[Rich D]

I've been using LED tea lights to light my pumpkins, but this year, I want to try using a couple strands of christmas lights. For those of you using light strings, what color bulb do you use and do you use one bulb per 'kin or more? I've branched out into shading and I know they need extra light.

I was thinking orange bulbs and 1 light for cut-outs and 2 lights for shading?

[Zombie Pumpkins!]

I've never lit foam pumpkins with Christmas lights myself, but I'll toss out some of my theories...

You mentioned the LED tea lights. Are these the ones designed to look like actual tea lights with the shape of a flame and all? Those look attractive, but don't give off as much light as a bare LEDs or Christmas bulbs. If you're doing shading too, I can see why you'd want more light.

As for color, some hues seem to give off more light than others. A blue or red bulb might not look as bright as a yellow or white bulb. Something to consider. Although, for certain designs you may want a specific color. Green for a witch, for example.

White lights will just reflect the color of the pumpkin's inner shell. If the inside of a foam pumpkin is painted to match a real pumpkin, you should get the right color. But to mimic the look of candle flame and get a really nice "warm" look, yellow or orange would probably be the best choices for bulb color. Should look nice.

For brightness, you could always see what one bulb looks like, and if you need another bulb in there, it should be easy to adjust the cords on the fly. Other good benefits of using Christmas lights... safer than candle flame, they won't blow out in the wind, and they won't use up batteries. The only downside is that you'll probably need an extension cord and/or a close outlet.

[Rich D]

Those are the tea lights that I use. I really like them for cut-outs because they are really close to a real flame and are bright enough for a dark yard. But with 25 + pumpkins, batteries are getting expensive!

I'll probably go with yellow or orange.

I'm carving a couple dragon eyes patterns to put way down in my side yard and I'll probably go with red for those!

[Pumpken]

I have used strings of Christmas lights for years. I use the c size bulb. I usually use orange, but sometimes red, green for witches and frankensteins, and occasionally blue although it does not show up very well. It really doesn't matter whether the pumpkins are cut through or shaded. Last year I did a bunch of Harry Potter pumpkins and lit them with dollar store LED lights so the collection would stand out. It worked pretty well, although I had to change batteries a couple times.

Here a link to a video of my 2011 displays if you want to see how they looked.


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Here's the link to my 2012 display
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[sloaner]

WOW. I don't know what to say other than that Ken. I hope to have a display like that someday. I currently have about 30 foam pumpkins and though that was alot, boy was I wrong lol. Great display and thanks for sharing the video Ken.

Edit: just finished watching the video and some of those looked real hard to carve/shade.

[Rich D]

Great carves Ken! That helps!

[ghostface]

Wow Pumpken those look amazing. I would love to do a display like yours one day.

[Zombie Pumpkins!]

Batteries can get expensive to replace when you have a massive collection of foam carvings. And probably more so with those small tea light LEDs which use special button cell batteries.

Thanks for sharing your input Pumpken. Your video proves that you know your stuff when it comes to lighting with stringed lights. So you use the C size bulbs? I've never used a string of those to light my pumpkins, but I do have some individual lights that use a single one of those bulbs. I know that one bulb of that type can light things up nicely.

Ever have any issue with the bulbs getting hot? And I'm guessing they are C7 size, and not the larger C9?

[Hottie McNaughty]

I use strands of LED lights and the color depends on the pattern carved. I find it's easiest to use the strands of lights because it works for ambient lighting as well and it's super easy to turn them off at the end of the night. I carve so many kins that if I have to blow out the candles I'm pretty light headed when I'm done. With the strands of lights, you don't have to turn off each individual one, just flip a switch. Mr. McNaughy is an electrician so he's got my holiday lights all rigged with one main switch.

[Pumpken]

I use the C9 lights. I used to put black plastic on my wood shelves, so I would have to put a piece of foil under the lights to keep them from melting the plastic. My wife convinced me we didn't need the plastic because it was dark anyway, so now I just put the lights on the wood. Works great and is much easier to set up which I do 4-5 times a season.

[Pumpken]

Thanks for the nice comments.

Sloaner, some of them are pretty hard to carve, but the end result is usually worth the effort.

[sloaner]

What type of bits do you use for the shading Ken? Can you post a link to what the bit might look like. I bought a few last year but I found really small areas hard to shade.

[Pumpken]

I use very small drill bits that I get at Harbor Freight to cut out the cut out parts first.



I then outline all the shaded parts with the small bits.

Then I use cutter bits for the shading. Since you have already cut through, you can see how deep to shade, and it is easy to shade small lines, etc.




I finish off by using grinder bits to smooth the larger shaded areas (I am not sure what you call these). The chainsaw sharpening bits work well (not shown).



Now you know all my secrets. (Don't tell anybody)

[sloaner]

Thanks ken. I will try 1 more shaded pumpkin this year and will make sure I have some of those bits.

[MIKECOZ8]

I too use Christmas lights for my foamies -- C7, C9 + those single lights that you use for lighting up those holiday houses
I have a few strands that were white but I used a Sharpie to color them orange, red or green for the leprechaun
Here is a photo of them all


or you can review page 4 of last year's carves

http://www.zombiepumpkins.com/forum/vie ... =13&t=5550