Pumpkin Decorating Ideas - Unique Tips For Creating Stunning Halloween Displays

What if I told you that within the next few minutes, you could be on your way to creating impressive, professional-looking decorated pumpkins that everyone will envy? I'm about to share with you some unique pumpkin decorating ideas, as well as unusual ways to display your masterpieces once they're finished...

The days are long gone when pumpkin painting has to be the dreaded chore that it once was -- the nasty, sticky pumpkin flesh -- not to mention the danger of injury. And unless you do your carving immediately before Halloween, you'll have the seepage and the dreaded mold that inevitably sets in. Painted pumpkins are the rage, and it's opened up a whole new world of decorating for those with artistic ability and creative minds.

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But What If You're Not So Artistic Or Creative?

Pumpkin Decorating Ideas - Unique Tips For Creating Stunning Halloween Displays

Even if you're like me and you're not quite so creative or artistic, there are some surprisingly simple ways to create professional-looking pumpkins that will last through to even the Thanksgiving holiday. There are lots of affordable guides containing pumpkin decorating ideas that will give you the guidance and detailed instruction you'll need.

Pumpkin Decorating Ideas With A Novel Twist...

Obviously the easiest of all of my pumpkin decorating ideas is the traditional jack-o-lantern face, but there are many other options...

• Fall leaves or other fall design
• Silly faces
• Celebrity Faces
• Spiders
• Scarecrow
• Witch
• Cartoon characters
• Turkey
• Black Cats
• Ghosts
• Goblins

What Supplies Will You Need For These Pumpkin Decorating Ideas?

Painted pumpkins are very economical and the supplies you'll need for these pumpkin decorating ideas can be purchased at your local craft store. You may even have some of them already in your home.

• Markers (The Washable Kind)
• Acrylic Paints
• Newspaper
• Spray sealer
• Accessories (Such As Jewelry, Hats, etc.)

Creative And Unique Ways To Display Your Masterpieces

There is no end to the possibilities. How about creating an entire pumpkin family arranged around hay bales for a stunning lawn display? Decorated pumpkins can also be used for attractive and unique designs for your porch or patio using fall leaves or other autumn designs. I've even seen painted pumpkins decorated with a number painted on each, maybe along with some sort of fall design. Stack them on top of each other and display your house number on your front porch or in your yard.

The Important Thing -- Have Fun!

Pumpkin decorating, above all, is supposed to be fun, so don't get stressed out if your first design doesn't turn out exactly as you expected. Just try again -- and before you know it, you'll become so good at pumpkin decorating that you'll have people offering to buy your designs!

Pumpkin Decorating Ideas - Unique Tips For Creating Stunning Halloween Displays

Envision yourself being able to quickly and easily create stunning painted pumpkin designs this fall that will delight the children and impress your friends and family. No matter who you are or how artistic you may be, the Easy Pumpkin Painting guide will give you all the tools you need to design cute, creative, professional-looking Halloween pumpkins that will be the envy of everyone. It's chock full of unique pumpkin decorating ideas that you'll be able to use for years to come -- and you can get started in the next few minutes. To learn more about the Easy Pumpkin Painting guide (as well as other unique Halloween stuff) be sure to visit: http://paintedpumpkinideasonline.com

Unique Outdoor Christmas Decorating Ideas

Christmas is right around the corner and you must be thinking of great outdoor Christmas decorating ideas to spread some holiday cheer to every aspect of your house, especially your front yard to share the joy with each passer-by. Innovative Christmas yard decoration solutions are not only about being conventional but it is also about what is new. It should be the perfect blend of conventional and creative ideas. After all, Christmas decorations are the perfect way to explore your imagination and find a way to bring it to life.

There are many ways in which you can give your Christmas yard decorations a unique feel and touch. Lights affixed to pre-formed stands can look extremely nice in your yard; you can take your pick from a variety of shapes including Santa, reindeer, and angels. Also, you may even find toy trains and nativity scenes to decorate your garden. You can hang angels from branches to give your front yard a heavenly touch and use lights to decorate trees, shrubs, swings etc.

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You can also make use of fiberglass or plastic figurines that can be lit from behind or within to light up your outdoors. These figurines are available in several shapes and sizes, and they all depict characters that are related to Christmas and are Biblical. Common characters include Santa, three wise men, shepherds, candy canes, elves, angels etc.

Unique Outdoor Christmas Decorating Ideas

Of course, the nativity scene is a huge favorite among outdoor Christmas decorations and perfectly symbolizes the complete meaning of the Christmas season. It is a visual representation of the birth of baby Jesus. The nativity scene would include main characters like Mary, Joseph, and Christ along with some shepherds, an angel, the three wise men, and some animals to represent the barnyard animals. For that extra touch of creativity, you can use a snowfall light boxes that uses the light to create a fake "snow fall" effect.

