Crafty Cretin - Things I made

Hmmm. Looks more like a goat…

So as not to fill my project thread with guesses (didn’t think that one through LOL)…

It’s a “YoKai Watch” character, named “Komasan.” I believe it is indeed a cat, but I did see some story (via something he was watching) that it’s a dog. (I’m not buying, but also not gonna research it any further.) YoKai Watch is a very odd anime import.

But thank you for playing! LOL

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Did my last craft show for the year. Was a bit bigger event at a high school supporting the band geeks. :wink: Being one myself, I was happy to join in.

My set up… same old super simple… tables and boxes under the table cloths.

Was a great sales day. Did much better than my tiny neighborhood market. Not surprising really. Much bigger crowd. Stayed busy and chatty most of the time. One other person selling laser cut items, but he had no variety really, and nothing special. He had lots of Pokemon ornaments that were cool. He did say he was just getting into it.

Overall, worth the effort, I think. I don’t want to do the math, as I know it will show I didn’t make much, but I am confident I didn’t lose money. And I’m gonna create these things whether or not I’m doing craft shows.

More details on the newer pieces to come…

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Here’s the latest projects…

Open House sign and business card holder for a realtor friend.

BlackPanter wall hanger. Cardboard and spray paint. Tip: you can get more contrast using gloss vs flat paints of the same color. Really happy with this one, will likely do a few more in wood, draftboard, or acrylic.

Wand stands. Friend of a friend made the wands with magnets in the tip… so magic is preinstalled! (Only sold one set out of 4, which was surprising. Thought they’d go fast.)

Couple of simple framed pieces. I’ve decided I really like putting pieces in frames. The trick will be to find frames cheap enough to make it worth it. I price these 5x7s at $10. They don’t take too terribly long. Just looks nicer, even without the glass.
Louisville symbol (fleur de lis) and coordinates of the city. Got more ideas for this concept. I liked the grain of the new poplar for this. Fleur is etched and cut walnut, coordinates etched in the poplar.


A repeat, but now framed… EVERYONE who owns a trailer relates to this.

Everyone laughed, but no one bought this one. 'Tis ok. One will look nice on my mantle. Walnut bear, etched words on PG basswood.

Aaand my masterpieces for this show… I absolutely LOVE the way these came out. Home is two layers, ones with just the Falcon are only one.




The laser cuts are glued to the outside of the glass! And the texture/color under the glass? Wall paper samples! The ship is also etched on 1/4 ply that was spray painted with white, and then ‘dusted’ with gray and silver spray paint too. Home layer is basswood. These look so much better in person, these photos seem lame. I will be doing LOTS more of this concept for gifts and for next market season. Premium look, not terribly difficult or time consuming, and unique. So much potential with this idea.

That’s it for now. Hope you dig it.

Burn it all! :sunglasses:

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Oh, I do like the trailer one! :rofl:

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I forgot my first wand stands, inspired by @skeplin here: Harry Potter Wand Displays

Simple, yet cool. Have had several orders with names in the middle and school and house crests on the ends. These were a very quick, 'bout 20 minutes, concept to completed prototype.

THANK YOU @skeplin!!

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Nice job – I love the Three Brothers design!

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Holy cow! I can’t believe it’s been 3 months since I’ve posted in this thread! Should be no surprise I lost my ‘regular’ status. Well… time to stop lurkin’! It’ll take me a couple of days to get everything caught up… Here we go…

First up: Holiday Play Prop
Did a couple of signs with cardboard and spray paint for TheBoy’s school play. I also built the jail itself, though no GF help on that. Gives context for the signs.

Yet another Memorial Candle
Man I hate these, yet I love this one. Friend did a great design upgrade for her M-I-L’s family. This has so much potential… imagine a vase instead of a candle, and a Spring poem instead of a memorial.

A simple dog name frame for a friend to hang above the leash hook and food bowl. Black acrylic on the glass of an 8x10 frame with a wallpaper sample under. (I’m really enamored with these frames. I’ve since bought about 10 to 20 each in various sizes.)

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A couple of Christmas gifts. (Yes, I know it’s March. They were done then, just didn’t post up. Leave me alone.)

