How to carve a Pumpkin (plus 13 free pumpkin carving stencils)

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Here is your guide to pumpkin carving with best cutting and lighting options.

Hello Magical Crafters. It’s that time again. Leaves are falling and everyone is going pumpkin crazy. Personally, I like only two things pumpkin related. Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and carving out my own spooky pumpkin face.

Each year Aaron and I pick out our pumpkins and try to carve out the best design. Now we have two kiddos to help with carving pumpkin faces.

So this year I’ve decided to put together some pumpkin stencils to share with yall and help you carve out a spooky design.

Plus I’ve put together some few tips down below to help you out this carving season.

How to pick a Pumpkin

When picking a pumpkin you want to get the ones labeled as carving or Jack-O-Lantern pumpkins. You also want to thoroughly inspect your pumpkin. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

• No soft spots, cuts, or dark bruises
• Sounds hallow when knocking on it
• The stem is in tact
• Shaped just right for your design

Tools for carving your Pumpkin

Before actually getting into the guts of a pumpkin, you first need the right tools. I keep a toolkit with all of the tools needed to help carve that perfect pumpkin design.

• Stencils- to help carve a creative design
• Tape- to hold the stencil on your pumpkin
• Marker- if you want to draw out your own outline
• A needle tool or push pin- this will help trace your stencil onto the pumpkins skin
• A keyhole saw- this tool has little sharp teeth to help cut pieces out
• Scraper or spoon – will help get the guts out
• Newspaper- if you’re carving inside for easy clean up

And if you have kiddos carving pumpkins, it may also be a good idea to have an apron for them to wear to help keep some of the pumpkin guts off of their clothes.

Carving your pumpkin

Before you start carving away, you need to clean your pumpkin from any dirt it may have. Cleaning your pumpkin will also help in keeping your taped stencils and marker drawings on the pumpkin. Just clean the surface with some soap and water.

Now decide where you want your design to be and then cut out a hole so you can get to the inside.

The traditional way would be to cut around the stem of the pumpkin and accessing the inside from there. By cutting around the stem you are killing off the last of its nutrients and speeding up the decaying process. But there are other ways.

One way is to cut a hole in the back of the pumpkin. Giving you enough room to get inside and another option would be cutting a hole in the bottom of the pumpkin. This method eliminates trying to keep a door from falling off.

And this way helps you easily to light your candle inside. Simply tip your pumpkin over, light your candle, and place your pumpkin back upright.

When you decide on where you want to cut your hole, next step is to degut the pumpkin. Grab the spoon or scraper tool and start pulling the guts out and onto your newspaper.

Get all of your stencils with one click.

If you’re not using stencils, use your  marker to draw your design out, then grab your keyhole saw and get to cutting.

If you are using stencils, you also want to get your tape and pin tool. Select your design out and tape it onto your pumpkin. Using your pin tool, poke through your stencil and onto your pumpkins surface.

This is giving you an outline on your pumpkin. Once you are done tracing, take your stencil off the pumpkin. Grab your keyhole saw and start cutting into your pumpkin following the dots you just made from tracing.

Lighting options

Now that you carved out your cool design, it’s time to add lighting and place it outside to show it off. Some lighting options you can choose from can be

• Tealight candles
• Electronic tealight candle
• Strobe light for pumpkins
• Glow sticks

Here are 13 Pumpkin Carving Stencils to choose from.

Happy Scarecrow

Ohh no

Happy buck teeth

Razor Teeth

Elder

Kitty

Pirate Pumpkin

Happy Joy

Sewn Grin

Basic Happy

Side tongue grin

Vamp

Say what

We hope you enjoy this Halloween tradition and carve up something spooky this year.

We’d love to see what you made. Tag us @ivylillies.com and share your pumpkin cravings. Have a Spooktacular Day!

Access some of our SVG files in our Magical Crafting Library, to help you craft the day away.

Did you know we have a Etsy Shop?

It’s true, we do. It’s called Ivy Lillies Crafting Co and it can be found in the menu option as “Etsy Shop”.

We have Mini Pinata SVG files available and other fun items as well.

Get your Halloween 3d BOO letters to decorate your home in spooktacular style. Or get Mini Halloween Piñatas for party favors.

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