Our Pumpkins! ~Jes

Military families often have to spend holidays apart, but this year--I am lucky enough to have my husband home!

I love being an Air Force Wife, and I am so very proud of my wonderful husband, Sam. So, I decided to light up our front porch this week with the Air Force logo : ) My husband decided to go the nerdier route and chose a Spider-Man themed pumpkin! : D

Instead of carving our pumpkins, we decided to try out a new technique. Using a Speedball Linoleum Cutter, we carved off the top layer of the pumpkin. The Speedball is commonly used in print and stamp making. It has 5 interchangeable carving tips, and you can purchase one at nearly any craft store for around $8.

We started out with cutting the tops off of our pumpkins and cleaning them out.

I sketched out the designs we were going to use and then taped the designs onto the pumpkins. I used a needle quilling tool to poke holes along the lines of the design. You can use any pointy object to do this.

Then we started carving out our design. The deeper you carve, the more the light shines through the walls of your pumpkin.

Since candles need oxygen to stay lit, we cut a hole in the back of our pumpkins to allow oxygen in.

To help our pumpkins last until the end of the month, we rubbed petroleum jelly on the carved parts and inside of the pumpkins.

One pumpkin represents a fictional child-hood hero, and one pumpkin represents a real hero... my hero... my husband : ) I love you, Sam!

*Jes*