Every year, we try to one-up our friends at an annual pumpkin carving competition. I never win, but I try so hard! This year, I am collecting some of the best new carving faces I can find and I hope that I may be able to at east place in the competition.

These faces are just so cool to do, and some are more complicated than others. It’s pretty easy to select an image and print it at home, then you can use little pins to attach the paper to your pumpkin of choice.

I try to pick a pumpkin that “fits” the face – if the face is a long and tall kind of face, then I want a taller and skinnier style pumpkin. If the face is wide and toothy, then I might want a pumpkin that is shorter but wider. It gets even better if I can find a pumpkin with warts or other creepy appendages when I want to do something kind of witchy or spooky.

Don’t forget that if you want your pumpkin to last as long as possible, you need to remove all of the inside pulp and get it really well cleaned out. Then, you want to give your jack-o-lantern a bath in a bleach solution of 1 tsp bleach per gallon of water. Next, you can try one of several methods to preserve the pumpkin on a day to day schedule.

These methods to preserve your carved pumpkin are:

• Spray daily with a bleach solution of 1 tsp bleach per gallon of water
• Spray daily with a pumpkin spray
• Spray with WD-40 (just once or after each soak)
• Rub with petroleum jelly (just once or after each soak)

If your pumpkin starts to wilt – soak it overnight in cold water.

This year, I also plan to add some lights to my pumpkin, such as these ones on Amazon: