Made a thank you gift for our local movie theatre

[Livein3D]

I work for AMC Theatres on the IT support side. Our family loves movies and have been going to the AMC theatre closest to where we live now since I lived at home umpteen years ago. My mom used to take us kids to the Fork & Screen (dine in & movie) as a special treat. I did the same with my children (same theatre) and now that they are adults they can go on their own. My new husband and I went to the theatre last year over 60 times. We really like movies you might say. When they closed down for 5 months I realized how much we really missed the movies.

They held an associate screening last weekend and asked us to bring a thank you card for the theatre associates. There was a lot of work for the associates to get it ready for the opening including the daily cleaning and extra sanitizing.

Here are a few pictures of my “thank you card”. It is about 14" tall. I hadn’t mixed 2 color acrylic and edgelit clear acrylic before. *

My husband came up with the idea of a slight offset engraving around the popcorn bucket to make it appear to light up and pop out more. The engrave line below the popcorn bucket and the intentional slight elevation of the popcorn bucket above the base allowed for the engraving on the wood to be readable even in the dark.

• IMPORTANT LESSON LEARNED: When using LOCTITE GO2 adhesive with a solid color acrylic and a clear ---- make sure you have a scrap straight piece of acrylic (or a plastic razor blade) and scrape the adhesive completely across the solid color acrylic!! Otherwise when you light it up, it shows exactly where the glue is and isn’t! Making another one (mirrored) for the backside and spreading the glue definitely helped.

Thank you to @hansepe for the settings. The second pass with a lighter touch made an amazing difference.

I brought it up to the Theatre yesterday. The person taking the tickets called a manager over. She saw it and called her boss to come over to see what was at the desk. They were very surprised.

The engraving on the base says “Heartfelt gratitude to all associates for getting us all back to the movies!” I put my name, and title on the back side, “and family” with the month/year that they opened back up.

[primal_healer]

Really great work and very nice of you to do it I really like that layer of acrylic in the base, such a nice touch.

[Livein3D]

Thank you. I’m just a hobbyist and do worry that my work won’t look as good as others I see here … so I tend to spend 300 times longer on a new project. Most of what I do are presents for family and friends, and a little fundraising for our makerspace to get a new physical location in the future.

Technically speaking, I wouldn’t have my dream job if it weren’t for all of those associates in the theatres working and all the customers that walk through the doors. I just wanted them to know how much it really means to our family.

[gooddog]

that’s a very cool idea, and it came out really well!

[hansepe]

That looks awesome! Glad those settings helped, you did good to find them

I’ll bet your creation makes the company newsletter (or video?).

[Livein3D]

Do you work here???

Actually when I was at the Theatre Saturday waiting for our friends to show up that were going with us to the screening, I was talking to the lady from corporate about how I was so happy we were back. We were watching another associate wiping down all the door handles and I told her they had done a great job. Everyone had smiling “eyes” and it was nice to see familiar faces. I told her how I had been coming to this theatre since I was in school, years later took my children, and now my husband and I go. I reached into my pocket and showed her a mini print of the popcorn and told her what I was working on. It was taking longer than I had anticipated but I was going to bring it up when it was finished. She told me that she wanted to see a picture of it when it was done. I got her name so I could remember to send it to her. I delivered it Monday afternoon.

I sent the pictures to her this morning and she wanted to know how I made it. I told her and she said she was writing an article for our intranet about the event that the local theatres had put on for all the home office associates. She wanted to know if she could use the pictures in the article. This afternoon, I looked and the article was already posted and she used a few of my comments on why I made it and how much it meant to be able to go to the movies again. She said that the gift from me was “truly one of a kind”. I’m happy to be able to show the associates how much it meant.

[Livein3D]

Thank you! I think it will give me encouragement to try out some techniques I have seen in the community that people have posted. I really enjoy edgelit designs. I had a very simple one at my desk at work that I would change out (slip out and slip a new one in)…had a TARDIS, a “Happy Tropical Friday” sign, a couple of holiday ones, and a “Winter I’m breaking up with you, Summer is much hotter than you” (purchased design) that would change at my desk.

I think I may get some fancier ones now to have at my desk with all this colored acrylic sitting around here!

I have a goal of working with the “infinity” 2 way mirror and hope to get one made with a theater themed design hopefully before we get called to go back into the office. Just have to figure out how I want to create it. Everyone here is such an inspiration to me.

[NateG]

This is so wholesome, I love it!

It sounds like they appreciate how thoughtful your lovely gift is

[Livein3D]

Well, have you tried their popcorn? We actually bring home 1/2 a tub practically each time we go, and if the middle son and our dog doesn’t devour it immediately — we put it in a 1/2 gallon mason jar and use the seal-a-meal and suck all the air out. It’s good for probably a long time afterwards…I say probably because I can’t let it sit in the jar that long (I think max a week because the jar got moved and I thought it was gone). I wished I had saved it up before we closed — I was going through movie theatre withdrawal and it wasn’t a pretty thing. Thank you.

[hansepe]

@Livein3D

She said that the gift from me was “truly one of a kind”. I’m happy to be able to show the associates how much it meant.

The quote sums it up perfectly. One of a kind, eye appealing, and obvious that you put some time and effort into the concept and the build. Of course it has to go in the company news for all to see.

This is one thank you that won’t be thrown away.

[PrintToLaser]

Very nice work on a great design

[wenning08]

Looks great

[cynd11]

Wow, way to write a thank you card!

[Aloha]

Great work!

[arh2]

Movie worthy thank you!

[jeanneleigh]

That’s really cool! The layer of acrylic in the base really makes it pop (sorry!! )
And how nice that they recognized your creativity and hard work in making it.

[ptodd]

Great job for the big event!

[Livein3D]

…keep those puns coming…yes, buttering up for more. I was tickled, I hadn’t ever been mentioned in one of their stories on our intranet before…written Cybersecurity Tips to teach others, but I mainly stay silent in the background as our associates in the theatres are our real stars. I really enjoyed making it. Tomorrow we are going to lunch with our boss for her last day, and I am going to make myself some popcorn earrings to wear. LOL

[Livein3D]

Thank you so much. I had so much fun making it. I think it had more thought behind it than anything I have made so far. I wish I had more time to devote to playing with my Glowforge (the furlough flew by with all the family stuff that went on during that time that it didn’t get as much attention as I had hoped…though I managed to collect a stash of new supplies that will keep me busy for quite awhile).

Thank you @PrintToLaser, @wenning08, @cynd11, @arh2, @jeanneleigh, and @ptodd —

It is this wonderful community here that inspires me with your projects that you show, the tips you share, and the troubleshooting so many people offer up to help newbs and others that aren’t quite to the level of experience they want to be at. I had someone at work ask me WHY I chose a Glowforge and a good part of the reasoning was: 1) American Made, 2) the Glowforge Community — we could have cancelled at any time and bought something else but it was the community here that convinced me this was where I needed to stay. AND 3) this reminds me so much of our Makerspace when it had a physical space — the same type of community with sharing, teaching, and punny humor. You all make me laugh and smile more than any one place online.