Decoration with carved squash and pumpkin are not just for Halloween. There are lots of ways to carve pumpkins and hard squashes that make them perfect for other fall festivities. In this article, I’ll show you how some of my students and readers have used carved pumpkins and other squashes for autumn parties. You might get some great ideas that you can put to use for your upcoming autumn celebrations, including Thanksgiving.

White Pumpkins are Great for Wedding and Baby Shower Decorations

Take a took at how Kay Bullard carved some white pumpkins for a baby shower and with wedding themes. continue reading…

Portrait carved with pattern transfer paper

You might remember the story about my friend who carved her first pumpkin portrait  who I wrote about in a previous blog post.

When came to visit us over this past weekend and we had planned for her to carve the pumpkin that her friends had asked her to carve.

If you didn’t read my past blog post, my friend carved her first pumpkin portrait. It was done from a photo of her friend’s daughter. When her friends saw the pumpkin carved to look like their daughter, they asked my friend if they could hire her to carve another for Halloween.  So this past weekend our plan was for my friend to carve another and I was going to carve something else.

As it turned out, continue reading…

With Halloween fast approaching, I’ve got some fun pumpkin carving ideas to share with you. Many of the following photos show student’s first pumpkin creations.

Maybe these photos will give you some ideas and some inspiration to carve your own fun pumpkins.

Pumpkin Carving Portraits

This first photo is of the first pumpkin portrait carved by Ann Haddock after watching my Pumpkin Portraits video lessons. She did a very good job, don’t you think?

Ann Haddock's First Pumpkin Portrait

When you carve pumpkin portraits, you can use photos of your friends and family or you can try you hand at carving celebrities. Here a couple that I carved. continue reading…

Every year around Halloween, I receive quite a few viral emails from people that have lots photos of Ray Villafane’s amazing pumpkin carvings.

Because so many people are wowed by carvings by Ray, I thought I would share those photos with you in this blog post. They really are quite amazing. Further down this article, I’ll show you how you can learn to carve your own 3D pumpkins, taught by Ray himself. And, I’ll show you the easiest way possible to carve some of Ray Villafane’s pumpkin designs from an easy to follow pumpkin tattoo patterns.

Imaginative Pumpkin Carvings by Ray Villafane

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A few days I announced my new Pumpkin Carving Portraits video lessons. So far, they are a  big hit.

Think You Can’t Make a Good Pumpkin Carving Portrait?

Some people may look at the pumpkin carving portraits and think,

“Oh, this is too hard. I could never do it.”

You might think,

“Sure, Nita can do it but she is an experienced carver and I’m not.”

If you have an interest in making pumpkin portraits, you CAN do it. If you can trace or follow the dots, you can carve these types of pumpkin portraits.

Take a look at the portrait a first time carver made after learning from my lessons.

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Competitions Push You to Challenge Yourself  

Nita's First Place Entry for the People's Choice Award at the Carve III Competition

I know for some people just hearing the word “competitions” can be intimidating, especially if you’re a beginner in your vegetable and fruit carving journey. You may think, “I’m just doing this for fun!” But don’t worry, competitions are meant to be fun and they can be a valuable learning experience. You’ll meet people who will inspire you and seeing their work will encourage you to further your skills even more. And who knows, you may be surprised with how well you do!

I’m preparing to have family over for Thanksgiving dinner later today. I took a minute to check my email and found that Jim Morgan who is an Executive Chef in Pennsylvania sent me this marvelous carving of a turkey carved from pumpkin. I had to take a moment to post this photo so that you could see it. Isn’t it great?

Turkey Carved from Pumpkin by Jim Morgan

Jim says that the tail and head are carved from a 2nd pumpkin. Great idea Jim.

Trukey carved from pumpkin by Jim Morgan

Here is another cute and easier way to
make a turkey carved from pumpkin. continue reading…

It’s been a very busy fall this year with introducing Ray Villafane’s 3D Pumpkin Carving Tutorials on DVD and with my carving at the White House. I hope that you had a very Happy Halloween.

People Learn how to Carve Expressive Pumpkins
in the style of  Ray Villafane

Lots of my customer/students have been having fun learning how to carve pumpkins with Ray Villafane’s Pumpkin Carving DVD. It is really not as difficult as it seems to carve pumpkins with expressive 3D faces.

At first it seems totally daunting. But when Ray Villafane breaks in down into a series of easy to follow steps, anyone can do it. Really! Well. anyone who wants to do it.

I have had so many student/customers send me emails telling me how pleased they are with their first attempts at carving faces after watching Ray Villafane‘s DVD tutorials.

One student told me that he thought carving faces would be too difficult. He though that he had to be an artist to sculpt pumpkin faces. But when he saw how Ray Villafane breaks it down into steps he thought, Wow, maybe I dont’ have to be an artist. He told me that he was so pleased with their pumpkin carvings and how they cna’t wait till next year to show off thier pumpkins at Halloween.

Take a look at photos of pumpkins that some people have carved after watching the DVD lessons by Ray Villanfane . continue reading…

Ray Villafane is one of the best (if not THE best) pumpkin carvers ever.

Ray would never say that about himself, but I would! And thousand of others would agree with me.

You’ve seen his work in many viral emails that circulate at this time of year.

You’ve seen Ray Villafane win pumpkin carving competitions on the Food Network.

He’s appeared on The Today Show, the Evening News with Katie Couric, Martha Stewart and more.

Ray Villafane has carved all over the world and has even had the honor of carving pumpkins at the White House.

Now, you have an opportunity to learn secrets of outrageous pumpkin carving in a small LIVE class with Ray Villafane.  And it’s just in  time for Halloween!

Can Ray Villafane really teach you?

Ray Villafane taught art in K-12 schools for 13 years. So, he knows how to teach! If Ray can teach children, he can surely teach you. He is great at breaking it down to steps so that even a beginner can have great results with their pumpkin carvings. for those who already have pumpkin carving skills, he will take you to the next level. To see photos, video and details about Ray Villafane’s outrageous pumpkin carving class, click here.

Or visit http://www.vegetablefruitcarving.com/pumpkin-carving-instruction-ray-villafane/

With Ray Villafane’s expert instruction in a small class setting, you will be carving the most amazing Halloween pumpkins that you have ever carved!

Seats have been filling up fast, so take a look at this opportunity now.

When you go to the page that gives more detail about Ray Villafane’s live class, you will see lots more photos and videos of his amazing pumpkin carvings.

Ray Villafane and his carvings are truly amazing. With Ray Villafane’s expert instruction, you will amaze your friends and family with your outrageous 3D pumpkin  carvings this Halloween.