31 Days of Lessons Learned: People Want Free Sesame Street Elmo Pumpkin Stencils

31 Days of Lessons Learned:  Day Six

People Want Free Sesame Street Elmo Pumpkin Stencils

Based on the my site’s traffic and keyword searched, it’s clear most of my readers have one thing on their mind – carving pumpkins!  ‘Tis the season I suppose, and like Marie Antoinette before me, if my follower wants free stencils, then I say “Let them have stencils!”

First things first, last year I offered up several links for pumpkin stencils, so I’m just going to post them all here for ease.  You’ll find free Elmo stencils, free Batman stencils, free Detroit Tigers stencils, and a few more…

Free Elmo Pumpkin Stencil, plus free Batman, Joker, Spider-Man, The Hulk, Disney, and Jack Nicholson pumpkin stencils – Only Elmo is shown, but click on the picture and you’ll get access to 28 other stencils.

Free Detroit Tigers pumpkin stencils – Also, since the Tigers are playing Oakland right now, here’s the link to the Oakland A’s free pumpkin stencils.  Here’s a pro-tip – every major league baseball team is offering free pumpkin stencils on their respective websites – go check them out!

Free Batman:  The Animated Series pumpkin stencil – This link also includes other Batman – related pumpkin stencils.

Here are some new links for free pumpkin templates.

More Free Sesame Street-related pumpkin stencils.

Links to a wide variety of free pumpkin stencils of varying difficulty level.

100 Free pumpkin stencils ranging from Cookie Monster and Curious George to Harry Potter and Mickey Mouse. – Seriously, there are lots of awesome stencils here related to music, movies, cartoons, horror, and pop culture.  This is a MUST check out.

Let’s not end it here.  If you have a fun pumpkin stencil you want to share, link it in the comments below.  Let us all learn from each other.  Happy Halloween!

Halloween Hijinks: New Devil’s Night Traditions (and a free Batman pumpkin stencil or two)

Day Thirty: New Devil’s Night Traditions (and a free Batman pumpkin stencil or two)

Tonight is the night before Halloween, which is also affectionately known as Devil’s Night (or Angel’s Night in the Detroit area).  Up until tonight, most of my thoughts of Devil’s Night revolve around mischief-making, The Crow, and Detroit burning itself down.  That’s not a very positive way to think of an evening (well, The Crow is a good graphic novel/movie), so this year, I decided to make Devil’s Night something new.  Now, for our family, Devil’s Night will include cupcakes, pumpkin carving (and if I have my way, Chinese food).

First, we have the cupcake eating…

Mmmm, this is a yummy new tradition.

Then, we have the pumpkin scooping…

Scoopin' out the pumpkins with Momma.

Momma's pumpkin gut bowl is fuller than mine.

Now, we apply the stencil on the pumpkin…

Daddy, I think you're doing it all wrong.

Then, we have the final product…

La La La La Elmo's World...

The new Dynamic Duo...all lit up!

If you’re interested in the Batman pumpkin stencil, follow the break where I’ll post the link to that stencil (and some of Joker and Catwoman as well).

31 Days of Halloween Hijinks Bonus Post: Free Elmo Pumpkin Stencil (and more)

Instead of Devil’s Night mischief, the Jackson family will be carving pumpkins and eating cupcakes from the Just Baked bakery.  Because my daughter is completely obsessed with Elmo these days, I’m going to turn my pumpkin into Elmo.  I’m not creative enough to freehand an intricate pumpkin, but give me a stencil and I’m all set.  Luckily, the Elmo stencil shouldn’t be too tough – plus it will make Lily’s day.

If Elmo isn’t your kid’s thing, Nick Jr. has plenty of free stencils on their site as well.  Unfortunately, they don’t have an Olivia stencil, so I’m sticking with Elmo.

If you’re interested, here’s the stencil I found online from a guy named pumpkinman.  Besides Elmo, he also has plenty of cool options including Batman, The Joker, Jack Nicholson from The Shining, and a few assorted Disney characters as well.  Come back to my blog later tonight to see pictures from our Devil’s Night pumpkin fun!

Courtesy of Pumpkinman_01 – click the image for all of his free stencils

31 Days of Halloween Hijinks: Healthy Pumpkin Spice Muffin Recipe

Day Twenty Five:  Healthy Pumpkin Spice Muffin Recipe

I’m going to say you’re welcome now, because after you try these Pumpkin Spice Muffins, you’ll be thanking me.  Not only are they super easy to make, they’re healthy and damn tasty.  My wife and I got the recipe from her Aunt, and since October is a month where pumpkins are in the forefront, I just had to share these instant Fall classics with all of you.

