Pumpkin Carving Ideas

Hello friends, Halloween is just around the corner. And I know a lot of you enjoy that holiday so I thought it would be fun to step outside the box of your standard jack o lantern and carve a unique pumpkin! But before we start carving we’ll need to hollow out the pumpkin. This is the method we use.

What You Need

• A sharp knife
• Hand mixer
• Ice cream scoop or large spoon
• Newspaper, garbage bag or edged baking sheet

Spread your newspaper or bag out onto a flat surface or place it on a baking sheet. Place your pumpkin on top to keep the mess contained. This is the messiest part.  Begin by cutting the bottom of the pumpkin bumps off. This will make it sit flat when you’re ready to carve. Now you can cut the top off, set it aside and get into the mess. (smile)

Start by using your hands (I wear food handler gloves) to scoop out the seeds and fleshy part of the pumpkin. If you enjoy eating pumpkin seeds set them aside. You can bake them with salt or cinnamon sugar or leave them plain and sprinkle them on soup, etc. Now it’s time to hollow out the pumpkin.

Using a hand mixer on a low speed carefully move the mixer around the inside of the pumpkin, this will pull away any remaining stringy bits and make them easier to remove. This is the one I use.

Now you’ll need to thin the pumpkin a bit. Using an ice cream scoop works well. Scoop along the inside walls of the pumpkin to make them smooth and about 1 inch thick. This makes it much easier to carve.

Before carving I always draw the design or pattern I want. You can use a stencil or free hand whichever is best for you.  Begin carving from the inside area you drew, and move outward. Please be careful! If you plan to have it lit from the inside you will carve all of the way through. If your carving only you will only need to go about a ¼ of an inch deep.

I found some wonderful inspiration for your pumpkins!

You can create a ghost pumpkin using a free stencil from Woman’s Day magazine. Please click HERE to get yours. They used a plastic pumpkin for this, but it’ll look great using a real pumpkin too. (smile)

Give your pumpkin some wonky eyes, I think google eyes would be great for this one. They used plastic Easter eggs and construction paper . You can see it HERE.

Look at this one! It’s a snail, that is so clever. You can find it at Alpha Mom. Please get all of the details HERE.

I love this very easy to create Peek a Boo pumpkin. I found at Better Homes and Gardens. You can see it HERE.

I hope this helped inspire your pumpkin carvings. Enjoy your weekend. You can still share your great blogs and instagrams (and discover them too) at the TFT blog hop. It’s open until midnight tonight. Please click HERE.