A different kind of Jack O' Lantern

Tree Silhouette 

This year felt right for trying something different on my pumpkins. I really liked the natural and whimsical look of the arrangement on my porch and wanted the carvings to reinforce that feeling. I also figured that since I had spent quite a penny on these gourds, I should try to get them to last past Halloween.

I settled on doing some kind of polka dot design using whatever tools I could find which happened to be a pick from my father's "Bat Cave"...

...and my smallest biscuit cutter! I just used a hammer to whack the cutter through the flesh of the carved out pumpkin and recuperated it on the other side. I wouldn't necessarily recommend using your favorite biscuit cutter for this unless you have a rubber mallet because my cutter got a little bent out of shape. But then it is very cheap.

To keep the pretty stem intact, I hollowed this pumpkin out through a hole on the bottom. This also allowed me to illuminate the pumpkin with Christmas lights strung through the bottom hole. I would also recommend thinning out your pumpkin if the flesh is too thick. My pumpkins were really thick and it just made the whole thing more of a pain. 

While I started out thinking I was carving polka dots, I ended up with something almost celestial- which I love. I did three bands of Milk Way-looking carvings around this pumpkin, using three different sized tools- the pick and 2 different biscuit cutters. 

The only thing I would do differently next time would be to get some Christmas lights with white wiring so they would be better concealed inside the pumpkin. Otherwise, I'm pretty pleased with the way this turned out!