10 Tips for Carving an Artificial Pumpkin

Tips for Carving an Artificial Pumpkin – The artificial pumpkins found at Halloween time are located at many of the hobby and retail stores, they are made from a type of foam and can easily be carved to look just like a real pumpkin. Pumpkin carving is in a way a type of art form and with a little preparation and the correct tools and materials you too can carve the professional looking pumpkin that you have always wished for! Here are 10 tips for artificial pumpkin carving at its finest!

Research Pumpkin Carving Ideas

Look for pictures and photographs of pumpkins that inspire you, you can even cut out the pictures from such place as magazines and keep all the resources in one spot, possibly a folder. Looking at photographs and pictures will make your pumpkin carving a much easier task as a lot of time can be taken up trying to figure out what to carve!

Well prepared Pumpkin Carving Area

Although you are carving artificial pumpkins, you will still want to have your pumpkin carving area well prepared with newspapers placed on the work area and all your tools laid out in an orderly fashion.

Lighted Area

Seeing what you are doing is one of the most important aspects of Pumpkin Carving, make sure that you are in a well lit area so you can easily see your pattern outlines and where you are cutting on the artificial pumpkin.

Pumpkin Patterns

If you are not an excellent free hand drawer, I would recommend purchasing pumpkin pattern faces or any type of pattern that you would like to make on your artificial pumpkin. The patterns make for very professional looking designs and for the most part, they are easy to use.

Poke Holes

When you are tracing the pattern on the pumpkin, a trick that makes pumpkin carving easier is to poke holes as close together when you are going around the pattern outline. Once the holes are poked through, it makes cutting the pumpkin a lot easier.

Pumpkin Saw

Artificial Pumpkins are easier to cut when using the tools that are specifically made for artificial pumpkins. In stores, typically near the artificial pumpkins you will find little pumpkin saws that are sold to carve the pumpkin. The little saws are well worth the money as they make the job of artificial pumpkin carving a lot easier.

Light Bulb

Only use artificial light sources in artificial pumpkins, they are highly flammable so you will never want to put a lit candle of any kind in an artificial pumpkin.

Anchor the Pumpkin

If you are placing your pumpkin outside, you will definitely want to anchor it down by either placing a heavy object inside at the bottom of the pumpkin or somehow holding it down with tacky tape. Artificial pumpkins are very light and can easily be blown away.

Small Vacuum

I would suggest having a small hand held vacuum readily available, there is quite a bit of foam particles that end up in and around the artificial pumpkin when you are cutting through it. It is a great idea to vacuum in between the pumpkin carving process and also at the end of the pumpkin carving process.

Store Pumpkin Properly

Storing an artificial pumpkin properly can be a little tricky. Make sure you cover the artificial pumpkin well so no dust is able to come in contact with it. Also, do not store the artificial pumpkin in an extremely hot area, foam can warp and the last thing you want to happen to your masterpiece is for it to get damaged.

Pumpkin Carving is great fun and one of the best parts of carving an artificial pumpkin is that it can be saved and used again year after year!