Instructions for Free Halloween Pumpkin Carving Stencils

Several methods of download are available for each stencil or collection of stencils. They include PDF booklet, the SVGs, a link to a Canva Template, and individual PNGs. Download any which way you’d like.

Measure the height of the place you wish to have your design on your pumpkin. Keep in mind where you plan to make a pumpkin hole (whether lid or butt) and give space for that. Size your stencil according, or print up the best size from the PDF booklet.

Most people lay out newspaper for this on a table on account of the havoc this step ensues. If you do not plan to use the pumpkin guts at all, especially if you are letting kids gut their pumpkins, I recommend taking this part outside. Somewhere where you don’t mind leaving “compost.” Beware, the neighborhood children may want to join in, and so it’s nice to have extra pumpkins. It takes a village.

But if you are planning to utilize pumpkin seeds and pumpkin mush, it might help to do this at the sink with strainers handy.

Decide where you want the pumpkin hole. Many people cut a hole at the top around the stem and use the stem as a lid. Another concept (especially with foam pumpkins) is to cut a hole at the bottom and set the pumpkin on top of a light. If you use a top hole, you want to carve at a 45 degree angle around the stem. It helps if you carve a small V somewhere in that circle outline to help you know how the lid goes on. A hole at the bottom can be carved any which way.

After you remove the pumpkin lid, you want to gut out the pumpkin. Use your hands to yank out the bulk of the pumpkin flesh and seeds. At this point, you may want to separate seeds from pumpkin guts to toast seeds later (baked in oven or air fryer) and/or make food using leftover guts. Then use a scooper tool or ice cream scoop to scoop out the rest.

I like to scrape the inside of the pumpkin to thin it down for most pumpkin carvings and reduce the stringiness. I generally scrape about 1/8 of an inch beyond the darker orange strings.

The most common transfer technique is to cut the paper close to the design, and possibly cut some horizontal lines or vertical lines to the design (without cutting into the design) to help paper fit over the curvature of the pumpkin. Then generously tape to pumpkin and use a poke device like a pushpin or the thing that comes in a pumpkin carving kit, and poke holes 1/8 inch apart along the outline you wish to carve out.

Other methods include using a transfer paper to trace the design to the pumpkin, such as Saral Transfer paper or coloring the back of your paper with a thick layer of pencil. Additionally, you could use an exacto knife to cut out a stencil to color onto the pumpkin with magic marker. 

Remove design and start carving. There’s no right way or wrong way to carve a pumpkin, but it does help to consider the pumpkin stencil and pumpkin thickness. As you carve, pieces get thinner and can break easily with the same pressure to it. Say you are trying to carve a wolf in front of a moon. Once you carve the moon out, then if you start carving anything in the wolf, it might break off easier. Instead, you want to first carve the interiors of the wolf and then carve out the big moon hunks.

So start with the fine intricate details with a smaller pumpkin saw, and also the smaller pieces to be removed. Work your way up to the bigger chunks.

Sometimes it helps to break down bigger chunks into smaller pieces, especially for removal. Such as if a large rectangle were to be cut out, it might be easier to turn that into two squares.

Pumpkin Carving Tip – You may find an exacto knife to be handy to help push or pull out pieces, especially smaller pieces, and to help clean up and smooth out the pumpkin edges. Often, we don’t carve at a complete 90 degree angle, and you might find the interior edge being higher than the exterior edge of a cut, and an exacto knife can kind of scrape into more of a flat edge for better lighting. Plus it can help clean up stringies.

Pumpkin Pro Tip – Sometimes it helps to put an electric battery operated votive in the pumpkin while you carve (and remove as need be) to see how it’s going to look with the light. You might carve out half the pattern in light, and then carve part of it in a dark room with just the electric votive inside the pumpkin.

Clean out interior residue and pieces from the inner part of the pumpkin. Wipe down the exterior of the pumpkin. Place an electric battery operated votive inside.

You can also additionally paint, put stickers, or glue festive objects to said pumpkin. Instead of using a votive, you may use a string of lights.