The best part just may be that we have a ton of easy and kid-friendly options so even the littlest family members can get in on the fun (with adult supervision, of course). Once you find your favorite pumpkin carving idea, the next thing to do is pick up a pumpkin carving set. After that, turn on your favorite Halloween movie and get to carving.

Thirsty Vampire Pumpkin: Don't worry, this blood sucking creature won't do too much harm on fright night. Make the Thirsty Vampire Pumpkin: Carve eyes, brows, and a mouth into a hollowed-out white pumpkin. Make pupils with permanent marker. Paint large wood teardrops white with red tips to make fangs; push into place. Top with a widow's peak cut from a slightly larger orange pumpkin. Pin a black craft foam collar around the pumpkin.

Pumpkin Candy Dispenser: Why go for a store-bought candy bowl when you can get creative with this DIY dispenser? We think it's so much more seasonal. Make the Dispenser Pumpkin: Trace the bottom of a glass bowl or storage container onto the front of a medium pumpkin. Cut out around tracing then scoop out pulp and seeds. Insert bowl, making the hole slightly bigger if necessary. Attach a piece of thick rope around the edge of the bowl with hot-glue. Fill bowl with candy.

Bean Bag Toss Carved Pumpkin: Turn your carved pumpkin into a ring toss game that will be a fun activity for the whole family. Make the Bean Bag Toss Pumpkin: Cut a large hole in the bottom of one large and one medium pumpkin; scoop out the pulp and seeds. Trace our face template on the pumpkins, scaling up or down as necessary. Cut out the faces, and then stack the medium pumpkin on top of the large one, using skewers to help hold them in place. To play, toss beanbags into your gourds' mouths, awarding 10 points for the bottom and 20 for the top.

Wood-Burning Stove Pumpkin: No cabin evening is complete without a roaring fire. Make the Wood-Burning Stove Pumpkin: Cut a hole in the bottom of an extra-large pumpkin, and scoop out pulp and seeds. Trace the door template on the pumpkin, scaling up or down as necessary. Chisel out the outline, and use a knife to cut out the windowpanes. Paint the pumpkin (excluding chiseled section) black. Fill with sticks longer than the hole, and top with battery-operated tea lights. Remove the stems from four small pumpkins, and paint pumpkins black; place stove pumpkin on top. Rest a piece of solid, expandable drain pipe over the stem; attach pipe to the wall or ceiling to help it stay upright.

Hen and Chicks Pumpkin Designs: Make the Hen Pumpkin: Cut a hole in the bottom of a large pumpkin, and scoop out pulp and seeds. Trace the hen template. Use a knife to cut out the body and a pencil to lightly trace the comb. Paint comb with red acrylic paint. Tie together several strands of raffia and hot-glue in place to create the tail. Insert a piece of white chicken wire behind the hen's body, then adhere twigs with hot-glue to create legs and feet. Make the Chicks Pumpkin: Trace the chick template onto a smaller whole pumpkin. Use a potter's needle to indent the outline, then chisel out using a potter's ribbon tool. Insert a black pushpin for the eye; adhere twigs with hot-glue for the feet.

Jigsaw Pumpkin Carving: Keeps the kids entertained with a DIY Jigsaw pumpkin. Make the Jigsaw Pumpkin: Cut a hole in the bottom of a pumpkin, and scoop out pulp and seeds. Trace the puzzle template on the pumpkin, scaling up or down as necessary. Use a knife to cut out the puzzle pieces. Use craft paint to paint the puzzle pieces. Challenge kids to complete the puzzle for candy prizes.

Sunflower Pumpkin Carving: Bring the fields of flowering sunflowers to your front porch with a stack or two of colorful sunflower pumpkins. Make the Sunflower Pumpkins: Cut a hole in the bottom of two to three pumpkins, and scoop out pulp and seeds. Trace the templates onto pumpkins. Use a knife to cut out the petals and leaves. Starting in the center of the sunflower, use hot-glue to attach different colors of twine in a spiral pattern. For the stalk, attach green twine in a tight zigzag pattern with hot-glue. Remove the stem from the bottom pumpkin(s); stack as shown.(No wilting sunflowers here! Use wooden skewers to secure your stack.) TIP: When scooping, carve from the bottom so the pretty stems stay intact. It also makes lighting candles easier; simply light and place your pumpkin on top.

Pumpkin Barrel: This pumpkin barrel is perfect for showing off your apple picking haul or filling with candy so that trick-or-treaters can help themselves. Make the Pumpkin Barrel: Cut off the top quarter of an extra-large pumpkin; scoop out pulp and seeds. Hot-glue three strips of ribbon around outside of pumpkin. Stuff pumpkin three-fourths full with Poly-Fil. Insert burlap fabric into the opening and fold over outside of pumpkin; hold in place with upholstery tacks. Fill with apples or desired items.

Pumpkin Basket: What's better than a big festive pumpkin for Halloween, you ask? A pumpkin with even more pumpkins inside of it, naturally. Make the Pumpkin Basket: Cut off the top quarter of a flat pumpkin (this is a Musquee de Provence variety); scoop out pulp and seeds. Attach lengths of grapevine just below the opening with T-pins. Attach a grapevine handle just inside the opening with T-pins. Nestle mini pumpkins in the basket.

Twisting Vines Pumpkin: Twisting vines glow when etched into, but not through, a hallowed-out pumpkin. Make Twisting Vines Pumpkin: Cut a hole in bottom of a pumpkin; scoop out pulp and seeds. Gently sketch your design on the pumpkin and use a lemon zester, clay loop, or linoleum cutter to etch out design. Insert a candle in the hole, light, and display.

