Pumpkin picking is our favorite fall activity. Every year, we find the perfect pumpkins to craft, carve, and decorate the house with (see what we did last year here). This year, our pumpkins came from the open fields of Happy Day Farms. In addition to their pumpkin patch, they have two other attractions we loved. There’s a ‘Pumpkinville’, with impressive displays like their wooden house with pumpkins stacked from the floor to the ceiling. They also have a sunflower field with fun and colorful props like doors and swings for some really great photo ops.
There are so many fun ways to decorate and craft pumpkins (see some fun craft ideas here). The kids love painting them with washable paint and I love using them as planters. This year I’m making the time to revisit a favorite fall pastime of carving pumpkins.
Carving pumpkins is a fun and creative activity. With the right tools and the help of a stencil, anyone can carve a cool and intricate design. My favorite and most impressive pumpkin carvings are of my dogs, Bella and Barney. Bella is a 11-year-old husky and German Shepherd mix and Barney is a 10-year-old goldendoodle.
To create these awesome pumpkin carvings, I used these free dog breed stencils from Better Homes & Gardens. These carvings combine cutting and etching to create dimension when the pumpkin is lit. Etching is when you scrape the top layer of the pumpkin off, whereas carving is when you cut through the pumpkin. The stencil tells you exactly where to carve and etch and the end result is impressive. It took me 1.5 hours each to carve Bella and Barney. See the details below on how you can create an awesome pumpkin carving of your dog at home.
Pumpkin-Carving Stencils of Popular Dog Breeds
Bulldog | Border Collie | Boston Terrier | Schnauzer | Labrador Retriever | Beagle | Boxer | Cavalier King | Charles Spaniel | German Shepherd | Chihuahua | Cocker Spaniel | Golden Retriever | Pomeranian | Jack Russell | Scottish Terrier | Dachshund |German Shorthaired Pointer | Doberman Pinscher | Pug | Rottweiler | Poodle | Shih Tzu | Siberian Husky | Yorkshire Terrier
Dog Breed Pumpkin Carving
Materials
- Large pumpkin
- Pumpkin carving tools
- Dog breed stencil paper print out (use a photocopier to enlarge or reduce the pattern to fit your pumpkin)
- Tape
- Scissors
Directions
- Cut out a lid for your pumpkin. Make sure you cut at a 45° angle so the lid doesn’t fall in when you replace it. You can also cut a notch at the back to make it easier to line up.
- Hollow out the pumpkin, scraping the flesh thinner where you plan on carving your design.
- Trim off the pattern and attach it to the pumpkin with tape.
- Use the pointy tool to make closely spaced pin pricks along the stencil lines, piercing the paper.
- Remove the paper stencil and etch the indicated areas by scraping and peeling the skin off with a tool.
- Use the knives to carefully carve the pattern indicated by the stencil. Cut completely through the solid lines.
- Optional: Clean and preserve your pumpkin – I use this method to make them last longer.
