Have you carved a halloween pumpkin yet?  Want some inspiration for a pumpkiny work of art that will stand out in your neighborhood?  Well I've rounded up some of the coolest, most unique pumpkin projects I could find to give you just that inspiration!  Before I get started, here's an article on how to safely carve a pumpkin for those newer to the craft.

First, there are a could great flickr pools you can browse through to get the creativity flowing.  There's the jack-o-lantern group - I love this arty take on the classic face carving by BillyHutch:

And there's the Pumpkin Art group - so clever to use a small pumpkin within the carved large pumpkin like Tweddlebugs did here:

Now onto some tutorials!  Hallmark Magazine's website has a great set of "Fantasy Pumpkins" like this carriage:

Eddie Ross has an excellent how-to post for these perforated pumpkins, and a monogram version for a more sophisticated look!

If you like your pumpkins elegant, I think this floral-themed carving by Nancie on HGTV's website is gorgeous!

Go a different route with photorealistic carvings by following photojojo's tutorial for scary photo pumpkins!  (Of course, you could use non-scary photos with the same technique if you wish.)

Once you master that shaded kind of carving, scroll through these pumpkins on TagYerit's website.  They are a band that carves pumpkins to go with their songs - incredible work!!  They have posted tons of photos by friends and contributors also, so there's lots of inspiration here!

For nerdy carvers, Wired has reader-contributed geeky jack-o-lanterns up on their site, like Noel Dickover's Death Star:

And HughBeaumont's Pale Man from Pan's Labyrinth is amazing!

Some more nerdy goodness, acajjou on craftster posted these pac-man pumpkins:

For a less traditional pumpkin piece, check out Miz.Persnicket's craft pumpkin, also on craftster...

And speaking of less traditional, I love Tippy's blow fish pumpkin on curbly!

If you do want to go for a carved jack-o-lantern style, but want a pattern to work from, zombiepumpkins.com has tons of pumpkin patterns, like Frank from Donnie Darko, Napoleon Dynamite, Harry Potter, Mario, tons of Tim Burton characters, the presidential candidates.....

And I'll end with a couple non-pumpkin pumpkin projects, if that makes sense.  Bella Dia posted a tutorial for these fishbowl pumpkins using tissue paper and Mod Podge:

Lastly, stolloween posted a detailed tutorial for these awesome paper mache pumpkin guys:

So now hopefully you're inspired to get carving, and we'd love to see your pumpkin creations in the comments or forums!