Pumpkin-Carving-House-Ideas Hello friends. I am kicking' it old school and carving a real pumpkin today as part of Clinton Kelly's 30 Minute Pumpkin Challenge. Yes, that Clinton Kelly. The one from What Not to Wear. He has a new lifestyle blog and he asked a group of bloggers to join him in the challenge. Since, my blog is "Finding Home", I thought why not make a House Pumpkin! I know, I am full of puns today. I am going to share all the details of how I did it, but make sure to pop over to see the pumpkin Clinton Kelly made and all the other pumpkins as part of the challenge. House-Pumpkin-Carving-wm I chose my pumpkin as a taller thinner shape because that just appealed to me, but any shape will do. How-to-Carve-a-Pumpkin Whoever first came up with the idea to carve from the bottom of the pumpkin instead of the top is truly brilliant. Sometimes, it is the easiest and most obvious things. I found this crazy saw in our garage, but man, did it work well. I also carved a 1 inch triangle at the back to let out an heat that might come off the light. Pumpkin-Carving-Trick I still remember drawing the faces on my pumpkin as a kid and never quite being able to follow the lines when I carved. So, I finally smartened up and used a chalk pen so that I could just wipe it off when I was done. I drew out a rough guide of where I wanted to carve. Pumpkin-Carving-Tricks I chose to carve my pumpkin with a Dremel tool. Heed my warning. Go outside. Wear a hat, safety glasses and old clothes. Also, be ready to remove the fine mask of pumpkin from your face. All that said, I loved doing it. It was quick and precise and I was able to accomplish so much more than I would have been able to with just knife. I used a mini-saw type blade to mark the outlines of all the spaces and then I went back in with the rounded sanding bit. This is what it looked like the first go round. I tried lighting it and realized I had not gone deep enough for the light to shine through, so I went back and went deeper and chose to break through in a few places as well to let more light through. Carving-a-Pumpkin-with-a-dremmel The final step was to grab some acorns and craft store bought moss. I used my glue gun to attach them and that was it! 30 minutes or less my friends! That was the challenge! I stacked some rocks in the front and added some moss and pine cones. I would not use a real candle - find a battery operated one. The moss is way too flammable to mess with that. Pumpkin-Carving-with-a-Dremmel-Tool-wm All right, now head off and see the other 30 minute challenge pumpkins over at Clinton Kelly's blog. Thanks for reading sweet friends! Newpostsignature_thumb.jpg