Finished pumkins

Here is the final product. They look great huh? My kids did these in a few hours. I used a few websites to help but the most useful were from Publix and one with free pumkin stencils. The Publix website was where we got the ideas for the Cat Stencil. I got the others from this website Spookmaster.com . I just hit Google and did a search for "Free pumpkin Stencils" and got a ton of hits.

These pumpkins were completed by my 9, 10 and 11 yr old kids. The process is pretty basic. Wash the pumpkin, dry it well. Cut open the lid and scoop out the insides. (Save the seeds for baking later) Print your Stencil from the PDF and then pin it to the best side of the pumpkin. Make sure it is the lightest side so you can see the pattern on the pumpkins skin. You then pin the stencil with straight pins (Like you use when you sew) and then take one straight pin and trace the stencil outline in very close pin pricks to make a dot-to-dot pattern on the pumpkin. This will take 5-10 minutes on the easy ones and 30 minutes on the harder ones... so be patient!!. After you are done remove the stencil and use the pumpkin carving tool to cut out the stencil and you are done. I then save the pumpkin seeds and make baked pumpkin seed snacks from them. They are great and delicious snacks the kids really like them too!!. They look forward to the seed snacks every year.