How to Use a Pumpkin Stencil

What you need

• A printed stencil. Grab one from the free stencil gallery or turn your own photo into one.
• A pumpkin with a smooth, flat-ish face. Tap it: a hollow sound means a thinner wall that is easier to carve.
• A small serrated saw, a poke tool (a push pin or toothpick works), a scoop and tape.
• Flour or a washable marker to make the dotted outline easier to see.

Step-by-step

1. STEP 1

   Print the stencil at the right size

   Measure the flattest face of your pumpkin. Print small (about 10 cm wide) for 6 inch pumpkins, medium for 8 inch and large for 10 inch. Our PDFs have a 5 cm scale bar: if it measures 5 cm, you printed at 100%. Trim the paper close to the design so it bends around the curve.

   

2. STEP 2

   Cut the lid and scoop the inside

   Cut the lid at an angle so it does not fall in, or cut a hole in the back instead. Scrape the wall behind the design down to about 2.5 cm (1 inch). A thinner wall is easier to cut and glows brighter.

   

3. STEP 3

   Tape the stencil flat

   Tape the top edge first, then make small cuts in the paper margin so it lies flat over the curve without wrinkling the design. Wrinkles shift lines, so take a minute here.

   

4. STEP 4

   Poke along every line

   Press a poke tool through the paper along each edge, about 3 mm (1/8 inch) apart. Closer dots on tight curves, wider on long straight edges. Do not cut through the paper with a knife: it slides and tears.

   

5. STEP 5

   Peel the paper and carve dot to dot

   Rub flour over the dots so they show up, keep the paper next to you as a map, and saw from dot to dot. Cut the smallest, centre pieces first and the big outer shapes last so the pumpkin stays strong while you work.

   

Which part of the stencil do you cut out?

On almost every pumpkin stencil, including ours, black means cut out and white means leave the skin. Light comes through the black areas. A few older pattern books use the opposite, so check the key printed on the page. On three-tone stencils, gray means scrape the skin thin without cutting through. More detail in do you cut the black or white.

Tips that save a carving

• Hold the saw like a pencil and move it straight in and out. Twisting snaps thin bridges.
• Push pieces out from the inside with a finger instead of pulling them with the saw.
• Keep the white bridges. If a white piece has no connection to the rest of the skin, it will fall out. Our stencil maker finds those pieces and adds bridges before you print.
• Slow down at corners. Stop, pull the blade out and start again from the new direction.
• Make it last. Rub petroleum jelly on the cut edges and keep the pumpkin out of direct sun; a carved pumpkin usually lasts 3 to 5 days.

Other ways to transfer a stencil