The Tall Winged Haunted House

From pumpkin to porch

1. 1

   Prep the pumpkin and mount the pattern

   Pick a tall, fairly smooth pumpkin so the narrow tower has room to sit upright. Cut a lid from the bottom or the back rather than the top, which keeps the stem intact and makes it easy to seat an LED later. Scrape the inside wall behind the design down to about one inch thick so light passes through evenly. Tape your printed pattern flat over the front and poke the outlines with a transfer tool or pin.

2. 2

   Score the outlines and the dark keep lines

   With a fine gouge or the tip of a poker tool, lightly trace every line so you can read the design once the paper is off. Mark clearly which parts stay dark: the steeple shaft, the mullion bars in the window, and the diagonal crosshatch strips in the side wings. Marking these first stops you from cutting away a line you meant to keep. Go slow and let an adult handle every blade.

3. 3

   Carve the crosshatch inside the side wings first

   Cut the small open diamonds and slivers between the diagonal strips of each wing before you remove any large area. These thin strips rely on the surrounding rind for support, so opening them while everything else is still solid keeps them from flexing or snapping. Use a small detail saw and make short, gentle strokes, clearing one little opening at a time. Leave the diagonal lines themselves as uncut skin.

4. 4

   Pierce the window grid and steeple points

   Cut out each pane of the tall gridded window as a separate opening so the mullion bars remain as dark bridges between them. Keep the bars an even width for that crisp barred look when lit. Trim the open triangles beside the steeple and the roofline peaks, leaving the steeple shaft and cross as solid rind. Take breaks to check that no bridge has gotten too thin.

5. 5

   Open the arched door and base last

   Save the largest opening, the arched doorway, for the end since it removes the most support at the bottom of the tower. Cut the arch cleanly, then nick the small step and ground lines at the base. Cutting big openings last keeps the whole panel rigid while you work the fine detail above. Round the inside edges of the door slightly so the glow spreads softly.

6. 6

   Light it and photograph

   Drop a warm white LED inside, ideally two so both the window and doorway glow, and never use an open flame near thin rind. Set the pumpkin at eye level on a dark porch or deck to mimic the moody backdrop. Shoot at dusk with a little ambient string light behind for depth. A light coat of petroleum jelly on the cut edges slows drying and keeps the lines sharp for a few days.

Written with AI to match this design