Reindeer Winter Wonderland
Instruction
For this project I used AImake prompts to design an image of a Reindeer inside of an orb. My original intention for this project was to make ornaments with it, but after I started working with it I thought it would lend itself nicely to a snow globe design for a nightlight. I pulled the original AImake file into Adobe Illustrator to add on to the original design until I was happy with the final design. I am including several different files in this project.
AImake prompts for this project:
[Style] Block printing
[Prompt] high contrast reindeer starry night sky inside an orb
There are actually two separate projects saved to this XCS file. If you click on the “Canvas” menu you will see one labeled “Snowglobe Engraving” and a second labeled Sublimated Ornament.
The snow globe engraving is ready to go for a cut and engrave on mirrored acrylic. It is a negative image of the snow globe design that had been inverted so that when you engrave on the back side of the mirror acrylic it will show properly when backlit. Please keep in my that the settings that work for my laser may be slightly different than the settings needed for you laser, and you may need to make an adjustment.
The actual cut and engrave time on this project is approx. 8 minutes. After the acrylic is cut be sure to clean it well before you glue it onto your nightlight blank.
For the ornament I printed the design with my sublimation printer. You will see two cut shapes in XCS. The rectangle is to cut a piece of acrylic to size before the sublimation process to help reduce product waste. Don't forget to toggle your “output” switch to only cut the specific peice you want to work on since both cuts are on the same canvas. You can sublimate on plain white acrylic, or you can buy various types of sublimation acrylic. For my example I used a glitter sublimation acrylic.
While I print the design and cut out my rectangle I start heating up my heat press. Much like lasers, heat presses are not all built the same, so settings that work well for me, may need to be tweaked for you. For my press, I have it set to 385 degrees for 60 seconds when I am working with acrylic, and I use medium pressure.
Once my image it printed, my acrylic rectangle is cut, and my press is hot, I line up my image near the bottom of the square, facing the acrylic. Check your image orientation and make sure you leave room to cut the ornament shape out around your sublimated image. It helps to hold the acrylic and the print up to the light to see where your image will set. Sandwich your acrylic and your print between two sheets of butcher paper and take them over to the press, and press them.
When you remove the acrylic from the press, it will be very hot and flexible. Be sure to use heat resistant gloves to remove your acrylic from the press. Place it on a heat safe, flat surface and place another heat safe heavy item on top for at least a minute to allow the acrylic to cool. If you have a second press that is not turned on this is an excellent option for the cooling step. In a pinch I have pressed the acrylic between two heavy pieces of wood to cool, but this can take a little longer to cool enough to move.
After your acrylic has cooled enough that it is no longer flexible, move it back into your laser to run the ornament shaped cut file. Decorate with a ribbon of your choice.