Free Jack-o'-Lantern Patterns: Printable Templates

Painting or carving a pumpkin can be a bit intimidating if you aren't much of an artist. That's where these free jack-o'-lantern patterns can come in handy. They feature a variety of faces to make your pumpkin stand out from the crowd, and all you have to do is paint or cut according to the pattern.

Once you've selected your pattern, print it out and cut out the black areas of the face. To use the pattern as a stencil, tape the pieces of the face to your pumpkin. Then, paint the pumpkin flesh around the pattern pieces. The actual "face" will remain the color of the pumpkin flesh. Let the paint dry before removing the pattern pieces.

You also can treat your jack-o'-lantern pattern as a template. Tape the pattern pieces to the pumpkin. Next, trace on the pumpkin flesh around the pieces with a pencil. Remove the pattern pieces.

Then, use a sharp knife to cut along your traced lines to remove the pumpkin flesh in those areas, creating holes to the center of the pumpkin. (If you're handy with the knife, you can skip the tracing step and just cut directly around the pattern pieces.) Push the loose pieces of flesh through to the inside of the pumpkin.

Once you're done carving the pattern, cut a circle around the top of the pumpkin to create a lid. Then, reach inside to remove the pieces you carved, as well as the pumpkin innards, so you can light your jack-o'-lantern from the inside. Alternatively, if you prefer to paint instead of carve, you can simply trace the pattern pieces and then fill in the face with paint however you'd like.

The following stencils will create a face that is about 7 inches high and 8.5 inches wide when printed at 100%. You can always change your printing scale to adjust the size to fit your particular pumpkin.

Here are seven free jack-o'-lantern patterns that are bound to create a spooky and stylish pumpkin.