{try this: sculpted pumpkins}

I almost wrote {try this: carved pumpkins} in the title, then realized people would think... no kidding?  Ha. Then I realized "sculpted" was actually a more fitting word.

It's been a few years since I carved a pumpkin for Halloween & I was reminded last Friday about how much I love to do it.  But instead of carving something this time, my friend & I went a different route at our neighbor's pumpkin party. We... stabbed our pumpkin! We took two screwdrivers, each with a different thickness, and poked holes in its alternating creases.

It looked awesome lit up:

Unfortunately that pumpkin's story ends sadly. We kept it inside during what felt like one of hottest weekends this year & I guess it couldn't take the humidity? I noticed it wilting on our counter & when I went over to inspect, it disintegrated at my touch. It literally turned into water; it was bizarre. We were, & still are, equal parts annoyed, amused, & freaked out.

Luckily we have another pumpkin! One I am so love with. If you know me or my family, you know we're obsessed with the Peanuts gang. The comic never fails to crack my mom & I up. We also think our dog is a personified version of Snoopy. So when I found this photo online, I decided to sculpt it out of my pumpkin.

Truth be told, I didn't think it would work, so I don't have any photos of the process!  But this is a great article for reference.

The first thing I did was hollow out the pumpkin, then scraped & smoothed the inside walls. After free-handing the drawing on a piece of paper, I simply taped it to the pumpkin & poked tiny holes around the outline to map it out. Once the paper was removed, I carefully carved around the edges.  I used this tool for the whole thing.

Look how great it turned out...

The idea is to carve deep enough to let light come through, but not deep enough to puncture the skin. I may take a knife to it & thin it a little more, but the light definitely glows enough as is.

It took about three hours {!!!} in total. The more detailed the design, the harder it's going to be. Believe me – I attempted it on a smaller, tougher-skinned pumpkin & gave up in twenty minutes. But although tedious, it was a simple, fun project. 

There are so many designs you can do... you should try it before the big night!