World Pumpkin Carving Championship

Well my friends, you did it again. 15  17 (so sorry to the 2 I missed in the first post! Shouldn't be so tricky to keep track of all the pictures but thank you for keeping me in line and please don't take it personally :)) Stormy pumpkins carved by participants from 6-70! We have at least one first time carver this year so welcome to you :)  Hope everyone had a great Halloween with more treats than tricks. Stay tuned to hear what the judges have to say... Pumpkin A Pumpkin B: Windfall Pumpkin C: Collateral damage Pumpkin D: Halloween blown away Pumpkin E: Lightning storm Pumpkin F: Saddened sun Pumpkin G: Skull in the wind over stormy water Pumpkin H: Storm cloud Pumpkin I: Storm dragons Pumpkin J: Storm front blowing in Pumpkin K: Stormy (Pusheen's sister) Pumpkin L: THOR the thunder maker Pumpkin M: Twister of Oz Pumpkin N: Two ghosts in a storm Pumpkin O: Boat in a storm Pumpkin P: Twister Pumpkin Q: Witch on a stormy night

 Hi Pumpkin People!! Hope everyone is enjoying the fall colours and remembering to pick up a pumpkin because everyone's favourite pumpkin carving competition is back!!  This year's theme is STORMY . So get your creative juices flowing, invite your friends, and start carving! For any new comers, you get one pumpkin and one picture per person. Toothpicks are allowed if you need to put your pumpkin back together but no other props/decorations. Something about your design needs to be original and you need to email your picture to Janice or Leanne by midnight on Oct. 31st.  Happy carving and happy Halloween! Cheers,  Leanne and Janice

Thank you carvers! Thank you judges! Even thank you to the judge that wrote me this to the friendly reminder that his votes were due... "I had planned to make the votes during my summer holiday 2023 (I did expect that would leave plenty of time before the official announcement of the result)". I guess we deserve that. Perhaps the real magic of this year is that the results are posted by the middle of November. I for one don't have Christmas decorations out yet! It was a tight race this year for the podium. The judges had 3 clear favourites. First - with 42 points goes to  Pumpkin G/ House Elf by Melanie Taylor Second  - with 36 points goes to Pumpkin J/ Hocus Pocus  Boookkkk by Mark Taylor Third  - with 32 points goes to  Pumpkin K/ Rub me the right way by Leanne   Congrats on the 1, 2 sweep to the Taylor family!! Can anyone help me with where the trophy has ended up?? Once I have located it I will try to get it to you :)...

Hi guys,  Another great year of pumpkins! Thanks everyone. Hope you all had fun making them and still have 10 fingers :)  Just to re-cap for our judges - the theme was Magical Pumpkins. I was expecting at least one Cinderella carriage but sure missed my guess. For the pumpkins where people had sent me a name I have included it. If yours doesn't have one and you would like to add it just send it to me. Enjoy!! PS. If anyone knows how to stop making the picture on the post overview page stop being huge let me know! I'm new to this program... Pumpkin A Pumpkin B (M agical forest) Pumpkin C (Silly Simon) Pumpkin D Pumpkin E (Abracadabra) Pumpkin F Pumpkin G (H ouse elf) Pumpkin H (M agical gnome) Pumpkin I (Ship eater) Pumpkin J ( Hocus pocus Boookkkk) Pumpkin K (Rub me the right way) Pumpkin L  Pumpkin M Pumpkin N (M agical wand) Pumpkin O ( “Harry Potter accidentally turned into a  pumpkin  by Ron  (don’t worry, Hermione was able to reverse it!)”) Pumpkin P ...

 Hi guys,  As promised, here are the results from last year. Seeing as Halloween is tomorrow I guess I can't wait any longer 😝 This year will be better - promise. Hope you haven't given up on us and looking forward to this year's entries! I have a slight problem though because what I got from Sarah was pumpkins with letters but no names so if you happen to look here and recognize your pumpkin as a winner please write me and let me know who you are! (leanne.ashworth@gmail.com) #1: Pumpkin X (34 points) #2: Pumpkin H (30 points) #3: Pumpkins J + P (tied with 17 points) I will claim Pumpkin X but am afraid I don't know who did H, J or P but congratulate yourselves!! And now my favourite part of this competition - comments from our judges. Thanks to all of you who participated.  Given the theme, I was really hoping to see Trump's face on a pumpkin or at least the QAnon logo! This year was huge for competitors. Difficult to choose just three. I decided to ignore artis...

  Hello fellow carvers!!   I can feel it in my fingers...time to start carving soon! But before announcing the theme, I want to let you know that it is time for a changing of the guards. After many years of dedicated involvement to this prestigious event Sarah is going to take a much deserved break and enjoy her Halloween fun without me harassing her about posting pumpkins 😋 Thanks to Sarah for all her witty posts, beautiful pumpkins and fun chats brainstorming themes over the years - great memories! I am still enjoying this tradition and my sister, Janice, has agreed to step-in and organize it with me so a big welcome to her! I hope all you carvers will keep carving and sharing this a fun Halloween tradition with us. The rules are the same - one pumpkin + picture per entry, something original about the design, toothpicks are allowed but no other props and we need your picture by midnight Oct. 31st in the time zone you're living in. Other years it has been a lot of work to ge...

Hi Folks.  Well thank goodness if this post comes late our pumpkins don't turn into carriages past mid-month... We hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween! Thanks for coming back year after year to carve pumpkins with us. It makes it more fun to know that you're out there carving with us.  When we were brainstorming for the theme this year Sarah took a look back though the earlier posts and came up with this list of past themes that I thought was kind of fun to see. Going back in time here is what we have had: Picasso Pirates Clowns Animated characters Once upon a time Funny faces Nightmares Mythological Disaster brewing Halloween in flight Cat Feel free to submit suggestions for next year. We'd love to hear your ideas. As you all know, this year's theme was Scary. Judges, you will receive an email letting you know who you are very shortly and without further adieu this year's entries... Mixed adult and kid carvings. Let's see if it's the year that the ...