I'm thinking of switching up the holidays this year and gifting presents for Thanksgiving, rather than Christmas. Why not offer up some DIY pumpkin facial masks to a few of your favorite lady friends? The tutorial is simple and easy to do:

Pumpkin Face and Body Mask
* 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
* 1/4 cup bentonite clay (available at health food stores)
* 1 tbsp honey
* 2 tbsp water
* 1 tbsp almond oil
* 2 tsp cinnamon

Mix together and apply evenly to your face or anywhere else you'd like to smooth. Leave on 10 minutes before rinsing. Almond oil moisturizes, clay draws out impurities, honey replenishes collagen and cinnamon improves circulation.

And guess what? "Pumpkin contains antioxidants such as vitamins A and C, as well as phytonutrients that help keep you looking young," says Michelle Schlekewey, spa director at Rancho Bernardo Inn in San Diego.

An extra serving for me, please!

Planning the perfect Jack-O-Lantern this Halloween? Don't let your labors go to waste: preserve your pumpkin for as long as possible. Yes, there are ways to delay the spread of rot and mold ... and you may be surprised to find what really works the best!

Now, there are lots of pumpkin preservation tips out there. Most popular suggestions include greasing the pumpkin all over with Vaseline or white craft glue, or soaking it in a bleach solution. Others swear by coating your Jack with acrylic spray or just plain old hairspray. You can even buy a special pumpkin-preserving spray called Pumpkin Fresh for this very purpose.

The debate has been greatly aided by an experiment from the folks at the (very fun) site, My Science Project. The conclusion: keep away from the white glue, Vaseline and acrylic spray. These substances encouraged mold to grow like crazy! The bleach solution was top for the first few days, but your best bets for longevity are a) apply Pumpkin Fresh or b) just leave your pumpkin au natural.

I love everything artist Nikki McClure creates, and her latest pumpkin carving for Sunset Magazine is no exception. She's kindly provided the stencil for those of you who weren't born with Nikki's mad illustrative skills (which is basically everyone, right?). I can't wait to tackle my own Nikki'o'Lantern! Sure beats the usual Martha Stewart pattern...

Here's how to do it!:

1. After downloading, tape the template to a clean, dry, and hollowed-out pumpkin.

2. Using a pushpin, prick closely spaced holes along the outline of the design, making them deep enough to be seen when you remove the template.

3. Remove the template. Following the pinpricks and taking care not to cut all the way through, use a small carving chisel or linoleum cutter to outline the design. With a larger linoleum cutter, remove the rind within the outlines and scrape out some pumpkin flesh (the deeper you go, the more light will shine through). Add texture and dimension by varying the direction and depth of your carving.

4. Light your pumpkin. A votive candle is traditional, but for more illumination, use a battery-powered or outdoor-rated electric light; carve out a hole for the cord if necessary.

That's it --- happy carving, and thanks, Nikki!

'Tis the season of the pumpkin. We carve them, make delicious pies from them and puree them for baby food. We even toast the seeds for a crunchy snack. But if you're bored with all that, maybe it's time to find some fun new functions for your pumpkins! Here are a few suggestions to get the creative juices flowing:

Sticking in the food realm for just a moment, why not branch out and try something other than pie? For example, pumpkin chili is fun to make. Or do as the Native Americans did and make pumpkin leather for winter snacking. Yum.

Feeling crafty? Pumpkins and gourds can be fashioned into all sorts of objects once hollowed out and dried. For example? How about drums and shakers for homemade music time? Or turn them into bird feeders, fun decorative bird houses ... or even use gourds to create real birdhouses for nesting yard birds like wrens.

Bored with the same old jack-o-lantern smiley face/angry face designs? Maybe you need to branch out and try something totally new. I, too, have been digging around for fresh ideas for carving this year's big orange veggie. Check out the slideshow to see my favorites!

For more original and creative pumpkin projects, visit Family Fun magazine's Halloween Fright Site. There you'll find a ton of pumpkin decorating ideas, both of the carving and non-carving variety. Or steal an idea from Flickr's Jack-O-Lantern photo pool. With well over one thousand member-submitted images, you're sure to get inspired for some major pumpkin artistry!

With cooler weather on the horizon, my thoughts are turning toward pumpkin, spice and everything nice. Today, I've rounded up a few of my favorite pumpkin and fall-related tutorials for sprucing up your home and welcoming autumn with open arms!:

1. So Simple Felted Pumpkins
If you love felt as much as I do, you'll love this simple tutorial from Country Living. Why not display a few felt pumpkins this year? They'll never spoil, and you'll get a few surprising looks from family and friends.

