Printable Pumpkin Carving Patterns
And Stencils You Can Use

Use these printable pumpkin carving patterns and stencils to make an cool pumpkin carving this Halloween.

Family friendly printable pumpkin carving patterns round up {on Household Management 101}

Some people carve their pumpkins free hand, or just draw their own pattern onto the pumpkin before they start sawing away.

However, if you want to do something more intricate or you want your pumpkin carving to be even on both sides you will need to use a pumpkin carving stencil or pumpkin carving pattern.

How To Use Your Printable Pumpkin Carving Patterns

Cut the lid out of your pumpkin, and scoop out the pulp and seeds. Try to make your pumpkin's walls about an inch thick, at least where you will carve. That way the wall of the pumpkin will stay relatively sturdy, but not be too hard to cut, especially for intricate designs.

Step 1: Tape or pin the printable pattern to your pumpkin, making sure it is smooth, especially if it is an intricate design.

You may need to strategically cut the paper to help it lay smooth, since a pumpkin is naturally rounded in shape. Be sure to pin down these cuts to keep the paper from moving around.

Step 2: Following the lines of the pattern use a push pin, small nail, or bent paperclip to poke holes through the paper and the pumpkin itself to make a dotted impression of your template on the pumpkin itself.

This can take some time, and the more intricate your printable pumpkin carving pattern the longer it will take, because the holes will need to be even closer together.

Step 3: Once you have poked all the holes from the pattern into the pumpkin take off the paper and use a dry erase marker to connect the little dots into the pattern from the paper onto your pumpkin.

Hint: Why do I say a dry erase marker? You will most likely not cut exactly on the lines, and if you use a permanent marker, for instance, you will see black marks around parts of the pumpkin where it is cut. Not attractive.

The dry erase markers will wipe off, making it look like you cut it without using the lines. Much cooler.

Step 4: Begin to carve your pumpkin. Before beginning make sure you have decided which areas should be completely cut out, and those where the pumpkin should have the skin shaved off, leaving just flesh behind.

Many of the intricate patterns seen below use this second technique, as does the picture at the top of the page. You don't want to cut all the way through the wall of the pumpkin when using this technique, or it will not look correct and the pumpkin will most likely collapse as its walls weaken.

Free Printable Pumpkin Carving Patterns

Here are some free pumpkin carving stencils and patterns I have found around the web.

Southern Living: 14 Easy Patterns
Cartoon Jr. Printables - Lots of recognizable cartoon character pumpkin stencils
Disney Family Pumpkin Carving Ideas - lots of Disney characters, including some from Frozen!
Pumpkin Masters Free Patterns - 6 cool patterns, high quality
Taste of Home Free Patterns - 8 patterns available
Pumpkin Patterns from DLTK-Holidays - wide variety, some are more kid-friendly than others
Spookmaster.com Freebies - 6 free patterns
Pumpkinlady.com Free Patterns - 12 free ones, and then others for sale
ExtremePumpkins.com - 48 Free Pumpkin Patterns - These patterns are pretty good, because they come from expert pumpkin carver Tom Nardone, who has been featured in many TV segments about carving pumpkins. Several are scary though, and may not be suitable for kids.
Kid Friendly Character Pumpkin Patterns - these come from ZombiePumpkins.com, and are free once you join the site (there are also lots of other patterns to choose from once you visit the site)
Pumpkin Carving Patterns From Celebrating-Halloween.com - These look pretty cool, although some are quite complicated. I especially like the dancing skeleton one.

Pumpkin Carving Stencils And Patterns You Can Purchase

There are many books you can buy which contain printable pumpkin carving patterns. Make sure to make a photocopy of the template you are using, so you can use it again the next year if you want.

Have fun carving your pumpkins this year with your family. If you make some cool ones using any of the templates linked to from here I would love for you to send me a picture, which I'll feature on the site!

Don't Miss These Additional Pumpkin Carving Tips

I've also created the ultimate guide to beginning pumpkin carving, with tips and tricks especially for those of us carving with our kids. You can read my pumpkin carving tips here.

In addition, once you've carved your pumpkin you don't want it to rot too quickly. Here are 5 tips for preserving carved pumpkins.

Top photo courtesy of rick

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