Help with a stencil? Please and thank you!

[brittney_rochelle]

I lost my beautiful baby boy to what appears to have been distemper last Tuesday night. He was the love of my boyfriend's life, he was supposed to be his "big kitty." We are starting the healing process, slowly but surely.
My boyfriend would like to carve a pumpkin with his image for the Halloween he didn't get to have. Of course, making stencils is really hard and I don't have a clue to go about how to do it!

Can any of you help me? I don't have any photo-editing software or the like. Any tutorials (or help making it) would be awesome.

Here is a link to some photos that can be used. I tried to pick the best ones that showed his face. The link will work even if you don't have facebook. I can upload them to photobucket if need be.

Thanks everyone
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.834579929926593&type=1&l=1c30ccab6c

[Karma]

Sorry for you loss. Here's what I was able to do:
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The darker the area, the further you cut through.

[brittney_rochelle]

It's great! Thank you Karma :love:
I've never done the multi-layer cutting before. I'll have to look up how to do it.

[Uninu]

I use Gimp, a free image editing software. There are lots of tutorials about stencils on Internet, but I made you these hopefully helpful pictures:
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[brittney_rochelle]

Thanks Uninu! (uni-nu or un-inu?)
Maybe I will get my boyfriend a few small ones and he can try out different ways?

[Griffin]

I'm so sorry for your loss.

Carving a pumpkin in his memory is a wonderful idea. I've never carved one in my life so I wouldn't know how to go about it but these stencils look all great, I hope your boyfriend will find them useful! I especially like Uninu's second one, the fangs make it perfect for Halloween. Multi-layer pumpkins are pretty neat, though! Good luck.

[ZennaBug]

I'm so sorry for your loss.      I don't really know how to make a pumpkin stencil, but I think that carving a pumpkin is a great memorial. 

[brittney_rochelle]

We are getting excited about it. We may go get pumpkin tonight to carve this weekend. He really liked the idea of doing several small ones. We are going to do one of our dog, Bruce, as well-because he was BFFs with our little Loki :3
I will try to find a tutorial and do Bruce myself. A friend gifted me photoshop elements 8 so I can try it myself. It may be complicated though!

[Truly]

So sorry for your loss I'm so glad that lovely people on here can help you with your pumpkin carving! I've never carved a pumpkin either but I see you've gotten some awesome help good luck and I hope all goes well <3