31 Days of Lessons Learned: I Made a (Free) Batman Pumpkin Stencil

31 Days of Lessons Learned:  Day Fourteen

I Made a  (Free) Batman Pumpkin Stencil

When my 31 Day series ended last year, I had an idea to use this year for 31 Days of Free Pumpkin Stencils.  My plan was going to be to make stencils of all makes:  pop culture, politics, cartoons, TV, movies, comics, etc. It was very ambitious, especially for a Photoshop novice like me, so it never really made it off the ground.

Tonight, I decided to give it a shot.  This year’s theme is lessons learned and we’re so close to Halloween, so I figured why not.

Making my first pumpkin stencil was a comedy of errors.  I first tried Tom Hardy as Bane.  That didn’t work out as well as I wanted.  I then moved onto several incarnations of Batman (’60s Adam West Batman, Batman Beyond, Greg Capullo).  That didn’t work that well, so I tried Heath Ledger’s Joker.  Still, a disaster.  I then got this wild idea that I could make a good Christopher Walken stencil.  It actually didn’t look half-bad, but I couldn’t get the spiky hair just right.

I then went back to the well and did a simpler version of Batman.

So, here it is.  A free Batman stencil (inspired by one of the Batman Begins movie posters) for all your pumpkin carving needs.

Today, I learned I can make a stencil, but I also learned I need a lot more practice.

Print this bad boy out and enjoy!

31 Days of Lessons Learned: People Want Free Sesame Street Elmo Pumpkin Stencils

31 Days of Lessons Learned:  Day Six

People Want Free Sesame Street Elmo Pumpkin Stencils

Based on the my site’s traffic and keyword searched, it’s clear most of my readers have one thing on their mind – carving pumpkins!  ‘Tis the season I suppose, and like Marie Antoinette before me, if my follower wants free stencils, then I say “Let them have stencils!”

First things first, last year I offered up several links for pumpkin stencils, so I’m just going to post them all here for ease.  You’ll find free Elmo stencils, free Batman stencils, free Detroit Tigers stencils, and a few more…

Free Elmo Pumpkin Stencil, plus free Batman, Joker, Spider-Man, The Hulk, Disney, and Jack Nicholson pumpkin stencils – Only Elmo is shown, but click on the picture and you’ll get access to 28 other stencils.

Free Detroit Tigers pumpkin stencils – Also, since the Tigers are playing Oakland right now, here’s the link to the Oakland A’s free pumpkin stencils.  Here’s a pro-tip – every major league baseball team is offering free pumpkin stencils on their respective websites – go check them out!

Free Batman:  The Animated Series pumpkin stencil – This link also includes other Batman – related pumpkin stencils.

Here are some new links for free pumpkin templates.

More Free Sesame Street-related pumpkin stencils.

Links to a wide variety of free pumpkin stencils of varying difficulty level.

100 Free pumpkin stencils ranging from Cookie Monster and Curious George to Harry Potter and Mickey Mouse. – Seriously, there are lots of awesome stencils here related to music, movies, cartoons, horror, and pop culture.  This is a MUST check out.

Let’s not end it here.  If you have a fun pumpkin stencil you want to share, link it in the comments below.  Let us all learn from each other.  Happy Halloween!

Halloween Hijinks: New Devil’s Night Traditions (and a free Batman pumpkin stencil or two)

Day Thirty: New Devil’s Night Traditions (and a free Batman pumpkin stencil or two)

Tonight is the night before Halloween, which is also affectionately known as Devil’s Night (or Angel’s Night in the Detroit area).  Up until tonight, most of my thoughts of Devil’s Night revolve around mischief-making, The Crow, and Detroit burning itself down.  That’s not a very positive way to think of an evening (well, The Crow is a good graphic novel/movie), so this year, I decided to make Devil’s Night something new.  Now, for our family, Devil’s Night will include cupcakes, pumpkin carving (and if I have my way, Chinese food).

First, we have the cupcake eating…

Mmmm, this is a yummy new tradition.

