Franken Carving

Did a fake (large) carving of Frankenstein for Mom. He really only looks cool if you have the pumpkin light set steady to green. He turned out pretty well. I did the same pattern a few years ago and ended up giving him away to a good home. I'm definitely loving the burning (craft?) tool--it's most excellent for fake pumpkins. The only trouble is that it tends to heat up enough to singe your fingers. It's not bad if you're only using it moderately for 15 minutes, but any longer and your hands starts to creep up the handle away from the heat, which means less control and more of a chance of your hand slipping and having a fun burn mark to explain. Still loving the saral paper--I'm wondering how different it will be on a real pumpkin; so far I've just done fake ones. Definitely speeds up the process, and the burn tool even more so. Well I've heard that the grocery stores have started to stock pumpkins, so I'll probably get one here in the next few days. I really want to try out the gutter drill bit to see how it stands up. I've heard such wonderful things about it and am hoping that my expectations don't fall totally flat. Cross your fingers...