Jack - the pumpkin king

Oh!—fruit loved of boyhood!—the old days recalling,

When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling!

When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin,

Glaring out through the dark with a candle within!

"The Pumpkin" by poet John Greenleaf Whittier

Over the summer I have let our pumpkins dwindle, I knew I needed to replant them with more room but it was one of those jobs that stayed low down on the list, and I am now regretting it as Halloween will be upon us in no time. I've already seen little spooky outfits in the shops (I'm thinking the little devil is the most appropriate for our youngest) this joined with the repotting guilt, must have been swirling around in my mind.

Now I know this is a bit of an odd one, but sometimes you have ideas that you instantly fall in love with and want to make even though there doesn't seem much rhyme or reason.

So I have made a pumpkin card, it feels like slight madness I agree, so I haven't made many at all. After all who sends a card to celebrate Halloween? Well, I reason with myself, maybe if you live stateside (they might, who knows?) maybe it could be an invitation to a spooky party (even I thought that one was unlikely) maybe if you knew somebody who had a birthday that week (hmm… we have three birthdays that week). Ok, I'll do it!

A pumpkin that needs no candle, so no fire hazard here, as I've printed a yellow 'glow' inside. It's another card which is 'sculptural' which I'm really enjoying working out at the moment. I've made it quite large, roughly A4 when opened up, as I think realistically I'll be using them as decorations this year (with having little ones, we don't seem to venture out for trick-or-treating and so settle for using our half term holiday, making and decorating the inside of the house with many bats, spiders, witches etc). Because of the way it's constructed it stands up on it's own, rather satisfyingly.

And a big thanks to sugarplum kawaii for mentioning my green apple key ring on her blog. It was on her Folksy Friday round-up that were all based on apples. All this fruit and veg talk is making me think the school will be asking for something for the Harvest festival soon. Maybe we could hand in one of my home made pumpkins this year, see if they notice the difference :-)