Halloween is coming, so it’s high time to plan your pumpkin carving. It’s a great family activity that you can do together with your kids. It’s gaining on popularity in Poland, however Poles still stick to the simplest monster faces.
Below you can find ready to print templates of cute spider and heart of Te Fiti spiral shape for Moana fans.
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Tools
The right equipment helps a lot in carving out the pumpkin. I have been using plastic tools attached to the template booklet for several years. The tools are of poor quality and there are less and less of them from year to year, but nothing works better than a narrow saw.
Template selection
Once you have the pumpkin and the tools, the next step is to find a template. There are a lot of templates on the internet. Just type “pumpkin carving template download”, choose the one that suits you the most, download the file and print it out.
This year we decided on the cute spider for the our little girl (link to the original) and the heart of Te Fiti for Moana fan 🙂
Let’s start with a spider!
Pumpkin carving
Cut off the top of the pumpkin. Here, the best tool is a thick saw or a regular knife. Before cutting, try on the template so you don’t cut too much. The hole should allow free insertion of the hand.
Empty the pumpkin. It is a quite slippery job, but it is important for several reasons. It prevents the pumpkin from spoiling and allows you to insert a candle. The wall on which you plan to curve the pattern should be hollowed harder to make it thinner. Later it will be easier to curve the desired shape.
Copy the chosen template to the pumpkin. There are many techniques here, none is perfect. Place a printout on the pumpkin and impress the template on the pumpkin. In the case of my pumpkin, the special tool didn’t work and the template wasn’t visible. So I used the skewer and made holes in the crucial places of the spider. Unfortunately, after that I had great difficulty to find out exactly where my template is. That’s why I outlined the template with a pen.
Curve out the pattern, but fist think carefully about which parts should be cut and which should remain. It’s best to start with the details such as small holes, because as you cut, the pumpkin wall becomes less and less stable and can break easily. Therefore, leave the large cutout elements to the end.
All that is left is to finish and smooth the edges. Insert a tealight inside, turn off the light and enjoy the view.
Nothing gives more satisfaction than doing something yourself. I haven’t even thought about DIY as my hobby, I’ve just done different “projects” when it was needed. Sometimes it’s a disguise for the Masquerade Party in kindergarten. Another time, cutting out the pumpkin and baking the witch’s fingers for Haloween. Or simply organizing holiday souvenirs. Now I decided to share my realizations with you. Let’s go it together!