Sweet Scarecrow Pumpkin: This candy-filled scarecrow is way too sweet to scare away any trick-or-treaters. Make the pumpkin: Carve a pumpkin face design, and then make its features pop with candy corn in assorted shapes and sizes. Use corn husks to create hair and tie a bow.

Silly Witch Pumpkin: Sweet and friendly with lush eyelashes that'll make anyone jealous this witch pumpkin is ready to great trick-or treaters with a smile. Make the pumpkin: Stack three white pumpkins. Carve a friendly face in the top most pumpkin. Paint on eyelashes with black acrylic paint and use pushpins to create pupils. Wrap a piece of black felt around the "neck" and tie in place with ribbon. Top it all off with a witch hat.

Lollipop Pumpkin: Let the kids help themselves to candy this year with this ingenious lollipop pumpkin. Make the pumpkin: Hollow out a pumpkin from the bottom. Carve half-circle mouth with a tooth, 2 half-circle eyes with pupils and triangle nose. For eyes, push in inner piece (don't remove). Then, etch away skin on pupils and tooth with linoleum cutter. Use awl to poke holes about 1 1/2" apart across top and sides of pumpkin. Push lollipops into holes to create hair.

Fox Pumpkin: Invite this happy friend into your house or onto your front porch. He'll greet party guests and trick-or-treaters with a welcoming smile. Make the Fox Pumpkin: Stand the variegated squash straight up. Break five skewers in half and stick them into the back of the squash where the tail should sit, leaving 2" exposed. Press the bell-shaped orange gourd into the skewers at the back of the squash to secure as the tail. (Tip: If the skewers sink into the squash too much as you attach the gourd, simply pinch each with two fingers to hold in place while the gourd slides onto the individual skewer.) Break four skewers in half and press them into the top of the squash body, leaving 2" exposed. Position a small pumpkin so the stem is centered where the nose should sit and push down on the skewers to secure. With the tip of the craft knife, etch out a thin smile by scraping away just the top layer of rind. To create eye sockets, etch slightly deeper holes. Remove the caps of two large acorns. Flip each cap curved-side out and press into the sockets. Remove the caps of slightly smaller acorns. Apply a dot of hot glue to each acorn and affix to the eye socket caps as pupils. Using the craft knife, cut the small pumpkin into quarters (slice in half horizontally, then in half vertically), scraping away any excess flesh with the spoon. Rinse and clean a handful of seeds. Pat dry and set aside. Cut pointy ears from two of the pumpkin quarters and press into the pumpkin head with a skewer (break, as needed), allowing the fleshy side to face forward. Turn the remaining pumpkin quarters face down and use the hot glue to affix three pumpkin seeds to each to resemble claws. Secure to the body with skewers (break, as needed).

Zombie Pumpkin: Oversized eyes make this ghoulish zombie pumpkin truly eerie. Make the Zombie Pumpkin: Using a craft knife, cut a hole in the top of the pumpkin and hollow out the inside. Scrape away any extra flesh with a spoon. Rinse a handful of the seeds (about 16 or so), pat dry and set aside. Lightly draw two large ovals for eyes (position them slightly tilted towards each other for a sweeter, less scary look) and a wide, slightly lopsided mouth. Carve out with a craft knife; save scraps. Use the melon baller to carve out two round eyeballs from the fleshy side of reserved pumpkin scraps. Spear each eyeball with a toothpick and attach to the tops of the eye cutouts. Gently press a peppercorn into the center of each to create pupils. Press the cleaned seeds directly into the mouth, positioning them in different directions.

Scarecrow Pumpkin: We promise this sweet fella, made out of a butternut squash, won't scare away any Halloween party guests. Make the Scarecrow Pumpkin: Use a melon baller to scoop out two eyes from a butternut squash; reserve. Etch out eye sockets and mouth with a linoleum cutter. Use toothpicks to secure eyes in sockets. Push in dried black bean pupils; secure with toothpicks. Cut a piece of red masking tape and attach for nose. For hat, make a cone from a paper bag, then fold in its top and fringe its bottom, curling upward. Cut patches from burlap and attach with small masking tape strips. Tie cord ribbon around middle for a belt and tuck in straw.

Carved Pumpkin Diorama: This craft pairs materials from your own yard with an 11¼"W x 14"H black Funkin. Make the Pumpkin: Print our carving templates; cut, as indicated, to create stencils for the tree-framed opening and moon at the back. With a felt-tip pen, trace the designs onto your Funkin, then carve. Spray-paint the Funkin's interior black; let dry one hour. Place a green Styrofoam disk inside the faux pumpkin as a base. Using our photo as a guide, stick twigs into the base to form trees, then cover the base with moss. Finally, hot-glue a wolf figurine to a rock, and set it and other rocks atop the moss.

Pumpkin With Drilled Shapes: We're over the moon for these dotted odes to country icons. Make the pumpkins: Cut a hole in the bottom of a large pumpkin and scoop out pulp and seeds. Mark off a pattern with an erasable wax pencil, then use a medium drill bit to punch out a dotted outline of your image. (Get our stencils.) Leave approximately the same amount of space between each hole.

Crescent Moon Pumpkin Design: Paul Lowe, a New York City stylist, found inspiration in a classic toy for his celestial creation: "I wanted to mimic the look of a Lite-Brite, so I punched holes to create a simple crescent moon—shaped image, then added a string of tiny bulbs to make it glow," he said.