Scary Pumpkin Carving Ideas – Great Tips for this Halloween

With Halloween coming up, one of the first traditions you’re probably going to be looking at is setting up a nice jack-o-lantern. The fun thing about scary pumpkin carving ideas is that your sculpture does not need to be perfect. In fact, the more mistakes you make and the more lopsided the carving is, the scarier and prettier it’s going to look. So, don’t be nervous about using your knife on that pumpkin. To help you get started, we have a bunch of the easiest of ideas. Read ahead and see how.

Scary Pumpkin Carving Ideas for the Novice

When carving out the pumpkin, you’ll want to begin by slicing off the top in a round circle. Remove the insides of the vegetable complete with the seeds and stuffing. Incidentally, the seeds make great teeth, so wash about 15 o 20 of them and pat dry. Set aside for the time being.

The Basic Pumpkin Head

Use an erasable marker to draw slanted slit eyes, a triangular nose, and mouth. Use your knife and shape the teeth in the upper and lower jaw. The wider the grin the better because you’ll be able to put in more teeth. Sharpen the edges into points for a scarier look. Afterward, you only need to place a lighted candle for the entire chilling effect.

The Toothy Pumpkin Head

If you aren’t all that confident about carving the sharp teeth, simply etch out a wide smile. And then, jab the seeds all around the jaws for that creepy grin. Remember, you can play around with all the shapes for the eyes. In place of the slanting eyes, try cutting rounds, big or small. You could also try ovals, either parallel side by side, or have the tops tilted towards one another to take down the scariness just a notch or two.

The Vegetable Pumpkin Head

One of the simplest yet scary pumpkin carving ideas is to shape only the mouth in any way you like. As for the nose and eyes, consider attaching other vegetables. For instance, use a pointy sweet potato for the nose. Cut apple slices for the eyes with turnip or radish halves placed on the center. Whole black olives can also do the trick. To hold them in place, simply use toothpicks.

The Tall Pumpkin Head

If the pumpkin is more elongated that round, that’s actually great. Because you can now have a completely original-looking jack-o-lantern. Cut a really big grin and place toothpicks for the teeth all around. Now that a really scary pumpkin carving idea. As for the eyes, cut off the ends of a dark-green cucumber and attach it for the eyes. You can also use a base of whites like, for instance, apple slices so the dark green is more vivid. Don’t forget to etch in the eyebrows.

The White/ Red Pumpkin Head

Pumpkins do not necessarily have to be the traditional orange. You can also get them in the white and red varieties. So, if you’re looking for some unusual Halloween decorations, get one of those and have fun with them. White pumpkins can have a really eerie look when they’re carved right and have a candle burning inside them to show off the orange interior.

Ready-to-Use Pumpkins

If you’re a busy person with tons of work and personal commitments and don’t really have the time for pumpkin carving, that’s fine! You don’t have to miss out on the holiday decorations. Stop by at your local Target or Wal-Mart for some ready pumpkin heads you can just buy and set up. Of course, you can also find a whole lot of add-ons for your pumpkin like stick-on rolling eyes, mustaches, gems, bats, and plenty more.

Halloween is all about having fun. And, while you can use your skills with the knife for scary pumpkin carving ideas, there are lots of other options out there. Pick what you like best and have fun!