Costumes, candy, and carving pumpkins are the best! Halloween yeah! Every year I try to make time to carve a kick ass pumpkin. This design is a day of the dead skull.

Step 1: Supplies

Pumpkin

Linoleum Cutter

Sharpie Marker

Toothpicks

I chose a white pumpkin this time because I thought it would look cooler with the skull theme. Start by carving out the inside of the pumpkin in standard fashion, cut the top to make a lid and scoop out its guts. I will sometimes thin out the pumpkin wall that I carve my design on to make it easier to cut the details all the way through the pumpkin.

Step 2: Design and Application

Draw the design on with the sharpie and use the toothpicks to poke the lines of the design into the pumpkin. This helps for when the sharpie starts to rub off, sort of like connect the dots. Next use the cutting tool to scrape out the lines. The cutter has several different blades shapes and widths so pick the one that will work best. The thinnest one works best for the fine lines and the largest one is good for taking out larger amounts of pumpkin surface. I usually pick a few spots in the design that will go all the way through for more contrast once the light is inside the pumpkin.