Free Dog Pumpkin Patterns for Halloween 2009

Printable Stencils for Carving Pumpkins into Animal Designs

Oct 10, 2009

Learn where to find free printable pumpkin carving stencils for dog breeds and other animal pumpkin patterns! Create a dog breed Jack-o-lantern design for Halloween!

Halloween pumpkin carving is a true art for many creative Halloween enthusiasts who have abandoned the traditional Jack-o-lantern face for other pumpkin carving designs like celebrity faces, pumpkin portraits, sports team logos and dog breed pumpkin carvings.

Many pet lovers are seeking dog pumpkin stencils or Halloween pumpkin carving patterns for a specific dog breed, and there are a few websites that offer free printable dog breed pumpkin carving stencils. And for owners of uncommon and hard-to-find dog breeds, there's even one site that shows pumpkin carvers how to turn a dog's photograph into a pumpkin carving pattern using basic photo editing software.

Better Homes & Gardens' Free Dog Breed Pumpkin Carving Stencils

The Better Homes & Gardens website offers a wide array of dog breed pumpkin carving patterns that are printable. These dog breed pumpkin designs are actually more detailed than many of the others found on free pumpkin stencil websites, as the designs involve carving the pumpkin at different depths. This creates the illusion of shading and the Jack-o-lantern carving appears somewhat three dimensional.

The free printable dog pumpkin stencils on the Better Homes & Gardens website include:

Dog lovers will also enjoy the pet stories that accompany each dog pumpkin carving pattern that's offered on BHG.com. Each pumpkin pattern is accompanied by a photograph of a dog and the finished pumpkin carving, along with brief doggy biography. Animal lovers are encouraged to vote for their favorite dog!

Make Your Own Dog Pumpkin Carving Stencil From a Photo

Creating a unique pumpkin carving pattern from a photograph of a pet dog is actually fairly easy. A digital photograph of the dog and basic photo editing software to create the dog portrait pumpkin carving design.

This process enables dog owners to make a customized pumpkin carving featuring their own dog! This is perfect for owners of uncommon dog breeds who cannot find an appropriate dog pumpkin carving stencil or for pumpkin carvers who wish to create a customized pumpkin carving on a "Funkin" – an artificial pumpkin that can be carved and displayed year after year.

CarvingPumpkins.com has a great tutorial titled "How to Make Your Own Pattern" (under the "instructions" tab) that shows Jack-o-lantern lovers exactly how to make a pumpkin carving pattern from a photo by turning a color image into a black and white image, which is then edited for contrast and "reversed" to create a negative image that ultimately serves as a customized Jack-o-lantern stencil.

More Dog and Animal Pumpkin Carving Patterns

Miscellaneous dog and animal pumpkin carving stencils can be found on some of the more popular pumpkin carving websites like PumpkinGlow.com. This site features a section of "un-Halloween" pumpkin designs (for free), which include a basic dog pumpkin carving pattern. Halloween enthusiasts can also pick from an array of other animal designs like a giraffe, wolf, chipmunk, deer, bat, koala, lion, zebra, a tiger and horse, among others.

SpookMaster.com also features animal pumpkin carving designs, including a few dog stencils, but a paid membership is required in order to download these animal pumpkin designs. PumpkinLady.com also features some "purrfect" cat pumpkin carving patterns, though these must also be purchased at a price of approximately $2.50 per download.

The World Wildlife Foundation features an array of free printable animal pumpkin carving stencils as part of its fall Going Wild With Pumpkins campaign to promote wildlife awareness. To learn more about the WWF's animal pumpkin carving patterns, read Animal-Themed Pumpkin Carving Stencils from the WWF.

The copyright of the article Free Dog Pumpkin Patterns for Halloween 2009 in Crafts is owned by Mia Carter. Permission to republish Free Dog Pumpkin Patterns for Halloween 2009 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.