Barack-O-Lantern Pattern

As promised, here's my favorite of the designs we used for Barack-o-lanterns. This is the first time I've included an image in a post here on blogger, so we'll see how well it turns out. The Barack-o-lantern using this design turned out quite well (better than mine, which used one of the designs from Yes We Carve). Photos coming as soon as I get them.

Instructions:

1. Hollow out your pumpkin.
2. Print this design, and tape it to your favorite face on your pumpkin. You'll have to crease it creatively, depending on how curved your pumpkin is.
3. Stick a pin into the pumpkin along the edges of the design, to draw your pattern. You don't need to do so more than every inch or so, but the more holes you make the easier it will be to cut the pumpkin.
4. Cut out the black spot completely; that becomes your bright, glowing sun at the center of the O.
   
5. Cut along the edges of the gray spots, and then cut under the skin inside of them to remove the skin. This may take some experimentation to get it to work perfectly, but it's not too terribly hard.
6. Thin out the inside of your pumpkin behind the design. Test with a candle in the dark every once in a while to see how you're doing; you probably don't have to thin it out much.
7. Get it out on your porch as a really cool way to show your neighbors who you plan to vote for.