Everything here starts with things you already have: a photo, a printer, paper. Four projects, each printed at home, each made entirely in your browser — nothing is uploaded anywhere, and nothing costs anything.
What can I make here for Halloween?
- A carving stencil from any photo. Drop in a face, a pet or a logo and print a carve-ready pattern: black means cut all the way through, grey means scrape thin so it glows dimly. Bridges are added automatically so no piece falls out. Make a pumpkin stencil → First time carving from a pattern? How to turn a photo into a pumpkin carving stencil → covers which photos carve well and how big the pumpkin must be.
- A boo basket kit. Type a name and print the pieces of the neighbourhood surprise game: gift tags, the “We’ve been boo’d” door sign, and a card explaining how it works. Make a boo basket kit → New to the game? How to make a boo basket → covers what goes in, the doorstep rules and the timing.
- A trunk-or-treat kit. The three things an organiser prints for a parking-lot Halloween: a flyer, an entrance sign, and a sign-up sheet for the cars handing out candy. Make a trunk-or-treat kit → Running the whole event? How to organize a trunk-or-treat event → covers the sign-up sheet, how many cars you need and the safety basics.
- Coloring pages from your photos. Any photo becomes black outlines on white paper — a spooky picture for children, or a family photo turned into a party activity. Make a coloring page →
Which project do I need, and when?
| Project | What you print | When it is needed | Making it takes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carving stencil | a PDF pattern scaled to your pumpkin’s width | when the pumpkin arrives — most carving happens from mid-October | minutes to print, an evening to carve |
| Boo basket kit | two printable sheets — tags, door sign, how-to card | the weeks before Halloween | minutes; the basket is yours to fill |
| Trunk-or-treat kit | a flyer, an entrance sign, a car sign-up sheet | one to two weeks before the event, so cars can sign up | minutes |
| Coloring pages | a coloring-page PDF sized for A4 or Letter | any October afternoon | minutes |
The order that matters: trunk-or-treat flyers first (other people need lead time), boo baskets any time in October, the carving stencil last, when the pumpkin is actually in the house.
What can I make from this year’s photos?
Two of these projects start from a photo you already have: a carve-ready stencil of a face or a pet, and coloring pages of the family in costume. The boo basket kit takes names, not photos — the photo goes into the basket as a print of the kids. Everything is free, made in your browser, and nothing is uploaded.
The ask is older than the tools. Reddit’s r/PumpkinStencils carries a three-year-old thread asking for software that turns an uploaded image into a stencil; the top answer names a carving app and then admits its result is a new drawing that does not come from the source image. What Google’s page one offers for this today is a 2008 Instructables tutorial, a 2021 pet-stencil guide teaching the manual Photoshop route, paid Etsy bundles and upload-based template editors (checked 28 September 2026). The stencil generator here is the shortcut those threads asked for.
| Your photo | What you print | Made with |
|---|---|---|
| a face, a pet or a logo, facing the camera | a carve-ready stencil PDF scaled to your pumpkin | Pumpkin stencil |
| the kids in this year’s costumes | coloring pages sized for A4 or Letter — the party table’s activity | Coloring pages |
| none — the kit letters names | gift tags, the door sign and the how-it-works card, plus a photo of the kids riding along as a print | Boo basket kit |
Which photos carve well is its own question — How to turn a photo into a pumpkin carving stencil answers it with the tool’s real numbers. For many photos at once, the Coloring Book Pack turns up to 20 costume photos into one printable book with a cover, €7 once; the single coloring pages stay free and unlimited.
The oldest idea in this whole list is also the simplest decoration: in 2014, The Sunny Side Up blog hung past-Octobers family photos on a burlap banner. The print-at-home version needs no burlap — print this year’s costume photos as 4 × 6 prints, two on one A4 sheet (203.2 mm of the 210 mm width, computed September 2026), and peg them to a string.
What does all of it cost?
Nothing, and that is the whole answer. No account, no watermark, no upload — each tool assembles its printable in your browser, and the free result is the entire result.
What can a classroom make for Halloween?
The classroom-shaped jobs here are group jobs by design. A boo basket kit prints a gift tag per child — up to eight names per kit, or blank write-in tags if you leave the names empty — and both the boo basket and trunk-or-treat kits have an ink saver mode that prints outlines for children to colour in themselves. The trunk-or-treat kit is the three sheets a school or church parking-lot event runs on: a flyer to send home, an entrance sign, and a six-row sign-up sheet for the cars handing out candy. Coloring pages from class photos print as black outlines on white — pure child work, nothing to cut.
The pumpkin stencil splits by step, honestly: children can tape the sheet to the pumpkin and poke along the lines with a pin to transfer them, but the carving itself is knife work for an adult.
Halloween falls on Saturday 31 October 2026. These pages stay up through the season.