Then, we have the pumpkin scooping…

Scoopin' out the pumpkins with Momma.

Momma's pumpkin gut bowl is fuller than mine.

Now, we apply the stencil on the pumpkin…

Daddy, I think you're doing it all wrong.

Then, we have the final product…

La La La La Elmo's World...

The new Dynamic Duo...all lit up!

If you’re interested in the Batman pumpkin stencil, follow the break where I’ll post the link to that stencil (and some of Joker and Catwoman as well).

31 Days of Halloween Hijinks Bonus Post: Free Elmo Pumpkin Stencil (and more)

Instead of Devil’s Night mischief, the Jackson family will be carving pumpkins and eating cupcakes from the Just Baked bakery.  Because my daughter is completely obsessed with Elmo these days, I’m going to turn my pumpkin into Elmo.  I’m not creative enough to freehand an intricate pumpkin, but give me a stencil and I’m all set.  Luckily, the Elmo stencil shouldn’t be too tough – plus it will make Lily’s day.

If Elmo isn’t your kid’s thing, Nick Jr. has plenty of free stencils on their site as well.  Unfortunately, they don’t have an Olivia stencil, so I’m sticking with Elmo.

If you’re interested, here’s the stencil I found online from a guy named pumpkinman.  Besides Elmo, he also has plenty of cool options including Batman, The Joker, Jack Nicholson from The Shining, and a few assorted Disney characters as well.  Come back to my blog later tonight to see pictures from our Devil’s Night pumpkin fun!

Courtesy of Pumpkinman_01 – click the image for all of his free stencils

31 Days of Halloween Hijinks: Detroit Tigers pumpkin stencils

Day Eight:  Detroit Tigers pumpkin stencils

I’m sitting here watching my Detroit Tigers take on the Texas Rangers for the right to represent the American League in this year’s World Series.  In fast, aside from Halloween, October is also one of my favorite months because of the MLB postseason.

I’m not going to lie, today got past me a little bit.  I usually have my daily post up by now, but this is my first time at the computer.  As I was thinking about things to post about, I remembered back when the Detroit Pistons were a good team.  Around October, they offered free stencils for your pumpkins featuring different player’s faces.  That year, I ended up carving a Chauncey Billups and a Tayshaun Prince pumpkin.

Since the NBA offered stencils to their fans, surely the MLB would too, right?  I went a searching and sure enough, I found Detroit Tigers pumpkin stencils.  They’re glorious and I want to go buy eight pumpkins right now so I can carve them all and put them on my porch.  I won’t though because I need to go back to the game and coach my team!

Enjoy these stencils folks – and since I’m a nice guy, I’m also including links to the Texas Rangers, St. Louis Cardinals, and Milwaukee Brewers as well…even though my support is fully with Detroit.

Click on the pumpkin below to get to the Detroit stencils:

31 Days of Halloween Hijinks

As you can see by the above image, I’m getting ready for my 31 Day Challenge.  As extra motivation, I’m linking up with a collection of blogs filled with folks who are also doing other types of 31 Day Challenges.  Check out The Nesting Place linked over on the right in my blogroll (or click here – )

As you look to follow along my 31 day journey, use this page as your one-stop shop for everything.  While I’ll be adding each day of the challenge to my blog, I’ll also be direct linking all 31 Days to the bottom of this original post to make sure there’s an easy way to keep track of everything.

Based on my poll results, it looks like my readers want everything but book recommendations (too bad, I’m a bookseller, so you’re getting some of those too….), so expect a very diverse month of posts inspired by the Halloween season.  You’ll get everything from reviews, recommendations, recipes, craft ideas, costume ideas, interviews, and posts about all things that go bump in the night (among other things).

I’m very excited about this undertaking.  Thanks for supporting me in my efforts to make this October a spooktacular one.

Also, if you like what you see and want to link up with me on your blog, feel free to use the image below -Happy Horror…Happy Haunting…Happy Halloween!