This very cute and very easy pumpkin candle centerpiece uses just three items and is very inexpensive to create. You can make these for Halloween and Thanksgiving.

All that is needed is a small to medium sized pumpkin, a 6 inch pillar candle and some faux autumn foliage. You will also need a sharp knife and a marker.

Instructions

1. Snap or cut the stem off the top of the pumpkin.
2. Place the bottom of the pillar candle on the top of the pumpkin and trace it with the marker.
3. With the knife, cut vertically just inside the traced outline. Discard the cut pieces.
4. Wash the ink off of the pumpkin after the candle is properly fitted.
5. Wedge the candle securely in the top of the pumpkin.
6. Add some fall leaves and autumn foliage as decoration. Or if you are making these for Halloween decorations, use black candles and a few plastic spiders. Very fun!

Using mini-pumpkins with autumn spice votive candles makes for some very nice individual placeholders on the dining room table. Let your imagination go and have a lot of fun with this lovely autumn craft.

This is a very fun, creative and quite easy Halloween craft.

Making shrunken heads from apples is actually an early American tradition that started when early settlers made dolls using apples for the heads. They did this by carving a face on an apple and then drying it. Now of course, they are used for movies, videos, haunted houses and Halloween decorations. By soaking a carved apple in a solution of water, lemon and salt, the salt will draw moisture out of the apple once it has be removed from the soaking bath and the lemon will help keep the color of the shrunken apple head light and fairly uniform.

Quick tips:

1. Select an apple that is fairly round and as large as possible. Apples shrink significantly in size as they dry, so the bigger the apple you start with, the better.
2. Your carved apple head will also take up to two weeks to to dry so be sure to begin this project in plenty of time for Halloween.
3. The best way to dry your apple is to hang it from a string. Try not to hang it directly in front of a window that receives a lot of sunshine; the warmth and brightness can encourage rot. You also want to avoid very moist areas, such as the kitchen sink or near the washing machine in the utility room. If you can hang them in a cool dark garage, that is ideal.

Be as simple or as detailed when carving your apple head as you wish and have fun with this great Halloween craft project!

Ingredients

1 (or more) large-size, fairly round apple(s)
Bowl of water
2 tbsp. salt
2 lemon wedges
Vegetable peeler
Small knife for carving
Whole cloves if desired
Kite string or other heavy string

Directions

1. Prepare your water about 15 minutes before you are ready to dip your apple(s). Do this by filling a large deep bowl with about four cups of cool water. Pour in the salt and then squeeze juice from the lemon wedges into the bowl. Stir for several seconds so that the salt will begin to dissolve into the water and the fresh lemon juice will blend.
2. Peel the apple with your vegetable peeler; leave the stem on if desired (it will not affect the drying process). Coring your apple isn’t necessary for drying, but if you wish, you can create a longer, more drawn “face” by coring. (Non-cored apples will end up more round or square in shape.)
3. Begin carving a face into the apple. You will be carving inward around the most prominent facial feature—the nose. The eyes should be sunken into the apple. Don’t worry about details at this point; just exaggerate whatever features you’d like to stand out on your finished project. For deeply-set eyes, make sure the eyebrow ridge stands out fairly far, and place a clove in the center of each to make a dent once the head is dry. Make sure that you cut deep. When the apple shrivels up you will lose some of the definition in your cut so make sure to cut everything a bit bigger/deeper than you think it should be.
4. When you are done carving, soak your apple in the prepared water. Let it sit for a minimum of 10 minutes or longer if you live in a high humidity area. Spin the apple a few times as it soaks.
5. Add some white rice for teeth (just push it into the apple and the apple will shrink around it to keep it in place.)
6. Hang your apple up to dry using kite string or other heavy duty kitchen string.

Once your shrunken apple head is dry (in about two weeks) you can begin to really have fun with it. You can display it as is or add some very fun details. Glue some large grains of rice in the mouth for teeth if the original ones fell out during the dying process. Make them jagged and scary looking! Or you can glue some strands of pet hair on the top for that scary old man look.

Have fun!