Vanessa Carved a Pumpkin

I got in way over my head with this project. It took a thumb tack, grapefruit knife, and a $4 pumpkin carving kit to make this jack-o'-lantern look like this. 

I got the template for Disney's Sofia the First character from this website. Looks great online, but it's tough to do with the small slices involved. In order to get the results you want, you gotta have one of those $4 pumpkin carving kits. Although, I recommend buying 2 because there's a good chance one or more of the tools might break in the carving process.

Helpful tips:

• Obviously hollow out your pumpkin first. You'll need to decide if you're cutting around the stem allowing the candle to rest inside, or carving from the bottom to place the pumpkin directly on top of the candle.
• After printing the pattern cut off excess paper, leaving about an inch all the way around the template.
• When taping the template to the pumpkin there WILL be wrinkles. Try folding the template edges where the design can overlap itself and stay consistent with the pattern.
• The next step is following the design by puncturing holes (time consuming). A thumb tack worked great and held up to the challenge.
• If you have a small jagged kitchen knife try using that before resorting to the tiny pumpkin carving kit tools because those are flimsy.

And if it all goes to hell and looks awful, don't be discouraged - it happens to all of us. Buy another pumpkin and start over... or ask someone else to do it next time.