The holiday begins at midnight on October 31 and painted pumpkins and jack-o’-lanterns have become a popular way to display the iconic design. If carving a sugar skull pumpkin stencil seems like a daunting task, you can create part of the design with paint instead. Traditionally, bright colors are used because it’s believed that they symbolize an individual’s vibrant life. Use our free stencil to transform a faux pumpkin into a gorgeous decor piece for your celebration—we’ll show you which basic shapes to carve and show you how to detail the rest with dramatic paint colors. Don’t forget to add accessories! We gave our sugar skull pumpkin a crown of rainbow faux flowers. Print out our free sugar skull pumpkin stencil. Cut it out along the pattern edge to create a circle template. Position the template as desired then draw a pencil circle about one inch wider than the template. Use white acrylic paint ($3, Michaels) to paint the circle white. Remove the stencil and carve along the dotted lines, pushing all the pieces out as you go. Wipe the surface of the pumpkin to remove any dust, then use a small brush to paint the remaining shapes with bright colors.
