How Not to Finish a Jack-O-Lantern by Halloween

I followed the tutorial here to make myself a papier mache Jack-O-Lantern. I had no idea how long this would take, so it's still a work in progress.

First I stuffed some plastic bags with crumpled newspaper, wrapped string around it to make indentations, and attached a 'stem' of rolled newspaper.

Then I put layers of newspaper dipped in my home-made glue onto pumpkin number one.  This took so long that I had to stop after layer three (of six or more) and leave it there.  I never got to pumpkins two and three.

Then I cut a hole in the bottom, pulled out the bag and paper, and then 'carved' a Jack-O-Lantern face into my pumpkin.

At this point, I looked at my pumpkin and thought, "I could stop here, paint it, and it would be finished.  But the tutorial says to go on, so....

I passed the point of no return and glued strips of cereal boxes around the openings.  I was supposed to sculpt further details with papier mache clay, but the clay took a day to make, and it went bad before I had the chance to use it.

So, my pumpkin still looks like that, and that's how I used it for Halloween. I still plan to finish it, but that kind of time is hard to come by when you have a toddler. Maybe my papier-mache-sculpting career will have to wait a few years.