We asked expert carvers for their best tips on how to carve a pumpkin for a memorable Halloween display.  (Or save yourself from creative blocks by Good Pumpkin Carving Kit Free getting a pumpkin carving kit, complete with a marker, scraper, cutting tools, and pre-made patterns.) 6. Hold the pumpkin in your lap. It's easier to create features when the face is gazing up at you. Natiello suggests using a serrated kitchen knife or an X-Acto knife for carving, but to make intricate designs, you could try using a small saw. Just don't cut on a slant — clean up-and-down slices look best. 7. Start by making simple rough cuts. Carving pumpkins is the best Halloween activity to show off your crafting skills and get your hands a little dirty (plus, it gives you an excuse to whip up a bunch of delicious pepita recipes). By now, you're likely tired of the toothy grin and triangle nose design. Don't worry, though, because there are so many other creative options. From pumpkins that look like they're eating pumpkins to designs from your favorite movies–Harry Potter and Minions–there's bound to be a pumpkin on this list that speaks to you. And if these all seem too complex for your knife skills, skip ca. While these pumpkin carving kits won't make you a master carver, they will help by making your carving project easier and safer. There's nothing more frustrating than picking up a kit only to discover that the tools aren't right for the job once you get started. Broken or dull tools can injure you and make it nearly impossible to get a good result from your work. To help, we researched dozens of pumpkin carving kits to find ones that are durable, practical, and useful for specific carving needs. We looked at the materials that make up these kits and the types of tools needed for. Once good pumpkin carving kit videos are separated and patted dry, roast the seeds with just oil, salt and pepper or give them a sweet and spicy treatment. A sharp serrated knife will gpod your main tool for cutting and carving sections of your pumpkin designs. This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. This easy-to-create owl pumpkin requires no intricate patterns or pumpkin-carving skills and is an adorable way to greet Halloween guests and trick-or-treaters. The final choice is candles, the old standby.

Before carving, wipe down the outside with a diluted bleach solution. This will remove microbes that cause decay. When cleaning out the pumpkin be sure to remove every bit of pulp so it won't attract any bugs. After carving wipe down all the surfaces, inside and out.

Keep your carved pumpkin out of direct sunlight and refrigerate it for up to ten days when not on display, especially if you live in a warmer climate. This maintains the pretty pumpkin shape. Also, a lot of the gunk inside the pumpkin settles at the bottom overtime, so when you remove the opening much of the string and seeds will come out with it, making cleaning easier. Lastly, this also makes placing and lighting the candle easier.

Set the candle on the base—you can use long t-pins stuck through the candle into the pumpkin to help hold it in place—and then lower the pumpkin over it. As you clean out the pumpkin, put the seeds and goop in a large bowl of cold water.

Give it a few good stirs and a lot of the gunk will fall to the bottom of the bowl while the seeds float to the top. Once they are separated and patted dry, roast the seeds with just oil, salt and pepper or give them a sweet and spicy treatment.

Now that the pumpkin is cleaned out, you will want to thin the walls. Pumpkins tend to have very thick walls, and for the light to shine through, especially if you are etching a design, you will want to thin it to about 1-inch thick. The sharp edges make quick work of biting through the soft pumpkin flesh. Use a pencil, ball point pen, or tracing paper to draw the design on the pumpkin and then get carving.

The small saw-type knives in kids pumpkin carving sets are the best for digging into your design. They are small and easy to handle, and the blades are flexible so you can easily turn corners and make round shapes.

Faces are a really good place to start, and so classic. It's important to put some thought into your pumpkin selection, but what exactly makes a good pumpkin choice? Make sure that the flesh is still firm," advises Natasha. When it comes to size and shape, larger pumpkins with flatter sides are easier to lay your stencil on, but really it comes down to your design.

It's geeky but I don't care," she admitted. Before you can get onto carving, you have to prep your pumpkin - and there's more to it than just scooping out the seeds. Getting the stencil design onto your pumpkin is most commonly done by marking the design with lots of tiny holes. Natasha's top tip: "Once you have the design transferred onto the pumpkin, keep that stencil as a reference point because sometimes the dots will all start to look like they blend together.

The stencil will help you remember what they all mean. You can feel around which tool in the kit is working for you, but a general rule of thumb from Natasha is: "Use a larger blade to cut through long large lines, and then smaller blades for fine detail work.

Natasha's Top Tip: "Leave all the pieces in until you've carved everything, that leaves more stability in the pumpkin so you have a lower chance of breaking it.

Then be very patient taking them out because sometimes you won't have cut all the way through and will have to re-cut. Natasha also has some clever tricks for arranging multiple pumpkins to create aesthetically pleasing displays. If I have just two I make sure that I have different sizes, so that it makes it interesting.

How long your pumpkin last depends on lots of factors including the pumpkin itself, how long you have it lit for and the weather. However, Natasha has a few tips for making them last longer. You definitely don't want to let it sit inside at room temperature until you're displaying them. It'll help give you just a couple more days of moisture before your pumpkin starts to look wilted.

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