1. You’ll want to start out by getting a nice pumpkin. Make sure that it stands up nicely without rolling, is large (or small) enough for your desired image, and has a side that is free of bumps and bruises that can be used for display.
2. Go ahead and cut open a hole in the top of your pumpkin and start to gut the insides. If you already have a pumpkin carving kit, you can use the scoop from that to remove the gunk, otherwise just use a similar shaped cooking utensil.
3. You’re also going to want to scrape off a significant portion of the inner wall. If your pumpkin is too thick, the saws wont be able to cut through to the other side. In addition, the walls need to be thin so they are able to let light shine through in the areas where we only remove the rind (more on this later).
4. Now it’s time to create your template. You’ll need Adobe Photoshop for this. If you don’t have it, then you can download a trial here https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?loc=en_us&product;=photoshop_elements (You’ll have to create an Adobe account if you don’t already have one…but don’t worry…it’s free!)
5. Next go to Image>Mode>Grayscale. Dialog boxes may appear, but just select flatten or okay. Then go to Image>Adjustments>Posterize and in the dialog box, type in the number three. You should now have a black and white image that is made of of white, black, and gray tones.
6. If the outer edge of you picture is not black, the picture needs to be inverted. Press Ctrl+i on your keyboard, or go to Image>Adjustments>Invert.
7. Print off your finished 3-tone picture from photoshop and attatch it to your pumpkin. To transfer the image onto the pumpkin, I like to use a poker that comes in a pumpkin carving kit. Use the poker to poke around the white areas of the pattern. Then, take a pen, and trace around the grey areas, push hard, but not so hard that you rip the paper. What we’re trying to do is create a groove in the pumpkin that you can follow along.
8. Remove the template from the pumpkin and find the grooves that you created from the previous step. Using the pen, redraw the lines directly onto the pumpkin.
9. From here, the process is simple. Anywhere on the template you see white, you’re going to cut out that area from the pumpkin (by cutting the shape indicated by the poker holes). Anywhere you see grey, you’re going to remove the skin and some of the pumpkin meat (by following the shapes indicated by your pen drawings). The areas where we remove the skin and some of the pumpkin meat will create an orange glow when we illuminate it. You can use an Xacto knife to remove these areas or I just used a box cutter. Just be careful to not cut yourself.
10. When you’re done carving, don’t be surprised if your pumpkin looks terrible. Take it into a dark spot and light it up with either a candle or a tea light and admire your work. It always looks better when it is lit up.
Just a final note: These pumpkins are not easy, they take time, and if you aren’t delicate, they can break easily. Be diligent and you will create an amazing pumpkin.
