Halloween is coming up, which means that we will finally be able to enjoy pumpkins in forms other than just lattes. The legendary orange fruit — yes, that’s right — will make its way onto everyone’s porches.
Part of why it’s among the stars of the spooky occasion is its versatility. So no matter if you’re a passionate craftsperson or a curious beginner, Bored Panda compiled a list of the most creative Halloween pumpkin carvings that should inspire you to pick up the knife.
Continue scrolling to see all the beloved fictional character portraits, creepy spiders, and even famous painting reproductions!
#1 “Euphoric Frankenstein”
Image credits: devercustoms
#2 My Pumpkin Carving For This Year, Happy Halloween
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#3 We Did Some Pumpkin Carving Last Night So Of Course I Had To Make A PUMPkin
Image credits: thehyggedoula
#4 First Time Going 4 Pumpkins Tall. What Do You All Think?
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#5 Happy Halloween! Voldemort For Today
Image credits: totallypumpkins
#6 Halloween Is Upon Us! Happy October, All. It’s Actually Kind Of Remarkable What A Good Sculpture Medium Pumpkin Can Be
Image credits: andy_bergholtz
#7 I Thought I’d Kick Off My Halloween Pumpkin Pics With This Handy Fella
Image credits: andy_bergholtz
#8 This Was One Of My Favorites At Last Year’s Trail Of Carved Pumpkins Hosted By My Local Zoo. There Were Roughly 5000 Carved Pumpkins Along The Trail, And It Was Such A Magical Night
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#9 I Woke Up, Drove To The Farm, Went Home, And Started Carving. This Is Who Looked Back At Me When I Finished
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#10 Another Day, Another Scream
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#11 My Little Crawlers. I Liked The Cute Little Baby Ones I Did Too
Image credits: reddit.com
#12 Chunky
Image credits: Revolutionary_Gap811
#13 My Pumpkin Carving This Year. Happy Halloween
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#14 Halloween Pumpkin Decorating Contest
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#15 Halloween Pumpkins That I Made
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#16 My First Time Trying Sculptural Pumpkin Carving
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#17 Not A Painting, No Photoshop. This Is A Real Pumpkin Carving. Happy Halloween
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#18 Mario With Bowser Projection
Image credits: Zubes
#19 My Pumpkin Is Done
Image credits: OverallSalamander
#20 This Is A Crescent City House Of Flame And Shadow I Carved For My Girlfriend
Image credits: babysmash3r
#21 Shocked Goblin
Image credits: devercustoms
#22 It’s Time! “Eye Of The Storm”
Image credits: totallypumpkins
#23 The Tank Is Surrounded By 2 Other Pumpkins, Sealing The Unlucky Pumpkin Inside! We Made This For A Hospital. Hopefully, The Patients Will Get Some Enjoyment From It
Image credits: michael_brown04
#24 This Is The First Time I Have Ever Painted A Pumpkin
Image credits: michael_brown04
#25 Jimmy-O-Lantern
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#26 The Details Are Breathtaking
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#27 A Ton Of Work
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#28 That’s Next Level
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#29 I Carved A Pumpkin Inspired By The Movie “Mars Attacks!”
I recently finished this carve of Lisa Marie’s Martian imposter girl character from Mars Attacks! This was hand-carved on a 13” foam pumpkin using X-acto knives, a variety of rotary bits, and a few pointy things.
This model of foam pumpkin is one of the “Time & Place” pumpkins from Joann from a few years back as they were transitioning away from Funkins. These particular pumpkins were honestly kind of bad to carve when I first bought them. The skin would peel off really easily, which made it difficult to get tiny details of high contrast. However, a few years of sitting in my attic seems to have done the trick. These are much better now. Who knew curing foam pumpkins was a thing?
Image credits: babysmash3r
#30 I Carved Pumpkin Puppers
I try to carve 1-2 pumpkins as an annual tradition. This year I carved my sister’s dog Axton (left) and my dog Orvi. They both are Australian Cattle Dogs. They are carved into a 19″ and 15″ diameter Funkin brand foam pumpkin so we can put them out every year. Happy Halloween!
