Carve Your Pumpkin the Traditional Way

If you’re a new mother, or have never had the opportunity to actually carve a pumpkin, we’ve included this article to give you some great tips!

A well carved pumpkin will impress your friends, neighbors and best of all, you're trick-or-treaters! Carving a pumpkin into a Jack-O'-Lantern freehand is the traditional way. It is very easy and only takes a few basic tools. A large spoon or ice-cream scoop, a thin bladed knife and some newspaper will get you started.
 
With a long, thin bladed knife, cut out the top of the pumpkin a few inches out from the stem. The hole should be large enough to allow you tosc oop out the guts (seeds and stringy membrane) by hand and with a large spoon. Generally, the size of the hole should be about two-thirds thedi ameter of the pumpkin. While you can cut a round circle out, you'll find that cutting a five or six sided opening will work the best. As youcu t out the top hole, angle the knife so that the lid and hole will be somewhat cone shaped. This will help prevent the lid from falling intoth e hole. Now use the spoon to scrap the inside walls clean.
 
Inspect the surface of the pumpkin to decide the best side to carve your face. Now, visualizing the face you want to carve, use your knife tocare fully cut out the individual parts of the face or you can pre-marked the pumpkin by using a Crayon to draw the face onto the surface ofthe  pumpkin and cut through the lines you drew. When you are finished cutting, carefully push out the pieces to view the final results.
 
Make sure that you have scrapped the bottom of the pumpkin flat, so that the candle will sit level in the pumpkin. We prefer the traditionaluse of candles to illuminate our Jack-O'-Lanterns. A Votive candle, placed in a clear glass candle holder is safer and will actually last longer. Also, plain white candles give off the most light and will illuminate the inside of your Jack-O'-Lantern the best.