Make a Paperclay Pumpkin Pail

This clever Halloween tutorial from Carmen Ellis (Spooky Hollow Folk Art Designs) is full of humor and tips for using Creative Paperclay.    Create the miniature pumpkin pail shown in photo above starting with a hollowed-out Styrofoam ball and Paperclay  (makes about a 4 inch pail).   Go to this page for Carmen's "Poor Man's Pumpkin Pail".

Here's a sampling showing her sense of humor....some things you may relate to!

• If you are half blind like me you might want to put your glasses on. ( My glasses are pitiful due to the dog eating them one night. ) 

You'll need:

• Paper towel, ( I get super messy. Probably because of my half eaten glasses. )
• Exacto tool or a sharp kitchen knife…( Don’t run with pointy objects )
• Or whatever you can find around the house to sculpt with. (Please don’t use your cat.)

She also suggests placing the sculpt in a 200 degree oven to speed up drying.   I'd hesitate to recommend that.   Styrofoam could give off some toxic fumes when heated.    Even if the foam ball is wrapped in clay, it still doesn't seem like a great idea to me.

What does sound like a great idea is to make some miniature pumpkins from Paperclay using the designs shared last week in Pumpkin Carving Lesson and Pumpkin Carving Part 2 along with the ideas shared in the tutorial above!

Make a Miniature Seagull

Have you been thinking of making a beach-cottage dollhouse  or a beach-theme diorama?   This miniature seagull (1:12 scale) would be so perfect for that!   This detailed step-by-step Seagull Tutorial from Lesley Shepherd at About.com suggests using air-dry Delight clay to make the bird because Delight is very lightweight when cured.  Birds made with air dry clay can nest in branches or hang on tiny trees without pulling the tree branch down. 

Of course, if you prefer, other brands of air-dry clay could be used....or even polymer clay!  If miniatures are not your thing. I believe this seagull could be created larger using this same tutorial and still look very real!

Excuse me now, I must go and plan my miniature rustic beach cottage (with some seagulls)!   I think I will make it as 3-D wall art instead of a complete house!   Still planning........!    ;-)

Pumpkin Carving Part 2

After yesterday's post I stumbled on another great pumpkin carver at Extreme Pumpkins.   There you'll find a gallery of carving ideas, how to tips, free patterns and lots of photos of pumpkin carving contest winners!   The "Cannibal Pumpkin" pattern is probably my favorite...I think...hard to choose!  The one shown above is an interpretation of the one shown on cover of the Extreme Pumpkins book (written by owner of website).


The "Puking Pumpkin" shown below is probably the most famous!   Yuk!!!

Oh my!!!  He found a use for those extra small pumpkins!   Quite creepy!

Tom has lots of creepy ideas!  *G*

Tom Nardone, the owner of ExtremePumpkins.com has written a number of top-selling books on pumpkin carving that are chock full of tips and patterns.  


    

I found Tom's article on preserving your carved pumpkin very interesting.  Tom did went through a lot of effort to test different commonly-used products on some carved pumpkins to see which kept the pumpkin preserved the longest!   A very thorough study IMHO!    


You'll just have to check out his website after watching this video showing some of his cool stuff!

At Extreme Pumpkins you'll also find a totally FREE PDF file to download with patterns for these 48 pumpkin faces, a how-to guide and other ideas.   This is  a Halloween-themed website to bookmark and return to over and over!

Pumpkin carving lesson

Halloween approaches and many would-be sculptors contemplate carving a pumpkin!   We can only hope to be as good as Ray Villafane (shown above and below), but he shows us how with a step-by-step pumpkin carving tutorial.     btw....I just discovered that there's a distinction between carving & sculpting.  Pumpkin carving involves carving a pattern into the pumpkin surface while a pumpkin sculpt uses the pumpkin itself as a 3D sculpted object.

Maybe you want to do something a little simplier (OK...a LOT simplier)....all that carving just looks too hard!   How about a stencil or pattern to follow.   Find some free patterns at Fantasy Pumpkins  and Spook Master and stencils for sale at  Pumpkin Stencils 101 .

You'll also find more carving tutorials and pattern links at Fantasy Pumpkins.    Look at this great fairy pattern shown on his homepage!

Ghost Necklace Tutorial

The other day we posted about a bat necklace.....here's another Halloween necklace.  Follow these step by step instructions for this cute Ghost Necklace from Makin's Clay.  They've used some glow-in-the-dark clay for this necklace, but I think those ghosts are cute enough to show off in the daylight!  ;-)    Nearly any air-dry clay would be suitable for this project!   

How about some matching dangling ghosts or pumpkins for earrings?  hmmm?