Need a few pumpkin carving tips to help make this festive craft a little easier? No problem! In order to get an easy-to-clean workspace, spread out a layer of newspaper/junkmail/recylced paper on your table. If you have a particularly juicy pumpkin, Press & Seal wrap is a great solution to lay on your table – it won’t move around on you.
Some pumpkin carving “kits” (we got ours at Target for $4) come with little tracing wheels. These are so awful it’s scary. I am a costume designer, so I have a real pounce wheel that will poke you if you look at is sideways, so we always use that (in center photo).
Blow up your template or photo in a word document and print it out, pinning it to your pumpkin with safety pins, straight pins or even toothpicks. Trace your design with the pounce wheel. If you find that your little holes are difficult to see, rub cinnamon or flour into the holes to darken/lighten them. Once you cut the lines, the seasonings can be wiped off.
Here at the Redhead House, we like to cut off the bottom of the pumpkin. No lids to fall off, and it’s more aesthetically pleasing. Not to mention it makes leveling a rocking pumpkin EASY! Cut your hole as large as you want it, and then if your pumpkin still rolls around, shave off the edges to make it level.
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| edges shaved off the bottom hole of the pumpkin |
After cleaning out the seeds and strings, make sure you scrape the inner wall of the pumpkin (underneath your design) fairly thin. Our pumpkin was a big fatty, so Hubs had to scrape the wall down by 1/2. This will make it easier to cut a more intricate design, or if you care to peel the gourd’s outer shell, allow more light to escape.
Make sure to cut all the smaller holes in your pumpkin first. This will allow the walls to maintain their integrity. Cut largest holes last. If you accidentally cut something out that wasn’t meant to be cut, perform a quick surgery by inserting a toothpick to mend the pieces together. After cutting, use a toothpick to clean out all crevices, wipe the face clean and light it up! For other fun templates like the one used here, visit Spoonful.com
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