I accepted a challenge from my friends at Wagner! The challenge was to do a Halloween project using their new HT400 Heat Gun! You know I’m always up for a challenge. My scary pumpkin head project was fun, and easy! Using a foam pumpkin from the dollar store makes it inexpensive!
This challenge will net a winner, and said winner will get a prize of $500! Of course I would appreciate your support, but if there’s a project that speaks to you, by all means vote with your heart. 
Vote Here by “liking” your favorite project starting 10.1.19!
Materials for Scary Pumpkin Head
Materials needed:
- Foam Pumpkin (I got mine at the Dollar Tree)
- Sharpie
- Exacto Knife
- Black Craft Paint (on hand)
- HT400 Heat Gun
- Creepy Cloth x 2 (Dollar Tree)
- Skeleton Tongs (hands)
- Black Fabric (on hand)
- Black Electrical Tape
- Battery Operated Tealight (Dollar Tree)
- 4×4 scrap post
First you will need to draw a face on the foam pumpkin. My Dollar Tree pumpkins were hollow, so they were easy to cut with an exacto knife. Cutting the features a little on the small side is recommended if you’re going to creepify them with the heat gun.
Remove all the pieces of the foam pumpkin as you carve out all of the features.
Use a heat gun to creepify the scary pumpkin head
Carefully use the HT400 to creepify the jack-o-lantern face. You can see how the heat changes the texture of the foam pumpkin. In addition the heat opens up the features and exaggerates them. Because the heat gun is small for crafts, it was really easy to use on these small areas. Do NOT attempt to hold a foam pumpkin with a larger heat gun.
Paint inside of carved foam pumpkin
You can see how creepy the skin of the foam pumpkin looks after using the heat gun. Dilute black craft paint with water. Pour the paint into the pumpkin to change the white foam to black. This adds to the creepy look!
As your painting the inside of your new creepy jack-o-lantern, spread some of the paint on the orange pumpkin.
Add Creepy Cloth
It doesn’t even look like a dollar store foam pumpkin anymore!!! So creepy!
Attach Skeleton Arms
There may be easier ways to make the body of your creepy pumpkin head, but this is how I did it. I draped black fabric over my 4×4 post and used black electrical tape to keep the skeleton arms in place.
One of the creepy cloth pieces was used to cover up most of the black fabric. But I noticed the electrical tape was visible. I worked with it and ended up adding a second piece of the creepy cloth (see below).
Display Scary Pumpkin Head
Using more Dollar Tree items such as cobwebs, spiders and rats—the look is now complete! Hop over on Friday to see how I made the caged skeletons!
HT400 Heat Tool Details
The HT400 Heat Tool is a handy heat gun for home, the workshop and hobby projects. Because it’s small, it’s perfect for getting into hard to reach places and working on craft projects.
It features a dual high (680°F/360°C) and low (450°F/230°C) temperature setting that allows you to complete countless tasks. As a crafter you could do embossing on cards and embellishing candle projects. As a do it yourselfer, you can repair electronics or wire, shrink electrical tubes. In addition the HT400 Heat Tool will shrink wrap presents, aid in jewelry making and more.
Since the heat gun has a retractable stand, it allows for hands free operation when your project requires two hands. It’s available on Amazon for a great price!
Don’t forget to Vote Here by “liking” your favorite project!
gail
This is awesome! Voted for you!! Good Luck!
Sandi
Thank you, I greatly appreciate it Sandi!
gail
Wow, Gail… This pumpkin is definitely creepy! Kind of haunted and disturbing, and I love it! Great use for tge heat gun that I never would have thought of!
Thank you so much! I’m sort of immune to him now, but when I first made him and he was hanging out in the kitchen, I made him face the wall so he wouldn’t catch me off guard…. lol
gail