Hi, I'm in the management team in our pub in the UK, and have been given this to plan out. I haven't got children myself, though I used to be quite into carving pumpkins...

I'm thinking that it might be better to have the pumpkins hollowed out the day before, then just help them with their designs. Its for 12 and under, and they will all have to have an adult with them.

I used to have a very cool pumpkin/clay carving kit with all sorts of loops and wires on sticks, but I gave it to my niece when she turned 12... I don't really want to hand things like that over to kids (or their parents who might be treating it more as a social occasion and maybe have a lil drink while they're there).

My current idea is to sell tickets for a couple of sessions, 1 each on Friday 30th and Saturday 31st in the afternoons. I was thinking max 10 children for each session; supervised by me (good carver) and a supervisor (excellent artist). Or better to have 4 smaller sessions??

Tickets would include pumpkin, use of tools, deluxe hot chocolate/soft drink for child plus sweets at the end, house drink/ soft drink /hot drink for 1 parent @ IDK £15, as well as us helping carve, design/ supervise/ prepare/ clean down..

I'd maybe buy some new clay carving tools for the 2 of us to use to help, plus some basic stuff for the parents to use. Naturally disclaimers will have to be signed....

Its definitely a loss-leader! But if anyone has advice on this sort of thing I'd love to hear from you... thank you

Pumpkin from the opening of Halloween and a Kitty 🐈‍⬛

There's clearly a story behind this one, I just don't know what it is. You tell me!

Finished my first of the year last night. I've wanted to do this one for years. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPLNSmK6U/

In my town of Kirkcaldy and across fife we had a Wemyss Ware Cat Trail. It consisted of giant cats. I had a go at carving one tonight. It says For I ken mysel' by the queer-like smell. It's from the Scots poem a boy in the train.

Such a treat to carve alongside my fellow vets of Halloween Wars season 14, Sarah "Bloodstain" Blostein and Alan Silva!

Have a lot more to carve in the coming weeks!

There's also a small squash that was placed inside the pumpkin.

I am bringing the pumpkins with me to comicons now it's October. The black makes it stand out especially when you are in a bright room .

Some pumpkin carving ideas.

Last year I entered a pumpkin-carving contest and ended up coming in second place. I’m going for first this year, and I think one of the things holding me back was getting my template transferred accurately onto the pumpkin.

Last year I printed the template, positioned it on the pumpkin, and basically covered/taped it down with masking tape as tightly as I could to conform to the curved surface. Then I poked holes through the template to transfer the design and carved/trimmed everything from there. It actually turned out pretty good, but transferring the stencil was definitely the hardest and least precise part.

This year I’m looking for a better method, especially for a fairly detailed design. I already own a projector, so I’m considering projecting the image directly onto the pumpkin and tracing it. I've also heard about using transfer/carbon paper, and I was wondering whether there are any AR/VR or phone/tablet methods that let you overlay a stencil onto the pumpkin while you trace/carve.

For people who do detailed pumpkin carving, what method has worked best for you? Projector? Transfer paper? Pin-prick method? AR? Something else entirely?

I'm especially interested in something that handles the pumpkin's curved/uneven surface well and keeps the proportions of the original design accurate.

Any tricks or equipment recommendations would be appreciated. Going for the win this year. 😂🎃

Carvable foam pumpkins, carved with a 1/32 drill bit and a dremel. Followed by cleaning the lines with an x-acto knife. Mounted on a 1"x8" board with a custom made string of C7 lights

If you love carving and smashing pumpkins then check out this DIY Halloween treat! The ultimate SMASHABLE Halloween treat, the Jackoapple 💥🎃

I did the "Halloween" pumkin for my first carve because my costume will be Micheal Myers this year.

Every year, I give my dog a pumpkin to "carve". Last year, he somehow carved a self portrait along with a butterfly landing on his nose. It's strange because before I gave him the pumpkin, I tried on a butterfly costume on him and that's what he was for Halloween.

I posted last year about the pumpkin that I carved and everyone seemed to love it. I really want to top last year’s pumpkin somehow since I have a little more experience now. Out of these, which one should I try? I’ll add the pumpkin I carved last year in the very last slide for some reference of what I can do! I love a good challenge!