Halloween gives you the opportunity to spend extra time together as a family or to have a reason for once to act like a child and dress up. This Halloween though, make sure you enjoy the traditional Halloween activity of turning an ordinary pumpkin into a frightful or silly lantern. Younger children can scoop out the stringy guts of the pumpkin, older children can help in the design of the lantern and teens can do the carving. Set the completed pumpkin lantern out on your front steps or porch to welcome trick-or-treaters to your door.
Things You’ll Need –
- Pumpkin
- Large serrated knife
- Large metal spoon
- Small metal spoon
- Ruler
- Paper
- Scissors
- Pencil
- Tape
- Thumb tack
- Pumpkin carving knife
- Tea candle
- Candle lighter.
Step Two
Scrape out the stringy guts of the pumpkin with a large metal spoon. Use a small spoon to scrape the inside flesh of the pumpkin to remove the remaining strings. Dispose of them in a trash can or pick out the seeds if you plan to bake them.
Step Three
Rotate the pumpkin slowly while evaluating what side of the pumpkin to use for the face. Measure the height and width of the face side of the pumpkin. Measure and cut a piece of paper to these dimensions.
Step Four
Fold the sheet of paper in half lengthwise. Crease the fold and unfold the paper. Use the crease as a reference for the center of the pumpkin's face. Draw a face on the sheet of paper. Use basic shapes such as squares, triangles and circles for the eyes and nose and a crescent for the mouth of the pumpkin if you want a basic jack-o'-lantern face.
Step Five
Tape the paper to the pumpkin's "face" side. Punch holes through the paper into the pumpkin with a thumb tack along the outline of the facial features. This will give you a guide for carving your pumpkin without leaving any visible marks on the finished lantern.