Pumpkin Carved with Cookie Cutters - Stars and Hearts

I actually carved my pumpkin several days ago, but I'm only just finally getting around to posting a photo. I figured this might be my last chance, since it's almost Halloween!

I bought these really cute mini cookie cutters from Amazon for a different project (that involves bourbon, hot chocolate, and homemade whipped cream - you should really check it out!), and thought I'd try using them to punch out shapes in my pumpkin. It worked, and it made for a pretty cool jack-o-lantern, if I do say so myself!

After cutting off the top and scooping out the guts, all I did was use a rubber mallet to hammer the metal cookie cutters into the pumpkin, and used a pair of pliers to pull them back out. Then I pushed in or scooped out the shapes.

I also used the mallet to pound in a huge nail repeatedly to make "a million points of light" at random intervals between all the other shapes. I LOVE the way it turned out, even though it's so very simple. 

Here's where I got the idea. 

Happy Halloween!