Hamilton Jack - For the director of a play a friend was in. (More to come with the Hamilton Star Series.)

Gift card holders. A lesson in using the pathfinder tools in Illustrator to get the 3 shaped layers that would line up perfectly.

Ornament for a friends church.

Ornament for my local neighborhood association.

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This was fun. For the day job. A sign for a research center on campus. This is a small prototype I made and they wigged out over it. (about 5x7)


Original plan was to do something much bigger for the final piece, but we were able to talk them down and keep it within the confines of the GF. Bought a pack of stand-offs on AMZ and love ‘em! So much potential. (Have you seen the kick azz business card holders using two stand-offs that have been floating around? So inspiring! Can’t wait to make some of those!) Anyway… this is walnut, birch, and acrylic. Since the stand-offs only have one “groove” to hold a piece out, I used acrylic rings around them to suspend the one layer between the back and acrylic. Looks so nice in the hallway. (Any bigger would have been too much says I.) They were absolutely thrilled! (Me too. #TTMF)



This is a small rendition of a much larger piece in the lobby of the building. (Hard to see against the brick wall… they really need to paint the wall, or the piece…)

To be continued…

It’s good to be back!

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Good to see you back…you’ve definitely been busy!

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Wonderful scope of work!

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Onward!

A couple of more family ornaments ordered by co-workers. This one was a good exercise in Illustrator design with “text on a path” and whatnot.

Co-worker did this design, then I experimented with materials.

And this, clear acrylic, etched in reverse on the “back” of the ornament was by far the coolest effect!

And THAT lead to….

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These really cool, and yet stupid simple, pendants! I’m LOVING these! So are my friends. I posted them, and immediately sold 3, and had a special order rushed for Valentine’s Day for three for a friend’s wife and his daughters. I will make lots of these I’m sure.

I experimented a bit with two pieces of acrylic for a friend wanting a pendant with melanoma awareness ribbons. Needs some tweaking to get a clean finish, but I am happy with these ‘proof of concept’ prototypes. Perhaps a BIG order for these is in the works…

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But wait! There’s more!

More jewelry…

Inspired by @ryan.huber this thread (Simple circular earrings), I started futzing with some jewelry ideas.


The cool part about these, is each shape will make two earrings, (for a two or three piece design) by taking every other size and combining them. Of course, they’d be different sizes, but just making two of any of them, will give two sets of matching earrings. Make sense? Also, each of these shapes, started out as a set of circles. I just started messing with the nodes in Illustrator and ta da! I had fun designing and burning them, though I still haven’t completely assembled them all. Old eyes and fumble fingers make assembly a bit tedious. But I’ve definitely caught the jewelry bug.

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And last but certainly not least, another personal favorite… a Valentine’s Day gift to for my wife (and I). SUPER SIMPLE leather bracelets, with coordinates. (Our wedding location.)

The coordinate gift idea I think will be a big hit for custom orders. Bracelets, picture frames, simple key tags, date ornaments, wall/shelf plaques…

The “gotta create” artsy fartsy half of my mind absolutely loves this machine! AND this community! Thank you everyone, AGAIN, for your inspirations and generosity!

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Thank you @bkressley! Can’t turn this thing off (my brain)… so many shiny objects and squirrels everywhere! Really need to pick a few and focus on them for the craft markets… but it’s so flippin’ fun to LASER ALL THE THINGS! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::star_struck::grin::crazy_face:

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Well, they’re all cool, but I really :heart: the bracelet idea!

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No wonder you haven’t been posting. So many beautiful things!

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Hey again! Been lurking (and commenting on occasion) but not creating too much. I have a few projects to post, but you know how it goes… (lazy bugger)…

Anyway, Jarvis Mk-III got called back to the university. So no lasering for me… for about 3 weeks! Ordered MY laser cutter the next day and Jarvis Mk-IV just got delivered. He’ll be up and running within the week. It will be sooo good to get back to creating! DayJob REALLY sucks right now, but dems da breaks. Will feel great to build my own business without the cloud of the machine not belonging to me.

Burn on!

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