Pumpkin Carving

Traditional pumpkin carving includes cutting a hole out of the top, carving out the insides, dotting lines to create a design, and finally carving a face/bat/haunted house all the way through the thick layer of pumpkin. I found this particular way of pumpin carving to much more fun! Not necessarily easier, but different than the typical holiday tradition.

With this pumpkin, unfortunately, I didn't think about it before and made this project much more complicated by carving out the insides before making the outer design. Carving out the center is not necessary because no candle is needed, unless you carve into the skin thin enough to be transparent for candle light.

I went to my local craft store, Michaels Arts and Crafts, and bought a ceramic carving kit priced around $10.00. I then went out walking through a park near my apartment, searching for some funky shaped leaves. I sketched the leaf shape on with a mechanical pencil (I found the mechanical pencils easiest to carve through the skin). You can also use a scrapbook dot to hold the leaf to the pumpkin to trace the edges. Once finished, I took the sharpest etching tool to cut around the edges of my sketches as well as cut off some of the chunks of pumpkin on the inside edge - this made it easier to carve out the center of the leaf with my widing carving tools. I used mostly the square edged tool to shave the inside of the design. Last, I used the round-shaped carving tool to shave the swirls, and VOILA!

This coming fall I will try some new pumpkin designs, and if you're like me and would rather see pictures than read written instructions, those will be included for Fall 2011. Promise!

Craft on, little birdies