Based on what the Mid-Autumn Festival is all about, I figure that we need to incorporate a full moon, some clouds, stars, and/or maybe a pavilion, some flowers, a tree, and of course, Tien Deng (Sky Lantern).

After some trial sketches, I ended with 4 layers:

1st layer: Tree branches with flowers in the upper left corner, not only this will bring some softness to the scene, but also they will bring your focus forward and expand the depth to the whole picture (see Photo 1)

2nd Layer: The Pavilion roof sits at the lower right corner, together with the 1st layer will frame the whole scene (see Photo 2)

3rd Layer: Some flowy clouds in the sky, create some movement and make the night sky looks more interesting  (see Photo 3)

4th Layer: The moon, the stars, and the sky Lanterns, takes you to the far distance sky. (see Photo 4)

So now, we are ready to put it to the test.

Load the sketches to Silhouette Studio, with the Trace feature, and convert them to vector format first

See the first 4 photos, then after some tweaking, modifications, and fine-tuning. 

Photo 4-8 shows the difference between the trace images from my original sketches and the final results, a color-filled mock version of the Mid-Autumn Night in photo 9 gives a glance of the final look.

Now everything seems to look fine, so go ahead and export the design to SVG format and ready to test out for laser cutting.

Upload the design SVG file onto xTool Creative Space (see Photo 1), connect to my 10W M1, turn on air assist and purifier, load my 1.5mm basswood, choose the proper setting for score and engrave, then hit process.

The first 3 layers are just straightforward cuts, for the 4th layer.

For the sky lantern, I will do a marking score of the sky lantern location on the main piece for placing references. Then I will then use the setting of 60/40/1 to score the lantern details first, then proceed to cut the lanterns out, so the lanterns are going to be glued on the 4th layer, this way it will be easier to paint the lantern and not mess up the sky, also this way will give more dimension to the lanterns.

Color:

Color or not? the choice is all yours…

For this how-to, I decided to color it, after all, the Mid-Autumn Festival night is playful, colorful, and mysterious. See Photos 1-4 for the first 4 layers).

**After the assembly, I decided to add a 5th layer, which will be just a solid square, and paint it with a yellow and orange umbrae effect, so the moon and the stars will show up more.

Let me share a few tips first for assembly:

Doing a dry fit before gluing is a good practice. 

And for the layered project:

1. I always begin the bottom layer, so in this design, I will begin with Layer 4 and Layer 3.
2. Between these two layers, typically you would apply glue on the back of the less detailed piece, for the layered project, the higher layer usually has fewer details. For instance, if I were to put together Layer 3 and Layer 4, Layer 3 has fewer details, I will apply the glue to the back of Layer 3 and only apply glue to the area where both layers touched (see Photos ).
3. Make sure all sides are lined up, then clamp two layers together till set, then proceed with the next layer