Pumpkin Carving

Pumpkins are the best fruit to use as decorations during the harvest season. They can be carved, painted, drilled, or just set beside some flowers or alone to add autumn charm to the home.

Painting Pumpkins

Instead of carving pumpkins, try painting them instead. Using spray paint and acrylic paint, decorating for Halloween without carving. Spray paint the entire pumpkin or paint zig-zags, flowers, leaves, or spots with acrylic paint.
On page 56 of Rachael Ray's October 2011 magazine, are several ideas for painting pumpkins. One really cool idea is to make a silhouette using a "paint pen." The silhouette could be a ghost, witch, bat, or anything to do with Halloween. To add to the silhouette, spray paint the pumpkin gold.
Another great idea is to simply spray paint pumpkins black, purple, or white. Paint words or sentences on them, such as "Boo!" or "Beware!" or simply, "Happy Hallows Eve." Use white acrylic paint to write on black pumpkins, and black on the purple and white.
On page 13 of Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade magazine, are "black and white" pumpkins with stencil flower patterns. For a Halloween dinner party, these would add alot of character to the table.

Drilling Pumpkins

Drilling a pumpkin is fun, and a great simple way to decorate. Martha Stewart does this quite often on her show, and drill holes can be made in patterns or at random using different drill head sizes. Some pattern suggestions are: triangles, squares, circles, straight lines, smiling face, or a PAC-man.
For the triangles, start with four or five holes on 1 line then 4 on the next, followed by 3, then 2, then 1 (like an upside down Christmas tree). Do one or several around the pumpkin.
A neat square pattern would be, smaller squares inside a large square. Drill 1 large square. Inside the large square drill a smaller one, and so on until no more squares can be made.
As for circles, make connecting circles around the pumpkin. Drill circles in a straight vertical line around the pumpkin using different sizes. Connect circles to spell the letter of a favorite team, or spell words using the drill.
Making a smiley face is really easy with a drill. Just drill the eyes and the mouth and set a candle inside. For a PAC-man, drill the half moon shaped character chasing a ghost or gobling the balls.

Pumpkin Carving Ideas 2011

Coming up with pumpkin carving patterns is easy. The most important thing is, keep it simple (unless able to carve really well). Carve out a bat, owl, or cat. Find a pattern to trace and place on the pumpkin.
To carve one of the three mentioned above, draw on a piece of plain white paper or find a pattern. Tape it to the pumpkin and punch holes into the pattern. Cut around the holes to carve the pattern on the pumpkin. If drawing the patterns, get creative. Draw a moon with 2 or 3 small bats flying out from it, or a cat with a witches hat. As for the owl, have it seated on a branch.
To keep it even more simple, stick to carving the basic jack-o-lantern. Just have fun coming up with scary or silly faces. Use hats and other accessories to dress them up.
All of these ideas are simple. They can be found in magazines or online. Pumpkins are the official fruit of Halloween and the official decoration of all Hallow's Eve. So have fun and be creative.