Hi All -
A little off topic, I suppose........but I'm looking for help with something.
I work in the communications center for an air ambulance medical helicopter program. We are based at a large trauma center and for Halloween they are doing a pumpkin carving contest. I REALLY want to win this.....there are prizes for me and our department if I win !!! I am hoping to incorporate some of my cake decorating skills.....I am thinking I have enough tools, gadgets, widgets and fluff to make this REALLY GOOD if I try hard enough! I'm looking for ideas.....and I know you all can help me with this.
My initial thoughts are I would like to have our Flight for Life helicopter be a part of this....(see attached photo) - "our" helicopter is based at this hospital and brings all trauma patients to this hospital. Flight for Life is A BIG DEAL around here so I thought this would go over well with the judges 
Since our helicopter is orange and yellow it goes well with fall and Halloween, too! Part of my thought process, too, is to maybe put clouds and trees around the pumpkin somehow, carve out the top of the pumpkin and try to put a helicopter coming out of the top (as if it were flying in the sky above the pumpkin (sky)......what do you all think?
I would love it if all of you could help me with this!! You are ALL so creative and fun ~ oh, anything goes (within reason). I can put things around the cake, on the cake....it doesn't just have to be carved. The ladies down in the cafeteria said a few years ago someone made a whole snow white stagecoach thing and won first place!
Thanks!
Suzanne
that seems like a really cool idea to have the hilo flying over the pumpkin... no real ideas of my own - Goodluck!!
how 'bout making the cake look like the top of the hospital landing pad, scary pumpking with arms sticking out the side with a fly swatter trying to get the helicopter( painted to look like yours with call letters and all) that is flying around trying to land. You could have little medical and rescue people on top of the cake. Maybe you can get Doug to help he always has great ideas!! Good luck with whatever you come up with and be sure to post pictures.
my idea is not as creative but I think it would still look impressive!! You know how they make those templates for pumpkins and you poke holes and then either carve all the way through the pumpkin or you can just use an exacto knife and just take away a portion of the thickness of the wall of the pumpkin then when it has a candle in it , it will show the photo in lt. orange to yellow and the rest of the pumpkin is still orange.....it makes like a stained glass effect and looks really cool. Well, my suggestion is to take a photo of the helicopter and try to recreate that on the pumpkin......maybe you could find a coloring page of a helicopter that looks like yours.....or use a photo gadget of some sort to turn the photo you have into a black and white sketch....there was a thread yesterday with a link to an online download for a sketch program. I think that would impress the judges if instead of a face in the pumpkin there is a life flight helicopter! You could still do the clouds and such around the sides of the pumpkin. I know , not as creative as what you were thinking of.....but I think it might look pretty cool.
http://www.marthastewart.com/page.jhtml?type=content&id=channel160008&site=
here is a page on martha stewart's site that show kinda what I'm talking about.....you don't completely cut a hole through the pumpkin....but you need to light the pumpkin in order to get the full effect of it.
That is a good idea K, come to think of it isn't there a guy here that is really into pumpkins and is really great at it? Wish I could remember his call name. Maybe someone here can remember. He even has a site where he has photos of all his pumpkins done in the style you are talking about.
Pumpkin tools should be on sale at Michaels for 75% off any day now. That's how I got them for my son two years ago.
If you could get a really wide, flat pumpkin, you could add the blades to the top of it, and carve the rest to look like the hilo. Add a tail, and light it up with a candle.
At least, that's what I would do if I were using the corps as a theme.
Theresa 
OT - hey, KHalstead, about your avatar - who had the nerve to take my picture before I had my morning coffee?LOL!
Theresa
I also carve pumpkins like suggested, but laying a picture over the pumpkin and poking holes then carving it out. You can just buy the cheapy stuff from the store and it works great! I think also just shaving in the design, not cutting all the way through might look fantastic (I think maybe that was mentioned before.) The one thing I learned from my pumpkin carving book that I will pass along is to cut a hole in the bottom of the pumpkin and scrape out instead of cutting the top off. It just looks a whole lot better. then you just set your pumkin on top of the light. I am sure you might find more info and pics if you did an internet search for pumpkin carving.
Well well well...pumpkin carvers!!! hooray
If it were me I would carve the pic right into the pumpkin. The yellow on the copter you cut right through, the orange parts you just peel away some of the outer skin. The black parts you don't peel or cut through. You put a light inside and you have just recreated the copter. I will try and work on a stencil for you
That is awesome cheftaz! I thought mine were pretty good (with my little pumpkin carving book!) but yours are really fantastic. Any tips on photographing them? I never seem to get a good pic. Should I turn off the flash and use a tripod??
here is a quick mockup of what it would look like. I didn't have time to do it myself so I had someone make it for you. Let me know what you think and I will forward you the pattern
okay, cheftaz YOU ROCK!!!!! I KNEW YOU WOULD HELP!!!
p.s. Your pumpkings are amazing!!!! I WISH I could make pumpkin into art!
thank you merissa, dolfin, mkerton, KHalstead
and ayone else I may have missed
Photographing---digital camera--tripod,tipod,tripod
Must use tripod or something else so camera will not move.
No flash
Take just before it gets totally dark
Use a backlight (light on off to the side or behind) but out of the pic
Make sure there is a bright enough light inside the kin
such as this pic
Most important ---no flash, tripod, digital camera (play with your scene settings---sports,night,fireworks etc)and take loads of pics to find the few you will really be happy with
Wow, I just now had a chance to check my e-mail and posts this morning and 25 responses !! Thank you all so much....
cheftaz - I love your work. And that is so, so nice of you to do the stencil for me.....wow. You went WAY, WAY above and beyond on this one !!.....where did you find the flight for life pic??? I know there is a kid out there who has his own website where there are hundreds of helicopter pics but I can't remember his name. It's kind of funny that this is the picture you found, as I just this morning got done doing a FBCT of this very picture. I have to run out the door right now but will be back in awhile....can you tell me if I should just enlarge the picture that you made then copy it, put it on the pumpkin and then poke around it to get the design?? Your stuff looks so great I do wonder how you do it!!
Thanks again everyone for your great ideas and advice!!
Suzanne
Cheftaz
thank you for the info on the photography, I am going to do my pumpkin this weekend.
I am also wondering about the stencil that you posted of the helicopter...How exactly do you do it? Is it something done on the computer? I am just wondering for cake decorating puposes too, you know for FBCT and such???
thanks. I will post the actual pattern which I (like I said) had someone make for me and I will email a copy to you Merissa and auntsushi explaining what to do.
something done on the computer?
Yes it is done on a computer. It is a somewhat long process. You have to grayscale, posterize, reduce colors to 3, play with the brightness and contrast to highlight the details etc.
I found the photo by doing a google search on the tail number N396LG
thanks. I will post the actual pattern which I (like I said) had someone make for me and I will email a copy to you Merissa and auntsushi explaining what to do.
something done on the computer?
Yes it is done on a computer. It is a somewhat long process. You have to grayscale, posterize, reduce colors to 3, play with the brightness and contrast to highlight the details etc. and then make a mockup of the 3 colors black,yellow,orange to give you an idea of what it will look like. Then print the grayscaled pic as a negative (this is done just to save ink)
Think of a pic as 3 colors black--pumpkin the way it is, orange--the peeled skin part and yellow--the cut through parts.
Coloring books and/or coloring pages work good as in my carving photos of the cartoon characters.
He found the photo by doing a google search on the tail number N396LG
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