Custom Pumpkin Carving Tips!

Welcome back friends! So recently, I posted a tutorial on how to make your own custom pumpkin carving template, using any of your own personal photos or what ever your imagination could come up with. At the time I had not carved my pumpkins yet. So I wanted to update and share with you the results, as well as some helpful tips I discovered while carving mine. But mostly I wanted to show off of my pumpkins! ;) Although these are not the greatest, this being the first time actually attempting my idea, but I am still very please with out how they turned out! They are fun and a little bit creepy (according to The Hubs)! But the kids love them, and it is for Halloween... so I guess it works! :)

Alright... Lets get on with this tutorial. Here is what you will need:

1. Pumpkins (as many as you plan on carving)

2. Your Custom Templates printed out (I printed mine 5x7 size)

3. Carving tools

4. Scissors 

5. Tape

6. Tac or Needle

I choose to go with (fake) craft pumpkins, purchased at Micheal's. I knew if I did a good job on these, I would get all sentimental and wish I could keep them. This way I can!

To start off, just like you would do for a real pumkin, you will need to carve a hole in the top (or bottom if you prefer. *TIP* Cut at an angle to make sure that, once cut, the lid wont fall through!

Next you will need to make a few cuts around your template paper, so that when you're adjusting it onto your pumpkin it will wrap around as smooth as possible. Of course it wont be perfectly smooth, but slits will help. Adhere your template with tape.

Once your template is affixed to your pumpkin, use a tac or needle to start to poking holes. You want to outline all the black areas in your template. My son, Bruce, was super excited to see his face on the pumpkin!

You may need to exaggerate some of the lines, making the black area a little bit bigger than your template. You can see in the photo above, I did so around the eyes, as I knew it would be a little tough to cut out such a small area.

Once you are completely finished dotting out the silhouette of your template, carefully pull the tape and template off the pumpkin. You can now see the dotted outline of your picture.

Carefully start carving along the dotted lines. There are some helpful instructions on the tool package if you're new to this and need tips. Make sure to push your scraps inward inside the pumpkin, its a lot easier that way. Do this until you have completely carved out all the dotted lines.

Here is what the finished pumpkins look like! My daughter Kiah, and son's Bruce, and Zander!

I recommend, that if you are doing several pumpkins, you give yourself a good long break in between each a pumpkin. I did carve mine out one after another, and as a result my hand and wrist were very sore! This made it a little harder to do the smaller details, and I did end up messing up on Kiah's eyes. :(  However, over all I am still very happy with they turned out! It was really neat for my first time doing this. Here is an upclose look at them all together. *TIP* Since I am using fake pumpkins, I did buy electric tea light from the Dollar Tree to put in them, so they can glow without catching fire!

And finally, here they are by out fire place. I don't want to risk them getting messed up outside! Plus they look great inside with the rest of my Fall decor. What do you think, of how they turned out!? And I do hope you will give this idea of a custom pumpkin carving a try!

If you happen to try this out, please do share the results with me! Leave a link in the comments or share your photo with me on facebook, twitter or Instagram. I think it would be so much fun to feature your photos on my blog! So share away, I am excited to see what custom creations you come up with!

Much Love & Hugs,

Visit my In Post Sponsor:

Sponsor an "In Post" Ad!  Click {here}for more info.

Youtube ♥ Facebook ♥ Instagram ♥ Twitter ♥ Google + ♥ Pinterest