Shaker Ornament Tutorial -- for a New Baby!

We recently had a niece born and wanted to commemorate her birth, Bison and Bobcat style. So, of course, we made her a custom ornament. The details in this post aren't hers, but this is the same process we went through to make her a shaker ornament.

We started by finding the icons we wanted to go with the baby's stats and dates--A bottle for the time of birth, a ruler for her length, etc. We also added a heart and a pacifier just for fun. Whatever shape you think is unique to your baby works great. You can also do these as sports ornaments or just about any theme you want.

We put the images into the Eufy Maker UV printer software and added text the images. Be sure to group each image with its corresponding text. This helps during printing. Set each image to print White then CMYK as shown here. We printed onto 1/8-inch birchwood plywood.

While your pictures are printing, you can import the same picture file into your laser software. We use XTool Studio and have found that jpegs work best for this method. Set each image to offset and then drag the outlines away and set the outlines to cut. We used a power of 80% with a speed of 20. You will need to click on the outlines and release the compound vector to be able to move each outline individually.

Once your pictures have printed, place your wood on the laser and position each of the outlines carefully over its match. The laser will get your tiny pieces cut out just perfect.

 

We had to wipe these off with a microfiber cloth and a little isopropyl alcohol to get some of the smoke marks off. One thing we would change next time we do this is make the colors a little brighter. The pale pinks and purples are kind of hard to see.

You can cut your ornament pieces out of the same sheet of plywood you printed on. These pieces are approximately 3.8 inches wide. The solid one is the back, the thin ring is the middle spacer and the thicker ring is the front of the ornament. You will also need to cut out, either on your laser or by hand, a clear plastic circle large enough to fit comfortably between the top two layers.

Use strong glue, attach the back layer to the middle layer. Be sure to line them up well.

Add your shaker bits and some glitter. Dust the glitter off the top of the small wood pieces or it might get stuck there.

Put some more glue around the edges of the second layer and add the clear plastic. Hold it down carefully while you add some more glue and the front layer of the ornament. Align the sides quickly before the glue dries and put something heavy across the top to hold the pieces in place for a few seconds while the glue sets.

Add a string and your ornament is all done!

Pro Tip: Make sure you get all the text right before you glue your ornament together or you'll be in for a lot more work.