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A game-night tribute showing two tumbling dice with action lines beside a classic rounded game pawn, all sitting on a curving track of board spaces. The whole scene is skin-shave shading: you peel the rind away inside each shape while the wall stays solid, so the design shows as pale relief in daylight. For this hard piece, outline every shape with shallow score cuts first, then peel, keeping the dice pips crisp and round. This design is rated Advanced and takes most carvers around 150 minutes from trace to glow. Multi-layer cuts with skin-peel shading. Plan your cuts first.
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
This is a continuous-wall shading design: you never cut all the way through the pumpkin. On the printable pattern, light gray regions get just the skin shaved off for a faint glow, dark gray regions are scraped deeper so more light comes through, and white areas keep their skin untouched. The numbers give you the safest working order. Plan on about 2-3 hours from print to candle.
Set up first. Print the PDF at 100% scale on letter or A4 paper. Cut the lid at an angle, scoop the pumpkin clean, and thin the wall to about 1 inch behind the design so light can pass through the shaded areas. Tape the pattern on (snip small darts in the paper so it hugs the curve) and transfer the outlines by poking dots along every line. Work with a loop tool, clay ribbon scraper, or the back of a spoon rather than a saw.
Shading order
- Trace the pieces and path. Scrape every gray region shallowly. Follow two tilted dice, the round-headed pawn, its disk foot, four motion marks and the visible board-path tiles. Keep every white pip, face seam, tile gap and surrounding background untouched.
- Brighten the dice faces. Deepen the six dark-gray die-face centers around their retained pips. The rear die shows two pips on each visible face; the front die shows two on top, two at left and four at right. Keep pale face borders shallow.
- Round the pawn. Deepen the dark-gray pawn center marked 3 from its round head down the tapered body. Keep its pale rim and disk foot shallow, along with all board tiles and motion marks. Check with an LED; preserve the continuous pumpkin wall.
Check your progress often: set a bright LED inside and dim the room lights, and the glow shows exactly where to scrape deeper. Go slowly near thin spots and stop before the wall flexes; a pierced wall cannot be undone.
Tools you'll need
For a advanced carve like this you'll want a linoleum cutter set, x-acto knife, peel tool, and pin transfer wheel. 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 ↗
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A six-sided die and a classic rounded game pawn sit side by side on a curved, segmented game board path. The die faces, pawn silhouette, and board track are shave-carved so they glow in warm relief, with the pips scooped deeper for contrast; nothing pierces the wall. Shade the two big shapes first, then dot in the pips with a small round gouge, keeping each one the same depth so the die reads evenly.
IntermediateMartini Glass with Olive
A tall martini glass with a skewered olive resting on the rim, drawn in clean bar-sign style from the wide conical bowl down the slender stem to the round base. It carves as skin-shave shading, so the glass appears as smooth pale relief against the dark rind with no pierced openings. A medium project overall; keep your peeling depth even across the big bowl, and leave the thin stem for careful last strokes.
Expert / ProCup, Three Dice and a Pawn
A game-night still life in deep relief: a tipped-over cup spills three pip-dotted dice across a carved tabletop while a rounded pawn stands nearby on its base. Everything is continuous-wall sculpting with no pierced holes, using multiple shaved depths to make the cup, dice faces, and pawn read as three-dimensional objects. As an expert relief carve, block in the deepest background plane first, then step each object forward in layers, cutting the tiny pips last with a round gouge.
AdvancedDice and a Toppled Pawn
A dice cup tips over spilling three pip-marked dice across the scene while a toppled game pawn lies nearby in a glowing puddle of lantern light. This shading design is carved entirely by shaving the skin: the cup, dice faces, pawn, and spill area are scraped to different depths while the pip dots stay dark as untouched rind. Rated hard, keep each die's edges square with straight guide cuts before shaving so the cubes stay convincing.
Expert / ProThumbs Up with a Burst
A giant thumbs-up hand bursting from a starburst of radiating lines, complete with a rolled sleeve cuff, four curled fingers, and a proudly raised thumb. The whole emblem is continuous-wall relief carving, sculpted in layered depths with no cut-through openings, so the hand looks almost three-dimensional. This expert design depends on smooth rounded knuckles: rough out the fist as one mass, then separate the fingers with deep V-grooves before final smoothing.
AdvancedPineapple with Layered Crown
A plump pineapple with a full crown of layered, curling leaves and a body covered in the fruit's signature diamond lattice texture. It carves as continuous-wall relief: the fruit is shaved into the skin at different depths so the crosshatched skin and overlapping leaves stand out dimensionally, with nothing cut through. This hard design goes smoothest if you carve the diamond grid with two sets of parallel angled grooves before shaping each leaf individually.