Papercraft MTG commander card


I used my glowforge to cut out Magic the gathering cards to create a 3D papercraft commander card for my friends anniversary gift. I also used the glowforge to create the foam insert of my puzzle box to hold the card.

A regular person would use an exacto knife to cut out the shapes and be done in an hour but I have permanently shaky hands so that was impossible for me. So I decided to make it as complicated as possible and take days to do it.

I downloaded the image of the card from the internet and traced the parts I wanted to cut out on my ipad with the Sketches app. I then transferred the file to Inkscape and converted it to an SVG file.

I cut out 7 cards to create the image, and an additional 20? 25? cards to create space between the cards to create depth. Glued everything together and protected it with a matte finishing spray.

I covered it with 1/8" clear acrylic I harvested from a magazine holder, also cut on the glowforge.

I didn’t know how it would work cutting something so small so precicely, there were quite a few failures cutting out the cards due to the off set of the camera. It’s pretty accurate but when your looking at cutting out a piece that’s just a few inches a millimeter off and you’ve cut the wrong part of the image. Once I figured out the offset I had precise cuts.

I was really happy with the result and my friends loved it.

Now I know that precise projects that I couldn’t do before are within my reach now. I don’t have to worry about shaking hands anymore, and that feels pretty good.![

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Welcome. Congrats on successfully completing such a great gift. The Glowforge will enable you to do so many things that might have been limited by shaking hands.

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Thank you! A lot of possibilities have opened up for me. I’m excited!

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Wow, that’s gorgeous! and the box is just the cherry on top!

I’m glad my hubby has given up MTG or I wouldn’t be able to show him this :stuck_out_tongue:

Talking about the offset - have you run your camera calibration? Within 1/4" is on spec for a standard machine, but most folks get to sub 1mm error after running the calibration.

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It is worth doing the camera calibration routine - it will tighten up that offset quite a bit.

Also, a jig for this will be your friend - MTG cards are pretty consistent printing - the position on the card does not vary much, so a jig would work most of the time.

Your finished layers look really good.

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From one pair of shaky hands to another - well done!!!

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Wow, wonderful job on this multilayer project!

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Wow! Looks fantastic!

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WOW that is amazing

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Looks great

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I will try that! The camera was very accurate, but at the teeny, tiny artwork would make a 1mm offset the difference between carving the fingers off or not. Although it was off set, it was consistent, so once I figured it out it wasn’t a problem. I hope this hasn’t renewed your husband’s desire to get back into MTG, it’s fun but expensive, lol!

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I did use a jig, and magnets. They worked quite well. I will try the calibration routine!

Team shaky hands here - I love my Glowforge for this too!

You might have some luck with camera calibration to improve your alignment.

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Very impressive work!

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That is an awesome gift! Welcome to the community!!!

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Team shaky hands for the win! We are wobbly but mighty!

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