Sunday, October 12, 2008

Free Halloween Jack O Lantern Templates - Over 40 Sites

Looking for the best, free Halloween Jack-O-Lantern Pumpkin Carving Templates on the web?  I’ve compiled a list of over 40 different places where you can find free pumpkin carving patters to use as your Jack-O-Lantern Templates for this Halloween.  There are traditional, geeky, political, scary and fun patterns here - something for everyone.

NOTE:  10/24/2011 I've updated this list and crossed out a few dead links from last year.  More links will be added soon so bookmark this page

A little off-topic for GeekTonic, but I wanted to share.  Each Halloween, my daughter and I spend an evening carving several jack-o-lanterns for Halloween.  She usually does two that turn out fantastic and then I do one or two as well.  Each year, we scour the Internet to find free printable templates to help in the carving or at least to give us some ideas. 

     Two Jack-O-Lanterns Carved by my family in past years

Forty–Plus Websites For Free Jack-O-Lantern Patterns
1. Jasmine’s Gallery – Political pumpkin carving patters including McCain, Obama, Palin and a lot more.  Also includes some more traditional patterns.
2. Stoneykins – a very nice collection of patterns for everyone.  Music-themed jack-o-lanterns, political, Sesame Street and other kids themes etc.
3. FabulousLiving.com – Rock and Roll patterns including Bob Marley, Jim Morrison, Elvis and more
4. FabulousLiving.com – More traditional, but unique patterns
5. Haunted World – A handful of patterns including McCain, Obama and a few other nice ones
6. Disney - Disney character patterns!
7. PumpkinGlow – A large collection of Jack-O-Lantern Patterns organized into categories
8. Jack-o-Lantern.com - Here at the appropriately named Jack-O-Lantern.com you'll find a pretty nice selection of patterns.  One unique inclusion here is a how-to on making a pattern of your own (or anyone's) face using a photograph and a graphics editing program such as Paint Shop Pro or Adobe Photoshop.
9. FamilyFun - Nice pumpkin carving ideas as well as whole-pumpkin projects
10. EHow - Ehow has a large selection of simple, traditional Jack-O-Lantern Patters as well as some Letter/Monogram-type templates
11. Pumpkin Lady - Lots of free patterns as well as several "premium" ones.  You'll also find one of the better how-to's on carving your Jack-O-Lantern as well.
12. DotComWomen – Patterns including  a graveyard, haunted house, owl, crow and more
13. Celebrating Halloween – Some more traditional patterns mixed with some unique ones.
14. Extreme Pumpkin - For the winner of the most "extreme" and unusual Jack-O-Lanterns of the list head over to Extreme Pumpkin.  These are definitely NOT your typical jack-o-lanterns.  They have a book with more of these types of patterns available at Amazon (affiliate):
Extreme Pumpkins 1 The original book available at Amazon
Extreme Pumpkins 2 The sequel to Extreme Pumpkins available at Amazon
Here you'll find the flaming pumpkin head, the conjoined twins pumpkins and the puking pumpkin:
extreme1
15. World Wildlife Fund – Animal and Nature themed patterns
16. Hersheys - Everyone's favorite candy company has 24 different patterns with 12 each of easy, intermediate and advanced patterns.
17. DLTK - A nice selection of Jack-O-Lantern Patterns with several themed for younger children including Thomas the Tank, Scooby Doo and others
18. Hewlett-Packard - HP has 7 different patterns for your carving pleasure.
19. Home Depot – 10 fairly difficult patterns that they hope will encourage you to purchase their Pumpkin-carving dremel :)  Tip:  If you really want a pumpkin dremel use a real one or buy the Pumpkin Dremel at Amazon (affiliate) to save a few bucks.
20. ScaryProducts.com More traditional patterns
21. The Pumpkin Wizard – This is a very popular site with many free patterns and some additional members-only patterns here including traditional, patriotic, sports teams, celebrities and more.  It was so popular last year that the site went down several times the week before Halloween so check it out early.
22. The Pumpkin Farm - A few very simple, traditional Jack-O-Lantern patterns
23. Zombie Pumpkins - Some free some not - includes Mario, World of Warcraft patterns among others you don't see on any of the other sites listed here.

