How to Carve a Pumpkin That Looks Professional This Halloween

How to Carve a Pumpkin

1. Pick Your Pumpkin

   Scott's first tip for how to carve a pumpkin: Pick the best pumpkin for carving. Know how you want to design your jack-o'-lantern before picking your pumpkin so you know what size and shape to look for. ″If you're going to do more detailed carving, it's often easier to carve if you pick a pumpkin with a flatter surface," Scott says.

   Keep it simple—you don't have to hit the pumpkin patch to find a great gourd. Swing by a grocery, department store, or farmers market for a wide variety of pumpkins waiting to be carved. Avoid pumpkins with surface rotting or soft spots. But don't be scared if they're dirty; as long as the pumpkins are firm and have solidly attached stems, you're good to go.

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2. Clean and Cut

   Don't make the cut—yet. Wait to carve your pumpkin until two or three days before Halloween. Pumpkins soften quickly, so you'll only have a few days to enjoy your creation once you carve them. If you can, display your pumpkins whole and carve them a day or two before your Halloween party or trick-or-treating night.

   When you're ready to carve, rinse off the pumpkin and use a sturdy knife to cut an opening in the bottom or top. If you go for the top, Scott recommends cutting a round opening with a triangular notch. "Without a notch, it can be hard to fit the lid back in when you're done," Scott says.

   Then, start scraping. Use a large metal ice scoop or cooking spoon to clean out your pumpkin. Scott also recommends that this step occur in the kitchen sink for quick and easy cleanup—no more soggy newspapers! Just remember, don't put the pulp in your garbage disposal.

3. Outline Your Design

   To freehand a design on your pumpkin, use washable markers ($2, Target) to draw it directly onto the pumpkin. You can easily wash off the remaining marks with a damp cloth when you're done carving. Or, use a sharp utensil from a pumpkin carving tool kit to poke holes in a paper pumpkin carving stencil to outline the shapes. You can use a nail or a thumbtack if you don't have a poking tool from a pumpkin carving set.

4. Get Carving

   For how to carve a pumpkin in a Halloween jack-o'-lantern pattern, a store-bought kit isn't necessary (but it can be helpful). Instead of the carving kit knife, you can use a long, thin kitchen knife to carve your pumpkin carefully. If you're cutting simple shapes, Scott suggests pushing the pieces out from the inside; pushing them into the pumpkin can cause breaks and tears. To make perfectly round shapes, try using an apple corer or drill to punch through the pumpkin's rind.

   Even simple designs can be dazzling with some extra dimension; to etch the Halloween pumpkin, simply scrape the orange surface skin off for a different level of light.

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Pumpkin Carving Stencils and Designs

Now that you know how to carve a pumpkin, you're ready to pick out stencils from our collection to create your Halloween display. They're all free to download.

If you want something ghoulish and scary to entertain visitors arriving at your door, this spooky scarecrow is just the right amount of frightful. Or if friendly and welcoming is more your style, our smiling jack-'o-lantern is a grinning greeter. This cute-as-can-be owl lets lots of light shine through its many cuts. It's worth the extra time it will take to carve this beauty!

Be Instagram and Tiktok ready with this ghost emoji pumpkin—create a hashtag for posters to use! If you're a pet parent, choose from our 23 dog stencils or 14 cat stencils for your breed of choice. If you're more partial to woodland creatures, we've got a stencil for you, too.