How to Carve a Pumpkin for Halloween Pumpkin Carving Tips and Instructions

Then, scrape the inside of the pumpkin with your spoon to remove any soft tissue and prevent rotting. Now, cut out your design with the knife using an up and down motion along each line you drew. Finally, set a candle or light inside of your carved pumpkin and put the top back on.

You won’t have a lid to fall in as the pumpkin softens. Be sure to consider the ugly, asymmetrical pumpkins, as you can often use their shape as part of your design. Read on to learn more about how to carve a pumpkin and why we carve them in the first place. Pumpkins are not gourds, even though pumpkins and gourds are both used for fall decorating.

Churches, clubs, schools, sports teams, civic organizations, and more make the money they need with a Rada fundraiser. In order to tell if a pumpkin is ripe, look at the stem. Don’t pick a pumpkin if the stem seems loose or looks like it is beginning to rot. Fresh lime juice leads to a slightly tangy finish. Plus, discover some of the more cutting-edge names that are dominating the trend scene.

Draw the proposed cut on the skin with a felt tip marker. I recommend drawing the opening on the bottom of the pumpkin. First clean the seeds you collected by removing all the large bits of pulp with your fingers. In hot weather, storing your jack-o’-lantern in the refrigerator when not displaying it is a great way to extend its life, if you have room. A pumpkin with an intact skin will stay fresh and good for many months.

Try cutting a hole in the bottom of the pumpkin instead. That way, you can just set a candle or light on the cut-out base and put the pumpkin on top instead of reaching inside to light it. One option is to go online and find a design idea or stencil for your pumpkin. Pinterest is full of nearly endless ideas for designs, and there are plenty of other websites with great ideas, too. You can also buy a KrazyKidz book of Jack O'Lantern stencils, or simply use tracing paper to trace a design out of one of your child's favorite books and tape it to your pumpkin.