So, to begin, here’s what you’ll need:

What you’ll need

1 Box Spice Cake Mix (either Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines)

1 16 oz can canned pumpkin

1/2 cup egg beaters

Mixing Bowl

Mixer (or a big spoon)

Ice Cream Scoop

Non-Stick Spray

Muffin Pans

Here’s what you need to do:

(I just love pictures, so you’ll have to follow the link to expand)

31 Days of Halloween Hijinks: LMFAO Halloween Party Rock Anthem House

Day Twenty Four: LMFAO Halloween Party Rock Anthem House

I had another blog planned tonight, but after seeing this video, I needed to make sure you all got a chance to see it.  While the first thing I thought after seeing it was “man, this person has too much time on their hands,” after seeing it all the way through, all I can do is rave about how catchy and awesome it is.

The video shows a house’s Halloween decorations that just happen to be timed and choreographed to LMFAO’s “Party Rock.”  If you’re like me, not only do you hate the “Party Rock” song, but you hate it because it’s so damn catchy.  My wife showed me this video earlier today and since then it’s gone everywhere.  Please…enjoy, pass it on, and come back tomorrow for a ghost picture tutorial.

Also, as a bonus, here’s another video of a Halloween decoration gone wild (seriously – how do these people have the patience to do this?)

31 Days of Halloween Hijinks: Pumpkin Push Ins

Day Twenty Two: Pumpkin Push Ins

If you’re like me, now that we’re a little more than a week away from Halloween, you’re thinking about how to decorate the pumpkins on your porch before the squirrels get them.  This year, I have an added complication though – my daughter who isn’t quite two-years-old yet.  To be honest, I haven’t bought a pumpkin yet, but today at Target (while picking up a pair of fancy Missoni shoes for my wife), my daughter and I took a peek in the Halloween section…mostly because I think the way she says pumpkin is so damn cute.  We bought her a Jack-o-Lantern pail for her trick-or-treating, but we haven’t actually bought the pumpkin yet.

Well, while we were looking at pumpkins, my daughter also said “Elmo.”  Looking around, I saw this…

It was a Polyurethane pumpkin with Elmo pieces pushed into it.  Target also had a few other designs (Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Mr. Potato Head) as well.  I’m not quite sure what ones we’ll pick up, but I think the Polyurethane pumpkins and pumpkin push ins are perfect for families who aren’t ready to use carving tools with their little ones.

Example of one of the Target craft pumpkins

Also, here are some of the fun pumpkin push in sets I was able to find on the ‘net.  Some of these were also at Target.  Seriously though, just google “pumpkin push ins” and you’ll see lots of licensed and non-licensed ideas.

Mr. Potato Head Skeleton

Pirate Potato Head

Spider-Pumpkin

I also found this blog that talks about pumpkin push ins. It’s a year old, but still has some good ideas/designs.

 

Hopefully this blog helps out the families with young children as they prep for Halloween.

31 Days of Halloween Hijinks: Detroit Tigers pumpkin stencils

Day Eight:  Detroit Tigers pumpkin stencils

I’m sitting here watching my Detroit Tigers take on the Texas Rangers for the right to represent the American League in this year’s World Series.  In fast, aside from Halloween, October is also one of my favorite months because of the MLB postseason.

I’m not going to lie, today got past me a little bit.  I usually have my daily post up by now, but this is my first time at the computer.  As I was thinking about things to post about, I remembered back when the Detroit Pistons were a good team.  Around October, they offered free stencils for your pumpkins featuring different player’s faces.  That year, I ended up carving a Chauncey Billups and a Tayshaun Prince pumpkin.

Since the NBA offered stencils to their fans, surely the MLB would too, right?  I went a searching and sure enough, I found Detroit Tigers pumpkin stencils.  They’re glorious and I want to go buy eight pumpkins right now so I can carve them all and put them on my porch.  I won’t though because I need to go back to the game and coach my team!

Enjoy these stencils folks – and since I’m a nice guy, I’m also including links to the Texas Rangers, St. Louis Cardinals, and Milwaukee Brewers as well…even though my support is fully with Detroit.

Click on the pumpkin below to get to the Detroit stencils:

31 Days of Halloween Hijinks

As you can see by the above image, I’m getting ready for my 31 Day Challenge.  As extra motivation, I’m linking up with a collection of blogs filled with folks who are also doing other types of 31 Day Challenges.  Check out The Nesting Place linked over on the right in my blogroll (or click here – )

As you look to follow along my 31 day journey, use this page as your one-stop shop for everything.  While I’ll be adding each day of the challenge to my blog, I’ll also be direct linking all 31 Days to the bottom of this original post to make sure there’s an easy way to keep track of everything.

Based on my poll results, it looks like my readers want everything but book recommendations (too bad, I’m a bookseller, so you’re getting some of those too….), so expect a very diverse month of posts inspired by the Halloween season.  You’ll get everything from reviews, recommendations, recipes, craft ideas, costume ideas, interviews, and posts about all things that go bump in the night (among other things).

I’m very excited about this undertaking.  Thanks for supporting me in my efforts to make this October a spooktacular one.

Also, if you like what you see and want to link up with me on your blog, feel free to use the image below -Happy Horror…Happy Haunting…Happy Halloween!