Pumpkin Carving/Decorating Tips & Tricks!

My family and I love to carve and decorate pumpkins! This is one of our favorite fall traditions, and we have been doing it together for 10 plus years! I wanted to share some of the best pumpkin carving and decorating tips & tricks with you. These are going to take your pumpkin carving, or decorating to the next level this Halloween!

Watch my Pumpkin segment on Good Morning Washington here!

The Best Pumpkin Carving/Decorating Tips & Tricks!

1. Cookie Cutters make a great carving template. Yes, you read that right. Using a cookie cutter, a piece of wood and a hammer, you can create a spooky scene without the hassle of using a knife or other templates. If you have the metal cookie cutters, which you can get a most craft stores, you can use this for an easy no carve pumpkin. You can hammer the shape in a few minutes, and you can do all kinds of fun shapes!

2. Using tools around your home, you can expedite the carving process. This has been a life saver in our home! You can use a mixer attachment to clean out your pumpkin quickly. This is as simple as it sounds, and no more scraping pumpkin guts. Use the mixer attachment, and dump the excess. Using a drill and different size drill bits, you can create a spectacular looking pumpkin that dazzles. This can be as simple or as elaborate as you’d like. This goes much faster than the traditional carving. I love the classy look of this dotted pumpkin.

3. Once you have these pumpkins carved and ready to display, you want them to last until Halloween night. Prolong your pumpkins freshness by coating the open edges with Petroleum Jelly or WD-40. These keeps the pumpkin from getting moldy, or sagging inward. Adding some peppermint oil can help keep the pesky insects away.

4. For the non carvers, you can use material like felt, stickers, string to do a DIY create a face pumpkin, like a witch! No carving needed! You probably have most of these lying around your house anyways. We like to paint the pumpkin a fun color, and then let the kids go to town creating a monster, spider, goblin, or whatever their heart desires!

5. Mess Free Glitter Pumpkins are amazing! My kids love to paint and decorate their own pumpkins. For little ones, use a pencil or marker to outline shapes, like a circle or diamond. Then dab with glue via a glue stick and let the kids go to town sprinkling the glitter. Shake off excess over a paper plate. Easy, pretty and mess free!