Reviews of specific carving products by those who've used them.
User avatar
By suzika
#80831
The last couple years, I have glued my patterns on, then carved them like that. I am looking forward to trying an easier way to do this.

Mine is on order, along with a new carving set. Unfortunately, I cannot find my tools, nor my pumpkin gutter. I'm hoping that we can get into the shed this week and find them.
User avatar
By Raven
#81109
suzika wrote: Unfortunately, I cannot find my tools, nor my pumpkin gutter. I'm hoping that we can get into the shed this week and find them.
I lost my gutter and tools this weekend as well. I figured they must be in the attic since I had hastily thrown things up there when we had guests staying for a week. My husband has the only attic key so I had to wait for him to get home. He didn't find them up there and I almost panicked. He finally found them in our guest bathroom. Why I thought I would remember they were in there is beyond me. So, don't forget to look in places you don't think they will be. :P
User avatar
By punchi
#82672
I did the Grim Reaper tonight, and I really liked it. Had a few minor melt away issues, but like Raven said, it's really not a big deal, just be aware of it . I'm sold!
User avatar
By Euri
#83278
I was so excited to test out this product. There is nothing to add to Ravens very accurate review of this on the first page. I was interested to see how this product worked for a detailed mulit-layer carving so I'd like to share my results with you all (even though it's not a ZP design :oops: ).

I'm a HUGE Star Wars fan. The Pumpkin Walk I carve for had a Star Wars theme and this is one of my contributions. I thought we needed a space battle so I worked out a pattern from a picture online. In the past I would have printed this on paper and glued it to the pumpkin. I've had my own issues with that so I was eager to see how this would hold up. As this was a detailed design I had the image blown up and used two sheets end to end to fit the design on the pumpkin. A wonderful feature is that you can add the wrinkles in the paper wherever you choose to keep the integrity of the design intact. :D
Image

Here's a close up of the pumpkin. I won't deny that this intimidated me a bit! :wink:
Image

As I carved I could the dissolve as was mentioned before. I kept a blow dryer and a dry cloth on hand to blot the areas just after carving them. This is taken after I finished the first deepest layer.
Image

This second layer was harder as there were more details involved in this step. This is when I really noticed the dissolve to greater hinderance. However in a way this was helpful. In the past doing these kinds of patterns with glued on paper I would have to stop frequently to clean my dremel bit of paper. I had to do that far less frequently with the fabric dissolving. Another benefit is that glued on paper had a tendency to flake off in large chunks leaving me to extrapolate the design as best as I could. The adhesive on the back did a great job at staying put while I was carving.
Image

After that step I heaved a huge sigh of relief! I only had 3 1/2 hours to finish this so regretably I had to leave out some smaller details to finish in time. If I were to carve this again I would spend more time on it for those. Now I just had to smooth out my cuts and make sure my depth was even.
Image

One other feature I LOVED was that the fabric did just dissolve with a bit of rubbing. I didn't have to worry about cleaning out all my cuts with toothpicks just to get rid of the pattern paper.

So the finished result! Right side:
Image

The left side:
Image

And center of the pumpkin:
Image

And this is a Han Solo I also carved for the walk using the stick n carve:
Image

In my experience and the type of carving I like to do this far exceeds the paper/glue on method for me. My final word: Until such time, if ever, that we can actually print our patterns directly on the pumpkins themselves this is the very best transfer method out there. :thumbsup:
User avatar
By Zombie Pumpkins!
#83280
Euri, that was so very helpful! Thanks for sharing your experience and photos. Glad to know that with the techniques, this product works on shaded patterns too! Nice carves by the way! Now let me ask... did you have help on that second design, or did you do it Solo? :roll:

Oh and by the way... you should nag me for more Star Wars patterns next year.
User avatar
By Euri
#83283
Haha! I did do it Solo but I can't deny that it was a little Chewy. 8) In fact I made certain that your Chewbacca was on our display.

Seriously, I believe this product saved at least an hour off my carve of the space battle.

I have permission to nag the Patchmaster?? :twisted: You got it!! I think when I first discovered the site back during Attack I was SO happy to find your Yoda and Maul that I sent you off a quick email begging for more and even asking for ships. I'll see if i can dig that up and send it on a regular basis. :wink:

Now I'm in the mood for some nice relaxing ZP carving.
User avatar
By Zombie Pumpkins!
#83284
Star Wars is classic, and I haven't done any patterns from that franchise in quite a while. I think my skills have improved since I did those older patterns, so I think it's time to return to that galaxy far far away. For now, you'll just have to wait in the Labyrinth with Jareth.
User avatar
By Euri
#83400
It's a great time to return to the galaxy far, far away! But in the meantime I'll be quite happy in the Labyrinth as long as Jareth is there. :kiss:
User avatar
By shaft28
#83472
FYI tried out the stick n carve on my two Michael's foam pumpkins and they worked really well.

