Pumpkin carving tips for your halloween pumpkins this year (Stencils, templates, designs, patterns, tools and more)

Pumpkin carving is tradition when it comes to decorating your house for this great time of year. It's a great activity to do with your family and friends, and is very cheap. It's an oppurtunity to let our your artistic side and get a little bit messy.

Carving pumpkins for halloween is a fairly inexpensive, quick and easy thing to do. In this Hub I'll be giving you the resources and tips you need to make the best pumpkins this year, and to be the envy of your neighbours. Even if you're not having a party or going trick-or-treating, it'll keep you and the kids entertained for a while!

Just a few things before we start:

• You'll need a few pumpkins
• and a knife
• and some candles
• If your kids are carving pumpkins, they must be supervised at all times
• Be as scary as possible!
  

What if I'm not artistic?

Well, that's no problem! There are tonnes of halloween pumpkin carvings stencils, templates, designs and patterns available for you on the internet. All you'll need for this is:

• A printer
• A pencil/pen

This is very simple, all you need to do is find some outlines on the internet and print them off. If you're creating multiple pumpkins, maybe try and link your designs together. For example, they could all be vampire themed (Bats, Fangs, Blood).

All you need to do then is cut the stencils out, and draw round them with a pencil on to the pumpkin. You'll then have your design ready to be carved.

Pumpkin Carving Tools

Okay, so you've got your pumpkins and your designs, all you need to do now is cut them out. There are many different techniques and tools for this, but the obvious favourite would be good ol' knife cutting. As the name suggests, all you do is just cut out your pumpkin designs with a knife. But wait, there are some things you need to do first:

• Cut the top off the pumpkin
• Scoop out the insides

Keep reading for a few tips on what you can do with the insides of your pumpkin.

All you need to do now is cut out your design, or just thin out the skin enough for the light to come through. For some great products you can use for pumpkin carving, check out the list on the right.

More Information

There are some great recipes which you can use the remains of your pumpkin in. For example, you could make pumpkin soup or pumpkin casserole.

If you carve your pumpkin a few days before halloween and it starts to dry up, submerge it in a bucket of water for a while. It'll soak up all the moisture and be good as new!

To protect your pumpkin from rain or wind when it has a candle inside, keep the top when you cut it off.