Pumpkins from last season

Here are other pumpkins I've done.

Remember the best part about carving pumpkins....ITS FUN!!!!

Cut and finish!

Once you are done swearing and getting frustrated with the stencil, it's finally time to cut! woooooo!

Get your box cutter ready (i used the smaller one first) and follow your stencil.

Once you are done getting it cut, you can go back to deepen and clean all the cuts with the bigger box cutter.

Once that's done get some candles and light that sucker up!

The Stencil: the hardest part

Now we are back to the stencil. This is the most frustrating and time consuming part.

The stencil should be cut and ready and your pumpkin should be ready for carving.

1. Tape the stencil to the pumpkin.
--This is frustrating because the stencil wont lay flat, you have to bend certain areas so it will lay flat, but do so without manipulating the design. You might have to tape it a few different times. I know I get really really frustrated and end up free handing it once I take the stencil off.

2. trace the stencil with a sharpie.
---Make sure you are careful not to mess up the design too much, you are going to lose definition and the whole thing will be a bit fatter.

***when you look at the stencil once it is traced it looks really confusing which is why we do the next step...be hopeful it it looks overwhelmingly hard***

3. fill in where you are going to cut out so you don't get confused

Now you are ready to start cutting! YIPPY!!!!

Hollow out the pumpkin

Now that the stencil is ready we are going to take all the seeds and muck out the the pumpkin.

Start by drawing out where you are going to cut the top.
Because my stencil is large i am going to cut more out of the back than the front.

If you make the hole to small then its really frustrating to hollow it out.

I also add shapes in the back to prevent it from from falling into the pumpkin.

Cut all the gross stuff off the lid of the pumpkin

I put the seeds into a bowl because they are good to bake, or give to health nut friends.

All the stuff on the inside i put into a bag to compost it....or you can just throw it out

****When you carve out all the inside the purpose is the thin the inside and get all the gooey stuff out. Make sure you thin the walls, if you dont it will be a lot harder to cut the stencil out.

Stencil

For those of you who want to use a stencil this is the tricky part. I am going to do an Obama pumpkin, and because the stencil has a lot of small peices I am going to just cut away the skin. going all the way through would leave less deffinition...and this way is easier.

I dont know if there is an easier way, but this is how i do it
1. draw the stencil

2. cut the stencil out

3. tape it to the pumpkin

4. trace it on the pumpkin and swear a few times because it shifted.

This (i am going to stress) will be the hardest part of the pumpkin carving process.
If you plan to use a 3 colored stencil (the skin, shaved areas, and all the way cut), make a few different stencils, I did that for a Gollum. The trick for that is have a few different colored sharpies so it doesnt get too confusing.

Tools

The tools are rather important.

I dont actually have ANY of the specific pumpkin carving tools. I dont have the knives or hollowing tools. I couldnt bring myself to spend money of them.

-I use box cutters. I have one large one and one small one.
-For the inside (to take out all the muck out) I have just a normal soup spoon
-I have a normal bowl to put seeds into (to cook later on)
-a lage bowl or a plastic grocery bag to put all the stuff inside in.
-A sharpie to draw the stencil on the pumpkin
-paper for for the stencil (if you choose to use one)
-a normal kife to cut the top off (just a steak knife). Thats the thickest park of the pumpkin so the box cutter wont cut through it.

I also get a good music play list going, or some NPR podcasts haha

Intro

This is the first entry on carving pumpkins. I will go through tools I use and go step by step with designs from start to finish.

I am getting geared up as the season starts for pumpkins. Last year I carved pumpkins for everyone I work with...this year I plan on doing a lot more!

Anyways I hope this helps if you are interested on pumpkin carving, but don't know how to go about it...Obviously you can go about carving your pumpkin in any way that feels right, this is just how I do it, feel free to change any step or send me things that you do different or pumpkins you have carved!

Enjoy the season!!!