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Young House Love » Holiday & Entertaining » Carve A Monogram Halloween Pumpkin

| By John Petersik | October 22, 2008 | 18 Comments

Carve A Monogram Halloween Pumpkin

Looking for a unique and chic design to carve into your pumpkin this year? Try these two patterns we made with homemade stencils – a couples’ monogram jack-o-lantern and an intricate damask design.

Couples monogram carved pumpkin and damask pattern jack-o-lanter

Choosing The Right Pumpkin

Rather than grab the traditional orange variety, we picked up (this should not surprise you) white pumpkins instead. They lent themselves to some more modern, unexpected designs versus your traditional orange jack-o-lanters. And these non-traditional pumpkins called for non-traditional designs courtesy of some homemade stencils.

Creating A Homemade Pumpkin Stencil

I wanted to flex my pumpkin carving muscles so I located an intricate damask pattern online and used Photoshop to turn it into a black & white line drawing that we could use as a stencil.  After sizing it to fit my pumpkin, I simply printed it out on regular office paper.

Damaskpumpkinstep1

Transferring Your Stencil To The Pumpkin

To transfer the stencil onto the pumpkin, we used a trick Sherry picked up in art school.  We flipped the paper over and rubbed graphite all over the back of it using a regular pencil.  It’s like makeshift carbon paper.

Damaskpumpkinstep2

Then we taped the design in place on the pumpkin (graphite side down) and used the pencil (and some decent pressure) to trace over the damask outline. This transferred a faint outline onto the pumpkin, which we then went over with a thin Sharpie to make sure that the design didn’t smudge away during the carving process:

Damaskpumpkinstep3

Carefully Carve Your Damask Pattern

From there we got down to slicing and dicing, using a $2 four-in-one pumpkin carving tool we picked up from Michael’s.  I’ll spare you from most of the photos of this process, since everything after the initial pumpkin gutting involved a lot of strained grimaces and “man, this thing is thick!” faces. White pumpkins are a rare (and pretty thick-skinned) bunch.

Damaskpumpkinstep4

But in the end, I was pleasantly surprised with the final result… since there were multiple moments in the process when I was sure it was ruined. Not the easiest design to read from the road (but I do like getting guesses as to what it is – a butterfly? a monster?). And I lived to tell the tale. With all ten fingers intact no less.

Johnsdamaskpumpkinsmall

Carving A Couples’ Monogram

We took things a little bit easier with the pumpkin Sherry carved. We used the same homemade pattern process, this time to transfer a J&S monogram onto her pumpkin. This pumpkin had some balance issues so we decided to try carving it on its side (cutting out the back, instead of the top). It’s actually a lot more interesting that way. Gotta love a happy accident. Here it is before the carve job:

Monogrampumpkin

We designed the ampersand to overlap our initials knowing that it wouldn’t be possible to completely cut it out. Instead, we just scraped off a couple of layers to expose the orange rind inside.  It’s a good ol’ trick sure to give your pumpkin a bit of the layered look. Here’s the final result of Sherry’s handiwork:

Monogrammedpumpkinforweb

We loved how this one turned out, which gave us the idea of carving out our house numbers – one digit per pumpkin.  Maybe we’ll tackle that another weekend once my hands have recovered…

Got any unexpected pumpkin carving tricks or designs up your sleeves?  We wanna hear ’em so spill the beans- er, pumpkin seeds.

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Filed Under: Holiday & Entertaining

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Comments

  1. Avatar for RhondaRhonda says

    October 22, 2008 at 9:44 am

    Cute! One of my favorite pumpkin tricks is to pin a piece of waxed paper inside the pumpkin behind the carved out design. It diffuses the light from the candle into a soft glow and you can’t see the scraggly insides.

    Reply
  2. Avatar for LisaLisa says

    October 22, 2008 at 10:11 am

    A tip I got online a few years ago was to tape the stencil to the pumpkin and use a push pin to punch holes along the lines. The pumpkin “bleeds” a little liquid but the end result is similar to a connect the dots image.

    Take care,
    Lisa

    Reply
  3. Avatar for JennJenn says

    October 22, 2008 at 10:12 am

    I’d love to see what these look like glowing at night!

    Reply
  4. Avatar for JulieJulie says

    October 22, 2008 at 10:22 am

    You’re the masters of all things hip & cool. Including pumpkin carving. Who knew?!

    Reply
  5. Avatar for Jeni from KansasJeni from Kansas says

    October 22, 2008 at 11:15 am

    What a fun spin on pumpkin carving!!