Printing was a snap, just remember to take out any other paper of your printer. Mine rejected it (I suspect the slick side) a few times until it took.

Stick on very well, but realize unlike a real pumpkin it sticks REALLY well. Now it's thin so way easier to apply than paper so it goes super quick. If you make a mistake take it off immediately if you can. After a few minutes, it is there until you wash off. Fortunately if you have a little mistake, just draw on it and carve that area.

Cutting, I found you want to press it on fairly hard to make sure all the creases are stuck to. Don't leave gaps or bubbles. Once it is stuck it cuts great (just used hand tools, haven't found the dremel bits since we moved, boo!).
Only areas of concern, fine detail. I carved Gandalf and found some of the very thin areas that i cut all around, the pattern came up a little bit. I'd say of the delicate area about 10% came up. Nothing big, just be wary it can happen.

Washing off, my suggestion peel as much off at first then wash. I'd use hot water too and give it a good 30 seconds to let the water get in there before you scrub off.

Huge fan of this method. My least fav part was cutting patterns, seral paper, taping, re-taping, cleaning off blue seral paper mess... Seriously took me 2 minutes to print, trim and slap on the kin to get carving. Love it. Will try on some real ones shortly.
User avatar
By suzika
#83556
I'm not as pleased with the Stick 'n Carve so far. The past couple years, and this one, we have had particularly juicy 'kins. Unfortunately, this means the paper is peeling away and dissolving faster than I can carve. So, I am carving as fast as I can and they aren't great carvings.

I think more testing, or possibly offering some for juicy pumpkins, would help. I'm sticking with it this year, because I don't have any clue or saral paper (never found my tools, so had to buy all new this year.)

I'm going to try and get some pictures of the issue with my next carve to show what I mean.
User avatar
By NikkiRae
#83575
Finally used the Stick 'n Carve for the first time last night. I did the Minion and American Werewolf in London. It worked great. I really loved using it. My only trouble was on American Werewolf, because some of the parts around the mouth were small and slightly close together. But I was able to carve quickly and fix it up at the end. I figured out that if I carve the small areas quickly and then a small section of larger areas right next to them, I can come back to those parts without the paper being completely dissolved. Again, with American Werewolf I carved out all of his teeth and his nose, then carved out the part of the moon closest to that. When I was completely done with the werewolf part, I finished carving out the moon. The juices didn't travel all the way through the moon, so it worked out rather well.
By LindsSei
#83763
I had similar issues with the stick n carve. It printed great, loved the fact that it was sticky enough to stay, but you could lift it right off the pumpkin and reset it if you needed to. Molded to the pumpkin really well. And I loved that I could get just right to carving instead of poking holes. However, it does not seem to hold as well for the smaller details. I carved Walter White, and I did his forehead first (large piece) and found no problems and was like cool. But everything else it seemed to not stay stuck and would move... it wasn't so much dissolving from the juices (though maybe somewhat) it was more pulling away and not keeping its shape and therefore I couldn't really tell where my lines were without consulting an additional picture. But, it didn't hinder me enough from a badass pumpkin in the end :D

Happy Halloween everyone!
User avatar
By St0ney
#87467
Okay I'm not going to Bad mouth the product - For I think It's Great For Real Kins, or Foam if using a Saw, X-acto, Hot-Knife..

But - Just to let you guys know - You can't use a dremel on this, it will melt the material - the Bit will get caked up instantly, and the pattern pulls up...
I also Wanted to test a shaded design - Looks good with the paper backing still on, Once you get it on the pumpkin, the shaded shapes are hard to see.


I'm Kinda Bummed out this Does not work for my needs, It would be great for the more Simple stuff I carve like Company Logo's etc...

I'm still going to Stock Some - I think Folks would love seeing it, when I carve Live...

But I will need to Run Test for that, Carving In the Middle of NO-Where - I'm not going to have a Sink with a sprayer.
So I need to see what Happens if you place the pumpkin, in a Plastic Trash can Filled with water, And / Or Maybe a Spray Bottle filled with water...
User avatar
By Zombie Pumpkins!
#87469
Thanks for the report on your dremel / shaded pattern experience, St0ney. Not too surprising really. To make it easy to apply to a pumpkin, the material is thin, which makes it translucent. This can make shaded patterns with multiple colors (especially detailed ones) hard to see. And because it's so soft, I imagine it can gum up the dremel bits and pull up the pattern with the rapid spinning.

Too bad it can't be an all-in-one method for every type of carving. But at least we know now, so people can use the pattern transferring materials best suited for their carving methods and patterns. Stick 'n Carve has been designed and tested with traditional cut-out carving in mind, using carving saws on real pumpkins or foam pumpkins. And for the patterns offered on Zombie Pumpkins, it works pretty superbly. I know I sell the product and have affiliations with the company, but I would only do so if I believed in the product. It's what I personally use for all my carvings.