A new innovative outdoor Christmas decoration idea would be to make use of giant inflatable Christmas yard decorations. These are favorites among the kids and are available in a variety of shapes and sizes. This particular decoration idea is definitely a unique touch to your outdoor decor. They are extremely easy to use and store for next Christmas.

And where would Christmas be without Santa Claus. You can place a big Santa outside to grab attention. But make sure that it is made of strong materials in order to last the harsh weather. You can even place Rudolph in your front yard to enhance the look of your garden.

But nothing beats a huge lighted Christmas tree out in the front yard; decorate the tree with personalized hangings to give it that unique touch. All you need to do is switch on the lights to experience the perfect glow in your garden in the evenings.

Decorating the exteriors can be just as fun as decorating indoors, outdoor Christmas decoration lend a great festive feel to your home. Beautiful Christmas yard decorations send out nice and warm vibes to your guests and visitors. This Christmas, put on your thinking cap and churn out nice and unique Christmas decorating ideas to jazz up your front yard.

Unique Outdoor Christmas Decorating Ideas

Need some more ideas for outside decorating? See our huge selection of Christmas decorations and gift ideas!

Decorating Your Wedding With Battery Operated Lights

Battery operated lights for weddings and receptions are easy to use, versatile, and make everything sparkle on your special day.

Battery operated white Christmas lights are an idea choice for many kinds of space where you are decorating for your wedding ceremony and the reception, especially when you're concerned about having outlets for plugging in the lights.

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Using lights with a battery pack means you will have about 6-24 hours of light available with each pack depending on the style of lights and the quality of your batteries. There are a few varieties of LED battery lights that will last up to 150 hours. It is always best to use the same batteries you are going to use at your wedding and set up a set of lights and time how long they are going to stay on.

Decorating Your Wedding With Battery Operated Lights

Some Brides have asked their guests to turn on their lights all at once at the beginning of the reception or had friends turn them on right before the guests arrive.

Decorating the Wedding Ceremony

Ways you can use these great lights to decorate your church, chapel, or tent:

• Topiaries with lights
• Lights on the altar
• Lights on top of the piano or organ
• Lights on the windowsills next to stain glass windows
• Wrapped around columns or latticework

Decorating the Reception

These lights come in handy for decorating the reception area too. Whether it's inside or outside, you'll find fun and easy ways to bring light into your reception area and make it truly sparkle! Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Glass bricks - put the lights inside the glass bricks and tie a wide bow around the brick for a beautiful centerpiece or decoration for the food table, gift table, guest book table, or cake table.
• Glass vases - nestle some lights inside a glass vase and then add greenery and flowers to match the décor of your wedding - beautiful!
• Cake table - your cake table will simply sparkle with the addition of some battery operated lights surrounding the base of your cake or even nestled inside a large glass hurricane as decoration.
• Topiaries - place topiaries with lights from the ceremony strategically around the reception hall or outside tent for added decoration
• Trellises - trellises are often used for wedding décor and although they look great all on their own, they'll look even better adorned with some ivy and some white lights
• Head table - wrap the battery pack and lights in tulle and decorate the top of the head table beautifully
• Gift table - do the same motif on the gift table as you did the head table to tie them in together

Decorating with battery operated lights for weddings is really very easy and it makes the job of transforming an ordinary looking space into a spectacular one! They come in a huge variety of styles - both traditional and LED - with different lens shapes, numbers of lights to the set and required batteries.

Decorating Your Wedding With Battery Operated Lights

Look for LED battery lights and traditional battery lights online to see all the varieties available.

Shellie Gardner, owner of http://www.christmas-light-source.com, has a passion for Christmas lighting and enjoys helping customers make every occasion special with lights. With more than 500 different light sets and bulbs to choose from, check out her website to find one of the widest varieties of LED and traditional Christmas lights and installation hardware available on the web.

Flickering, Sputtering, Fluttering Fire Lighting to Illuminate Your Halloween Decorations and House!

Haunted houses, burning buildings, and old time electrical lighting running off of a sputtering generator all have one thing in common: flickering and fluttering lights. If you've gone to Disney's Haunted Mansion or the Indiana Jones ride, you'll see this effect in action. There are pricey devices out there that you can use, but you can make a flickering power unit for around fifteen bucks.

Categories: Cool. Tricky Effect.
Skill level: Super Easy.
Time needed: 10 minutes
Expense: -

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"Fluttering Sputtering Firey Light Flicker-er"

Flickering, Sputtering, Fluttering Fire Lighting to Illuminate Your Halloween Decorations and House!

