DIY Framed Pumpkins

By contributor Rachel Anne Jones

Oh Halloween, a time for costumes, dance parties, eating candy like you're 10 again, and stuffing your face with bat-shaped cookies (The Bat-shaped ones are always the best, especially with the red-hots as eyes...mmm) It's also a time to carve up some pumpkins.

Surprisingly, I have a very low tolerance for how long I can carve up a pumpkin; I'll usaully make one hole, cut myself, and then pass the rest off to someone else to finish as I eat all of the seeds. So I have devised a tutorial for you guys that consists of just that--it's a one-hole pumpkin.

Materials

-Small Pumpkin (look for one that is a little flatter on the side for the frame)
-mini gift-frame. Mine has a victorian-gothic swirl, which is popular right now so it's readily available (And cheap, mine was from the dollar bin at Michael's), but you can use whichever.
-6 nails with a flat top
-hot glue
-pumpkin carving essentials

Using the small pumpkin and the frame, we're going to make a window that will hold our candle (It doesn't matter the shape of the frame, and I actually wish I bought a square or this would have been easier) This would also be adorable as a table decoration if you used several different pumpkins with different types of frames, but that's just an idea I'm throwing out there (if anyone tries it, let us know!)



Firstly, take off the back of your frame so you have just the plate. Then, glue on some flat-topped nails to the back. We will use these to plan out where to place the hole in our pumpkin. I chose a side that was a little flatter to carefully stab the frame into the pumpkin. Then, using a pen, draw where the inside of the frame is. Take the frame off (the nails will not come with it, we will glue them on twice) and then take note of where the nails go so you won't cut beyond that line.



Pull out your nails and lay down your tarp for carving. Once you've carved the hole right (it'll never be perfect), trim it down so you get a nice flat plane for your frame (again, it'll never be perfectly flat on the side of the pumpkin unless you glued it there).

Now reglue the nails, and slip on the frame--voila! You're completely done.

If you wanted to, you could add a silhouette or a string of beads, or anything you wanted hanging inside the frame, but I left it blank for simplicity's sake. Now you can stick it in your window or your porch to welcome in the season!

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