Amy, I haven't used this site nor am I a master pumpkin carver, but it looked like they had a lot of cool patterns - for free!

Pumpkin Pile

Please be sure to show us your completed jackos!

These are from Better Homes and Gardens - also free:

BHG Pumpkin Stencils

Amy, bear in mind once you carve a pumpkin it only lasts a week to ten days....max 2 weeks. An uncharted pumpkin can last for months. You might want to think about just stenciling on your saying, or a face. Carve a week before Halloween.

That should read an uncarved pumpkin but the edit button is not working.

Georysmom, I do know that. I was thinking about maybe doing one of those foam pumpkins that are so popular now. I saw lots of custom ones on Etsy. I could reuse it every year. If using a real pumpkin, for a less intricate carving, I wouldn't mind just redoing them when they spoil. Otherwise, if I feel its out of my skill set, I saw some big, ugly, neat looking pumpkins at Walmart and I may just get one of those and leave it uncarved. But I am exploring all my options.

OLoops, sorry Amy. I misread your post and missed the part about wanting custom stencils. You might want to check out Etsy. They seem to have pretty much everything over there.

Ooooops, not OLoops. Good grief!

A real pumpkin you could just carve away the dk orange and leave the "pith" and your words would show..wonder if you can do that with the fake ones. IDK. You need to ask around in your area if you want someone to do this for you. Do you have a "trail of terror" or other haunted venue--they might have a carver on hand?

I've seen those foam pumpkins....didn't know you could carve them. That would be great!. Your post brings back memories. When I was a teenager, I had a friend who would carve the most beautiful intricate pumpkins.....65 years ago, long before it became the "in" thing. :-))))

...............that saying should be over the door to the building where I work.................

Amylou, check out 'Martha Stewart's painted pumpkins' . She has a pumpkin with a big black circle and she has a menu painted within the circle. I was wondering if you could use that chalkboard paint and then you could write a different message everyday on your pumpkin. Don't know if it would work on that surface. Maybe if you put a circle or square or oblong on in regular paint and painted over it with the chalkboard paint. I would try on a small inexpensive pumpkin first. :-)))

I saw some of the most beautiful pumpkins at the grocery store the other day. Orange, yellow, white, green and cream (probably round gourds) and a very few that had some areas of blue that were stunning. A big display of them at my front door would look great!

But intact, not carved ;0) I used to have a neighbor who grew several in a little back yard garden. She and her DH would carve several almost professionally and display them Halloween week on their colonial style front porch. I hadn't carved a pumpkin since I was a kid and thought it would be fun to try. I bought the little kit for carving pumpkins with special knives and a template or two. (may have been Martha Stewart catalog)

It was a ton of work and not at all fun. Not what I remembered! I quit at one and even it didn't meet my expectations, I can't imagine doing a dozen ;0)

Oh, and the pumpkins carved next door? She would take any seeds she didn't roast (she was a lot more Martha than I am) and toss them back in her garden. The crows and jays would pick them up in long fibrous strings and they'd be on every roof on our block for a couple of weeks ;0)

Really, the more people I ask about this, the more I am discouraged from doing it. :/

Maybe I will just keep focus on the regular decor. It's over the top as it is..

Plus I cannot trust my coworkers to keep the pumpkin illuminated when I am not here. They always turn on all the regular lights which drown out my halloween lights,and turn off all my fun stuff. Such fuddy duddyness ticks me off. It would be too much to expect them to do anything festive,save scarfing down all the treats I bring.....

I still might try it, but maybe a painted one instead of a carved one.