Ingredients:

1) c7 "flicker flame" chandelier or candelabra bulb
2) c7 nightlight socket
3) 3 extension cords
4) photo-sensor outlet
5) Enclosure (like a shoebox)

The photo-sensor turns on the power to its outlet whenever there is no light hitting the sensor. (These devices are usually used to turn lights on after dark.) If we use the flicker/chandelier bulb near the sensor and put this combination in a light-tight box, the fluttering chandelier bulb will make anything pulled into the photsensor also flutter. That's all there is to it. You will need to experiment with the distance between the photo-sensor and the chandelier bulb.

A) Plug the photo-sensor into extension cord 1.

B) Screw the c7 chandelier bulb into the nightlight socket.

C) Plug the nightlight unit into the OTHER extension cord.

D) Plug both cords into a power supply (the 110v wall outlet.) 

E) Plug a third extension cord INTO the photo-sensor unit. This will be the cord that you plug the lights you wish to flicker into. Let's call this the FLICKER CORD.

F) Run the extension cords with the devices into an enclosure like a shoe box. The enclosure must be light-tight. If you will be placing this "controller" outside, make sure the box is weather-proof. We recommend keeping this controller indoors and simply running an extension cord out to your outdoor lights.  

G) Plug at least one light into the extension cord (FLICKER CORD) which is plugged into the sensor outlet so that you can adjust the flicker unit. 

H) In a relatively dark room, experiment with the distance needed between the photo-sensor and the chandelier flicker bulb.  Tape each down when optimum flickering is reached. Adjusting the distance will change how much or how little the lights stay on or off.

I) Tape down the lid on the enclosure and you're ready to rock!

This delivers a lighting trick that is used in almost every movie fire you've ever seen. The actors are lit with fluttering orange light. (Using orange color spot or flood lamps in the flicker device are common.) "Faulty" or sputtering electrical lighting is also created by running the lights into this sort of flicker device. Remember the the photo-sensor you are using can supply as MAXIMUM of 300 watts of power. If you need more juice, just make more units!

Flickering, Sputtering, Fluttering Fire Lighting to Illuminate Your Halloween Decorations and House!

Bill Lae is an award-winning visual effects artist and Halloween Haunter. As one of Hollywood's effects artists, Bill worked for all the networks using his magic touch on TV's top shows including The X-Files, Buffy, & The Outer Limits. He created BigScreamTV http://www.BigScreamTV.com a series of DVDs anyone can use to create in-home Halloween effects with a TV. He also shot a how-to DVD called X-Treme Haunted House Make-Over where he shows folks how to haunt the house for little cost. His love for Halloween started long before he came to LA. As a child he made haunted houses in his parents' basement. In LA, he began mixing easy-to-use technology (DVD players, computers, printers, lights) with other household items to "trick out" his own house every Halloween. At last count, he had 700 trick-or-treaters.

"It's my favorite holiday," Bill says. "I especially love amazing the hardened, media-savvy, teen-age critics. And it truly is the one time when everyone has the opportunity to give unconditionally-giving candy to strangers!" For more Halloween Projects: http://www.booityourself.com

How Did Halloween Begin?

It is believed that Halloween originated from a Celtic holiday known as Samhain, which was celebrated in Ireland and Scotland at harvest time for well over a thousand years. Samhain was the time of year (October 31st) when harvesting was completed and animals were brought from summer pastures to shelter for the winter months. At Samhain a large festival was celebrated, and fruits, vegetables, grain, and animals, were burned as gifts to the gods in huge bonfires in hope of a successful new year. It was believed that during the night of Samhain, that the dead could walk among the living, and that the living could ask the dead questions about the future year. Because they believed some of these spirits were evil, they wore costumes with animal heads to scare the spirits and protect themselves.

Christianity spread to the Celtic lands, and in the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV declared November 1st to be All Saints Day, otherwise known as "All Hallow's Day," hallow referring to sainted ones. All Saint's Day was to celebrate the holy saints and martyrs of Christianity. It is generally believed that this was an attempt to Christianize the popular Celtic holiday and diminish the importance of the Celtic ritual and the influence of their spiritual leaders, the druids. This is also how the day became known as All Hallow's Eve, or Halloween. All Soul's Day was similarly added in Christianity a couple hundred years later to celebrate the dead.

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Carving out turnips and lighting them goes back hundreds of years with the holiday. An Irish legend tells of a man named Jack who tricks the devil to turn into a coin and keeps him from changing back by placing the coin next to a cross. A year later, Jack dies, but is neither allowed into heaven, or hell, so he must roam the earth. The 1800's brought Halloween to the United States with the Irish immigrants. Pumpkins were carved rather than turnips because they were large and more plentiful.

How Did Halloween Begin?

How Did Halloween Begin?

Social network users, click for myspace comments such as compliments, cool comments, love, flirty, birthday, holidays, religion, funny, cute, etc. You can also use myspace graphics. If you love Halloween, click Myspace Halloween Graphics to send to your friends and add to your profile.