Q. Where can I find cool and interesting pumpkin stencils online?
A. Below are over two dozen of the best sites for pumpkin stencils to give you a template for carving your jack o’lantern. Some of the stencils are free, some require you to pay a small amount:
1. Carve a Disney Character Pumpkin! - Free pumpkin carving stencils of Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Jack Skellington, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Phineas & Ferb (and Perry the Platypus), Monsters Inc, Lightning McQueen or Mater from Cars, Ariel, Snow White, Tinkerbell and more. (spoonful.com)
2. Hershey’s - Free stencils ranging from easy to advanced, including ghosts, spiders, witches, bats, skull & crossbones, black cat, grim reaper, haunted house, etc. (www.hersheys.com)
3. Ultimate Pumpkin Stencils - Purchase individual pumpkin carving patterns or a package of stencils here, with hundreds of designs including standard ghosts, witches and bats as well as all sorts of character pumpkins — Superman, Transformers, Angry Birds, Mickey Mouse, Elmo & Sesame Street, Dora the Explorer, Michael Jackson, Nightmare Before Christmas, Batman, Justin Bieber, One Direction, Iron Man, Heath Ledger Joker, Shrek, Spiderman, Harry Potter, Elvis, Zombie Barack Obama, Mr. T., Darth Vader, Scooby Doo, Ghostbusters, Corpse Bride, more. Pumpkin stencil packages include characters from Frankenweenie, Hunger Games, True Blood, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, more. (ultimate-pumpkin-stencils.com)
4. Zombie Pumpkins - Very large collection of pumpkin carving stencils. Choose from your favorite rock stars, Frankenstein, Jack Skellington and other Nightmare Before Christmas characters, Joker from Batman the Dark Knight, Sweeney Todd, Harry Potter, Edward Cullen & Bella Swan of Twilight, Yoda, Batman, Captain America, SpongeBob SquarePants & Patrick, Elmo, Tigger, Scooby-Doo, Homer Simpson, Gollum from Lord of the Rings, Jack Sparrow, Shrek, Super Mario, Thomas the Tank Engine, Sparky from Frankenweenie, Walking Dead stencils, Thanksgiving patterns and many more. You’ll have to pay at least $2 to get your hands on most patterns, although they offer a few free patterns in the Freakish Freebies section. (www.zombiepumpkins.com)
5. Stoneykins - Offers both free and paid pumpkin carving stencils. Free patterns include Elmo, Harry Potter, Jack Sparrow, Cookie Monster, Grateful Dead, Mickey Mouse, Philadelphia Eagles logo — even Van Gogh’s “Starry Night.” Stencils that require paid membership include classic monsters such as Frankenstein and Dracula, Heath Ledger Joker, Edward Cullen, Star Wars Stormtrooper, R2D2, musicians such as Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, Kiss, Bob Marley and The Beatles, famous faces like Sheldon from Big Bang Theory, Barack Obama, Angelina Jolie, The Three Stooges, Breaking Bad characters, comic/cartoon stuff like Angry Birds, South Park characters, Phineas & Ferb, Homer Simpson or Bart Simpson, Spider Man, Elmo, Betty Boop, Clifford, Charlie Brown, Snoopy & Peanuts gang, Mario & Luigi, more. (www.stoneykins.com)
6. Despicable Me Minion Template - Free minion pattern here. (www.kidzworld.com)
7. Better Homes & Gardens - Offers a variety of free pumpkin stencils, from the traditional spooky stuff to offbeat ideas like dog breeds (Scottie, Rottweiler, more) and monogram pumpkins, more. Getting any of the free stencils requires free membership to the site. (www.bhg.com)
8. Extreme Pumpkins - Inspirational gallery of very extreme pumpkin carvings, and a few truly unique pumpkin stencils, too, such as puking pumpkin, head on fire, tiki pumpkin, more. Get all 40+ stencils free. (www.extremepumpkins.com)
9. Martha Stewart - Nice selection of free pumpkin templates ranging from easy carving templates to intricate, from silly to scary. (www.marthastewart.com)
10. Free Jack O’Lantern Patterns - Rock and Roll Heaven - Free pumpkin stencils of Jim Morrison, Buddy Holly, Janis Joplin, Jerry Garcia, Elvis Presley, Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon and Bob Marley. (www.fabulousfoods.com)
11. Nick Jr. - Find free pumpkin stencils for favorite Nick Jr. characters including Dora the Explorer, Diego, Blue from Blue’s Clues, more. (www.nickjr.com)
12. DLTK’s Holiday Activities for Kids - A good selection of simple yet sophisticated free pumpkin stencils that parents & kids can do together, including bats, Thomas the train, alien head, black cat, ghost, owl, Jack Skellington, skull, spider web, witch, “Trick or Treat”, “Happy Halloween”, pumpkin face patterns, more. (www.dltk-holidays.com)
