Boo Ghost Pumpkin with Retained Ghost Body Inside Arch

Prep and transfer

Scoop from the back and thin interior walls to a consistent inch. Transfer the full stencil with a pounce wheel, marking the arch boundary, the four retained-body connection points (sides, top curl, bottom tail), and the interior eye and mouth apertures. These connection boundaries are your absolute cut limits.

Cut the outer arch

Use a medium carving saw to cut the large hollow arch opening, working around the full arc from one side to the other. Stop precisely at the retained body's side arm connections, top curl connection, and bottom tail connection. The arch sets the entire light composition of the design.

Remove rind between arch and retained body

With the arch open, use a fine detail saw to remove the rind areas between the arch interior edge and the Boo body outline. This isolates the retained ghost shape inside the glowing arch. Work from each connection point outward so you always cut away from an anchor, never toward it.

Cut the facial apertures

Open the eye and mouth apertures through the retained body using a fine detail saw. Keep the bottom-rooted tongue tab intact when cutting the mouth opening. The tab should connect broadly to the lower edge of the mouth opening so it does not flex under its own weight.

Refine the rim-rooted teeth

Cut the tooth-gap openings in the mouth, maintaining rim-root connections as specified by the stencil. At hard difficulty the teeth may be more numerous than at easy level. Check each tooth root after its adjacent gap is cut before moving on to the next.

Light and display

Place a warm LED tea light inside and view from across a dark room. Boo should appear as a dark ghost silhouette inside a glowing arch, with tiny eye and mouth light points breaking through the retained body. Apply petroleum jelly to all cut edges and display the carving elevated so viewers see the full arch composition.