https://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/pumpkins-cyclops-and-evil-alien • Posted by Dragoness
Cost me about £5 for both the pumpkins. I couldn't find my tools so I just used one knife and a spoon. **Be careful, sharp items!** Choosing a pumpkin: Look for a pumpkin with un-gouged and relatively blemish-free skin. Check your pumpkin for soft spots, soft = rotting. Sit it on a flat surface to check stability. Pick your pumpkin based on what you want to carve into it. Possible tools: serrated knives (must be serrated), ice cream scoops, cookie cutters, toothpicks/pins, rotary tool, jigsaw, drill, linoleum cutters. Pumpkins treated with bleach last longer. If you want to preserve your pumpkin you need to do two critical things. You need to keep the pumpkin from drying out and you need to keep the pumpkin from developing mould. The best way to keep the pumpkin from moulding is to kill the mould spores. After you initially carve your pumpkin give it a solid misting with a bleach-based spray or mix your own mild bleach mixture at home. From there out, mist it daily with the bleach cleaner to kill off anything that might grow on it. Pumpkins put out for less than a week, especially in a cool climate, generally don't need to be rehydrated. If your carved pumpkin starts to shrivel give it an ice water bath. An hour or so in a cooler or bathtub should revive it, then you can spray with oil to bring back the moisture. Light up a pumpkin with candles, LED's, glow sticks, bulbs (requires some wiring) or go really high-tech and light it up with lasers that change to music! Happy Hallowe'en!!
Cost me about £5 for both the pumpkins. I couldn't find my tools so I just used one knife and a spoon. **Be careful, sharp items!** Choosing a pumpkin: Look for a pumpkin with un-gouged and relatively blemish-free skin. Check your pumpkin for soft spots, soft = rotting. Sit it on a flat surface to check stability. Pick your pumpkin based on what you want to carve into it. Possible tools: serrated knives (must be serrated), ice cream scoops, cookie cutters, toothpicks/pins, rotary tool, jigsaw, drill, linoleum cutters. Pumpkins treated with bleach last longer. If you want to preserve your pumpkin you need to do two critical things. You need to keep the pumpkin from drying out and you need to keep the pumpkin from developing mould. The best way to keep the pumpkin from moulding is to kill the mould spores. After you initially carve your pumpkin give it a solid misting with a bleach-based spray or mix your own mild bleach mixture at home. From there out, mist it daily with the bleach cleaner to kill off anything that might grow on it. Pumpkins put out for less than a week, especially in a cool climate, generally don't need to be rehydrated. If your carved pumpkin starts to shrivel give it an ice water bath. An hour or so in a cooler or bathtub should revive it, then you can spray with oil to bring back the moisture. Light up a pumpkin with candles, LED's, glow sticks, bulbs (requires some wiring) or go really high-tech and light it up with lasers that change to music! Happy Hallowe'en!!
Clean the pumpkin. Cut the top off, make sure it will sit back on and not fall in. Scoop out the stringy stuff and the seeds.
Choose the design you want and stick/ trace it on the pumpkin. Using the pumpkin carving tools cut out the parts of the pattern that are supposed to be cut out or hollowed out or scraped away.
I couldn't find my tools and didn't want to buy a new set (I did break some of the saws last year, very flimsy the blades were). I think the cyclops is O.K., but the evil alien doesn't look like an alien.
If I had a smaller knife I would have made the eyes more curved. This pumpkin was small so I wasn't able to do the alien exactly like the pattern showed.
Put your pumpkin where you want it and light the candle or snap the glow-stick.
**ALTERNATIVE TO CARVING 1** Get a drill and drill holes in a pattern (like an outline) or randomly for a starry look.
**ALTERNATIVE TO CARVING 2** Cookie cutter and a rubber mallet. Push the cookie cutter halfway through the pumpkin then pull the cutter out with a pair of pliers and finish the cut with a serrated knife. This avoids hitting the pumpkin with the hammer.