Jamie, the advice depend on whether the wood is dry or green. It is easier to carve if it is green, particularly with hand tools, and whether they are just knives or how far you want to go with the hand tools. If you can, get yourself a mallet and a gouge. End grain pine is not the easiest of wood to carve, and your tools will have to be razor sharp. If you can, drill a largish hole in the middle, to near the depth you want. You can use a brace to do this and it will make your life a lot easier. A trick you can use to make the end grain easier to work, is a 50/50 mixture od water and isopropyl alcohol. put it in a spray bottle and mist the area you are carving, let it soak and mist again, then carve. Now I don't know if it works on pine! it works well on end grain lime so may well do so on pine. Good luck.
