How to Make Pumpkin Carving Stencils

There is just something about the crispness in the air and the changing of the seasons that creates excitement about Halloween. Holiday decorations can add up quickly so it is great for your budget if you can make some of the decorations yourself. Creating your own pumpkin carving stencils is one such way to easily make your own scary stuff while flexing your creative muscles.

Things You'll Need

• A paint program such as Net.paint or Photoshop
• Scary clip art
• Printer
• Scissors

Instructions

1. 

   Using your paint program, such as Paint.net, open the picture you want to use as a stencil. It is OK if there are extra items in the picture. You will be editing them out.

2. 

   Now you want to white out the area of the picture that you will not be cutting out of the pumpkin. Use the paintbucket tool to dump white onto the subject area. Edit if necessary.

3. 

   If you have some extra area whited out here is where you can fix it. Using the pencil tool draw a bit of a border where want the white to stop. This will give the paint bucket a guideline. Using the black paint bucket, darken the remaining areas that will be cut out out of the pumpkin.

4. 

   Make a border around your stencil subject for easy trimming once you print it. The color of the border doesn't matter as long as it shows.

5. 

   Crop the picture now that your subject is the main focus.

6. 

   Using the white paint bucket again, dump white on the outside of the circle. Now your paint project is finished. Simply print the stencil and cut along the outside of your border. You are ready to place it on the pumpkin and start carving.

Tips & Warnings

• This project can be as simple or as elaborate as you like. If you are artistic you can even draw in some detail in the paint program to add extra cuts in the pumpkin for shadowing, facial features, among other attributes.

Resources

• Paint.net website
• Printable Pumpkin Carving Stencils