Cat Pumpkin Stencils — 16 Free Printable Black Cat Templates
Sixteen black cat silhouettes for carving a pumpkin. Solid black is the skin you scoop out, white is the skin you keep — and on every one of these, the white holds together on its own. None of them need bridges.
Each design prints at three sizes on one PDF, in US Letter and A4, and comes as an SVG and a transparent PNG as well, so the same silhouettes work for vinyl, card and window cutouts. Free, no email, no account.
The sixteen stencils
Sitting, walking, stretching, peeking over an edge, and a few with a prop — a cat on a pumpkin and a cat in a crescent moon. The size under each one is the largest of its three prints; the PDF carries a medium and a small as well.
Arched Back Cat
Prints 6.6×8.5 in · medium size or bigger
Black Cat on a Pumpkin
Prints 6.2×8.5 in · medium size or bigger
Waving Cat
Prints 6.7×8.5 in · carves at all 3 sizes
Crouching Cat
Prints 7.5×6.5 in · carves at all 3 sizes
Peeking Cat
Prints 7.5×4.5 in · carves at all 3 sizes
Cat from Behind
Prints 5.3×8.5 in · carves at all 3 sizes
Walking Cat
Prints 7.5×6.3 in · carves at all 3 sizes
Sitting Cat
Prints 6.7×8.5 in · carves at all 3 sizes
Stretching Cat
Prints 7.5×8.4 in · carves at all 3 sizes
Long-Haired Cat
Prints 7.0×8.5 in · large size only
Playful Cat
Prints 7.5×8.4 in · carves at all 3 sizes
Cat in the Moon
Prints 7.5×8.1 in · carves at all 3 sizes
Standing Cat
Prints 7.4×8.5 in · carves at all 3 sizes
Curled Tail Cat
Prints 6.0×8.5 in · carves at all 3 sizes
Watching Cat
Prints 7.0×8.5 in · carves at all 3 sizes
Prowling Cat
Prints 7.5×7.6 in · carves at all 3 sizes
What is in each download
- PDF — page 1The stencil at its largest size, filling the sheet, with the printed size marked underneath.
- PDF — page 2A medium and a small version side by side, plus the smallest size that design still carves at.
- SVGThe silhouette as vector, one path, for Cricut, Silhouette, Glowforge or scaling to any size.
- PNGThe same silhouette on a transparent background, 1200 px on the long edge.
Why sixteen and not thirty
A carving stencil has one hard requirement: when you cut the black away, everything left has to stay attached to the pumpkin. Plenty of cat silhouettes fail it. We tested all thirty designs we drew by removing the black and checking whether the remaining skin was still one connected piece.
Nine failed. Five had a piece that simply drops out — a cat inside a witch hat, a cat inside a ring of moon, the cross on a gravestone, the gaps between fence pickets, the eye of a curled tail. Four more had detail too fine to follow with a saw: two designs on branches with twigs under a millimetre wide, and two where the skin between tail and body came out at three millimetres. Five of the survivors were near-copies of a pose already in the set, so they went too.
The sixteen that are left need no bridges at any of their three sizes. That is unusual for free cat stencils, and it is the reason this set is smaller than the sheet it came from.
Which size to print
Each PDF carries three sizes. Most designs work at all three, but the finest cut in a design shrinks with it, and below about two millimetres a pumpkin saw stops following the line. We measured that per design and per size:
| Designs | Smallest usable print | |
|---|---|---|
| Work at every size | 13 of 16 | down to about 2 × 3 in |
| Arched Back, Cat on a Pumpkin | 2 | medium — about 4 × 5 in |
| Long-Haired Cat | 1 | large only — the fur closes up |
Page 2 of every PDF says which sizes that design carves at, and marks any that is too fine, so you find out before the knife is in your hand.
How to carve one
- Print at 100%. Choose Actual size, not Fit to page, or the stencil will not match the size printed on it.
- Cut the sheet down and tape it on. Trim close to the design, then tape it to a dry pumpkin — wet skin will not hold tape. Snip little darts into the paper at the edges so it lies flat on the curve.
- Prick the outline through. Go round every black edge with a pin or a poker, a few millimetres apart. Close spacing where the line turns sharply.
- Lift the paper and join the dots. The dotted outline is your cutting line. Saw with a gentle back-and-forth rather than pushing — forcing a blade is what splits a pumpkin.
- Take the black away last. Push each carved piece out from the inside, starting with the smallest. A tealight or a battery light finishes it.
Questions people ask
Do I carve the black or the white?
The black. Everything printed solid comes out, and the white is the skin that stays on the pumpkin. Hold the sheet up to a light and you are looking at what the finished pumpkin will look like lit.
Will any pieces fall out?
No. That is the whole reason this set is sixteen designs rather than thirty — every one was tested by removing the black and checking the remaining skin was still a single connected piece. Nothing here needs a bridge.
What size pumpkin do I need?
The large size suits a full-size carving pumpkin, roughly eight inches across the face. The medium fits a small one, and the small size is for mini pumpkins and for practice. Thirteen of the sixteen carve fine at all three.
Can I use these for something other than carving?
Yes. Each one is also an SVG and a transparent PNG, so they cut from vinyl or card just as well — black cats taped inside a window read from the street about as well as anything on this site.
Can I use these at school or for something I sell?
School, church, party, your own home — yes, print as many as you need, no need to ask. Selling finished pumpkins or items you made from them is fine in small numbers; selling the files, or a bundle of the stencils themselves, is not.
