Pumpkins and Power Drills: 10 Inspiring Jack-O'-Lantern Ideas

The Halloween season is upon us and trick-or-treaters will shortly be knocking down your door for delicious sweets! It is the time of year when we celebrate the transition of the seasons by adorning our porches with pumpkins and stocking our shelves with multi-hued ornamentals and halloween decor. Coming up with creative and inspiring Jack-O’-Lantern or pumpkin carving ideas has always been a fun challenge. If you're asking yourself how to make that classic jack, one of the great benefits of CreativeLive is that not only can you get an in-depth education on the really important stuff, like selling your handmade goods to retailers, you can also indulge in the season fun stuff – like learning how to carve a pumpkin with power carving tools! To honor the season and take advantage of Jason Hoppe’s excellent tips, I went to a pumpkin patch and picked out the perfect large pumpkin for carving. However, whether it's a large pumpkin, a small pumpkin, or mini pumpkin, there's always that perfect halloween pumpkin for you! To get started, I assembled some images for a pumpkin carving template for some easy pumpkin carving (see below!). Then I did my level-best at employing the tips he shared. For your own power-drilled pumpkin project, you’ll want to create a pumpkin carving pattern – I prefer seasonal above spooky so I went with a simple design, a circular motif (no scary faces in my house!). But you can go with a more creative pumpkin. From there you’ll mark your pumpkin for drilling. I color-coded my drill holes to correspond with the 3 different bits I used to achieve a graduated look. One of the best gifts I ever received was this cordless Coleman drill. I’m not the handiest person you’ll ever meet (see the waaay off-center final hole below), but I’ve used the power drill for some legit home improvement projects and really got a thrill out of applying it to this little arts and crafts endeavor...especially to make that perfect pumpkin! After I used Marthas’s tip to open the pumpkin from the bottom, I simply drilled each of the holes with their corresponding bit size. I did all the holes marked for that size at once so I wasn’t switching back and forth between bits. Then I snuck in a battery-powered light and placed the pumpkin among it's contemporaries! Now for a look at the inspiration that drove my toothy grin… This collection of halloween pumpkins from Off Grid Home Sweet Home obviously inspired my final design. I like the symmetrical look and they get bonus points for the indoor display. This power-drilled pumpkin series takes advantage of a super simple plan (all one drill bit size!) but uses it in a very creative way. Go take a look, one of them looks like a polka dot inspired "boo"! The 17 Apart pumpkin-themed posts are darling! They’ve chronicled two years of pumpkin carvings and the constellation-themed approach is a real show stopper...these are such great pumpkin ideas. You don’t have to speak the language to spot an adorable craft idea. Remodelando la casa uses a hand saw for a more linear look – something Jason covers in his class too. Predictably, the Better Homes and Gardens jack-o-lantern round-up had some great pumpkin designs creatively carved by power tools. No shortage of inspiring ideas in that slide show. HGTV  has their own step-by-step power drill tutorial and this photo reflects the look I opted for – blending carved and uncarved pumpkins together in the same display. CraftCorners.com use a black pen to add even more drama to to his power-drilled white pumpkin. If you want to learn more about putting your power tool to work for your own pumpkin-carving ideas to create amazing Jack-O’-Lanterns, and if you're telling yourself, "I want to do it in my own style!", be sure to check out Pumpkins and Power Tools with Jason Hoppe – it’s FREE! And be sure to tag @CreativeLive on Instagram when you upload your carved pumpkin pics! We can’t wait to see what Jack-O’-Lantern ideas you came up with, now go carve pumpkins to show off to those trick-or-treaters!

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