How do you decorate and celebrate Halloween? Over the years I have seen so many pumpkins. The carving on some of them is so intricate. I haven’t carved a pumpkin since I was a child. (And I don’t rembmer that, but I know my Mom would have never let that happen. I just went pumpkin picking a few days ago and found myself in the mood to decorate a pumpkin. I had no idea what I was going to do with it, until I received this opportunity to do a post sponsored by Lunchbox that included pumpkin decorating and a topic near and dear to our heart.
I’m one of those people that tries to include their pets at the holidays. A special treat for Thanksgiving, a new toy for Christmas… things like that. Halloween is a great time to get some tasty treats for your pet. If your dog is like my puppy Dobby, the day is sure to be a bit more chaoctic and possibly even a tad confusing which trick-or-treaters constantly ringing the doorbell. A few treats given out at opportune moments will let your pet know they’re still loved, and that they shouldn’t worry about you not being able to hang out on the couch together because you’re up and down answering the door.
Speaking of our special furry family members, what better way to celebrate having them in our lives than with a pumpkin especially decorated to look like them. This is easier to do than you might think. Just head over to the Walmart.com PETrify Your Pumpkin site, where you will find free pumpkin carving templates – 27 different breeds to be exact.
I selected the Labrador Retriever design, since that is the breed our Dobby is. It only took a moment to print out the template and we were ready to begin.
To use the template you simply fasten it to your pumpkin and them carve according to the outlines on the template. No special tools were needed, we just used an inexpensive pumpkin carving kit I had picked up.
I have zero artistic bones in my body. I admit it. I was a bit intimidated by the eyes. I didn’t want to ruin it. Fortunately for me, my oldest son is quite artistic. He handled the eyes with ease. We took a break right after carving the eyes and temporarily removed the template to check progress. One look was all it took for me to see that my son had gotten the eyes just right.
It didn’t take long to finish at all. From start to finish the whole project took under one hour. I placed a battery operated candle with a timer inside and placed it in our front window. It looks pretty neat to see it from the outside while you’re walking up the sidewalk.
When you run to the store over the next day or so to get Halloween candy be sure to pick up some special treats for your dogs. When they see tasty Beggin’ Strips Dog Treats with Bacon, Beggin’ Loaded dog Treat with Triple Cheese, Purina Waggin’ Train Chicken Jerky Tenders and Waggin’ Train Chicken Jerky Dog treats they will know you are thinking of them on Halloween too.
Which of the 27 pet themed pumpkin carving templates at Walmart.com is most like your pet? If you decide to make a pumpkin featuring the design of your pet’s breed, be sure to share on Instagram and Twitter using the hashtag #PurinaPetrified so all of the pet lovers can admire your handiwork.
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Your pumpkin came out awesome. I should make one out of my dog’s cute face 🙂
You are WAY more creative than I could ever hope to be! This is SO cool! I want to at least try this! Thanks for sharing!
We’ve been decorating a pumpkin for each the cat and dog for years, though we usually paint them. Thanks for sharing the great templates!
That pumpkin is so sweet! I am going to print off the Dachshund one ( I have two) for our family pumpkin. My pups love the begging strips!
That’s the most adorable idea for pumpkins ever! I have to get three pumpkins this year. One for each of my dogs.
I PETrified my pumpkin this year too! It was so much fun and I love how it turned out.
These are so neat. Your pumpkin looks great! I want to do this with faces of my cats. I think it would be really nice to see.
Those dog pumpkin carving templates are a great way to include your pet in the Halloween festivities. Yours turned out amazing!
What a great idea! Your pumpkin turned out super cute!
I love the uniqueness of your pumpkin! The dog stencil is so cute!
How cool… I can download the templates for free? Now this is awesome. I just got a couple pumpkins. I will be checking it out. I have two dogs I could do 🙂
This looks so good. I will have to try it with our pumpkin. I think the kids will love it.
Your pumpkin turned out so well. I am horrible at carving pumpkins. I wish I could do something like this!
So super cute! We actually just made two of these pumpkins for our pets! So cute! Love these!
This is quite simply the cutest idea a company has ever developed for craft. I’ll be the world has never seen so many dog pumpkins!
I love how creative and unique these carvings are! My girls are obsessed with our dog and would love these!
How cute that you can make a pet pumpkin! They make so many pumpkin designs for Halloween!
That turned out really good! I think my kids would love making a pumpkin of our dog!
I adore this idea and am going to go buy a pumpkin just so I can do it. I would love to have a Pitbull pumpkin!
There’s absolutely no denying the cuteness of this! I want to make a kitty one!
This is such a fun way to carve a pumpkin. Looks like you’re ready for Halloween!
Quite the dog; quite the carving.