How to carve a Halloween pumpkin
I really love Halloween, all the dressing up and spookiness is such fun!
This year, I thought I’d attempt my first pumpkin carving ever. I always imagined it would be quite difficult, as pumpkins are quite heavy and thick- skinned. So I downloaded a template which looked easy and not to much detail. I thought the skin would be really difficult to carve through and was so surprised at how easy it was!
I thought it would be fun to share my first attempt with everyone so you could either try this yourself or at least laugh at my efforts.
Step 1:
Choose a smooth, umblemished pumpkin.
Attach a pumpkin carving pattern, using cellotape. Here I have chosen a Halloween-themed pattern (obviously!) with two vampire bats.. Bwah hah hah!
Step 2:
Poke tiny holes through the pattern, using a skewer. I used a cork screw because it was there.
Don’t make large holes, you only need the holes as a guidline for when you start to cut into the pumpkin.
Step 3:
Remove the pattern from the pumpkin. Here you can see my pattern. If you have trouble seeing the pattern, you can rub some talcum powder into the holes and this will show up the pattern better.
Step 4:
Draw a shape for the removable top of the pumpkin. Cut out the shape but make sure you cut at an angle, so the pumpkin top won’t fall into the pumpkin once you’ve cut it.
Step 5:
Time to get squelchy! Get your hands in there and start pulling out all that pumpkin goop!
Scrape out the rest with a short-handled spoon. Better yet, get a pumpkin carving kit – the tools in these make the job a lot easier and safer.
Once that is done, you can start the really fun part, carving!
Step 6:
For my carving, I used a child’s kitchen knife. My nephews and nieces use these knives when we cook together. It’s safer because you can run the knife along your hand without cutting, yet still seems to cut things really well. I’m not really sure how that works but it’s really a great tool.
For larger shapes, cut out in smaller pieces.
Step 7: Whoops! Back to Step 5 for me!:
Ooops! Make sure you have de-gooped properly! I didn’t get out all those stringy bits and when I cut out my pattern, you could see lots of stringy pumpkin bits hanging out.
Step 7 (essential):
Pat the dog. Archie has grown tired of waiting for cuddles and has fallen asleep on the kitchen floor.
Step 8:
Wash out the pumpkin and dry with a paper towel.
Step 9:
Make your room smell great by sticking some cloves in the pumpkin-top and sprinkling some cinnamon onto it.
Step 10:
Add a candle and light! It looks amazing and smells so good!
If you would like to learn a lot more about the art of pumpkin carving, you can visit The Pumpkin Lady, who has lots of really helpful videos to get you started. She also sells creative patterns from really easy to advanced. I am going to try one of her patterns and will post it soon.
The bat-shaped pattern I used here was from e-How.
I hope you found this fun and helpful. If you were inspired to carve a pumpkin, I would love you to send me your photos, so I can post them on my blog.
Happy carving!
Related posts:
We’ve gone pumpkin carving crazy!
Halloween costumes.. for dogs
How to make your own Gingerbread Yoga people
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