The spider pop might be easier than you think. There could be a template - usually those bakers at that level have done it so many times that it's easy for them. I worked for my father and he hired a renderist - an artist - to draw a school. He brought the finished drawing in and my father looked at it and said I'd like some trees. He told him where and within seconds he put the trees in right in front of us. There's a restaurant here that hires a painter - the guy paints faces for the kids like for a kids bday party.

I'm confused. Is your father a baker or what? I was an illustrator for an ad company. I can draw most things quickly w/o a template but making icing do what I want is a whole other ball game. But I've watched some youtube videos of professional cake decorators and it seems they can do most anything in a flash.

My father is not a baker - he was an architect. He graduated from college with an engineering degree. He was suppose to be an engineer and decided to go in another direction. My cousin is a baker - and has a restaurant. I watch the cooking shows - Masterchef, Hells Kitchen and the baking competitions. There's a baking competition on foodnetwork and another one on PBS. My father could draw things very quickly without a template. I've watched guys at work use templates and rulers. Maybe they used a stencil to get that spider. Yep the spider web comes in a template.

That explains it. I worked with templates and without. I got to be pretty fast.

I used to buy real pumpkins and carve them every year. Wow, what a chore with about 6 or 7 pumpkins. Then one year I started buying pumpkin-shaped gourds (about the size of basketballs) and cutting them with pumpkin faces. Now I just place my gourd pumpkins with candles and I'm all set. I put luminaria bags with lighted candles in between the gourds. I've also made "ice candles" before which are really pretty. Those are also pretty at Christmas.

Sounds like you enjoy crafts trynfindit - and I bet your neighbors appreciate your talents.