2. Sugar Pumpkin Centerpiece
Don't feel like fighting the seeds of the real thing? Create a lovely centerpiece with sugar pumpkins (fake or real: your choice!) and a bit of ribbon. Good Housekeeping shows you how! (I love the look in a bewitching black cauldron!)

3. Pumpkin Hurricane Lighting
Also from Good Housekeeping is this luminating idea: Simply cut off the stems of a miniature pumpkin, replace with a votive and hurricane glass lantern, and poof! -- A gorgeous candlelit centerpiece to set the mood for autumn lovebirds.

4. Polymer Clay Pumpkins
Want a more kid-friendly DIY to tackle? I love these polymer clay pumpkins, courtesy of Craft Ideas. A step-by-step tutorial is provided for your convenience, so the project couldn't be simpler!

5. Plastic Bottle Jack-o-Lantern
Put all of those sugary drinks to good use by turning a soda bottle into a luminary with these cute idea from Fave Crafts Blog. Why not host a mess-free Jack-o-Lantern competition in your neighborhood with a few empty soda bottles, spray paint and markers? The kids will love to use their ingenuity, and you'll love the [very!] minimal cleaning!

6. Paper Bag Pumpkin Craft
Want another child-friendly DIY with materials you more than likely have at home? Try this paper bag pumpkin craft from Kaboose that uses a bit of paint, a paper bag and some construction paper/raffia. For additional fun, place some candy for your kids to enjoy in the bag itself --- not to opened until after Halloween, of course!

7. Paper Strip Pumpkin
Of course, nothing's easier to use than the trusty scissors and paper, so why not tackle a simpler project like this one from Crayola? Grab your kids and get to work!

Here's hoping the above project ideas will help you welcome in the autumn -- whatever your skill level. Happy crafting!

At my house, we really try our best to live in an environmentally friendly way, for our health and the Earth's. We eat local, fresh food as much as we can, we never use chemicals on our lawn or plants, we don't clean the house with chemicals, and we have quite the raging compost pile.

It seems that we got a bit overzealous with the composting, in fact. Last fall, after carving a stunning Jack-o-lantern, we responsibly dumped the innards of the pumpkin into our composter.

Throughout the autumn, we had several pumpkins displayed on our walkway and stoop. When it was time to put up the Christmas decorations, we plopped the pumpkins in the composter. Follow me after the break; I'm going somewhere with this...

You probably have winter squash on your mantel, and plan to use them in your Thanksgiving centerpiece, but do you have a clue what to do with them afterward? Squash is a delicious, nutritious and wildly flexible vegetable. Cooking these vegetables (or fruit, but we'll save that argument for another day) is simple with endless possibilities. Once you know how to identify the squash varieties you can choose your favorite recipe and enjoy.

Know your squash varieties
If you're like me, choosing a squash for your centerpiece has more to do with the color scheme and size you need than it does with the cooking possibilities. Know what to look for when you're shopping for squash and you'll find some beautifully decorative varieties that also make great dishes. These are some common varieties that you'll find at the local market.

1. Banana Squash
2. Butternut Squash
3. Delicata Squash
4. Hubbard Squash
5. Pumpkins
6. Spaghetti Squash
7. Acorn Squash

Cornucopias have been around since the 5th Century BCE. They are often called a "horn of plenty" and represent giving and sharing. The modern cone-shaped basket is filled to overflowing with fruits and vegetables, leaves and straw, and can sit on the table as a centerpiece.

eHow.com has a great article on making a Thanksgiving cornucopia. To make your own cornucopia basket, you can buy a cone shaped basket at a craft store and steam the end to make it bend into the shape of a goat's horn. Gather some colorful Autumn leaves from your yard and place them on a tray. Stuff the basket with straw or other craft filler, place the basket on the tray, and fill the basket with fruits and vegetables such as miniature pumpkins and gourds, small apples and oranges, and Indian corn, allowing these fruits and vegetables to spill out in abundance. In all the cracks and crevices, sprinkle some nuts and hearty berries. Finish your Thanksgiving cornucopia by placing more leaves around your finished item.

I will make a cornucopia this year, following eHow's directions. I have never made one before, so I think it's time to try something new. My table needs a little dressing up, and Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year, I love to decorate for it, and give thanks for all the blessings in my life.