Image credits: WTF_is_an_Acronym
#31 I Decided It Would Still Look Pretty Cool If I Stuck A Couple Of Ears On It
Image credits: deanearnold
#32 Even The Grinch Can’t Say No To Spooky Season
Image credits: PumpkinFreakArt
#33 This Pumpkin Will Leave You In Anticipation. I Just Finished This Carving Of Frank-N-Furter On A 9-Inch Foam Pumpkin
This was carved using various rotary bits, X-ACTO blades, and some light sandpaper. These pumpkins were from the year after Joann stopped selling Funkins and started to make their own similar style. I prefer Funkins due to their wall thickness and more natural-looking shape. These foamkins carve well, but their shape is hard to work with for portraits. Their circumference is oval-shaped, with a wider carved face on the side with the seam running right through it. I misjudged where I placed my reference photo and ended up having that seam run right through it. I think it still looks good, but the lesson is learned.
Image credits: babysmash3r
#34 Made A Scary Pumpkin Carving, Apparently Too Scary. The Kids Banned It From The House
Image credits: bzhanger
#35 Check Out How These Pumpkins Have Progressed Over The Years. Do You Have A Favorite?
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#36 Here Is SpongeBob From One Of My Carvings
Image credits: totallypumpkins
#37 October Fridges Be Looking Like
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#38 Frog King
Image credits: devercustoms
#39 Quick Pumpkin I Did Today
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#40 Carved This Pumpkin Yesterday
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#41 My Captain Spaulding Pumpkin Carving From Last Year
Image credits: McFrazzlestache
#42 Moon Landing
Image credits: Substantial-Yak4882
#43 My Pumpkin For This Halloween, Nymphaeaceae Crypsis. It Took 20 Hours
Image credits: McFrazzlestache
#44 Carving Of Norman
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#45 Some Pumpkin I’ve Done So Far
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#46 Here’s A Pumpkin Carving I Did A Few Years Back
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#47 My Attempt At The Eyeball Pumpkin
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#48 I Have No Caption For This One. He Looks Like He Has Questions
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#49 This Pumpkin Burger That I Saw
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#50 The Pumpkin I Carved Last Year! The Beast Is Carved In The Back To Throw The Shadow
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#51 Pumpkin I Did Today
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#52 This Year’s Pumpkin
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#53 First-Dimensional Carving Of The Season
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#54 Check Out These Incredible Entries From Our Children’s Pumpkin Carving Competition This Past Weekend
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#55 I Made A Pumpkin Cottage Today. I Used Foraged Materials (Except Candles, Paint, And Hot Glue)
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#56 Audrey III Golf Edition. The Private Country Club I Work At Had An Employee Contest. I Entered Today. I Hope It’s A Winner
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#57 Kids And I Spent A Few Days Carving. My Daughter (11) And Son (8) Carved Their Own Pumpkins For The First Time. Usually They Just Come Up With Ideas For Me To Try And Execute. Fun Time
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#58 My Friend Decided To Do A Breaking Bad Pumpkin Last Year. I Still Think It Is The Best I’ve Seen (Season 4 Spoiler)
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#59 My Pumpkin Carving
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#60 Another Fun Pumpkin I Made Today
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#61 Hope You Guys Like My Stranger Things Pumpkin Carving I Did This Year! Happy Halloween
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#62 Got Inspired And Wanted To Give It A Shot At Pumpkin Carving! How’d I Do?
