# Pumpkins



## Spyder (Aug 16, 2008)

I would first like to thank Ghostess for the original idea for this. She used scrap foam to make hers. I had no scrap but I did have 3/4 of a sheet with no use in sight until I saw hers. Ghostess used bead board foam, I used the pink insulation foam, so either will work for this project.

I first cut up most of the sheet and glued the layers together using gorrilla glue. With what little scrap I had I stacked them together and also glued. I let it set over night.
During the making of this the stem fell off and I deceided to leave it off. looked good without it.









Now the fun part, making something square round! Since I am was new to foam prop making I used an assortment of tools to shape this going from one to another. I used a hacksaw, a doublesided hand saw, 2 regular saws one large the other small, a hand held grinder and almost grabbed an electric chainsaw! I will say I now have a bit more experience and better foam tools.(foam cutter! duh!) Anyway at the time I settled for the hacksaw and double edged hand saw. 
Finally getting the round shape I was looking for I used a marker to put lines from top to bottom criss crossing the top (I didn't measure) until I thought I had enough.I then grabbed my drywall saw (rotarysaw) and put one of my dremel bits in it. It has a depth gauge so it was pretty much fool proof. I ran it along the lines. I then grabbed my dremel with a brown grinding wheel on it to widen the lines a bit more.
After all that this is what it looked like at that point.









Now time for the sander. This took some time but it was worth it.

Next step hollowing it out. I did this a couple of different ways. I started by using a drill with a wood boring bit and my trusty shop vac.
I started in the bottom drilling out sections then grabbing the vacuum and cleaning out debris.This unfortunately could only go so far and I was afraid of drilling through. I tried a dremel with a fleible shaft but my big ole' clumsy hands couldn't get in and I couldn't see what I was doing. So I had to do something a bit drastic. I cut it in half.
I used a wire brush bit and it worked great. One draw back it took me almost an hr to clean up after. So if you use this as well do it outside! Now it's all hollowed out.
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg66/spiderfreak-photos/pinkfoam%20pumpkin/foampumpkin7.jpg

I then glued it back together and called it a night.










Next morning I used some wood filler and filled in any dents, dings, or oops cuts. Let dry then did a little sanding. I then grabbed the Monster Mud and gave it 2 coats. Let dry.
Now time to carve the face. Since I am no artist I went on line and found a face I liked, blew it up and printed it out taped it together and taped it to the pumpkin. 
I then very carefully carved out the face. I then painted the inside black, the inside edges of the eyes, nose, and mouth red. then gave the whole thing a coat of orange.
I took a piece of foam trimmed down the edges, then hotglued my light on it and painted it all black.
I had to use some silver paint on the inside back of pumpkin so the light would show up better
I then took the light and screwed it to the bottom and gave that a coat of black then a couple coats of orange.
I then did a little bit more light sanding on the pumpkin and gave it a final coat of orange and painted the tip green.
There ya go! The one on the right is the tutorial pumpkin, the left one was made later and now I am working on a third.


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## Spyder (Aug 16, 2008)

For more pics on the building process you can go here.

pinkfoam pumpkin pictures by spiderfreak-photos - Photobucket


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## beelce (Jul 21, 2007)

Nice work Spider...I like them


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## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

Nice job carving!


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## turtle2778 (Jul 9, 2006)

Thats great!! I loved it.


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## Daphne (Oct 18, 2006)

Those look terrific! Well done! 

I've always used hot glue to stack/glue pink insulation together. I will have to try gorilla glue. Seems like everyone is using it.


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## Bondo (Aug 28, 2008)

Nice job it looks great! Every time I try to carve foam I get impatient because my foam cutter cuts so slow! If I had the patients I would have to make about 10 of these lol.


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## Spooky1 (Aug 25, 2008)

Very cool. I imagine making those must have made a big mess. Foam everywhere. lol


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## Lilly (Jun 13, 2006)

Good idea,
looks like alot of foam too.
did you get the inside part that you took out in one piece...baby pumpkins


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## pensivepumpkin (Mar 27, 2011)

I know this is an old thread, but I am new. : )

This is awesome!!!! I am so excited right now I can hardly stand it! I love Hauntforum!!!
My display is a Trick R Treat style hodge podge of pumpkins, and this is what I will be doing ALL SUMMER LONG, as soon as I finish these Stolloween style pumpkins, and my PVC candles, and...


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## Daphne (Oct 18, 2006)

pensivepumpkin said:


> I know this is an old thread, but I am new. : )
> 
> ... as soon as I finish these Stolloween style pumpkins, and my PVC candles, and...


Ha, ha. Welcome to insanity! Everything you see, you'll be trying to figure out how to adapt for your display!


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## dionicia (Aug 4, 2007)

Good job. That's brilliant.


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## kprimm (Mar 14, 2009)

I also missed this, and even though it's old, that is cool as heck. Never thought about pumpkins out of sheet foam. I use the funkins and michaels for basic stuff.


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## scareme (Aug 29, 2006)

Thanks for bumping this up. I'm doing pumpkins this year too and I need all the ideas I can get. These pumpkins look great.


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## Spyder (Aug 16, 2008)

Thanks, glad ya'll liked them.


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## Joiseygal (Sep 3, 2008)

You did a great job on the pumpkins.


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## Dixie (Feb 18, 2009)

Wow, so glad for this bump on an old post. And here I thought I had gone back through just about everything I could get my hands on - but nope!

Love the idea of this. I am always using scraps of foam for big pieces, ultimately using more foam than necessary, but its scrap, yanno? And this is a great example. A piece that takes a long time to do - but will be strong and sturdy for years to come, and you can't get better than that in my book!


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## Deadrail (Nov 9, 2012)

Great idea!
Rich


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