    Reply
  6. Avatar for half of vamhhalf of vamh says

    October 22, 2008 at 11:16 am

    Eddie Ross just did a blog with some seriously cute pumpkins — simple too! http://www.eddieross.com/eddie_ross/2008/10/pumpkins.html

    I love the monogram you did! Especially with the white pumpkin (I had no idea they had orange guts!).

    Reply
  7. Avatar for CorinnaCorinna says

    October 22, 2008 at 12:53 pm

    I’ve not commented before, so I want to be sure to thank you for all of the great design ideas!

    Just wanted to mention that if you do use sharpie to draw on your pumpkin, and you don’t cut all of the outline off, you can use a little rubbing alcohol to remove the excess sharpie marks.

    Reply
  8. Avatar for Melissa WellingtonMelissa Wellington says

    October 22, 2008 at 1:10 pm

    Impressive! I must say, as I was reading, I was expecting to get to the blooper photo after seeing that intricate design John picked out… but you pulled it off! Why am I surprised?! :)

    Reply
  9. Avatar for freckles chickfreckles chick says

    October 22, 2008 at 5:07 pm

    I knew any ol’ pumpkin face wouldn’t do for you hip Youngsters =)
    My two fave things: damask and monograms! Gorgeous results.

    Reply
  10. Avatar for CaraCara says

    October 22, 2008 at 8:36 pm

    c.u.t.e. !!!
    how did you guys get to be so crafty??

    Reply
  11. Avatar for sarasara says

    October 23, 2008 at 11:16 am

    My hubby and I just got bit by the pumpkin carving bug, too. He did serious justice to Obama’s image. You can check it out here if you’re interested: http://2000dollarwedding.com/2008/10/date-night-1-pumpkin-carving.html

    Reply
  12. Avatar for CindyCindy says

    October 23, 2008 at 1:27 pm

    Very cute. Are white pumpkins more expensive than a regular orange one? I haven’t seen them actually in the grocery store we go to…

    Great job doing turning something so traditional into something that fits your personalities!!

    Reply
  13. Avatar for SwestieSwestie says

    October 23, 2008 at 5:55 pm

    Awesome pumpkin!

    Reply
  14. Avatar for CarrieCarrie says

    October 23, 2008 at 6:17 pm

    These are amazing! Although, I’m having flash backs to why John always made me feel like an inadequate pumpkin carver when we were growing up…

    Reply
  15. Avatar for YoungHouseLoveYoungHouseLove says

    October 24, 2008 at 7:27 am

    Glad you all are picking up what we’re putting down here (sorry to sister Carrie if it’s bringing back bad memories).

    Rhonda and Lisa, great pumpkin tricks! We actually saw a carving tool kit that came with a little rolling-perforator so you could create the effect Lisa described. It was twice the price of the $2 kit we bought (I know, gasp) so I guess I was just being a cheapskate.

    Jenn, we’ll try to snag some shots of these glowing for you at night. I’ll admit we had trouble getting them to come out nicely. And half of vamh, thanks for the link to Eddie’s blog. Little did he know that could just buy white pumpkins (Cindy, they were the same price as the orange ones). And I do love Eddie’s idea of using a drill. I was this close to breaking my out for some of the smaller parts.

    Bravo to Sara’s husband for the stellar Obama pumpkin. If you guys are looking for more Barack carvings, check out Yes We Carve. It’s pretty fun to see how politics can fuel people’s creative juices.

    In case I forget later, Happy Halloween everyone!

    -John

    Reply
  16. Avatar for KarolynahKarolynah says

    November 3, 2009 at 10:26 am

    Hey guys, just wanted to share a photo of the pumpkin my husband and I carved this weekend. I was so inspired by your initialed one and since this is our first Halloween as husband and wife, it seemed just perfect. Please take a look at it! http://www.flickr.com/photos/karolynah/4071576443/

    Reply
    • Avatar for YoungHouseLoveYoungHouseLove says

      November 3, 2009 at 10:32 am

      So cute Karolynah! We did a great job. Thanks so much for the link!

      xo,
      s

  17. Avatar for BeckyBecky says

    October 15, 2013 at 10:53 am

    Such a creative idea! A friend of mine has a ton of overgrown cords and different colored pumpkins. This is going to be fun:)

    Reply

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John and Sherry smiling against pink backgroundHey, we’re John & Sherry. We’ve fixed up 7 homes, written books, designed products, started a podcast, and then downsized & moved to the beach! Here you’ll find over 3,000 DIY projects & home updates. More about us…
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