SPIDER PUMPKINS
Spider pumpkin carving ideas and free stencils
A spider pumpkin is usually a round body with eight bent legs, often hanging from a thread or sitting in a web. The challenge is that legs and web strands are thin, so they must be drawn thick and stay joined to the rest of the pumpkin. Cut the gaps between the web strands so they glow, and keep the strands as pumpkin.
Free stencils to print
Each one prints at actual size on Letter or A4 and passed our carving checks, so every piece stays attached. Black areas are cut away and glow.
Ideas
Spider in a web
Draw a web as spokes from one corner plus curved lines between them, with a spider near the center. Cut the spaces between the strands so they glow. The strands stay as pumpkin, and the spider can be cut out so it glows too, or left dark.
Hanging spider
Cut a round body and eight bent legs so the spider glows, hanging from a single thread cut up toward the stem. Cut the thread as a slot about a pencil wide; a hairline slit lets out almost no light.
Giant spider on the side
Let one big spider fill the carving side with its legs reaching toward the edges. Cut it out to glow. With just one large shape, it is easier than a web.
Spider crawling out
Cut a jagged hole near the top of the pumpkin, and leave a few spider legs reaching out over its edge as uncut pumpkin. Glue a plastic spider on top to finish it.
Drilled web
Drill the web as rows of small holes along each strand instead of cutting. It glows as a dotted web, and nothing can fall out.
Etched web, cut spider
Etch the whole web so it glows faintly, and cut only the spider all the way through. The spider is the brightest thing on the pumpkin.
Many-eyed face
Carve a face with six or eight round eyes in two rows and two curved fangs below. Drill the smaller eyes and saw the bigger ones.
Carving tips
- Every web strand you keep needs to connect to another strand or to the uncut wall at both ends. A strand that ends in a cut hole falls out.
- Bend each spider leg at a knee. Straight legs look like a sun or a star; bent legs read as a spider.
- Draw legs at least as wide as a pencil, and wider near the body. Whether you cut the legs out or leave them as pumpkin, cut slowly where they meet the body, since that is where breaks happen.
- Cut the web from the center outward, one gap at a time, so the strands near the middle keep their support while you work.
- A web is a lot of small cuts. If you are short on time or carving with kids, drill or etch it instead.
More help: Print a pumpkin stencil at actual size.
Carve something that's yours
CarveKin also makes a pattern from your own photo: your dog, your cat, your kid. We draw a few designs, repair them so every piece stays attached, and you print the one you like at the size you choose. One pattern is $4.99.
Make a pattern from your photo
More pumpkin carving ideas
Stencils were drawn from AI-made sample images and illustrations. Glowing views are digital previews, not photos of carved pumpkins.