Halloween night will be here soon, so it's time to pull out your carving tools to make your glowing masterpiece! We recently had our annual Pumpkin Carving Party and everyone seemed pretty impressed with my final pumpkin, including me! While it did take a little more time than the traditional triangle eyed face, it really wasn't difficult! Here are some tips to help you carve the perfect pumpkin this Halloween!
- Picking the right pumpkin - Pumpkin carving starts from the farm. Finding a pumpkin that has a flat bottom, the shape you are looking for and ideally a large, smooth surface area where you envision your carving.
- Don't carve your pumpkin too soon - once a pumpkin is carved, it will start to rot within about 7 days. I don't suggest carving your pumpkin any sooner than the week before you want to display it.
- Wash and dry your pumpkin - This will help if you are planning on using a stencil or a pencil to outline your design, it's also easier to cut a dry pumpkin.
- Making a circumference on the top of the pumpkin large enough for you to fit your hand(s) through, cut off the top of your pumpkin. You can ditch the kitchen knife and stick to the one that came in that cheap pumpkin carving kit you bought. It might not look like it packs a lot of power but believe it or not I have yet to find a kitchen knife that cuts through a pumpkin better than one from a carving kit, and I've got some nice kitchen knives!!!
- Clean out all the seeds and gunk. We usually save the seeds for roasting and throw all the gunk away.
- Scrape the insides until they are nice and smooth, it is not just enough to clean out the gunk. This part is important for a few reasons. Scraping the insides will help with any retained moisture that will cause your pumpkin to prematurely rot and also extinguish a flame. In addition, when you have nice thin walls it makes it easier to carve and your image will overall be cleaner looking, without all the pumpkin threads behind it.
Once your pumpkin is good on the inside, it's time to work on the outside. - Use a pencil or a marker to map out an idea of what you want your pumpkin to look like. That way, you can make any adjustments before it's too late.
- If you'd like to use your own image or a stencil, which is what I did, I have found that the secret to keeping it secure on my pumpkin while carving is to
- Trim your paper as close to your image as possible. Any extra paper will make it difficult to form to the pumpkin.
- Get the paper wet - you can dip it in the sink, run water over it or saturate it with a paper towel
- Place your stencil/image on the "good" face of your pumpkin (where it is smooth) and very gently smooth it out the best you can so that you can see the entire image.
- Secure your image on your pumpkin by wrapping it on there with saran wrap (only 1 layer). Your knife will cut right through the saran wrap and your image will stay in place while you are making all the intricate cuts.
- Use smaller knives for intricate cuts and larger knives for less precision. Again, I suggest using the tools that come in a pumpkin carving kit as some even come with little scrapers and skewers to poke out large pieces. Even the ones for the dollar store are sufficient.
- When your carving is complete, wipe down the face with a paper towel to remove any crud sticking on the outside and take it outside to display it!
Macaroni Mama Jack-o-lantern lighting tip - It seems to rain every year on Halloween here, so we've had a history of our tealights not staying lit inside our pumpkins. Another great buy from the Dollar Store is a pack of glow sticks - break one of them open and throw it in your pumpkin to create different colored flameless Jack-o-lanterns this Halloween! If you carve anything spectacular after reading these tips and decide to show it off on social media, be sure to tag us in it or use #pghmackid, so we can admire it!
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