Cheshire Cat Photo by jdippold78 on flickr – pattern by Zombie Pumpkins for $2
24. Kim's Free Pumpkin Patterns  - More simple, traditional Jack-O-Lantern Patterns
25. Pumpkin Masters – Four nice Jack-O-Lantern Patterns from Pumpkin Masters, the maker of those pumpkin carving books you see sold in stores this time of year.  There are only four, but they're nice ones including Flack Jack , Ichabod's Fate, Good Bite Moon , and Grim Creeper
26. FabulousFoods – Several moderate to complicated patterns here including some traditional templates as well including  Screaming Skull, The Green Man, Skeleclown and more.
27. Better Home & Gardens - BHG has several Jack-O-Lantern stencils as well as many other Halloween themed projects
28. Yankee Halloween - has a US Flag pattern for free and advertise their many jack-o-lantern pattern books you can purchase.
29. Spookmaster -  has a handful of free patterns as well as a bunch of premium patterns
30. Home Logic - Four nice patterns including a Frankenstein, Reaper, Wolf and Skull
31. CBC News - CBC has some unique patters for Jack-O-Lanterns and a few non-jack-o-lantern pumpkin carving ideas.
32. Paper Pumpkins - 9 different easy, traditional pumpkin carving patterns for the kids
33. Pumpkin Lights - a few additional stencils for Jack-O-Lanterns
34. DIY Network - The DIY Network has several Jack-O-Lantern patterns, how-to's and other Halloween crafts for you.
35. Allrecipes.com - AllRecipies.com has 6 Jack-O-Lantern patterns from Reader's Digest.
36. ChrisDunmire - Chris Dunmire's Creative Slush blog has a very unique pattern he calls the "Nit Wits PUNKin".  Take a look at ChrisDunmire's resulting Jack-O-Lantern to understand why it's called creative...
punkin-carving
37. EvilMadScientist - Here you will find the geekiest of all Jack-O-Lanterns.  It's a Cylon jack-o-lantern and has the how-to, but you'll need to do some electronics work to make this one.
 
  Photo and Design by EvilMadScientist.com
38. Fantasy Pumpkins – My favorite of the bunch.  I don’t have the talent for most of these, but I love seeing what they come up with each year.  Check out the Death Star, Diablo II, Mars Attacks and much, much more.  Many how-to’s on the individual pumpkins with stencils and videos as well.  A Must-see for anyone who likes carving or just seeing amazing Jack-O-Lanterns.

Draco Dragon Photo and Design by Fantasy Pumpkins
39. Family Management – several simple, traditional patterns
40. Associated Press Election Patterns - The AP has a large collection of political, presidential and election jack-o-lantern patterns for this year
41. Convert a Photo into a Jack-O-Lantern
42. Flickr Jack-O-Lantern Group - If you just need some inspiration for your own design and would like to see some photos of jack-o-lantern's created by others, be sure and check out the Jack-O-Lantern Group at flickr.
43. Star Wars Patterns-  All kinds of awesome Star Wars themed pumpkin carving patterns including Yoda, Tie Fighter, X-Wing Fighter, Sith, Darth Vader, Stormtrooper and more!
44. [NEW! 2009] ThinkGeek Geeky Patterns -  I large compilation of some really geeky pumpkin patterns.  I love em'!
45. Pumpkin Pile - Cartoons, Super Heroes, Sports, Video Games, Words, and more.  A really nice addition to the list for 2011!
46. Sweet Happy Life - 20 relatively easy but nice patterns.  New to the list 2011!
47. Mister Handyman - More simple patters for 2011
48. Angry Birds - Yeah, it's Angry Bird patterns added to the list in 2011
49. History.org - Here's some patterns you likely haven't seen before.  George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, historic buildings and other history-centric patterns - new in 2011
50. Gannett.com - a pretty nice collection of patterns - added 2011.


How to carve a Jack-O-Lantern from a pumpkin:
Metacafe - A video how-to for a small, LED Jack-O-Lantern.  Cool.
Walts Pumpkin Carving Secrets – Shows you how to carve a pumpkin, create your own pattern, project images from the back of your jack-o-lantern and more

If you want to share your jack-o-lantern from this year or past year’s post a link in the comments below.