Hi there GF Friends! I’m VERY new to lasers and purchased the Aura to get started. I’m very familiar with cutting machines of the drag blade variety (think Silhouette and/or Cricut) but am looking for some unique, fun and outside the box ideas for my Aura! If you’re open to sharing, please list below 
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Welcome to the community! There is so much information here - most of it focused on the CO2 lasers rather than the diode, but I’m 100% sure you will get all sorts of ideas digging around in the forum. I’d suggest the Made on a Glowforge section first!
Looking forward to seeing what you make!
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Welcome to the forum.
I suggest you look through the Gallery tab above as well as the Made on a Glowforge section of the forum. Many of the items that are shown could be produced on the Aura.
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One thing the aura is good at is embellishing existing items. Engraving premade plaques or labeling items etc.
Lots of people have engraved wooden spoons and other kitchen tools for example.
Using the proofgrade veneers to embellish non-wooden objects can be really nice too.
Check out this inlay:
The possibilities are almost endless, even with the inherent limits of the aura.
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The most unique ideas will be the ones you come up with once you learn what the machine can do and then figure out what you want to make!
What I recommend is to immerse yourself in learning all about the machine, what it can do, what other people have done (by searching here, Instagram, Facebook, wherever else on the internet where you find projects), and then see what ideas you come up with!
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@cynd11 knocked this one out of the park:
And this one too!
oh and @thesamenametwice did this really cool magnet idea:
Shameless plug, I posted this one:
Gotta admit, we’re a little lean on projects posted as specifically made on the aura. It’s all so new, we’re all sort of figuring ideas out as we go!
If you see a project that you like here on the forum that isn’t aura-specific and you think it’ll be hard to reproduce on the aura point it out, and I’m sure someone will help you brainstorm on ways to replicate that sort of thing with the smaller laser. We love a good challenge!
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Greetings and welcome -
I dig out of the box ideas and have worked to incorporate GF cut materials into other disciplines. Are there other tools / materials you enjoy working with, other than cricut? Mabey sewing, knitting, glass melting, resin, leatherwork, welding, woodworking, electronics, etc?
For instance, I could see cutting some thin acrylic into an animal shape, mabey 3" wide x 2" tall, with small holes around the perimeter. Take a heat resistant glass, or small metal pot, with an 8" diameter, heat the acrylic with a heat gun & bend it slightly around the pot. Then knit it into the side of a Sock about calf high. It would wash fine, although might have to chamfer the holes a little with a soldering gun or ream with a razor knife to knock down the edge to reduce wear on the knitting. To be clear, I would try knitting INTO the sock, not on top of the sock. Would be a fun challenge.
I’ve done similar - stitching GF cut wood onto the top of a leather notebook cover.
I have lots of ideas, many of the are not practical or doable, or may suck for other reasons. But you never know for sure, until you try it.
HL
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Other unique ideas may include food. GF is advertised as being able to ‘engrave’ on food. Think scorching a design on the top of a pancake or cookie. Seems cool, but I don’t think most people will put food in their GF once they’ve used it to cut other things, like acrylic especially. And with an Aura, engrave can be slow on really large images.
However, cutting can be acceptably fast. So I would try to melt some chocolate into a thin sheet, and laser cut it into interesting shapes. Might be cool to try.
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