Free Printable Pumpkin Carving Stencils

Pumpkin carving stencils have become all the rage in recent years. When I was a kid, my mother sent us out to the garage with a pumpkin and a steak knife and whatever happened, happened. But that was in the '70's- when we lived in colorful lead paint houses, rode with eight kids in the back of a pick-up truck, and never heard of a bike helmet. Ah, but I digress. As a parent in the new millennium, I've spent many hours carving pumpkin stencils.

Here are a few pointers about pumpkin carving stencils that I've learned along the way:
1. Buy good tools and save them to use year after year.
2. Make sure you clean your tools before storing them.
3. The more detailed the pumpkin carving stencil, the harder it is to do.
4. Pumpkin carving stencils that have the least amount of cutting around the edges are the most secure.
5. If you accidentally cut out a chunk of pumpkin that you shouldn't have, try reattaching it with toothpicks.
6. You don't have to buy pumpkin carving stencil pattern books anymore. You can get free pumpkin carving stencils on-line!

Here are my 5 favorite sites for free pumpkin carving stencils:

Celebrating Halloween is the best site for free pumpkin carving stencils. This site is awesome! I'm about 99% positive that I bought this pattern book in 2001. (Now it's on-line for free. Figures.) Celebrating Halloween has a huge variety of traditional pumpkin carving stencil patterns including: Halloween Cat (a silhouette of a cat arching its back with its tail high), Friendly Ghost (which is cool and probably not too scary for pre-schoolers), Skull (pretty traditional looking), Witch with Cauldron (borderline scary- it depends on the kid's tolerance level), Witch on a Broom (the witch has a cat on her back- cool!), Skeleton (this pattern is highly detailed, read: difficult to carve- lots of little, little holes) Sitting Cat (self-explanatory), Dancing Skeletons (a la Grateful Dead), and Halloween Bat (ours caved in). There are a couple of easy, more traditional looking jack-o-lantern patterns here, too. Click here to see all of the free pumpkin carving stencils from Celebrating Halloween.

Pumpkin Masters has the scariest free pumpkin carving stencils. There's a lot to choose from on this site. In my opinion, the absolute scariest pumpkin carving stencil is the Ichabod Flame pattern. It has a leering look and flame-like eyes. The Grim Reaper pattern here is a close second on the scary scale. For a not-so-scary pumpkin carving stencil, check out Flack Jack. Flack Jack is a little closer to a traditional jack-o-lantern, but might be scary to very young children. Click here to see Pumpkin Master's entire collection of free pumpkin carving stencils.

About.com: Family Crafts has 13 free pumpkin carving stencils. (Get it? 13? Halloween? Good one, About.com!)) The skull pumpkin is the scariest of the bunch. Other notables here are the Dragon Pumpkin (scary) and Happy Face Pumpkin (not scary, and probably the easiest pattern to carve). Click here to see all 13 free pumpkin carving stencils from About.com.

Spook Master offers free pumpkin carving stencils on their website. Their Bewitching Hour is the traditional witch on the broom scene that's familiar to most Halloween lovers. They also have Night Watchman, which looks like a winged man crouching down (scary) and would be popular among science-fiction lovers. Going Batty (not scary)is an outline of a bat. Going Batty looks like the easiest pattern on Spook Master and would be good for a first time pumpkin carver. Click here to see the many choices of free pumpkin carving stencils from Spook Master.

Pumpkin Glow takes Halloween in a different direction with its free UN-Halloween Christian pumpkin carving stencils. "What are UN-Halloween Christian pumpkin carving stencils?", you may ask. Patterns here are Christian-themed and include: White Dove, Noah's Ark, Cross with Christian Fish, The Last Supper, The Nativity, and What Would Jesus Do. Whether or not this is "scary" is subjective, but these pumpkin carving stencils are certainly worth including. Click here to see the entire collection of free UN-Halloween Christian pumpkin carving stencils from Pumpkin Glow.

There are dozens of free pumpkin carving stencils to choose from on-line: scary or not-so-scary, easy or difficult, Halloween or UN-Halloween. Whatever you choose, make sure to take lots of pictures- these creations are something to be proud of! Happy Halloween! (Or should I say UN-Halloween?)

Sources:
http://pumpkinmasters.com/free_patterns_main.asp
http://www.celebrating-halloween.com/pumpkincarving/index.shtml
http://familycrafts.about.com/od/pumpkincarving/ig/Pumpkin-Carving-Patterns/
http://www.spookmaster.com/pumpkin-carving-patterns-freebies.htm
http://www.pumpkinglow.com/Patterns4.htm
personal experience