Halloween Ideas

A fantasy of pumpkins: The midnight hour

When it comes to Halloween, if you aren't over-the-top, you're not having enough fun! Take a journey with us through an enchanted forest where the pumpkins are spooky—and outrageously easy to make.

Re-creating our fantasy world is easier than you may think. To make most of our pumpkins, all you need are the basic art skills (like gluing and tracing circles and squares) that you mastered as a kid. The instructions for each project are minimal, but investing in an electric pumpkin carver can make it even easier to execute. Start each project, except Scary Stitch, by hollowing out your pumpkin. And remember, don't be afraid to improvise along the way—these creations are better when they are perfectly imperfect!

It's the subtle blue-gray of this pumpkin that makes the carriage look so mysterious, but an orange one will work just as well.

• 3 ornate metal belt buckles
• 1 pumpkin, about 12 inches tall
• Pencil or marker
• Knife
• Craft glue
• 1 ornate lamp finial
• Cordless drill fitted with ¼-inch bit
• 4 gourds, about 4 inches tall
• 2 quarter-inch dowel rods, cut to the approximate diameter of your pumpkin
• 4 ornate drawer pulls
• Heavy-gauge florist’s wire

1. Trace the inside of each belt buckle on the pumpkin with a pencil and cut to create openings for two windows and a door. Glue the hardware over the openings. Remove or cut down the stem until it’s even with the flesh of the pumpkin, and twist the finial into the top.
2. To create wheels, drill a hole through the center of each gourd. Insert one dowel rod into the holes of two gourds to create an axle, and secure with glue. Repeat to create a second set of wheels. Finish off all four wheels by inserting a drawer pull into the outside hole of each gourd for hubcaps.
3. Line up the two sets of wheels next to each other at about the same width as your pumpkin. Then wrap wire from one dowel rod to the other to fasten the axles together and to create a webbing for the pumpkin carriage to sit on.
4. Gently place your carriage on the wire.

More pumpkins

• Mr. Pumpkin
• Madam lost her head
• Haunted abodes