Digital Scrapbooks and More Blog

We all love Halloween jack-o’-lanterns, and when we get a special carved pumpkin that turns out right then we love to take photos to remember it! 

These great pumpkin pics can then be used indefinitely for fall or Halloween-inspired digital scrapbooking projects!

So here are 8 tips to get you started on carving the perfect pumpkin!

Tip 1: Get or Design a pattern to use as a template for your pumpkin. It is a bit surprising to think that when I was a child, we just took a knife and started to carve – hoping for the best!  As you might expect, many of our carved pumpkins didn’t really look that great.  But using a pattern (bought or designed) can really make a big difference on the end result!

Here are some places to get some pre-made patterns:

Jack-o’-lantern pattern faces from HowStuffWorks.com:
(Patterns are in Pdf format)
Pattern 1: Traditional Pumpkin Face
Pattern 2: Smilin’ John
Pattern 3: Big Tooth Magee

Make your own pattern in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements:

Your digital scrapbooking skills can come in handy when you want to make your own special design for your pumpkin! It is actually much easier than you might imagine and you can have more creative control over personalization and design when you use Photoshop or Photoshop Elements to make the pattern. For more information on this, check tomorrow’s blog article (Halloween Pumpkin Carving Patterns) and we will give step by step directions on how to make a pumpkin pattern in either Elements or Photoshop!  (So, check back tomorrow!)

Pick a Pumpkin that Matches Your Design and Get your Pumpkin Ready for Carving

Tip 2: Pick the pumpkin that goes with your pattern. Also, to increase you carving success, look for a pumpkin that matches your pattern. If your pumpkin is round, then match it with a pattern that has a full round shape. If your pumpkin is more vertical, then  match it with a pattern designed that way would work best like something that is more narrow.  Keep in mind, the way the pumpkin is tilted will also impact the way the pattern looks too.

Tip 3: Print out your Design and cut the extra paper off and tape it to your pumpkin. The design you carve into your jack-o’-lantern can be simple or fancy, but it will be easier if you have the design on a printed paper first. Make 2 print outs of the design – one to tape on pumpkin and another for referring to as you curve your pumpkin.  Trim the excess paper from the printed pattern you plan to use on the pumpkin. Remember to brush or wash off the dirt on the pumpkin. Dry the pumpkin if you washed it. Then take the printed pattern and  position it on the pumpkin and tape the edges of the design with masking or painter’s tape so it will hold on the pumpkin surface.

Tip 4: Outline the pattern by poking holes to outline the pattern. Get something sharp to punch a hole though the paper and pumpkin skin, like a pushpin, nail, or ballpoint pen. Use one of these tools to poke small holes through the paper and trace the outline of the pattern on the pumpkin. Helpful Hint: the closer the holes are together, the more detail you will have in tricky spots.

Tip 5: Use a pen or marker to fill in design. When you have finished poking the holes in the pumpkin, remove the pattern. To better see the design use a pen or marker to “connect the dots.” This will make it easier for you when you cut out the design with a knife or pumpkin carving tools.

Tip 6: Cut out the Design on your Pumpkin. You can use a knife or special pumpkin tools  – like this one, Pumpkin Carving Tool Kit found at OrientalTrading.com or most discount stores.

This Tool kit has carving tools, patterns and a punch tool too!

After your pumpkin is carved add a candle and you are ready to take photos for your digital scrapbooking pages!

Tip 7: Take photos with the lights on and off and then digital scrap them!

Take photos with your newly carved pumpkins with your  children, pets, and your favorite trick-or-treaters!

Take all these digital photos and start making lots of digital scrapbooking pages so you can remember your fun pumpkin carving!  Helpful Scrap/Photo Hints: Remember to take photos of the “behind-the-scenes” stuff, like: picking out the pumpkin, making or picking the design, and carving the pumpkin! Take photos of your carved pumpkin with both the lights on and with lights out using candles. Take photos as the pumpkin ages too! Sometimes that can make for interesting photos to scrap as well!  If you grew your pumpkin from seed, then take photos showing the process: from seed to blossom, to young pumpkin to harvest! These photos would make an adorable time-line digital scrapbooking pages!  Also as mentioned above, take photos of your children and pets with the pumpkins too! Make sure someone snaps a picture of you with them as well!

Get Digital Scrapbooking Supplies to Scrap your Jack-o’-Lanterns!

Tip 8: Get Halloween Digital Scrapbooking supplies to create digi-projects of your carved pumpkins easily and quickly!

One Halloween kit that makes scrapping your pumpkin photos super-simple and fast is the Halloween Fun Digital Scrapbooking Kit because it has 10 different papers that can be used with pumpkins in the garden or spooky pumpkins with carved faces sitting on your front porch! Also, with the bonus embellishment kit it has lots of fun Halloween embellishments to add to the scrap pages or projects!  To see more Halloween Digital Scrapbooking Kits or Halloween Photoshop Brushes see the Scrap Shop for Holiday Scrap Kits.

Well, I hope you try carving an exciting pumpkin this year for your Halloween Activities and Digital Scrapbooking projects.

Check back tomorrow to see the step-by-step training on making your own pumpkin patterns in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.

Happy Halloween Scrapping,

Cheri

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Here is more information about the Halloween Kit used in this blog article:

The Halloween Fun Digital Scrapbooking Kit is a digital scrapbooking kit that features 10 beautiful fall-inspired digital papers and includes a FREE bonus set of “spook-tacular” digital Halloween embellishments! Paper size is 12×12″

Get into the Halloween spirit with digital papers that are perfect for digitally scrapbooking photos of your favorite trick-or-treaters! Use these holiday-inspired papers to add photos to this year’s Halloween activities.

When you buy this kit, you also get a bonus: A Halloween-inspired digital embellishment kit too! Add some adorable Halloween-detail your pages and projects with digital embellishments! This kit is filled with Halloween-essentials that can add a little excitement to holiday projects, from scary spiders with sticky webs, to a haunted house filled with spooky ghosts, and even a few holiday pumpkins too!

When you are done with your Halloween digital scrapbooking projects, these great Fall-Themed papers can be used for other Fall digital scrapbooking projects too. The digital papers can be used for Thanksgiving pages or other places that earth-toned colors are needed! With this kit the fun can stretch beyond Halloween and can be used in many other autumn digital scrapbooking pages and projects!

Buy it now at our Scrap Shop  – www.shop.digitalscrapbooksandmore.com

Also get training in Digital Scrapbooking for Elements or Photoshop!

Happy Halloween!