Click here to read about the history of pumpkin carving |
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A well carved pumpkin will impress your friends, neighbours and best of all, you're trick-or-treaters! Carving a pumpkin into a Jack-O'-Lantern freehand is the traditional way of doing it, is very easy and only takes a few basic tools.
Warning: Never leave burning flames unattended.You will need....
- Medium sized pumpkin,
- Large spoon,
- Thin bladed kitchen knife,
- Ice-cream scoop,
- Clean jam jar,
- Candles or night-lights,
- Newspaper
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| Instructions: |
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| With a long, thin bladed knife, cut out the top of the pumpkin around the stem of the pumpkin. The hole should be large enough to allow you to scoop out the guts (seeds and stringy membrane) by hand and with a large spoon. Generally, the size of the whole should be about two-thirds the diameter 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 you cut 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 into the hole. Now use the spoon to scrap the inside walls clean. |
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| 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 to carefully cut out the individual parts of the face or you can pre-marked the pumpkin by using a marker pen to draw the face onto the surface of the pumpkin and cut through the lines you drew. When you are finished cutting, carefully push out the pieces to view the final results. |
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| Make sure that you have scrapped the bottom of the pumpkin flat, so that the jam jar will sit level in the pumpkin. It is safer to place your candle in the base of a clear glass jam jar, it will also protect the flame from wind if you are planning to use your Jack-O'-Lantern outside. Also, plain white candles give off the most light and will illuminate the inside of your Jack-O'-Lantern the best. |
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