A remix of the DIY Photo frame. This frame was inspired by the other parts of our families that we care for each day. They become a foundation of trust and love, never judging and always there for us. Their lives are wholly dependent on us and yet, through the bonding of pet and person, we become not just physically, but also emotionally dependent on them; so much so that when they leave us to cross over, we feel the loss just as we would a member of our closest relatives. This frame gives hope that we will meet again with our beloved pets when we, ourselves, cross to meet them on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge. These plans are included in both XCS and SVG format. In addition, a photo cut out guide is included so that you can cut out photo that will fit perfectly in the frame
I have been designing for a while now and yet I always return to one of my first designs which was a plaque that had the poem of Rainbow Bridge on it. I made it at first for just me and my wife but then started selling it and it was one of my first successful sales items off my laser. I decided to remix the DIY frame to include a rainbow and the poem.
I first downloaded the plans for the DIY Picture Frame and then made the frame wider to accomodate the fact I was adding a poem to the one side. I moved the opening for the picture to the opposite side of the frame. I then added a rainbow and clouds to the top. I took the center piece (the one with the cutout for a photo) and turned it sideways and made it to match the complete profile of the front. Then I copied and pasted the profile of the front to make a blank back which I then imported a photo of our dog, Luna.
As you put this together, you will most likely want to color the rainbow. In fact, I sort of recommend it. The order of colors, if you want to stick to the factual way the colors are sorted on a rainbow, are Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple. There are varying shades between each, of course, but this is the agreed standard colors and the order they go in. I only inluded 5 stripes in this so I went with the first 5 colors.
I used Acrylic paint and only painted after cutting the pieces out. You are, as always, free to do this part as you would want to. I like to use acrylic paint markers so that it goes on without a lot of mess. (As you can see in the photo, I am by no means, a painter, lol)
This project took 3 sheets of 12"x12" birch which I purchased from xTool. If you have different sized sheets, feel free to adjust the parts of this to fit your materials.
Included with this file are two different ways to dispaly your frame. First is the kickstand that was provided with the original file. Due to the size of this frame, I increased the length of the kickstand to accomodate it. The other way is a wall hanger. I will go over both in the final step.
If you are going to use a real photo instead of an engraved photo, also included in this plan is a photo cutout guide. Basically, you place this over the part of the photo you want to put in the frame and marke the edges with a pen. Then cut out the photo and you will have a photo cut to perfectly fit in the frame.
Finally, there is the name of our dog, Luna, included on the frame. Since I have the pieces grouped together, you will want to ungroup and then remove that name for the name you would want to put in there. If you do not want to score your pets name in as a guide, you can always leave this part off completely. In the same note, on the XCS version of this, I have the photo of Luna grouped in. You will want to ungroup and remove her photo to add your own.
I fully recommend engraving the photo first before any cuts are made on the back piece. Do this by selecting all but the photo and changing the out put from green (as shown in photo 1) to greyed out (as shown in photo 2). Still, even though you are not cutting the pieces yet, line everything up as though you will. This will put the photo and the lines to cut in the correct places. Once you have engraved the photo and are happy with it, do not move your piece in the laser. In the laser program, select the photo and change the out put from green to grey and then select everything else and change it from grey to green. This will do the cuts but not the picture. This will help to prevent waste if the photo does not engrave correctly.
I tried the method of photo engrave using AI make but could not get enough detail for my liking so I engraved a photo using XCS built in adjustments. Since my dog was white and black, I made sure to bring the sharpness up to maximum to help bring out any shadows in her fur and small details that are obscured otherwise. I also bumped up the brightness to about 8 to 10 and then changed the low end of the greyscale to about 4-8 and the high end to about 245 to 250. This helped to draw out the shadows in her fur even more.
I then engraved using the settings included with this step.
Using the above settings on the P2, cut/score/engrave your pieces. If you are using a different machine, you will want to make adjustments accordingly. There is one note here about the settings.
The lines are color coded:
Red = Cut
Blue = Engrave
Yellow = Score 1
Orange = Score 2
The reason for the two different scores is that the orange needs a lower powered scoring since the lines will overlap. You take a chance of actually cutting through with a higher powered scoring due to this. In fact, in the second picture, you can see that is what happened to me on the back of the front part of the frame due to the higher power.
When you have all your pieces cut out, lay them out to ensure you have everything. Oh, and don't forget your letters for your pets name. By the way, you can change the font of these letters in the XCS file just by selecting them as a group and then changing the font in the menu at the top. I have the letters set up as Alegreya in the file.
Assembly is pretty straight forward.
Pretty self explanatory here.
As I stated in step one, I used Acrylic Paint and a brush, but you can use markers, paint pens, etc…
Also, consider coloring your pets name to give it more pop.
The kickstand is fairly simple to understand. In order to align it correctly, place the leg of the kickstand on the back of the frame lining it up with the bottom about the center of the frame then place the hinge plate atop that so that it is flush with the top of the kickstand. (See 1st photo) This will ensure it is level to the bottom of the frame. Once you glue this down, put the hinges on the kickstand and put a drop of glue into the holes of the hinge plate. Line up the tabs of the hinges with the holes on the hinge plate and gently but firmly push them into the holes and hold until they are fully set with the adhesive.
NOTE: The hangers instructions here are copied from another project as are pictures 2 through 5 attached to this step. It is the exact same steps to do them.
You should have 1 piece with a keyhole cut out, 1 frame piece and then 2 rectangle pieces (one of them will be the center of the frame).
Take a keyhole piece and glue/adhere it to the top of a frame piece (not the picture frame, see photo). Glue this, keyhole side up, to the center approximately ½" to 1" in from the top on the back of your picture frame. This needs to be as exactly center as possible to allow for proper hanging.
Take one of the rectangle pieces and glue/adhere it to the bottom right corner, again, about ½" to 1" in from the edges. This does not need to be as accurate as the hangers but should be close to the bottom corner without going to the edges. Do the same to the opposite corner. These provide slight bumpers to raise the bottom of the picture frame from the wall if needed and addes a little weight to keep it hanging straight.
Your picture frame is now ready to hang.