Pumpkins

Give pumpkin patch a whole new meaning with this cool crazy coat technique. Think diamonds, squares, circles, any shape you'd use in a crazy coat you gonna use in your patch work pumpkin . So to start out you need a couple of different colored pumpkins . I've got a white one, an orange one, and kind of this greenish one right here. And then because we need to make sure all of the pieces are interchangeable, you're gonna make little templates like these out of craft foams. So just decide what shape you want, cut 'em out, and the you'll use these over and over again on all your pumpkins . So I just kind of stuck it on here and then cut around to take out these diamond shape pieces like this. So I'm gonna use the white diamond shapes on my orange pumpkin , and then the orange shapes on my white pumpkin . So this is gonna have to take just a little bit of planning because you wanna make sure if you've got 6 shapes here, you wanna figure out a way to use the 6 shapes in the other pumpkin . So it takes a little bit of planning but it's no big deal. So I got some of my orange pieces right here and I'm gonna use these in my white pumpkin . So you can just pop 'em in like this. And if you want a little bit of extra security, you can use toothpicks and just stick a toothpick in the side like that. And then you can just push it in to one side of the pumpkin . In that way it'll stay a lot longer. And I'm gonna do the same for the orange pumpkin with the white diamonds I cut out. Just gonna pop a few in there. And what's great about this is actually you don't have to scoop these pumpkins out because you're just using the flesh of it. You can leave 'em nice and pulpy in the middle and just cut out the sides. It saves you a step. So I'll just push these in there. And then I found these really cool decorative staples at the craft store in the scrap booking aisle. And some of them have little spots like this, some of them have stripes like these. And I'm gonna just press these in to the sides of my pumpkin my pieces like that. They kinda look like stitches. And maybe I'll do the polka dot ones here.

Great pumpkins start with good basics. So pay attention! Pumpkin carving 101 is now in session. Even if you've been carving pumpkins for years, I may have some tips and tricks that might surprise you. So I've got my pumpkin right here ready to start carving it. But first I need cut my hole and scoop out the stuff inside. But rather than cutting my hole from the top, I'm actually gonna cut it from the bottom. And this is a great idea if you plan to actually put a candle inside of your pumpkin . It might be much better to hollow it out from the bottom because then you get a nice flat surface to put your candle on. So you don't have to worry about it being dangerous, or maybe tipping over. So I've got one here that I've already got from the top this time. And you can see I've got all the pulp hanging out. If you wanna get the kids to clean the pumpkin out for you, you can actually have them use jar lids like this to scrape it. This is great for little fingers 'cause they can kinda grab it from all sides. So I'm just gonna use my ice cream scoop and just kinda scrape to get all the pulp out like that. So you're just gonna do that, take out all your pulp. But now that you've got your hole made and your pumpkin all scooped out, you're ready to move on to the next step and start carving, right? Go to bhg.com and look for the Carve-A- Pumpkin tool. It's a great tool that allows you to create your own designs or download a pre-made one. So I've got my design printed off and paste it right here on my pumpkin . And then I'm gonna use one of these really cool poker tools that come in pretty much every pumpkin carving set. And I'm just gonna kinda poke around my design like this to kinda create some guidelines for myself so when I'm about to carve. Okay. So I've got one actually that I've already poked. And now I'm just gonna peel off my design so that you can see that I've got my little pokes there that are gonna be a good guide for when I start carving. And now I'm gonna use a couple of different pumpkin carving knives. I'll start out with this really small one right here. And I'm just gonna kinda connect the dots basically. So once you've got your pumpkin all carved what can you do to preserve it? Well I've got a really cool idea. Why not use some petroleum jelly? You just actually take a little bit like this and kinda smear around the areas that you carved. And this will actually help you in, so that your pumpkin will last longer. And if you don't have petroleum jelly, you can use spray cooking oil. Or they even have these plant preservatives that you can use to spray on flowers. So you've got your pumpkin all carved and preserved. But now, how do you light it up so that it looks really great? Well you can use a larger votive candle like this if you want something to burn a little bit longer. You can use a smaller one if its kind of a one shot deal. Or you can use these. These are so cool. They're battery operated so you don't have to worry about the fire. Or you can this, it's even a battery operated Christmas light which gives you tons of light so your pumpkin really shines. You just put some batteries in there and pop it inside of your pumpkin . So you've officially completed pumpkin carving 101! So now get to carving! Class dismissed.

These pretty little pumpkins make a big statement at your holiday table. Smaller pumpkins like these are perfect for lots of tabletop projects. So today, I'm gonna use these cute little pumpkins to make candleholders. Super easy! So what you do is you start out with a bunch of these little guys and you're gonna get as many as you need per so that every guest basically has one in front of them. And you're gonna need a cordless electric drill like this with what's called a spade bit. Now, I chose a 3-1/4-inch bit because I'm using candles that have a 3-1/4-inch base. So you get the bit that matches your candle. And what you're gonna do is you're gonna hold on to your little pumpkin really firmly and you're just gonna start your bit. Okay! So I went through my pumpkin . And now, I'm just going to use the back of a spoon. You got a spoon like this? This is a perfect small cum pumpkin -scooping spoon. I'm just gonna scoop out all of the insides of my little pumpkin like that. I happen to have one that I've already pre-scooped. It's right over here and this one's nice and hollowed out so you can see there's a nice big hole in there, a 3-1/4-inch hole, which is perfect for our candles. But before I put my candles into my pumpkins , I'm gonna kinda jazz it up a little bit. This is super easy. I started out with this floral pick and I

super easy to use. You're just kinda tuck it in to your pumpkin like that. You put them right next to one another and you can always reshape these once they're in. Then once those