Notebook
I started with the front cover. My idea for the front cover came from finding a drawing of princess Leia with a little heart.
At this point I came up with the idea to put the text "Don't mess with the princess." I decided at this point to make the word "princess" a different font. I had yet to figure out what I was going to cut out because I would lose parts of letters if I cut them out.
Next I added the drawing of Leia. Unfortunately, when I made the image a vector, the eyes did not appear. So I used text to make the eyes with two periods. At this point I still did not know what I was going to cut out.
At this point I decided to take a step back and add something just to cut out because that was a requirement. At this point, I decided to add the rebel symbol because I knew that I could cut it out.
Finally I decided that I could change both the eyes and the little heart to be cut out so that there wasn't just one thing being cut out because I had to cut something out. I also added a rectangle around the outside so it would actually cut out as a cover.
I then started the back cover, I first added the fist with the sign for female. I made sure that the image I used had enough space so that it could be cut out without part of the design falling off.
I then decided to add tiara that would be engraved on top so that it would be on theme with the front cover.
Lastly I added a rectangle around the design so that it would cut out.
It then used the laser to engrave both covers. Unfortunately I had technical difficulties with the front cover so there are no pictures of that, but there are plenty of the back cover
After both were engraved I bound them together.
Water bottle
I started by creating a rectangle that would fit almost around the circumference to make sure that the design wouldn't overlap.
I then added a really bad water pun, using different font to emphasize how bad the joke is.
Next, I found an image of a really adorable water drop.
Then, I rotated the design 90 degrees so it would engrave correctly.
Lastly, I engraved the water bottle. I did delete the rectangle before engraving since that was just a guideline for me.
Here is the result.
3D Design
I found this design on Thingiverse (link bellow). I then downloaded it and changed it to a Illustrator file.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:11318
I use the laser to engrave it. I used cardboard as my material.
Here are all the pieces cut out.
Because I used a thicker material than recommended I had to change how I put it together. Instead of putting all the branches all on one side, I put them on opposite sides, making it more of a full tree instead of half of one. Because of this I also didn't use the small support arc.
Conclusion
Working this much with the laser has taught me that I will have both good and bad days. There can only be so much planning in advanced that can be done when things don't go right, but it is still important to always have a plan. I also found the value of brainstorming designs outside of class so that class time is as productive as possible even if there are things that go wrong.