4 Ways to Discover Your Roots

No, we're not talking about those gray hairs. Or those weeds that keep popping up in your lawn. We're talking about your family!

Next Monday is National Roots Day. A day to look back on your ancestors, to share stories with family, and just gather to discover your family history. The holidays are a great opportunity to do this. We've compiled a a few ideas on how you can find and share your roots. Family trees and histories make great gifts.

1. Family Search

There are few apps you can use to record your family history. The most user friendly one we've found is FamilySearch or familysearch.org. Not only can you search for ancestors and keep track of them, you can also share what you find with others, make keepsakes, and store photos and stories all in one place. And the best part? It's free! Also try the sister app, FamilySearch Memories where you can do more creative projects to preserve your family history. These make great gifts.

Ancestry.com is another good site, but it's not 100% free.

2. All About Me

Have each family member fill out an "All About Me" sheet before a family gathering. You can compile them into a book or digital file as a gift to your family. Use the free download below as a starting point. You'll have so much to talk about when you get together.

3. Make a Time Capsule

Find a container that will last for a while and put items or letters in it that you can look at in 5 to 10 years. You don't need to bury it in the back yard, but put it somewhere out of the way, maybe with your Christmas decorations. When you open it, it will be a great present from the past.

Some good items to include are: a letter to your future self, photos, a printout of the day's big news stories, predictions for your future, a recording of your favorite song, and a selfie.

4. A Real Photo Album

Take the time to print out some of those digital photos and create an album or book that you can share with family members this Christmas. It doesn't have to be fancy or cost a lot. The point is to get people talking about experiences and memories. Services like Snapfish, make this super easy.

Good luck finding your roots and then sharing them with your family!

Laser Engraving a Christmas Countdown Calendar

So, in early November we had an idea. Why not try to make a Christmas countdown on our laser? It would be easy. We could post it on our Etsy shop and people might even want to buy it!

Well, first of all, it wasn't easy. And second of all, we never did get it right until it was too late to post it on our Etsy shop this year. No one wants to buy a countdown calendar after the countdown is supposed to have started.

We finally did get it right though, so look out for it next year! Here's the process we went through and what we ended up with. Hopefully it will be of help to you in your own maker process.

We started with the premise that we wanted something colorful and Christmassy and also easy to use. Then we asked ourselves, what could a laser calendar be that other calendars couldn't?

Our first iteration wasn't too bad. We spray painted the back board green, and the wood for the numbers white. The "Days Until" was burned in and the "Christmas" was cut out and super glued on. The problem with this was the green spray paint looked okay, but not great. Also, we cut the holes for the dowels at the top the wrong size so we had to shave the dowels down to make them fit. Gluing the "Christmas" on wasn't too hard, but it was a little finicky. Also, we loved the ornament we burned into the bottom center and thought that would be a good place for personalization.

The other issue was how we were going to get this guy to stand up. We tried one of the stands we use for some of our other products. Just slide the board into the stand. This was okay, but the sign just seemed too upright. We wanted it to lean a little. We also wanted storage for the hanging numbers.

Enter the box! Next we tried to make a box stand for the calendar. The box is one we already use for the dice towers we make. We just had to resize it.

Unfortunately, the problems with the box were numerous and varied. First of all, we used the wrong size plywood, so the box didn't fit together right. That error aside, it just didn't feel right.

It would be hard to package and ship. And even though it had storage for the numbers, it was just a little clunky. Add to that the too-slanted and too-big notch for the board, and this idea was a no-go. It also used a lot more wood than other versions, as you can see in the LightBurn screenshots below.

We had much more success with this stand that we use for some of the signs we sell. It's an easel-type stand that can pack flat and the tilt was just right for the calendar.

Another redesign later, we fit the whole calendar, sans stand, onto one sheet of 4mm plywood to reduce waste. We also ditched the color idea because we just couldn't get it to look good. (We even tried a vinyl backing that we burned into on one version.) Instead, we opted for a dark stain/light stain look that was more true to the products we normally make.

We also made all the words and the personalization coin separate cutouts to make them stand out more and be easier to glue on, and put guide lines on the backboard to help us to place the cutouts. The numbers went into a drawstring cotton bag for storage. Much simpler, and we already use those bags for another product we make (the Plan of Salvation set.)

Here is the whole thing fitting on one sheet of 4 mm 12x12" plywood. You can see from the LightBurn settings on the right, the numbers we used to burn and cut the project. It only takes about an hour on our 20 Watt X-Tool diode laser.

Just a few tweaks later, we came up with this beauty. It probably still needs some work, but it checks most of the boxes we wanted. It's easy to mail, customizable, fits on just one sheet of plywood, is quickly assembled, and is a good representation of our work. 

And now we'll have them ready for the Etsy shop for next Christmas!