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A giant spider sprawled across the whole pumpkin face, its oval abdomen and small head flanked by eight long jointed legs that bend at sharp knees. The design uses skin-shave shading only: the spider shape is peeled to the pale flesh while the wall stays whole, so it looms in daylight without any pierced holes. At medium difficulty, score the leg outlines first and peel each segment separately to keep the joints sharp. This design is rated Intermediate and takes most carvers around 75 minutes from trace to glow. Comfortable knife handling required. Small details and curves.
Pumpkin size guide
- 🎃 Small (5–7") — print at 80%
- 🎃 Medium (7–10") — print at 100% (recommended)
- 🎃 Large (11–13") — print at 130%
- 🎃 Giant (14"+) — print at 150% on tabloid paper
Frequently asked questions
Can I resize this stencil?▾
Yes. The PDF is vector so it scales cleanly. Print at 100% for a 7–10 inch pumpkin, 130% for 11–13 inch, or 150% for a giant. Use your printer's "Fit to page" or "Custom scale" setting.
What kind of paper works best?▾
Standard 20 lb letter or A4 printer paper is fine. Heavier paper is harder to bend around the pumpkin curve. If your printer supports it, set the quality to 'best' so the lines are crisp.
How long will the carved pumpkin last?▾
Usually 5–10 days. Coat all cut surfaces with petroleum jelly and store the pumpkin somewhere cool overnight. Avoid direct sun. Battery LED pumpkin lights produce no heat and double the lifespan.
Can I sell pumpkins carved with this stencil?▾
Yes, the carved pumpkin you make is yours. The license covers personal and small-scale commercial carving (selling carved pumpkins, photographing them, posting on social). You may not resell the PDF file itself.
What if my printer doesn't print the whole stencil?▾
Set 'Page scaling' to 'Fit' in the print dialog and uncheck 'Auto-rotate'. If it still cuts off, the design includes 0.25" of safe-area margin so a small crop won't ruin it.
How to carve this stencil
- 1Print it
Download the PDF and print at 100% scale on letter or A4 paper.
- 2Prep the pumpkin
Cut the lid at an angle, scoop the guts, thin the wall to ~1 inch.
- 3Tape it on
Snip darts in the paper so it lies flat against the curve.
- 4Transfer the design
Poke along every line — about one dot every 1/8 inch.
- 5Carve it
Connect the dots with short straight cuts. Center first, work outward.
- 6Light it up
Drop in a battery LED pumpkin light and you're done.
Tools you'll need
For a intermediate carve like this you'll want a x-acto knife, poker tool, ribbon scoop, and painter's tape. Here's the kit we reach for — start with whatever you already own.
Elmchee Pumpkin Carving Kit
13-piece kit with carrying case
Saws for the larger cutouts, plus a scoop for hollowing. Covers both jobs in one kit.
View on Amazon ↗
HOME MOST LED Pumpkin Lights
4-pack, battery operated, with remote + timer
Orange glow made for jack-o'-lanterns. The remote and timer light the pumpkin every evening without reaching inside.
View on Amazon ↗
Speedball 4131 Lino Cutter Set
Handle + 5 interchangeable cutters
Interchangeable cutters for peeling and shading the face. Useful for the finer details.
View on Amazon ↗
Community Pumpkin Carving Ideas
Carving ideas that use stencils like this one.
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AdvancedPointed-Abdomen Relief Spider
A boldly sculpted spider with a plump pointed abdomen, rounded head, and eight thick segmented legs that arch outward like a tarantula ready to strike. It carves as continuous-wall relief: you shave away skin at varying depths so the body and legs stand out dimensionally, with no openings pierced. This hard project rewards layered carving, so rough in the whole shape shallow first, then deepen around the legs to lift them off the background.
AdvancedDark-Backed Crawling Spider
A big crawling spider with a dark rounded abdomen and eight bent legs radiating across the pumpkin's face. The design is peel-carved: pale skin is shaved away around each leg and along the body's edges so the spider reads in silhouette, with no pierced openings at all. The legs are long and thin, so score both edges of each one with a knife tip before shaving between the lines to keep the curves clean.
IntermediateBold Eight-Legged Spider
A big bodied spider spreads eight bent legs across the pumpkin face, framed by glowing panels that let the light flood around the silhouette. The spider itself stays as solid rind while the surrounding windows are cut through, so the legs read as crisp dark lines against the glow. Cut the background panels first and save the thin leg bridges for last so they keep their support.
AdvancedAlmond Eyes and Twenty Tears
Two huge almond eyes stare straight out, each ringed by fanned lash bars above and a spray of teardrop cuts below, with attached pupils floating in the centers. The eye whites, brow strokes, and roughly twenty teardrops are all pierced, leaving the pupils and lash ribs as connected shell. This one earns its hard rating on the thin lash bars, so cut every slot outward from the eye and support the wall with your palm.
IntermediateStaring Eyes and Eight Wedges
Two enormous staring eyes dominate this design, each with a pupil tab left attached at the bottom rim, a curved brow arcing above, and short wedge-shaped rays radiating around the outside like a nervous twitch of light. There is no mouth, which makes the gaze even more unsettling. In this medium carve the pupil tabs are the key detail; cut around each pupil carefully so its bridge to the lower eyelid stays at least a half inch wide.
Beginner-friendlyBare Tree with Forked Branches
A gnarled bare tree glows from a wide split trunk up through forked, twisting branches, the classic haunted-forest silhouette in reverse. The entire tree shape is cut through as one connected opening, so light traces every crooked limb. It rates easy because the cuts are bold, but the branch tips narrow quickly; cut from each tip back toward the trunk and remove the waste in small pieces so no limb snaps off.