13. The Pumpkin Wizard - Interesting assortment of pumpkin stencils here, including both traditional Halloween subjects such as ghosts and haunted houses, and non-traditional patterns of musicians, sports teams like Ohio State & Notre Dame, U.S. flag and military / patriotic pumpkin designs, Smurfs, Angry Birds, Spongebob, Dora the Explorer, Bart Simpson, Hunger Games characters, Big Bang Theory characters, Star Wars characters, Miley Cyrus, more. Dearly departed celebrities like Steve Jobs, Michael Jackson, Elvis, more. (www.carvingpumpkins.com)
14. Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals Patterns - Free pumpkin stencils for the 2013 World Series teams: Boston, St. Louis. (mlb.com)
15. Country Pumpkins - Carve your pumpkin with a likeness of Taylor Swift, Luke Bryan, Carrie Underwood, Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert, Kenny Chesney, Dolly Parton, Brad Paisley, or other country music stars. (www.gactv.com)
16. Think Geek - All kinds of cool, free patterns submitted by visitors, including sci-fi and superhero images. Avengers logo, SHIELD logo, Mr. Spock, Stormtrooper, Hello Kitty, many more. (www.thinkgeek.com)
17. Fantasy Pumpkins - All kinds of cool, free stencils here, many have a fairly high degree of difficulty. Mad Hatter, Nosferatu, Nightmare Before Christmas, Batman, Despicable Me minions, more. (www.fantasypumpkins.com)
18. World Wildlife Fund - Knock some environmental sense into those candy-crazed trick-or-treaters with these World Wildlife Fund pumpkin stencils of wolves, bats, elephants, owls, rhinos, lions, sharks, tigers and more, including a WWF panda logo stencil. (www.worldwildlife.org)
19. Creative Type Dad 1 - Jack Skellington, Gary Coleman, and our favorite stencil of the bunch — Lionel Richie’s face with “Hello” in text beside him. All free. (creativetypes.blogspot.com)
20. Creative Type Dad 2 - Carve Colonel Sanders from KFC, or Chewbacca from Star Wars, or a witch version of the “mud flap girl”, or a Tinkerbell lookalike, or a ninja, or Dee Dee from Doodlebops. (creativetypes.blogspot.com)
21. Creative Type Dad 3 - Free stencils offered in this batch include Spider-Man, the Apple logo, Transformers art and more. (creativetypes.blogspot.com)
22. Creative Type Dad 4 - Free pumpkin stencils of Linus in the pumpkin patch, Princess and the Frog, Evil Queen, and the Balloon Boy of 2009 (remember him?). (creativetypes.blogspot.com)
23. Creative Type Dad 5 - Pegasus unicorn pattern, rocker smashing guitar into pumpkin, more. (creativetypes.blogspot.com)
24. Un-Halloween Pumpkin Patterns - As the name implies, pumpkin stencils that have nothing to do with Halloween, including Jesus and other Christian symbols, the Statue of Liberty, golfing, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (scary!), Tiger Woods, John Wayne, Fats Domino, Britney Spears, Martha Stewart, Star Wars characters, theatre masks, yin yang symbol, David Letterman, Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, Bill Cosby, Johnny Carson, even The Carpenters. (pumpkinglow.com)
25. Pumpkin Pile - Nice collection of free pumpkin stencils, with everything from traditional monsters to superheroes to cartoon characters to sports team logos. (www.pumpkinpile.com)
26. eHow - 30+ free pumpkin stencils here; nothing too inspired, but OK. (www.ehow.com)
27. The Pumpkin Lady - Offers a variety of traditional jack o’ lantern templates in mildly scary form, such as witches, black cats, ghosts, silly Frankenstein, etc. Most patterns are $1.49, and a few are offered free. (www.pumpkinlady.com)
28. Pumpkin Masters - 9 freebies here. (www.pumpkinmasters.com)
29. Masterpiece Pumpkins - The owner of this site does custom pumpkin carving patterns so you can put yourself or your child on a pumpkin, and also offers pumpkin carving sets with different themes and from different years, plus a pumpkin gallery with all sorts of neat ideas. From traditional patterns like bats, scary faces, and witches to Elvis and Marilyn Monroe to Disney designs like Mickey Mouse, Pooh and Piglet, and Charlie Brown and Snoopy. $3.95 per stencil, available for immediate download. (www.masterpiecepumpkins.com)
30. Peace Pumpkin Stencil - A free pumpkin stencil with a message: “No War” (www.signalkorps.com)
31. Carving for Kids - Offers 30 pumpkin carving templates for $6.95, including ghosts, witches, funny and scary faces, “Happy Halloween” and “Trick or Treat”, more. (www.carvingforkids.com)
32. Paper Pumpkins - Easy pumpkin stencils for kids and adults — mostly faces but also bats and other spooky scenes. Free. (www.paperpumpkins.com)
33. Scary Hillary Pumpkin Stencil - Carve Hillary Clinton with fangs on your pumpkin. Free. (www.strangepolitics.com)
Other related Bessed pages:
Free Pumpkin Carving Patterns
Disney Pumpkin Carving Patterns
Animal Pumpkin Carving Patterns
Flower Pumpkin Carving Patterns
Frankenstein Pumpkin Stencils