Scrapbooking with a Laser

• 1/8" thick wood
• Twill from Twill USA or other fabric stores
• Foam layering tape from C2F, Inc. or at any crafts store
• Felt
• Glue
• Construction paper (various colors)
• Foam sheets from Crafts for Less or at any crafts store

Text and Flat Images: Let's start out by creating the text and flat graphics for the different pages. When you open the scrapbook_text.cdr file, you'll see all of the words and flat one-dimensional graphics we created on the three different scrapbook pages (Figure 1).

The great thing with text is it is easy to create with the laser on a number of different materials. On our pages, we used a combination of colored cardstock (baby, happy birthday, surprise, and the family pets) and felt (dog bone, cat s, and dog), but you could use any number of materials, including fabric, paper, foam or whatever you have scraps of from other projects.

Choose the material you would like to use and place your text on the upper left corner of the page. Each piece of text is set up as an outline, so it is ready to be cut. Print it to the laser in vector mode and you're ready to go!

To create your own customized text, type in your text, choose your font, and set the fill to blank and the outline to black.

Appliqués and Color Mapping: When you open the scrapbook_colormapping.cdr file you'll see three graphics: a flower, a star and a dog bowl.

Let's start with the flower and star files, which we are going to create fabric appliqués to place in our scrapbook using the twill fabric. While we used twill fabric to create the star and flower, you can follow the same directions to use twill on any other file.

We will be using the laser's vector color mapping feature for the twill so that we can choose how deeply we want to cut through each layer of fabric. The only vector line you want to cut completely through is the bottom piece, which will eventually be the dark blue portion of the star and the inner circle.

Getting Started: Start by choosing the different colors of twill you want to work with. Pull the film off the back of each piece you are using, except for the bottom piece, exposing the sticky-back layer. Line the pieces up and press them together to adhere them to one another.

Color Mapping: To print the star and flower frames using Color Mapping click on File and Print. When the Print window opens, click on Properties, then click on the Advanced tab at the top of the page. When the Advanced tab opens, you can choose Color Mapping by clicking on the box circled in blue in Figure 4 .

Now, click onto Edit Color button on the page, which will bring up a screen shown in Figure 5 . We set up the files using a yellow line for one cut, and a powder blue line for a second depth of cut. Pick the color yellow by typing in to the boxes (in the blue square in Figure 5) Red:255 Green:245 Blue:0 then click OK. Next, click the Add button, which will put the color into the Map List box.

Click onto Edit Color button and set a second color to powder blue: Red:186 Green: 179 Blue: 214, then click OK. Click the Add button again, and this second color will put the color into the Map List box.

In the Map List box, highlight the yellow color by clicking on it. This shows you that the speed and power for any yellow line is currently set to a default of 50%, which you can change by clicking the Modify button and changing the speed and power on the sliders located under the color. For the yellow vector lines, we want to cut through two layers of fabric, so we set our speed at 70% and power at 50% on the Epilog Mini 45 watt that we used for this project. You may need to test different speeds and power combinations to find the right one for your laser system.

Figure 4

Figure 5

Once you have vectored your pieces for the flower, they will look like Figure 6. Now you can peel off the layers as shown in Figure 7 to create your desired look. In Figure 8 we show a close-up of the flower frame so you can see how great of an edge quality you get with twill fabrics and the laser systems.

Color Mapping Dog bowl frame. To print the dog bowl using Color Mapping , set up the color Yellow (R:255 G:245 B:0) using the same method we used above. On the 45 watt Mini, we set the Yellow line at a speed of 50% and power of 18%, so that it did not cut completely through the frame. Set the black vector lines to the laser at a speed and power so that they will cut completely through the foam. We used 100% speed and 35% power on the 45 watt. Send the bowl to the laser.

Have fun with your designs by creating your own appliques, or use our designs. Add them to your own scrapbooking sheets or create fun kits using the techniques given.

Dimensional Stickers. Next we're going to create 3-D stickers that will really make your scrapbook pages pop!

Let's begin by opening the file dimensionalart.cdr. All of the files have at least one or more items set up in one pair of two (see the top two images in Figure 10). These sets will be used for printing the image from a regular printer and for Vector cutting the pieces that will be used for the dimensional piece, bottom piece (see bottom of Figure 10 for vectoring).

To set up the 3-D stickers to outline portions of the image to cut out, check out our Technical Library article called Smoothing an Outline which shows you how to quickly outline an area of the image you want to cut out and to smooth the cut lines.

We've set up the camera for you to try out to create multiple dimensional stickers using a jig. When you open the file camerajig.cdr you will see a file set up like Figure 11.

Creating the Template Jig. We used 2 -1/8" thick, 14.5" width, 4.5" length pieces of wood to create our templates (see Figure 12). Any sturdy type of material is fine for this process as long as you can create the template.

Step 1: Print the items in your file that resemble the items at the top of Figure 10 using your regular printer. Make sure that before you do so you Center your images first on the paper in CorelDRAW. This will ensure accuracy when cutting the images using the machine. To center your images, click onto the graphic and Press "P" on your keyboard.

Step 2: Take your printed images from the printer.

Step 3: Next, go to the laser and place your wood inside the laser. In CorelDRAW, using the printing version (top part of Figure 10) print your image in vector mode to cut through your material. On our 45 watt machine we used 35% Speed and 100% Power. The vector portion of the images will cut out squares for the jig, and two camera pieces: the rectangle portion of the camera, and the circle for the lens (Figures 12 and 13).

Step 4: Now, place your printed graphics underneath the wooden template (Figure 12) with the squares. Match the outline of the boxes on paper to match the outline of the boxes cut out of your wooden template. Use tape to hold the paper in place. Then place your wooden template back into the laser at the top left corner of the system.

Step 5: Back in Corel, send the job to the laser in vector mode to cut through the paper. On the 45 watt, we used 100% speed and 20% power. You will have cut out pieces matching those shown on the right side of Figure 13.

Figure 9

Figure 10

Figure 11

Figure 12

Step 6: Using glue, paste the matching pieces of wood and paper together. Take your foam layering tape and place it on top of the desired area as shown in Figure 14. Next, add the dimensional piece on top of the foam tape as shown in Figure 15. And there you go - your 3D sticker is done!

Repeat Steps 1-6 on any of the 3-D images in the dimensionalart.cdr file, or add foam to the back of any text or frames to make them stand out as well!