Layered "Pumpkins for Sale" Sign

I created this contribution to “Free Laser Designs” for two reasons: 1) as a thank you to the members of this forum, from whom I’ve learned so much over the past 11 months. You are warm, lovely, good-hearted people, who also happen to be incredibly talented. And 2) as a way to tell you a little of my Glowforge story, should you care to read on. Otherwise, feel free to skip to the design at the end of the post.

I purchased a Glowforge because I needed a creative outlet the other 11 months of the year. You see, my primary artistic medium is pumpkin. I love carving pumpkins. My dad was a farmer, and we raised pumpkins. Any pumpkins that hadn’t sold by Halloween (which also happens to be my birthday—another contributing factor to the pumpkin obsession, no doubt), our family carved. Sometime we had several dozen jack-o’-lanterns on our porch as the trick-or-treaters came around.

I grew up, but I didn’t outgrow pumpkin carving. My dad continued to enable my addiction by raising arguable the best pumpkins in the region, which he delivered by the truckload to my new home three counties away. My kids put up a pumpkin stand to earn a little cash, but I saved the best pumpkins for myself. And I designed ever more elaborate plans for our pumpkin displays.

My dad retired from farming a few years ago, but we found a friendly farmer nearby who grows my favorite pumpkin variety and lets me have first pick. My kids are now grown (we became empty-nesters this fall), but they return each Halloween to carve pumpkins. Friends and family members come to help, and even my husband carves a few. (His favorite part of the process is contributing the decaying pumpkins to the community compost heap.) We generally display between 50 and 70 pumpkins in front of our house each year.

This brings me to the Glowforge. The year 2020 found me, as it did so many, in need of a distraction. I craved a creative outlet, but pumpkin carving was months away. I had been interested in the Glowforge since its initial crowdfunding efforts, but I hadn’t been able to justify the cost since it would be a hobby for me, not a money-making endeavor. In 2020, my creative needs won out, and I have found to my delight that the Glowforge scratches the pumpkin-carving itch.

And that is the story behind my pumpkin-themed thank you.

This design has four layers, plus an optional solid back layer. The design allows two layers to be printed at once. My test cut was on cardboard, but I believe it will also work well on wood.

My daughter painted the cardboard with acrylic paint.

Again, thank you for making this such a nurturing community. It has made a difference in my life.

pumpkins_for_sale_4_layers

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Your daughter’s paint job was awesome! I love the sunset and I couldn’t even tell it was cardboard. Thank you for the generous share. It’ll make nice autumn decor.

Also, my pumpkin carving as a kid was pretty terrible, we pretty much had a sharpie to draw the face, and a kitchen knife to attempt removing what we drew out…pretty bad… and very lucky I still have all my fingers. Maybe I’ll give it a go this year with my kids…

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Loved the story (show us your carved pumpkins!) and thanks so much for the design. Perfect for fall!

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Great sign, and great story. Thanks for sharing!!

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Thank you for this delightful read and the file.

Can’t wait to see photos of the pumpkin display this Halloween.

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Thanks for sharing

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Very nicely done.

Are you using the GF to carve pumpkins too? There have been a few projects posted by people who have sliced a slab off a pumpkin so they could get it into the GF to cut & engrave (& then it gets pinned back in the pumpkin using toothpicks & Vaseline).

Might be a cool addition to your hand-carved artistry.

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I love your story!!
I am also a proud pumpkin carver, and still go back to my parents’ house every year to carve pumpkins with my dad.
it is such a fun medium to work with, and I love the enjoyment the kids (and their parents) get out of seeing them every year.
Thanks so much for the sign, what a wonderful contribution!

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Wonderful story. I would love to see examples of your pumpkin carving. I like this sign. The design and technique are very adaptable.

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These look great! Unfortunately, we can’t have real pumpkins outside. They are a favorite snack of the javelinas here in AZ. Too bad because my wife loves Halloween. Thanks to your share, maybe I can make one of these for her. Thank you!

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Another vote to see some carvings!

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Thanks for sharing your story. I love traditions. And, thanks for the share. I would love to see some of your past carvings!!

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Thank you so much for the share! And I loved your story. I can’t imagine having 70 pumpkins in my yard, much less all carved! Reminds me of a story we saw on a tv program about a whole town who decorates with pumpkins. Please be sure to post pics of your house when you do.

@djfb - I actually miss seeing javalinas. We used to watch them in the little canyon behind our house. We did learn to put our quail block on a 3’ stand so that the javalinas couldn’t reach it, as we found they could get themselves under a chain link fence to get to it. They never even destroyed the stand, so the quail had full access (we built them a ramp, which they used!)

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Wait, huh? quail fly. :joy:

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Yeah, I know they do, and many did. But we had fun watching the ones who decided the ramp was more fun than flying! It looked like an escalator they way they went up and down!

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I did not know what a javelina was until I googled it just now…I didn’t know there were wild boar around. I saw this on the town Facebook page a week or so ago. I can’t imagine this pig running around my neighborhood, but then again, there is a peacock running around here so often he’s got his own Facebook page.

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Javelinas are suprisingly considered “rodents” and are very vicious. Apparently it has something to do with the direction of their tusks being different from pigs. I had never heard of them either, until we got ready to move to Arizona and my boss told me to keep an eye out for them. We’d lived there 6 months before we actually saw any, and they tended to come out more at night in our area. We’ve had friends who’ve been chased by them and had their dogs seriously injured by them. People will hunt them for food, but we heard you have to be very careful when you both kill and butcher them - if done wrong, they stink like crazy and it’ll ruin the meat. We never did either, so I couldn’t say for sure, I just took their word for it.

I learn something new all the time… wild boars are cute, but I never want to cross paths with one. And Wikipedia says that javelinas can get to 4 feet in length. That’s too big a rodent for me. I’ll just look at photos and be satisfied.

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I know this has been a sound crazy but how do I get this free downloads oh my Gf

Welcome to the forum.

The line drawings at the end of the original post are the files. Right click them and a fly out window will pop out. Select save image as svg and it will download to your computer.

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