How to Carve a Pumpkin - Select a pumpkin carving pattern. It helps to know where you want to go before you start going! Once you know what you want to do with your pumpkin, it will give the pumpkin selection process a little more direction. It helps to have a copy of your pumpkin carving stencil or face when you go shopping for your pumpkin.
- Get a pumpkin! If you have time, we always recommend doing a hay ride and selecting your pumpkin right off of the farm. It always seems to get us in the spirit of the fall season.
- Dust off or Buy some pumpkin carving tools. Pumpkins have been carved by everything from a kitchen knife to a jig saw. It is really up to you. If you are using power tools, be safe! We have found routers and Dremels to be helpful. Things like jig saws and sawzalls don’t really offer enough control for the designs we like to carve. There are pumpkin carving kits for sale. We’ve seen prices from 3 dollars to 100 dollars. If you’re carving intricate designs and you plan on doing it every year, a good set of pumpkin carving tools are probably worth the investment.
- Cut the pumpkin cap. Draw a hexagon on top of the pumpkin around the stem. You can draw a circle but we find the hexagon is easier to follow when carving. The hexagon should be a little bigger than the size of your hand. Also, when you cut the hexagon, angle the knife so that the hexagon cap is shaped like a cone. This tapered edge helps so that the cap stays in place as the pumpkin dehydrates (and doesn’t fall onto the candle).
- Clean the inside of the pumpkin! The pumpkin scoops in the kits or an ice cream scoop works well for scooping out all of the seeds and pumpkin guts. Make sure you save the seeds (for the next step)! Also, when you are carving, it helps to thin the walls a little bit. Thinner pumpkin walls make the pumpkin easier to carve.
- Roasting pumpkin seeds! Yummy! Hey, you don’t need to do this to carve your pumpkin but it’s your loss. It’s great to make something useful out of the “waste”. For children, that’s an educational conversation all by itself. Roasting pumpkin seeds is just one of those things that make the event more memorable so we think you should do it! How? It’s easy! Just separate the seed and rinse them. Don’t rinse them too much as the pumpkin guts give them more flavor. Put the seeds in a bowl, pour melted butter and salt over them. Then, spray a little olive oil on a cookie sheet and spread out the pumpkin seeds fairly evenly on a cookie sheet. Heat the oven to about 200 degrees F and cook for 30-40 minutes.
- Trace the pumpkin design onto the pumpkin. If you’re an artist, you can draw the design directly on the pumpkin. However, for most of us, the process is to print out the pumpkin carving design and then tape it to the pumpkin. Using a pointed instrument (which is may be included your pumpkin carving kit), poke through the paper and transfer the design onto the pumpkin. Be very careful not to let the paper around too much while transferring the design.
- Mark the areas that will be removed. This step helps keep you organized while carving and allows you to keep the big picture in mind. The hole that you poked into the pumpkin are usually hard to see so shading the areas that will be removed allows you to go through and carve little piece at a time without getting distracted.
- Carve the pumpkin. Use your tools to carve along the dotted line and cutout the shaded areas! We recommend carving the SMALLEST areas first. These are the most difficult cuts and it helps to have the full support of the pumpkin wall when making them. When you start removing big pieces of the pumpkin wall, the wall loses some of its rigidity.
- Place a candle inside. Take a second to inspect and enjoy your hard work! Place a candle inside, light it, return the cap and then turn out the lights! Take some pictures (and keep the flash on a night setting if you have it). Send us some pictures. We would love to show off your work!
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