50 Best Easy Pumpkin Carving Ideas & Designs 

50 Best easy pumpkin carving ideas & designs such as Jack O Lantern stencils, cute faces, Halloween cats, scary ghosts, DIY templates, etc.

Pumpkin carving is one of the most fun activities for kids and family. You can use pumpkins of any shapes and sizes to make magical Halloween crafts and decorations that lights up at night. 

Here are 50 of our favorite pumpkin carving ideas, tips for beginners, and easy templates to carve your magical Jack O Lanterns, cute cats, spooky faces, magical animals, and so much more! For more Halloween fun, check out these 50+ best no carve pumpkin ideas, 78 amazing DIY Halloween decor & crafts, and 48 easy DIY Halloween outdoor decorations.

What is the best way to carve a pumpkin?

The first question beginners often have is “Do you cut a pumpkin on top or bottom?” Kn most cases, cutting of the bottom makes it easier to put outdoor LED candles inside to light the pumpkin.

The video below and this article offer good pumpkin carving tips for beginners, such as how to set up a working area, and basic pumpkin carving tools to use, etc.

You can get pumpkin carving kits like this, which includes serrated knives, a poker and a scoop, or use kitchen spoons and any small serrated knives.

How to preserve carved pumpkins to keep them from rotting?

To make your Jack-o-lanterns pumpkins stay fresh longer, you can make a spray of one part white vinegar to 1 part water, and spray the carved pumpkins every 2-3 days. 

Another method is to mix 1-2 teaspoons of bleach per gallon of water and soak the carved pumpkin from 1 hour to overnight.

Pumpkin carving stencil ideas 

A great pumpkin carving stencil idea is to use a dry-erase marker instead of permanent marker to draw the cut lines, since it’s easy to make mistakes on the slippery surface of a pumpkin. Source: Family Handyman | Norokoro

Pumpkin face ideas

There are many creative ways to make spooky or cute pumpkin carving faces easily, let’s take a look at each idea below-

Easy Halloween Jack o’ lantern ideas 

This cute Jack o lantern pumpkin design is very easy for beginners to draw freehand without stencil, and to carve with simple kitchen tools.

Happy Halloween pumpkin carving faces

Use plants to add whimsical hairstyle to these happy smiling pumpkin faces.

Easy to carve Halloween pumpkin face ideas

These Halloween pumpkin faces are easy to make with minimal carving. Add extra creative details such as black felt eye patch, mask, black ribbon eyebrows, etc.

Scary pumpkin carving ideas for Halloween 

How do you make a pumpkin carving face look scary?

It’s really simple and easy: just change the shapes of the eyes and mouth on a Jack o lantern to create angry expressions and add sharp teeth to make it even more scary- see video tutorial by Dave Hax below:

Spooky pumpkin face design

Make this really cool pumpkin carving design for Halloween. Carve out the teeth a put a small one inside its mouth. See video tutorial below:

Spooky Jack o lantern pumpkin carving 

Can’t go wrong with a classic scary pumpkin carving! The sharper the teeth, the better. Source

Pumpkin carving face ideas with easy pasta teeth

These Halloween pumpkin faces are so easy and fun to carve. Love the acorn eyes and ziti pasta teeth, and the lollypop hair (below) !

Disney Star Wars Grogu pumpkin carving ideas

Are you a fan of Disney,  Star Wars, or Mandalorian? We are, and we just love this Grogu aka Baby Yoda pumpkin carving idea! 

Cut a quarter wedge off a whole pumpkin to make Grogu’s pod. Use the cut piece to make two big ears and use toothpicks to attach them to his cute painted pumpkin face.

Cute and spooky one eyed pumpkin Halloween decor

A super easy pumpkin carving idea for kids and beginners. Paint the eyeball on a smaller white pumpkin, and put it inside a big warty pumpkin with a simple carved opening. Source  

How to carve a pumpkin cat 

Becca shared some great tips in her cat pumpkin carving tutorial: “Use a water-soluble marker in orange or red to draw your design. Taper your cuts towards the inside of the pumpkin so they show less pulp. This will help you get a crisp design.“

Cute cat pumpkin carving ideas

There are many easy ways to carve a pumpkin cat, more details on these ideas below-

Cat pumpkin carving with stencil

Make your own pumpkin carving stencil from paper and tape it to the surface of a pumpkin. It’s an easy way to figure out the designs before drawing and carving. Source: Norokoro

Cat and mouse Halloween pumpkin carving 

When you have multiple pumpkins of different sizes, carve a big smiling cat face pumpkin , add black felt ears, and pair with a cute little mouse pumpkin. Via BHG

Cute and easy pumpkin carving animals 

Spice things up this Halloween with adorable pumpkin animals that are fun and easy to make! Details below-

Make a cute pumpkin porcupine

This pumpkin porcupine require minimal carving. All you need are an oval shaped pumpkin, two acorns, and a pack of toothpicks or bamboo skewers, depending on the size of the pumpkin.