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#63 The Brothers Peverell. Hand-Carved Pumpkin
Image credits: McFrazzlestache
#64 My Painted Pumpkins
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#65 My Pumpkin Is Eating A Smaller Pumpkin
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#66 My Gourgeist Pumpkin Won 1st Place In Our Work Pumpkin Contest
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#67 The Pumpkins My Girlfriend And I Carved This Year
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#68 We Aren’t Participating In Halloween This Year Due To COVID, I Present You My Pumpkins From Last Year
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#69 Keeping Blood Sugars And Spooky Vibes In Check
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#70 Should I Add One More On Each Leg? This Is For Pumpkin Contest At Work
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#71 Vampire Teeth Pumpkin. Teeth Carved Into A Natural Pumpkin Using A Stoneykins Pattern
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#72 Happy Halloween
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#73 My Wife’s And Mine
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#74 I’m Really Proud Of This One. I Was Inspired By Audrey 2. Sad I Couldn’t Find A Green One This Year, But I’m Still Really Happy With It
Image credits: 2210-2211
#75 Pennywise, The Tim Curry Pumpkin Made By Me
Image credits: MojagKatMarie
#76 Happy Halloween
Image credits: Defiant-Grapefruit79
#77 “Are You Afraid Of The Dark?” Carved Pumpkin With A Show’s Name
Image credits: McFrazzlestache
#78 My Halloween Pumpkin
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#79 Exceptional Design
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#80 “Yours, Cruelly,” Elvira Pumpkin. This Portrait Of Cassandra Peterson Was Hand Carved On A Modified “Commander” Style Funkins Brand Foam Pumpkin
It’s the largest foamkin I’ve ever done. Minus the stem, it’s about 22” tall.
While the pumpkin shell itself was pretty thick for a foam pumpkin, the texture of this foam was pretty light, similar to Funkin’s “Natiello” models. That means because of the foam’s low density you don’t need to carve very deep to bring out the light. However, it makes it more difficult to get richer and darker shades like you would with something like a Boland model Funkin that is more dense. The foam thickness was also a little inconsistent, like thin in some spots but thicker in others. Thankfully that didn’t interfere with my design too much, but it did make it harder to get more realistic shading in places like her hands.
The whole carving took about maybe 12-16 hours over the course of a week and was carved with various rotary bits, X-ACTO knives, and other pointy things. I hope you like it!
Image credits: babysmash3r
#81 This Year’s Halloween Pumpkin I Made
Image credits: 12TheRedOne12
#82 Viserys Targaryen Pumpkin
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#83 My Halloween Pumpkin
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#84 I Found A Meatwad Pumpkin In Universal Orlando
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#85 “And Then He Greeted Death As An Old Friend And Went With Him Gladly, And, Equals, They Departed This Life.” The Tale Of The Three Brothers, Both Pumpkins Together
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#86 Abstract Picasso Cut-Out On Living Pumpkin
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#87 I Found This Pumpkin At A Senior Independent Living Home
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#88 My Kid’s Elementary School Had A Pumpkin Decorating Contest. I Was Very Impressed With The Creativity. Here Are Some Of My Favorites
Image credits: JephriB
#89 I Found This Picture Of A Pumpkin I Made Last Year
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#90 Madballs Pumpkin
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#91 Trick Or Treat
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#92 Stranger Things Pumpkin Carving, Happy Halloween
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#93 I Drilled Holes In A Pumpkin And Put A 700 Lumen LED Inside
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#94 My Family’s Annual Pumpkin Carving Competition. Please Pick Your Favorite
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#95 Enjoy My Pumpkin Carving This Year. Halloween, Miyazaki Style. No-Face Aka Kaonashi From Spirited Away
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#96 Mike Pumpkowsky
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#97 Which One Is Your Favorite?
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#98 My Entry For A Local Pumpkin-Carving Contest
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#99 I Finally Carved My First Pumpkin At 25. I’m Very Proud Of Him
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#100 Who You Gonna Call?
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#101 This Slinky Dog Pumpkin I Saw Last Night
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#102 Raindrops Gave This Pumpkin Teeth
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#103 Made My Star Wars Silhouette Pumpkin
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#104 My Dad Always Makes Crazy Carvings On Halloween. This Is His This Year
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#105 Hello Kitty Pumpkin
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#106 It’s Gorgeous
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#107 My Sister Made This Awesome Pumpkin With The Yiga Clan Symbol And The Triforce Symbol At The Back
Image credits: Rosepetal_6480