Macabre Monday "Oh my Gourd!"

Okay, macabre fans... your challenge this week:

HDH150
"Oh My Gourd!!!"

You are to create a dark, Gothic, or Halloween-based art piece

that utilizes, mimics, infers, or is otherwise obviously

gourd or pumpkin inspired.

We have a wonderfully creative and timely sponsor this week!!

Funworld's Floating Pumpkin Hangers

These are called Floating Pumpkin Hanger kits.

Very cool concept and pretty simple to put together.

These look awesome in a grouping and the website has lots of

photos and design ideas. They are available through Spirit,

Amazon, and possibly other online retailers. A simple Google search

should help you locate them in your area. They even have a Face Book page.

I couldn't find a real pumpkin for this challenge but fortunately had a fab black faux one to carve.  I tried origianlly to use my Cricut and vinyl to cut a creepy stencil to follow, but the vinyl wouldn't lay flat and I immediatly knew the cuts would be too intricate after cutting the lid with the knife included with my kit.  This baby was tough to cut!  Not the knife's fault, it was WAY harder than a real pumpkin or any of the faux ones I've carved in the past.  So instead of the creepy, I went with the magical and drew my design with a white water soluble crayon.

It was also tough to get a decent pic, but here's my "boofed" up pumpkin hanging in the living room.  I wanted to keep the black/white thing going as that's how I decorate in that room for Halloween.  After the "rough cut" with the knife I cleaned up the edges with a really sharp garnishing knife (Martha ain't got nothin' on me!), then sandpaper, and finally my diamond nail file.  I added some tulle, ribbon, ad white skeleton leaves and there you have it.  Looks kinda elegant and magical hanging mid air, don'tcha think?

and the piece de resistance...WAY cool hanging from the trellis, in front of the gate to the backyard.  I've got to get me some more of these hangers.  To join in our challenge, please check out the fab inspiration by the Minions at HDH and see that you don't necessarily have to carve something to be elegible for a prize.  Can't wait to see what you come up with.