Just a quick one today: why not put your Nightmare Before Christmas love on display for all to see with a Jack Skellington Jack O’Lantern this year? It’s actually very, very easy.
Here are a couple I carved out of actual pumpkins; white pumpkins started becoming pretty widely available this time of year a few Halloweens back, and that’s what gave me the idea.
If you can’t find actual white pumpkins, you can either spray-paint a regular one white and then carve it after it dries, or you can go to your local craft store and buy a carveable foam pumpkin in white. Local store all sold out? There’s still time to order one from Amazon and get it for Halloween if you order with Prime or rush shipping.
Note that not all foam pumpkins are carveable, some are solid foam inside and are intended to stay that way. Be sure to check the tag before buying, carveable, hollow ones will be clearly labeled as such. One advantage of using a carveable foam pumpkin is that once you’ve carved it, you can just store it after Halloween and bring it out again to use year after year. It will take a little more effort to carve an artificial pumpkin, and you’ll need to use a more heavy-duty tool, like a hand saw, but again: it’ll all be worth it to have a gorgeous Skellington O’Lantern to use year after year.
CAUTION: foam pumpkins can be flammable! If you’re going to use one never put a candle inside to light it, only use battery-operated tea lights. These are easy to find in craft stores year-round, and don’t give off enough heat to pose a fire hazard.
The How-To
There’s really not much for me to say here. As you can see in the picture above, the shapes needed to create a Jack face are pretty simple. My main tip is to carve the opening for the pumpkin in the bottom instead of the top, to keep the top intact. To access the candle or tea light inside you’ll lift the entire pumpkin off the small disk you’ve carved out of it on the bottom, instead of opening it on the top, but this actually makes it less likely you’ll burn yourself if using real candles and makes for a nice, pristine top on your jack o’lantern.
If you need further guidance, you can use this free template from Minimalisti:
To download, right-click on the image and select “Save As”, “Download As” or whatever the correct command is for your browser. You may need to enlarge or reduce the image when printing, depending on the size of the pumpkin to be carved.
Cut off the excess paper around the stencil, then tape it to your pumpkin and use a tack, nail, or the pointy tip of a pumpkin carving tool to trace the outlines by poking holes into the surface of the pumpkin all along the stencil lines—this technique will work with either real or foam pumpkins. When you remove the stencil, you’ll have clear dotted lines on the pumpkin’s surface to use as a guide while carving.
Now you’ve got your own Pumpkin King Jack O’Lantern!
The post Jack Skellington Jack O’Lanterns appeared first on The Lazy Crafter.
