Pumpkin Decorating: Timmy the Turtle

Come every September, we receive a crafting pumpkin to decorate as part of our office's Annual Staff Pumpkin Decorating Contest.  Each staff member, doctors included, must decorate a pumpkin.  All of the pumpkins then get displayed at the offices for our patients to vote on during the months of October and November.  My favorite part is seeing the creativity of our staff and then trying to guess which pumpkin will be the favorite for that year!

Our first year we did the Cheeseburger {and won!}.  Two years ago we did Metal Mouth.  Last year we decided to keep it simple.  Since Benjamin loves turtles, we thought that might be something unique that no one else would create.  After slicing the pumpkin in two, we enlisted Winston's help in turning our orange pumpkin green!  We made sure he had on the proper hand protection and away he went!

Winston was properly supervised {with an empty spray can!} at all times.  Did you really think we'd let a two year old really handle a loaded can of spray paint?!  

Once satisfied with his work, we left the two halves to dry.  The next steps involved Crayola air dry modeling clay.  And quite a bit of it too!

I molded a head, fins and legs out of the modeling clay and attached it to the pumpkin.  Timmy was starting to shape up nicely, but his shell was looking a little blandish.  I busted out the paints and tried to make his shell have a little more depth. 

The last and final step for our little friend was to give him eyes!  What kind of eyes do I hear you ask?  Why, googly eyes of course!!  The only kind that exist in our house!

Timmy turned out perfectly!  Although he didn't place in the finals, he is one of my favorite pumpkins that we've made so far.  

Here are a few of my favorites from last year's contest:

Our blank pumpkin is staring at me as I type this and our ideas are swirling.  I'm excited to get started on preparing our creation for competition!  What are some of your favorite pumpkin decorating ideas?