Halloween Stencils: 31 Free Printable Designs

Pumpkin carving faces

The five faces below are drawn specifically for carving: bold shapes, no fiddly slivers, and every cut-out big enough to actually saw around. They also paint beautifully if you'd rather not carve at all. Start with the happy pumpkin if children are involved and the scary one if they're not.

How to carve a pumpkin with a printable stencil

Getting a flat paper design onto a round pumpkin is the part nobody explains properly. Here's the method that actually works, and it takes about forty-five minutes start to finish.

1. Print at 100% and check it fits. Hold the sheet against the pumpkin before you do anything else. Every pumpkin has one flattest face — use it. If the design wraps around the curve, scale down and reprint; a design that bends will carve distorted.
2. Cut the lid at an angle. Slope the cut inward so the lid rests on a ledge instead of dropping inside once the flesh shrinks. Cut a small notch at the back so you can always line it up again.
3. Scrape the carving wall to about 2cm. This is the step people skip and regret. A thinner wall cuts cleanly, glows properly, and stops the small shapes crumbling.
4. Tape the stencil down with snipped edges. Make short snips around the paper's border so it lies flat against the curve, then tape every flap. A stencil that shifts halfway through is a ruined face.
5. Prick the outline through the paper. Use a pin, skewer or the poker from a carving kit and dot along every cut line, about 3mm apart. Peel the paper away and you have a dotted map on the skin.
6. Carve the smallest shapes first. Same rule as cutting a stencil: while the pumpkin wall is still whole it is strong. Saw gently with a back-and-forth motion — forcing the blade is how eyes crack into each other.
7. Push the pieces out from inside. Never pull them out from the front; the edge tears. Push gently with a thumb from within.
8. Light it with an LED tea light. Brighter than a candle, no scorching, no fire risk, and it lasts all evening.

Creatures of the night

Cats, bats, spiders and the classic monsters. These are the designs that do the heavy lifting on windows and walls, and most of them shrink well enough for party bags and jar labels too.

Spooky scene setters

Tombstones, coffins, bare trees and potion bottles — the props rather than the characters. Group three or four together on a window or door panel and you have a scene instead of a sticker.

The rest of the Halloween collection

Already in the library, and still free: the plain pumpkin for painting, ghosts, witches, skulls and the haunted house.

Beyond the pumpkin: nine other things to do with these

Window silhouettes

The single highest-impact Halloween decoration, and the cheapest. Stencil the bat trio, the black cat and a witch onto black card, cut them out, and tape them inside the glass. Backlit by a lamp after dark they read from the street. Our printing guide covers card weights.

Painted pumpkins

No knife, no mess, no rotting. Chalk or acrylic paint grips the waxy skin if you wipe it first; hold the stencil against the curve and dab in sections rather than trying to fix the whole sheet flat. White pumpkins with a single black design look genuinely stylish.

Trick-or-treat bags and party kit

Plain calico bags plus fabric paint, and every child gets a personalised bag. The treat bucket, candy corn and bat designs suit small scales. Add initials from our letter stencils and see the lettering guide for keeping names straight.

Face paint stencils

Cut a small spider or bat from acetate and use it as a face-paint template — far easier than freehand on a wriggling child, and it looks sharper. Keep the design under about 4cm and use skin-safe paint only.

Sizing guide

Rough guidance that saves reprinting: full A4 for pumpkins, doors and window panels; 50% for cards, jars and small windows; 25–30% for gift tags, party bags and face paint. Bold designs — the bats, black cat, candy corn — stay readable when small. Detailed ones like the skeleton and creepy tree want size to breathe. The resizing guide covers scaling beyond A4 for door-sized work.

What you'll need

For painting rather than carving, the kit is the same as any stencil project — a stiff brush, paint suited to your surface, card, and low-tack tape to hold everything flat. Our full supplies guide goes through the choices properly.

Common questions