Carving a Jack-o-lantern isn’t an easy task.  But every year you get better at it, and besides it’s a wonderful way to unleash your scary, creative side.

The past few years, I’ve resisted carving the now readily available faux pumpkins, as I couldn’t see the value.  Well, last year our daughter carved the most fabulous pumpkin, but it was gone after a few short days.  So the light bulb went on and I made a mental note to try a faux pumpkin this year, mainly because it could last forever and it allows you to work on your carving masterpiece over a period of days, not minutes, AND it is mess free.

I did some research on Google and decided on the “hot knife” method and ordered a Walnut Hollow Professional Hot Knife on-line for roughly $10.00.

Here are the few, very simple steps to carve your Jack-o-lantern masterpiece.

1. Choose your theme, idea and stencil.
2. Tape the stencil to the pumpkin, I use a heavy duty packaging tape, then using a sharpie, trace the outline of your stencil.
3. While you’re doing the above steps, make sure your hot knife is heating up as the hotter the knife the better.
4. Very slowly, start cutting. Don’t apply any pressure; just let the knife do the cutting.
5. Embellish as you wish!