Serving the campus of the University of Alabama since 1894

The Crimson White


Serving the campus of the University of Alabama since 1894

The Crimson White

Serving the campus of the University of Alabama since 1894

The Crimson White

How to decorate your Halloween pumpkin

How+to+decorate+your+Halloween+pumpkin

Halloween is quickly approaching, bringing with it fall weather and pumpkin spiced food. If you’re feeling festive, here are a few ways to give a pumpkin pulled from the patch a brand new look.

Carve It

This is the standard way to make your apartment spookier. With thousands of designs, ranging from witches and bats to zombie faces, there’s no shortage of ways to create a creepy look. Several designs also incorporate the guts of the pumpkin to create a gross-out design, like a pumpkin throwing up or brains coming out of the pumpkin. Add a candle inside your pumpkin and you’ve got yourself something that can scare your neighbors, even at night.

Paint It

Don’t want to mess with knives and the insides of a pumpkin? Take out some paint and let your inner artist get to work. Using templates or simply getting a brush and slapping paint down, possibilities for painting your pumpkin become nearly endless. These can be Day Of The Dead themed, look like cartoon characters or even be decorated to look like candy corn. A simple dip in green paint can give your pumpkin a whole new look as well, and you can attach big googly eyes to make it look like a monster. A face carved into the pumpkin may take hours, but the classic design of a smiling pumpkin can be painted on in just minutes.

Dress It

Pumpkins can also be the best models, letting you put all sorts of decorations on top. You can paint it white and give it a puppet topper to give it the appearance of a sheep. Cutting and tying satin ribbon and attaching it with sewing pins can help paint the scene of bats fleeing a cave. Kids don’t have to be the only ones dressed up, as you can combine a bunch of methods to make your pumpkin look like it’s ready to go out for a night of trick-or-treating. Put a pirate’s hat and an eyepatch on it to give it a seaworthy look or wrap it in toilet paper to give it the appearance of a mummy. You can also stack two pumpkins together and carve it to make a snowman or skeleton.

Incorporate It

Pumpkins don’t have to be the star of the show. Incorporating a pumpkin into a larger design can help boost its fear factor a ton. Carve your pumpkin, adding windows and doors to your design and get outside to grab some acorns, moss, rocks and pinecones. In just a few hours, your pumpkin has stepped up its looks, going from a carved building to a full festive home out in a creepy forest.

There’s a ton of ways to pretty up your pumpkin and some are just a few clicks away. Pinterest and websites such as Good Housekeeping post tutorials and creative new works to let anyone, regardless of skill level, in on the fun.

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