Halloween is almost here! That means it is time for pumpkin everything! That includes all those fancy Jack o’ Lanterns that you see everywhere. We love Halloween (and fall in general) around here. Little man has a complete obsession about pumpkins and Daddy is a Halloween baby. That being said, I never get around to carving. I think those cool designs are awesome, but I never know how to carve a perfect jackolantern. That totally changed this year though!

Every year, the girls always ask me to care a pumpkin. Most of the time, it is normally the day before Halloween by time they remember. By then, I just let them draw on a pumpkin or two. This year, I had planned out to make sure we had a carved pumpkin (or several). That is when I realized, my struggle was the same as many other parents. We just didn’t know how to carve a perfect jackolantern.

Disclaimer: I received a Pumpkin Carving Tool Kit by Vita for Home for free in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own and honest.

How to carve a Perfect Jack o’ Lantern

Carving a perfect Jack o’ Lantern is so much easier than you can imagine. With the right tools, your pumpkin will transform into a perfect jackolantern right before your eyes! All you need is three simple supplies.

What you need for a Perfect Jack o’ Lantern:

• A good sized pumpkin (going to the pumpkin patch is fun for this!)
• Printed stencil of your design
• Steel Pumpkin Carving Kit
• Garbage bowl to place your pumpkin guts in

Once you have your perfect pumpkin picked out, you will need to decide your design. A simple search for “free jackolantern patterns” will give you a vast array to choose from. Make sure you use the Swagbucks search engine so you can earn money just for searching!

Let’s Get Carving!

Next, you will need to start carving your design. The best way to do this is with a steel pumpkin carving kit. We used one from vitapumpkin.com. You can get a plastic one from any store, but they just do not hold up to more than one carve (at best). The huge benefit of a steel kit is that you will have it for years to come.

How to Carve a Jackolantern

The rest is where it get’s a little harder, but not complicated. Start out by cutting around the stem of your pumpkin so that you have an opening. This is a great place to use your small carving saw. Once you have that off, it is time dig out the guts. This is where your steel scoop comes in handy! Use it to scrap the sides to get all the strings out! Make sure to place every thing in your garbage bowl so that you can bake the seeds later! (yummy!)

Now comes the super fun part! Cut your stencil out and tape it to your pumpkin where you want it to go. You could also use a glue stick to make it stick a little better. Then just use the small carving saw, cut out the pattern just like you would trace a stencil.

After this is complete, you can use your etching tool to come up with some fancy designs to give it that extra flair. Now you know how to carve the perfect jackolantern! Make sure to take a picture and share them on instagram so we can see what you made! Just tag #VitaCarvingKit and #themomkind!

Check out the images of how to carve a perfect JackoLantern

Looking for a couple more halloween crafts? Check out out bats, spiders, and halloween tree crafts!