Jack's Lantern: DIY Halloween Pumpkin

2023 Author: Avery Leman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-24 13:34

On the eve of All Saints Day, a tasty and healthy vegetable turns into a symbol of a sinister holiday! Don't forget to build your orange pumpkin monster if you're seriously gearing up for the theme party.

The night from November 31 to November 1 is traditionally considered a gloomy holiday associated with rampant evil spirits and the change of seasons. According to ancient beliefs, it is the bright light of a candle enclosed in a pumpkin that can drive away undead. The grinning mouth of the orange vegetable symbolizes the head of the Irishman Jack's flashlight, who was able to circle the devil himself several times!

Since then, according to legend, Jack's restless soul wanders around the world, lighting his path with a pumpkin and coal, which became the last gift of Satan.

How to make a pumpkin for Halloween: non-standard ideas

There are several ways to help you make your own Halloween pumpkin. The richer your imagination, the more terrifying your pumpkin will turn out to be. You can use fabric, paper, gypsum, plasticine and any materials suitable for crafts at home.

• You can make a pumpkin from an orange balloon by coloring it accordingly.
• To make a papier-mâché pumpkin: just find a frame for this gooey mass to sculpt with it into a round shape for the future pumpkin.
• Be sure to dry the papier-mâché craft thoroughly and paint with suitable colors.
• You can make a pumpkin from plastic: just cut out a future pumpkin using a ready-made stencil, paint it with permanent paint or glue it over with colored paper.
• If you know how to sew, you can make Jack's lantern out of an orange piece of cloth or an old pumpkin-colored sock.

Cloth homemade pumpkins will become an original home decoration for Halloween

How to carve a pumpkin for Halloween with your own hands

In order to make a creepy Halloween pumpkin lantern, you first need to choose the right vegetable. Choose a large and ripe orange pumpkin, pay attention to the shape: the pumpkin should be as round as possible.

• Required tools:
• Sharp knife with a durable blade;
• A table spoon with a sturdy handle;
• Stencil for the "face";
• Felt-tip pen;
• Candle.

How to cut a pumpkin for Halloween step by step:

1. Cut off the top of the pumpkin to make a cap: the hole itself can be any shape you want.
2. Spoon out all the insides: the seeds and most of the pulp. The edible portion of the pumpkin can be used for cooking.
3. Draw a scary face on the front of the pumpkin using a stencil or by yourself. The larger the holes on the "face" of the pumpkin, the easier it is to cut them out with a knife.
4. Make a small indentation with a knife at the bottom of the pumpkin, in which you can fix a candle.
5. After everything is ready, you can place a candle in the pumpkin and light it. Cover the pumpkin with a lid to make the glow even, with a flashlight effect.
6. To prevent the candle flame from extinguishing quickly, dry the pumpkin thoroughly at room temperature or in the fresh air.
7. For a special effect, the face can be tinted red with red to create a "bloody grin" or to steal a pumpkin with a hat (but be careful not to burn the headdress).

Halloween pumpkin can play a classic scary grimace, or it can become a kind cat

Halloween pumpkin crafts

Garland of pumpkins

Several small pumpkins can be combined into one craft: just thread a long wire into the vegetables to make it, round the edges and tie together so that a "round dance" is made. Insert small round candles inside each pumpkin and wrap the string of lights or ribbon around the wire.

Halloween Pumpkin Home Decorations

Small pumpkins can be decorated with witch paper caps and hung from the ceiling.

Scarecrow like from a horror movie

Especially creative can be advised to make a whole scarecrow. Put the pumpkin head on a wooden stick or a pre-prepared frame of the scarecrow's torso, supplement the image with unnecessary clothes or wrap it with dry straw.

Theme Party Handbag

A pumpkin can make a great party bag: tie a string to the top of a small pumpkin, thread a chain, a ribbon or a plastic handle from a disposable ice cream bucket container.

Pumpkins for table setting

Small pumpkins can be used to decorate the table as a decorative setting: complement the still life of orange vegetables with candles, sprigs of dried flowers and themed figurines.

Pumpkin vase

You can make an original vase out of a pumpkin, and put some themed ikebana in it for Halloween. For this craft, you will need a medium-sized pumpkin, a glass or plastic cup, and a knife. Cut off the top of the pumpkin and gut the vegetable. Insert a glass inside, pour water into it and put the herbal composition.

Fairy carriage

Why not remember your favorite Cinderella tale? The pumpkin often evokes the very association with a magic carriage given to the girl by the good fairy godmother. Moreover, in the original, the famous story is very scary, just like the holiday of Halloween itself.

So, to make this unusual Halloween pumpkin craft, take one large vegetable and four very small ones - we will make wheels from them. If you can't get the tiny pumpkins, we will make wheels out of cardboard and attach them to the carriage with wire. You will also need a knife and a marker.

Cut off the top of the pumpkin, remove the contents with a spoon, cut out the door and windows of the carriage. Before that, it is better to draw the details with a marker. Attach pumpkin or cardboard wheels to the carriage. For more mystery and elegance, put a candle in the pumpkin (it is better not to do this if you are using cardboard parts).

