2014 Holiday Break Makes

I got a lot of great feedback about my Holiday Break Makes post from last year, so I thought I'd make it an annual thing.  Here are some of my favorite makes from this holiday season:

London Metro Map Coasters

As a gift for Louisa's sister - who used to live in London - I created these coasters.  Last time Louisa visited London, she grabbed a bunch of free metro maps.  I laser cut circles from these, and then sandwiched them between laser-cut clear cast acrylic and adhesive-backed craft foam.

Strongsad Print

My sister, Geralyn, is a huge fan of Homestar Runner's Strongsad.  For her gift, I created a large print using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.  The graphic style is based loosely on Roy Lichtenstein's Girl with Ball, and the Illustration is based on Mostlymade's HSR Tribute.

Glowing Yoga Pendant

Louisa went to Chicago for a Strala yoga event and, in preperation for meeting Tara Styles, had me make this LED-lit pendant as a gift.

Einstein Window Piece

My pal Jake and I had some time to kill before a movie, so we decided to whip up this window piece as a gift for his brother.  I quickly found a text-cloud graphic of Einstein, and laser- etched it into the back of mirrored acrylic.  Then, I lined the back with radiant light film which results in awesome color changes as light passes through and reflects off of the film.

Angel Kitty

Geralyn is a fellow cat lover, so I thought she might want her own Angel Kitty Tree Topper.

BFF Trading Cards

For the annual White Elephant party I throw with my close friends, I created, as a gift, a set of trading cards featuring custom illustrations of each member of the crew.  These are also done in a Lichtenstein style, and are based on photos I pulled from my friends' facebook albums.  I will post more about this, and my process of drawing these, in the near future.

 

Custom iPhone Photography Kits

Louisa loved the iPhone photography kit I put together last year, so I made a revised kit as gifts for Louisa's parents and my sister-in-law. I found the pine boxes at Micheal's, then stained, laser-etched, and added hardware.  I also designed custom laser-cut foam inserts to hold the equipment.

Laser-cut iPad Stand

A simple laser-cut iPad stand for Louisa's dad, based on a thingiverse entry by Eagleapex.

Laser-cut Hand Mirror

A laser-cut mirror for Louisa's mom.  Custom designed, and cut from some stained plywood and mirrored acrylic.

Laser-engraved Stainless Steel Flask

A custom-engraved stainless steel flask for my brother in-law.  Here, I learned a new technique for etching into stainless with a 40w laser.  Frankie Flood made two blog posts about this, here and here. It was also reposted on Hackaday, here. 

Capacitive Touch Lamp v.3

And finally, I redesigned and reprogrammed my capactitive touch lamp, this time as a gift for Louisa.  Read more about this project here and here.  The new design features the ability to toggle through random RGB values and store them as the lamp's default light temperature, by simply touching and holding until selection mode initiates.

I actually learned quite a bit during this holiday season's make sessions.  That said, over the next few weeks I will try to make some more detailed posts about a couple of these projects...