How to Create Your Own Pumpkin Pattern

More complex pumpkin patterns can include gray areas, where you cut through only the skin, and black area, where you cut all the way through.

Halloween pumpkins are traditionally carved in a simple manner. A scary eyes, nose and mouth create the familiar jack-o'-lantern. However, pumpkins can be carved in much more elaborate ways. Some people carve their pumpkins to show a fantastic scene or scary picture. Other people may carve a Halloween message into the pumpkin. The easiest way to carve your chosen design into a pumpkin is to use a stencil, or pattern. Although there are many patterns available in books and on the Internet, making your own allows you to personalize your pumpkin and show off your creativity.

Things You'll Need

• Computer
• Drawing software program
• Scanner

Instructions

1. Draw a picture or choose a picture. You will have to make some adjustments to the picture, and this is easiest to do on a computer, although it can be done by hand. If the picture or drawing is not already on the computer, use a scanner to bring it up on the computer screen.

2. Decide whether you're going to cut all the way through the pumpkin, or only into the skin. Cutting through the skin lets light through, so your design appears. Also, when cutting all the way through the pumpkin, details that float in negative space may be lost. When cutting through only the skin of the pumpkin, these details can be saved.

3. Darken the background of the picture. For the time being, anywhere you darken will be a piece of the pumpkin that is left whole. Since you most likely won't be cutting out the background, darken it. You can use a simple drawing tool on the computer to do this, or you can choose a more complex, accurate computer program to help you.

4. Darken any areas in the picture or drawing that will not be cut out. For the picture to make sense, whole areas will have to touch the light area in order to be seen. For example, the eyes in a face should be left whole, and therefore darkened in the picture, while the face should be cut away. The light face will need to rest on an uncut section in order to be seen.

5. Color in any overlapping areas. For example, if your pattern includes two overlapping leaves, you may want both of these leaves to appear light. Where they overlap, though, one will need to stay whole, and therefore be darkened in the pattern. If you do not do this, the overlap will disappear when you carve the pumpkin, and the design will become unclear.

6. Adjust the picture, adding details where they may not have been before, if you've decided to cut all the way through the pumpkin. Remember that any uncut details that are not connected to the rest of the pumpkin will be lost.

7. Invert the picture, changing everything that was black to white, and vice versa. Most computer drawing programs offer a tool that will do this instantly. Although this is not strictly necessary, it will save ink in your printer.

8. Adjust the size of the picture, using the sizing tool on your computer drawing program, until it fits on your pumpkin.

References

• Walt's Pumpkin Carving Secrets: Making Patterns
• The Pumpkin Wizard: How I Make a Pattern