Funny owl

Take one medium pumpkin, scissors, colored paper or cloth and glue. Cut out feathers, eyes, beak, ears, wings, legs from paper or fabric. The final result depends on your imagination and creativity. Glue each element to the pumpkin. The feathers are glued first of all, overlapping each other.

Halloween pumpkin made of paper

Paper stripe pumpkin

To make a Halloween pumpkin out of paper, stock up on:

• Thick double-sided colored paper;
• Hole punch;
• Scotch tape;
• Wire.

How to make a Halloween pumpkin out of paper step by step:

1. Cut colored paper into strips of the same length and width.
2. Fold each paper strip in half, iron exactly in the center.
3. Make a hole in the folds with a hole punch.
4. Make holes at the ends of each strip, so each strip will have three holes: 2 at the ends and one in the middle.
5. Pass the wire through the hole in the middle and secure with tape.
6. String the strips onto the wire like beads.
7. At the end, secure the edges with tape. Ready!

Pumpkin from "petals"

To assemble such a craft out of paper, you will need:

• simple pencil
• eraser
• glue
• colored paper
• scissors
• toothpick
• brown threads

The process for making a paper pumpkin looks like this:

1. Draw 5 strips on orange paper: one 7 cm long, two 9 cm long and two more 11 cm long. The width of each strip is 1.5 cm. Cut out these blanks.
2. Fold each strip like an accordion, form round "petals" and glue them in the middle.
3. Collect a ball from the petals, placing the circle of the largest diameter in its center. To do this, alternately string the workpieces onto a toothpick.
4. Wrap the sticking tip of the toothpick with brown threads. This will be the stem of the pumpkin. From the same thread, you can form a loop - then the figure will be easy to hang somewhere.
5. Cut two leaves out of green paper and glue to the base of the stalk.

Paper pumpkin flashlight

Everything you need includes:

• colored paper
• simple pencil
• scissors
• round template (or any round object)

Instructions for making this pumpkin:

1. Fold a piece of orange paper in half. Then unfold it back and fold each side to the resulting center fold line.
2. Fold the sheet along all lines with an accordion.
3. Place the circular template on a folded strip of paper so that it extends slightly over the edge on one side, and trace around it with a pencil. Cut out the drawn detail with scissors.
4. Continue cutting out the same truncated double circles until you have 12.
5. Then cut the stems for the pumpkin out of green paper in the amount of 12 pieces.
6. Glue the green elements to the circles.
7. Glue one side of the double circle to the other. Thus, glue all the blanks.
8. Spread out the paper pumpkin and decorate the room with it.

These funny pumpkins are easy to cut even by a child.

How to draw a pumpkin for Halloween

Painted pumpkins can be used to decorate your home, or if you are planning to throw a Halloween party, you can organize a Jack Lantern drawing competition for guests as entertainment.

Halloween pumpkin drawing with a simple pencil

You will need:

• simple pencil
• sharpener
• paper
• eraser

Instructions:

1. Mark out the dimensions of the picture and draw a "flattened" circle - this will be the shape of the future pumpkin.
2. Draw a stalk.
3. Mark the position of the eyes, nose and mouth with lines.
4. Draw all these elements. In this case, it is necessary to strive to ensure that it is obvious that these are slots.
5. Draw a line in the middle of the pumpkin, connecting the base of the stem and the lowest point of the bottom.
6. Draw a few more at an equal distance from this line - you get a pumpkin surface dotted with "grooves".
7. Erase all the marking lines with an eraser.
8. Create a shadow effect where the grooves are drawn on the relief. In the middle between the lines, the space should remain light. It takes a little practice to depict the gradual fading.
9. It is also worth covering the bottom, top and sides of the pumpkin with a shadow. Thanks to this, the pencil drawing of the Halloween pumpkin will turn out to be voluminous.

How to draw an evil Halloween pumpkin with colored pencils

Drawing a pumpkin for Halloween with colored pencils can be both simplified and, for example, so complex and voluminous.

You will need:

• yellow pencil
• orange pencil
• Red pencil
• brown pencil
• green pencil
• simple pencil
• sharpener
• eraser
• liners (capillary handles)
• paper

Step-by-step instruction:

1. First of all, we need to draw a sketch of the future pumpkin with a simple pencil. To do this, outline the contours on the sheet. Draw either a funny or an evil pumpkin at will - both options are suitable for Halloween. It is better to use a pencil that is not very hard (so that it is easy to draw), but also not very soft pencil (so as not to smudge on the paper).
2. Trace your pencil sketch with a liner. You will get a graphic drawing.
3. Take a thinner liner and draw finer details and pumpkin relief.
4. Then rub a simple pencil with an eraser. Due to its durability, the liner will remain in place.
5. Shade the pumpkin with colored pencils, starting with the lightest shades, then moving on to the more saturated ones. The task is to choose colors from a similar palette, but so that among them there are dark, light, and intermediate tones.
6. Use a brown and a red pencil in the area of the slits on the pumpkin.
7. With a green pencil, paint over the tip and leaves.
8. Use a black pencil to underline the darkest areas of the drawing to make it more expressive.