STEP ONE: Set your Pumpkin out on a steady working area. You may want to lay out a garbage bag, because things are going to get messy! And Gather all your decorative pieces…(hence the mess in the background all over my table!)

STEP TWO:  Cut off the top of the pumpkin; I drew a circle around the stem and carved it out with a regular kitchen knife. I didn’t have any fancy pumpkin carving knives, but a regular knife worked just fine.

STEP THREE: The fun part! Get Messy and remove all the guts and the seeds!

STEP FOUR: Go in with a spoon to scrap and remove any excess pumpkin guts.

RESESARCH DESIGN INSPIRATION: I wanted to do a mermaid character, so I just needed an image to use as a reference when I drew it.

STEP FIVE: Free hand the design onto the pumpkin, with a pen.

I messed up the nose a bit… 😦

STEP SIX: Carve out the facial features you want to. I chose to carve out some and outline others. Just to show a little light in when I put the candle in. Be sure to clear out any extra pumpkin that may fall through inside again.

STEP SEVEN: MERMAID MAKEUP. Here are some supplies I used to create my mermaid’s makeup. I basically used the blue pen to draw on the face. Then I mixed the blue crayon and the green glitter to create the glittery eye shadow, eye liner, and lipstick, using the blue paint brush to apply it. I used the black crayon for the eyelashes.

STEP EIGHT: CREATE THE LOOK. Then for the design portion I added two battery operated, no flame tea lights into my pumpkin. And added my mermaid touches (believe it or not, I had all of these things)- a Hawaiian lei, blue hair extensions (I wrapped them around the stem to create a bun style and used bobby bins to pin them in place), my DIY starfish hair pin, and a plastic fork because you know that’s how mermaids comb their hair. #THELITTLEMERMAID 

STEP NINE: Give her a name! MEET Aquafina! She’s a sassy mermaid.

TIP: Sometimes after cutting the stem, it ends up becoming too small and then falling into the pumpkin. My mom suggested adding a tooth pick on either side of the cover to keep it from falling in. You can’t tell here, because I strategically placed the Lei, but it worked like a charm. And it makes it easy to lift my pumpkin cover to turn the candles on and off.

STEP TEN: Shut the lights off, pop in a Halloween movie, grab a snack and a glass of wine (or if your underage some cider, Lol) and ENJOY!