Pumpkin carving is a fun activity for people of all ages and is also something I have not done in many years. When I originally bought the pumpkins for our porch, I had no intention of carving anything. The sole purpose of the cute small pumpkins were truly just there as a means of decoration. The mums I had brought to be displayed on the porch didn’t last very long and I was trying to think of other ideas to spruce up the porch that would last awhile.
Carved pumpkins seemed like a great solution since I already had a couple pumpkins out there. Carving pumpkins is an activity that Steve and I have actually never done together and neither of us could think of the last time we carved a pumpkin. As soon as I mentioned this activity, he started spewing out ideas of all the things he could carve while I had a traditional pumpkin with triangle eyes in mind. Since the days are also shorter, it seemed like a great activity to do after work before the sun went down.
To begin, we wanted easy clean up and opened a paper bag from the store for the guts to go on. I had drawn the design on my pumpkin before carving the guts out but Steve had done the opposite by gutting the pumpkin and then drawing the design. Either way works!
Once the inside of the pumpkin is free of seeds, you can now start cutting out your design. The carving tool we picked up felt very flimsy but when it came time to open the top and carve out the design, it did it’s job very well thru the seemingly thick pumpkin walls.
If you are not looking to purchase too many extra items to carve items with, I would say the carving knife is more essential than getting the plastic scoop because a larger spoon could serve the same purpose for scooping the guts out.
Once you’ve finished carving your pumpkin, wipe it clean with a damp paper towel to remove the excess seeds and strands that might still be lingering around. If you find difficulty removing the piece you carved out, you may push it either push it in or our depending on the thickness of your pumpkin and the angle it was cut in at.
Steve needed to remove the sharpie marks he had drawn out for a month and it turns out Purple Power was able to take sharpies out of pumpkins!
The most exciting part of this activity is to see your final product. Steve poked fun at my pumpkin’s mouth but I’ve always imagined them to look that way. Steve added eyeballs to his pumpkins so it seems as if they are looking at you!
We opted to get battery powered tea lights so we didn’t have to worry about any flames. They can be found anywhere and we grabbed ours at Target. Drop the tea light into your pumpkin and put the lid back on. Once it’s dark out, you will be able to see your design glow.
Overall, this took us about 1 hour to complete and we managed to finish it before it was completely dark outside (the sun set at 6:14pm). We carved the pumpkin outside as we don’t much indoor space but for those looking for more time, indoor is always a viable option as well!
-Michelle