the fold line. It turned out a pumpkin that can be attached to the wall or decorate a fancy dress with it.

Paper pumpkin with a surprise

To make crafts, prepare strips cut out of double-sided orange paper 2-3 cm wide.

Fold them in half to find the middle. Glue each pair of strips together in the form of a cross. Then glue the resulting parts together to make a snowflake. You can use a stapler instead of glue.

Put a surprise in the form of a candy, toy or chocolate bar in the center of the craft and connect the opposite strips, giving a rounded pumpkin shape.

You can make a ponytail for a vegetable out of green paper by cutting a strip and winding it onto a pencil in the form of a spiral. Make leaves out of crepe paper.

Paper crafts are a budget decoration option, and making them will be a lot of fun.

Pumpkin for Halloween: mastering the instructions

Drawings-sketches for a pumpkin-lantern

Try to pull the pumpkin by the tail: if it is strong, then this is your pumpkin for Halloween, if it is easily behind, then you have a rotten vegetable that is not suitable for processing.

First, draw a sketch on paper, and then transfer it to the pumpkin peel. We paint over the places intended for cutting with a marker (so they will be better visible). With the help of a kitchen or penknife, we proceed to carve a pumpkin for Halloween, trying to adhere to the contour exactly. You should not rush, carefully hold the “firebrand”, rotate it so that it is convenient to cut it at different angles. A candle will complete the composition (we insert it directly into the pumpkin head, light it, put the cut cap in place).

Unusual Halloween pumpkin: choose your own!

Painted pumpkins for Halloween

A scary luminous pumpkin face is a classic of the genre, quite predictable holiday decor. If you get creative, a Halloween pumpkin may not necessarily be sinister. Use the tips, come up with your own creative option. Perhaps it will come to your mind to cut out the traditional elements of the face in a different way - with crosses, asterisks, triangles, it’s somehow interesting to place teeth in the “mouth” of the flashlight ...

Painted pumpkins for Halloween

If for some reason it is difficult or impossible to carve a pumpkin (thick skin, no sharp enough knife, tiring, no time to learn, sorry to spoil it, etc.), try painting it. Very beautiful and unusual. Such a creative approach to the issue.

What you need:

pumpkins (any shape)
black and colored markers
white acrylic paint
paint brush
pattern with skull
paper knife
simple pencil

How to make a painted pumpkin for Halloween:

Painted Halloween Pumpkin

Prepare the template with the skull.
Print out the sketch.
Cut out the template with a paper cutter.
Place the template on the surface of the pumpkin and carefully trace around its outline. Paint over the skull with white paint and let dry completely.
In the meantime, when the paint dries, prepare the skull you like best, you can cut out patterns on paper or draw directly on the surface of the pumpkin.
Put a paper template on the dried one on the pumpkin, make a black outline on the skull - circle the eye sockets and jaw, decorate the skull with flowers and other elements (use colored markers or felt-tip pens, do not press hard on the paint so that the white background does not crumble).

Stencils for decorating pumpkins

Fancy Pumpkin Halloween Fridge

If you don’t like the “ugly” theme, you can build something airy, beautiful, reminiscent of a painting technique or lace. To create a masterpiece, you will need not so many tools: a glass outline, a brush, acrylic paints, toothpicks.

First coat the whole pumpkin with paint (evenly), leave to dry so that there are no fingerprints. Then, with a toothpick, decorate the peel with openwork, flowers, leaves, mysterious symbols, geometric shapes. Feel free to fantasize, such a Halloween pumpkin will become an original element of decor and a great gift for friends.

Pumpkin for Halloween: functional and tasty

Halloween pumpkin casserole

Halloween cookies

For dough:

80 g softened butter
100 g sugar
200 g flour
1 egg
1 tablespoon water

You should get a plastic, easily rolled dough.

For stuffing:

1 cup pumpkin puree (pulp the pulp of peeled and baked (or boiled) pumpkin until smooth with a blender)
2 eggs (protein in the dough, mix the yolk with a spoonful of water and grease the cookies before baking)
0.5 cup condensed milk
2 tablespoons sugar (optional, I sometimes don't use it at all in this recipe)
a pinch of cinnamon
2 tablespoons flour

You should get a homogeneous mass like thick homemade sour cream.

How to make cookies for Halloween:

Cut out a pumpkin stencil shape from baking paper.
Mix all the ingredients for the dough, knead the dough, roll out the layer to make a circle or semicircle, fold in half, attach a stencil, cut out the shape, separate the layers. Leave the bottom of the Halloween cookie (one of the shapes) unchanged, cut out eyes and teeth on the top, like on a real pumpkin. (Roll out the dough scraps as well).
Spread a spoonful of filling on the bottom of the cookies, glue the top and bottom of the dough, blind the edges with a fork (for beauty too), grease with yolk, lightly sprinkle with sugar and put in an oven preheated to 180 degrees to bake for 20 minutes.

When the main attribute of the holiday is already ready for you, you can also make a “useful” pumpkin. For example, if you are waiting for guests, you can make a kind of refrigerator from a large vegetable cut in half. To do this, cut out the core from both halves, clean it, fill it with ice cubes and put bottles of drinks there. Unusual and original!

Pumpkin dishes will become a real decoration of the festive table. Try to cook stew, casserole or pancakes, your guests will definitely appreciate your efforts and culinary talent. Show your imagination and your Halloween pumpkin will be beautiful, tasty and healthy!