Butterfly Nightlight

I decided the twins’ nursery needed a tabletop nightlight with an auto shut-on/off sensor. So I picked up an LED one at the dollar store and then designed a decorative casing to fit around it.

I created the file in Illustrator with all vector cut lines, being careful to set it up so the main outline of the butterfly would not cause the whole inside to fall out. I set each panel to a different color, just in case.

I used 1/8" PG Maple plywood for the material.

After the cut was done, I carefully removed each panel without moving the main piece of PG. Good thing, too, because one of the panels did not cut all the way through. I set it to cut again (just the outside, not the design) and ignored everything else. The second pass did the trick.

Of course, there was still a problem with that last panel. The internal designs did not cut through. So I removed the masking from both sides, and then briskly sanded the back side by hand with fine grit paper until I reached the cut depth. Problem solved.

A little glue with a press fit (except the top), and it was done (aside from painting)

Then, I plugged in the light and found it wasn’t bright enough. Oh well.

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Gorgeous! (I wonder if you made it out of a translucent acrylic if it wouldn’t be bright enough to make a good night light…you don’t want to abandon that design.) :grinning:

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I will probably just get a brighter light

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Yeah, that would work too. (Might be thinking in terms of fix it with the laser too much! ROFL!) :smile:

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