Pumpkin vases are simple, and leave lots of room for your own creativity. You can choose flowers or leaves in colors that match your Thanksgiving table setting. This autumn decoration can be quickly transformed into a Halloween accessory by draping it in a spider web.

What you'll need

1. Pumpkin
2. Carving tools
3. Spoon
4. Vase
   
5. Flowers or leaf branches

After the break I'll explain how we make the pumpkin vase. Make sure you take a look through the gallery for pictures accompanying each step.

Get creative with your gourds. I mean, what gourd wants to be seen during the holidays just sitting on a table? If you were a gourd, I think you would rather be stylin, smooth, and be the talk of the party. Like Sharon says to Jill, hey, look at Bob, he had all kinds of body-modifications done, he got a mouth, and now he's chasing those bad dudes all over the place. How cool is that. I so want to be Bob.

This is not about you and me, this is about the social and emotional health of your family gourds. They want to be seen at parties as fun, hip, and young too. The evil folks at that Mad Science place have cooked up -- ouch, bad choice of words for a gourd to hear -- a nifty idea to bring some old-school back to the new-school, er, something. Making popular video-game icons from gourds is a great way to liven up your holidays and theirs too.

There aren't any steps listed on how to do this, but it seems pretty obvious to complete without problems. Then you can chase your family around the house with these goofy guys all day, or at least let the kids do it until they fall asleep, which sounds good too. Pumpkins work great too for this.

This project is the perfect way to add a little Halloween decor to your front porch and make sure that your friends can find your house on Halloween night. This creative and functional use for jack-o-lanters is brought to us by Michaels Crafts. It's super simple and looks great.

You'll carve out each number on a medium size craft pumpkin, and top it off with a small jack-o-lantern. You can find the templates here, or you can use any font for the numbers by just printing them out and transferring them to the pumpkin. The pumpkins are held together with a wooden dowel, and placed in a decorated terracotta pot.

They look like they are just barely balancing which is part of the effect, but you'll still need to be careful and they are best kept away from children. While you may have some materials on hand, everything is available at Michaels, and the instruction page walks you through the whole project. The entire project will take about 2 hours.

Everybody will take a second look at your pumpkin house numbers. It is among the most innovative and useful Halloween decorations I've seen this season.

[via: Adventures on Firethorn]

There are so many opportunities to get great photos around Halloween. We have the changing leaves, the bright orange pumpkins, the carved jack-o-lanterns with flickering lights, the costumes and make-up. You just don't find this richness in the other seasons. For me, Halloween shots are among my greatest photographic failures. I cannot, however, seem to properly photograph a jack-o-lantern, or catch the mood of a haunted evening. The Ghoulish Guide to Scary Snaps is exactly what I was looking for.

The collection of Halloween photo tips covers everything from appropriate lighting to photographing your jack-o-lantern and frightening costumes. They suggest that the best Halloween pictures are taken at dusk. There is enough natural light to go without flash, but still show off the candle lit pumpkin and bright costumes. They also have some great recommendations for designing your jack-o-lantern so that it can be easily photographed.

Once you've mastered your Halloween shots, get ready to enjoy the rest of the season with their 12 Fantastic Fall Photo Tips. Next time you're out raking leaves with the children, make sure you bring the camera along. Armed with a beautiful setting and your new knowledge of fall photography, you're sure to have some beautiful photos.

Some of the most beautiful pumpkin designs are those that are outside of the box. Take this pumpkin for instance, there is nothing traditional about it at all, yet it is elegance defined. Carved on a ghost pumpkin, the white background sets it apart from your average, everyday orange job. The black scrolls add a touch of beauty.

The designer, saucydwellings, did the following to create a work of true beauty:

• Located and downloaded scroll stencils.
• Affixed the scroll patterns to the pumpkin in a pleasing manner. Spray glue might be a good fixative for this procedure.
• Poked holes along the edges of each scroll.
• Filled in the outlines with a permanent marker.

The simplicity of the project is beautiful and time saving. Be sure to stop by saucydwellings for great pictures on this beautiful project.

Wouldn't it be cool if you could make a pumpkin jump out every time people came to the door on Halloween night? Well, you can, with a basic stamp microcontroller, a park zone stoplight, and a hacked Epson printer. It sounds like an odd combination of materials, but Michael Seppanen teaches us how. Check out his instruction on how to make your pumpkin appear automatically by sensor.

Personally, it seems like a lot of work for a result that I'm sure could be easily achieved another way. Still, if you want a good Halloween prank, and live for the thrill of hacking things together, this is probably something you'll enjoy.