Are you as excited about the spooky season as we are? Give us crisp mornings, crunchy leaves and a chill on the breeze... Plus ghosts and ghouls, witches and wizards, costumes and candy - and PUMPKINS! Now, for your convenience we have come up with the ultimate pumpkin carving guide, so you and your little one can spook the neighbours this Halloween!
Pumpkin Carving: A Step by Step Guide
Step One: Pick your Pumpkin
A VERY important step, not to be underestimated. Often your local supermarket will have a selection of prime pumpkins ready for the season - however a much more exciting way of collecting this year's victim is by going to a pumpkin patch and picking your very own straight from the vine! We love going to Sunnyfields Farm - local to Hampshire and boasting a yearly pumpkin display that really puts the spook into the season - and this year's display has a nightmarish (and also a christmassy?) feel to it...
Pick a pumpkin that suits your needs - if you'd like to carve a big design, choose a big canvas for your art. If you want to make something a little smaller, pick appropriately! No wrong answers and every single one will look haunting, no matter their size and shape!
Step Two: Prepare your Pumpkin
Once you get home, you need to give your new pumpkin a good scrub and make sure it's nice and clean! Then the very first carve will be around the stalk, to create a lid. Make sure you get a grown-up's help with any carving or cutting - unless you're using some child-friendly tools (like these)!
Once the lid has been cut through - gently pull it off the top of the pumpkin, revealing a lot of very juicy innards! Get yourself a nice big spoon, and get SCOOPING! It may take abit of time and elbow grease, but you should be left with a perfectly hollow pumpkin, ready for the most important bit...
Step Three: Plan your Pumpkin
Bear with us. Because here at Ever After Princess Parties, we like to take things nice and slow. We also like to make sure things are fully prepped and ready before we dive in - trust us, you don't have a job like ours and show up unprepared - so we are going to plan our beautiful pumpkin in advance. This can be done very simply by drawing on your design with a pen - but we have something slightly different in mind...
Pumpkin carving stencils are an incredibly useful tool, which can help turn any pumpkin into a masterpiece. Not a natural artist? Not a problem! Just choose your spooky stencil and we'll talk you through the rest!
Step Four: Poke your Pumpkin
Take your stencil and place it on your pumpkin, making sure to secure it in place with tape! Then you are going to take a pin, a pencil or a scoring tool, and following the lines on the stencil you're going to poke lots of holes! The idea is, when you remove your stencil afterwards, you'll have a fun Halloween dot-to-dot to connect. It makes pumpkin carving a doddle! Simple, quick, and looks good every time - even makes it easier to cut!
Step Five: Pierce your Pumpkin
(I tried to think of a better synonym for carve that began with P. It didn't go well. Let's move on) Now you've removed your stencil and revealed a series of easy to connect dots, you can take your knife or carving tool and get down to business. Pumpkin carving should be fun, so make sure that if you do make a mistake here that you don't take it too seriously - real monsters aren't neat anyway!
Step Six: Perfect your Pumpkin
Time for finishing touches! You can decorate your pumpkin however you wish. You could paint it, cover it in glitter, even sew it back up again for a particularly gory effect. The one important thing that you must remember to do is to put a tea light inside (or another small candle) and pop the lid back on the top. Congratulations - your creation has now come to life! Isn't it magnificent?
TRICK OR TREAT
Trick or treat, which will it be? Well... I guess we're feeling generous. As a special treat, just for you, we've got a downloadable bundle of pumpkin stencils - for FREE! Enjoy making some monstrous creations this Halloween, and remember to tag us in any of your pumpkin carving pics on social media. Happy carving, and a happy Halloween!
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