There are a few ways to transfer the pattern from the stencil onto your pumpkin.

Either stick the A4 paper straight onto the pumpkin and use a carving knife to cut through the paper and the pumpkin skin to make the markings, then you can remove the paper and finish cutting out the relevant parts.

Alternatively, cut out all of the components and stick them to the pumpkin so you can decide exactly where you want each part to be so it perfectly fits your pumpkin.

Another way to do it is trace the pattern onto baking paper and use that to trace the stencil directly onto pumpkin.

Using the stencils

Print out the stencils onto A4 paper, then carve out the black sections. For thin lines, pierce the skin but don’t carve all the way through. This will allow the light from the candle to shine through, having a spooky effect.

Once you’ve used the stencils on your pumpkin, enter them into my pumpkin carving competition!