about a house: to the letter

This year I decided to make monogram pumpkins for each member of the family. I started by searching google images for interesting letters to correspond to each of our names. I then modified what I found to work for what I wanted.

I picked up some pumpkins at the grocery store. My 12 year old self would have been very disappointed with the lack of care I took in selecting my pumpkins. I mean they had flat sides, dirt, and scratches on them. These pumpkins in no way rivaled the perfect pumpkins of my childhood. None the less, they worked, and I didn't want to spend hours searching.

I went to Hobby Lobby to pick-up some not so traditional pumpkin carving tools. The first being a linoleum cutter, and the other being a pottery tool set. I also used the hole saw that we already own.

I cut a circular hole in the top of each of the pumpkins with the hole saw. The nice thing about the hole saw is that it makes cutting circles much easier than a standard knife. It does however take out more material, so if you cut straight down the "lid" will fall into the pumpkin, so you will need cut at an angle if you want to be able to put the top back on.

Clean out the insides, being sure to save the seeds. Roasted seed recipes coming soon. I used the scraping toll from the pottery kit, but a large kitchen spoon will work just as well.
Next, draw on the design with a sharpie, or if you aren't confident free handing your design you can scale your drawing to the size of the pumpkin. The use a pin tool or an awl to poke holes a long your pattern.

Use your linoleum cutter to trace along the lines that you have drawn. Mine came with 5 different tips of varying widths. The wider and deeper your cut is the more visible your image will be when you illuminate your pumpkin.