I’ve been seeing some really nice projects around the shop that people have been making to give as gifts, so I thought I’d start a new projects thread for that. Share your gift projects here!
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Brilliant idea Valerie! I cannot wait to see pictures of everyone’s creations.
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Here’s a holiday project I worked on last week with my mom. She wanted a tag that she could hang on a stocking to indicate whose stocking it was.
We used the Laguna Swift to cut letters out of mesquite. The letters were fragile so we used two pieces of 1/8” mirrored acrylic to border the letter and add some rigidity.
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Oh how cool to see what y’all were working on! These turned out really nice! The mirrored acrylic backing really elevates the finished piece, very nicely done. I bet she had a lot of fun working on them with you.
Here are some quickish ones we banged out for family gifts. Time really got away from me this year, so kept it easy and went with laser cut files purchased off etsy and used alcohol ink to paint them.
Laser marquetry with curly maple and white oak (3M backed) on textured paper
Millennium Falcon - 6 layers
Cardinal ornament
Cardinal window art - 6 layers of plywood with curly maple veneer for birds and UV resin for background snow/stars
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I have to brag for @morrism14 since he won’t do it himself. One of the most thoughtful handmade gifts I’ve ever seen, much less been on the receiving end of: a personal makers mark machined out of solid brass with turned beech handle. And a bonus feature, the handle smokes when it’s at the right temperature. 
Beautiful work @Iammikecohen and @valerie, I hope we see more posts as the gifts get given. Merry Christmas everyone.
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The birds are beautiful- great job V. 
Love that brass stamp (brand?) 
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My adult son, who loves all things Lego, asked me to 3D print a 10" giant minifig astronaut for him for the holidays. Most of the models I used are based upon STL files from the internet but I had to scale them up to make a 10" tall minifig. I couldn’t find a head with any face so I made a few modifications to add the eyes and mouth. Afterwards he told me his wife was jealous and wanted one too. She’s a doctor so I made one for her. The stethoscope is a custom design as is the name tag. The color scheme is based upon her daily scrubs she wears to work. When printing the legs I paused at the top of the gray shoes, switched to dark blue, her scrubs color, and then continued the print. I hear she’s going to bring it to work. It was a fun easy project done in about one week’s time. Customizing them made them special.
The astronaut
The doctor
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Made a batch of hard maple end-grain garnish boards for fam this year. 5/4 hard maple, finished in a mineral oil/beeswax whipped up by my partner.
We paired these with tins packed with the wax, sealed with labels that she designed in Canva and I rastered & cut on Tarkin.
Wrapped in a Christmas-y kitchen towel to reduce waste and included a “care card” (which she also designed in Canva) for all of our friends that would otherwise immediately run them through the dishwasher 
Side by side shot is a few different finishes we tried (coffee, wax, and coffee-then-wax); ended up going with just the wax on all of em.
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my family can’t meet for Christmas until the 30th so that’s given me some much needed extra time to actually work on my mom’s gift!
My mom loves house plants, and tbh I’ve felt I’ve kinda halfassed her gifts for the past few years so this Christmas, I really wanted to put time and creativity into a nice, bespoke, one-of-a-kind gift, so I’m making her a planter!
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