Jack-o-Lantern.com offers Design Tips Halloween's most famous icon is getting ready for the season with a profusion of new looks. And if you need some help deciding what your jack-o-lantern should look like this Halloween, a heap of ideas is just a click away at Steve Frey's site. Just looking at the orange and black color combinations quickly puts you in the mood to transform that lowly grocery-store pumpkin into a creation worthy of Cinderella. If your children are always complaining that your pumpkin doesn't look as good as the ones across the street, the patterns and tips offered at this site will quickly make you a prize-winning pumpkin designer. No more jack-o-lanterns with the standard "triangle nose and eyes" faces. Call up the patterns, and you will be heading out to the store to buy a trunkload of pumpkins so you can create a design to match your family's every whim. Download the patterns you like and click on the techniques section to find out what you have been doing wrong all these years. Frey's helpful tips include not trying to cut a perfectly round top out of your pumpkin. Chances are you won't be able to figure out where it lines up, and it will probably fall in. Instead, draw a six-sided lid - that's a hexagon - on top of your pumpkin. It will be much easier to match up again. As with any specialized craft, the right tools are important, says Frey. Kitchen knives are OK for carving a simple "triangle nose and eyes" jack-o-lantern, but not the type of detailed carvings Frey advocates. And, of course, his site has for sale the complete pumpkin-carving tool set, including a color-coordinated set of sawing tools available for $ 19.95 with two- to three-day delivery. Similar tools are offered in stores, or check out Frey's examples and head out to your garage toolbox. One piece of advice that really makes sense when trying to create these elaborate designs is to scrape out the shell of the pumpkin to a consistent thickness of about one inch. This makes sense so the closely set features of the design pattern will all be carved in the same thickness with no chunky areas to mar your creation. Other design tips include working from the center of the design outward to avoid putting pressure on areas already carved. Don't bend or twist your carving tool; try to make the cuts straight into the pumpkin. To make sharp corners, always remove the tool and re-insert it at another angle.
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