Carve a family of pumpkin owls

Carve this adorable trio of pumpkin owls to make your Halloween decor extra fun and special.

Owl pumpkin carving 

To carve this wonderful owl pumpkin, Jennifer used an apple core cutter and made 2 holes all the way through the pumpkin to carve out the eyes. Then she used a small use a wood carving tool to cut beautiful details of feathers on the pumpkin, removing the orange layer but not going all the way through.

Halloween owl pumpkin

Instead of cutting shapes all the way through the thick shell, use a wood carving tool to remove just the skin and maybe a thin layer of pumpkin flesh. The tool allows you to carve finer detail, and when you put a candle inside, the pumpkin glows from within and light is visible through the carved-away part of the design. Via Sunset

Fall leaf pumpkin carving stencils

Use autumn leaves as stencils for pumpkin carving, and create a beautiful Scandinavian farmhouse decoration. Source

You may also love these 24 gorgeous fall leaf crafts and decor ideas!

Easy pumpkin camp fire

Another easy pumpkin carving idea: make and trace flame-shape stencils or draw them freehand onto your pumpkins, carve and arrange them in a heap bonfire style for a backyard Halloween party.

Cute Halloween monster and alien pumpkins 

Here are some easy pumpkin carving ideas to make cute little monsters and aliens for Halloween. Fake nails as teeth, radishes and beans as eyes, so creative!

Artistic pumpkin carving ideas

Next, let’s look at some artistic pumpkin carving ideas and designs –

Easy pumpkin carving with a drill

One of the best easy pumpkin carving ideas is to use a drill with a small bit to trace a design and create evenly spaced holes on the pumpkin. Make it glow with LED lights. Via BHG

Flower pumpkin carving designs 

The video tutorial below will show you how to carve beautiful flower designs on a pumpkin. ( Source site vegetablefruitcarving.com unavailable)

Carve a pumpkin clock 

This unique pumpkin clock is carved at different depth, so the designs light up at different levels of brightness.

Beautiful floral pumpkin carving

This pumpkin with floral design carving is a beautiful alternative to traditional Jack o’ lanterns.

Day of the Dead skull pumpkin carving

Love folk art? Try this decorative pumpkin skull which captures the festive spirit of Dia de los Muertos – The Day of the Dead. Use wood carving tools to create the details.

Haunted houses Halloween pumpkins 

These haunted house pumpkins are much easier to carve than they look! All you need to do is carve out small openings for the windows, and paint the house silhouette using black craft paint.

Ghost faces pumpkin carving ideas 

Fall pumpkins come is so many shapes and colors. Use a white pumpkin to make Jack the pumpkin king from The Nightmare Before Christmas, or a group of spooky faces from this mix of pumpkins. ( Via Carrie K. from El Mirage, AZ | Maine Today / Shannon Bryan)

Stacked pumpkin carving ideas 

Want to take your jack-o’-lanterns game to another level? Stack them up! Let’s look at each idea in detail-

Carved pumpkin faces with skeleton arms

Add plastic skeleton arms to make these Jack o lanterns super spooky and expressive.

Stacked Jack o’ lanterns with LED lights

Light up this stack of Jack o lanterns with outdoor LED lights that are made specifically for pumpkins and are safe for use in fresh or foam pumpkins.

Spooky skeletons pumpkin carving

Turn our pumpkins into spooky glow-in-the-dark lanterns with a pair of pumpkins to form each skeleton arm-hand combo. Source

Halloween night pumpkin decorations

Create this mysterious Halloween night landscape with painted tree silhouette, string light stars and carved moon.

Carved pumpkin decorations for stairs 

More creative ways to decorate stairs with carved pumpkins can be found here and here.

Cookie cutter easy pumpkin carving ideas

Fall leaf cookie cutters also make great stencils for pumpkin carving (source). Set you pumpkin on a urn with autumn foliage to create beautiful porch decorations ( source ).

You may also love these 25 inspiring fall outdoor decorating ideas and these 20+ beautiful DIY fall planter ideas.

Happy creating! See you soon!