Ok, now there's no question about it: I'm a hack-a-day fanboy.
Let's just say, from the first time I saw this site, early in 2005, I realized I was amongst friends. So to pay homage to my favorite site, a hack-o-lantern made perfect sense!
Let's start by printing out the t-shirt logo
from the t-shirt contest materials. Tape it to the pumpkin,
as best possible that is...
t-shirt logo
Now using that little poking wheel in the carving kit, transfer the
design to the pumpkin. These dotted lines are the result. There are
other dotted lines and even some pen from where I tried to do this
freehand and without the right printout. Glad I didn't butcher the
design and just printed out a bigger one.
Dotted lines
Finally, a rough draft. Hmmm.... it's missing something...
rough draft
How do we get those eyes in there? Never mind the nose... I went to find toothpicks,
but couldn't locate them. What to do? I've only got 4 hours left, and finishing a
pumpkin carving isn't on the top of the priority list. I decided I'd take a chance
on using some stiff wire, like that from cat5 cable (ok, stiff in small lengths).
It was a miserable failure. I couldn't get the pumpkin bits to stay where I put them,
and the wire never worked. Luckily, I actually remembered that I had a package of
toothpicks from a restaurant in my coat pocket. Don't ask. My wife would tell you
that my coat is basically my man-purse, er, murse, whatever. It weighs a ton because
it carries all my junk in the winter time. I have yet to find a good equivilent for
the summer time, at least one that doesn't make me look stranger than usual.
quit poking my eyes!
The cat5 wire didn't work, but here's the finished product with the toothpicks.
cat5 vs toothpicks

outside

on the porch