10+ Easy xTool Projects with Easy to Follow xTool Tutorials
If you are looking for the best laser cutter around, then you need to get yourself an xTool! This machine has a ton of features and it won’t break the bank! I have had my xTool M1 machine for 4 months now and I LOVE it and am addicted to creating with it. If you are curious about all the details and features of the xTool, then check out my xTool review and xTool guide here. This post isn’t really about reviewing the machine, it’s about showing you all the easy xTool projects you can make. This is a round up of all the projects I have made using my laser cutter.
Alright lets get started with the awesome and easy xTool projects! Each one has a very detailed xTool tutorial to go with it. I walk you through the process of making them, so even if you’re new to laser cutters, I help each step of the way. These laser cutter crafts were all made with the xTool M1 machine. Both the 5w and 10w lasers can make all of these crafts, the 5W machine might take a little longer to cut out and/or engrave.
The xTool has a lot of features, it can cut, engrave and score lots of different materials including wood, metal and acrylic. It also has a blade for cutting, so it can cut vinyl, paper and more. It really is a cool machine, like I said before, it’s the best laser cutter around!
Let’s start with one of my favorite xTool feature- engraving! Once you start engraving things, you will want to engrave everything! The first time I engraved metal, I was hooked and went around my house looking for other metal things to engrave. Nothing is safe in my house anymore. Engraving is an easy process, you can even engrave photos or images found online.
I engraved a necklace with my dad’s handwriting. I took a picture of his planner and was able to create a fun necklace with his handwriting.
You can see the full engraving metal on the xTool tutorial here.
Engraving leather is another fun feature of the xTool laser cutter. I put a couple designs onto the leather patches and then sewed them onto beanies. It was a super easy xTool project to do but the outcome is awesome!
You can see the full tutorial on how to engrave leather go here.
The laser cutter can engrave wood also. Engraved wood is so cool. You can have words, logos and even photos. It is really neat what you can do with it. xTool has a variety of plywood in different kinds of woods. In this next xTool craft, I used a beautiful walnut plywood and created a tie holder with it. I cut out the wood and then engraved it with my dad’s signature.
You can see the full tutorial here.
This next xTool craft involves both the laser and the blade. I created a fun Tic Tac Toe board game. Instead of using paint to change the colors of the pieces, I used glitter heat transfer vinyl. With the feature of blade cutting, I was able to have the heat transfer vinyl be the exact same size of the wood pieces, making it super easy to cut it out of both materials. I made several different versions of the Tic Tac Toe board so I could use it for the different holidays.
You can get the full xTool tutorial here.
Another xTool feature is scoring. Scoring wood is similar to engraving but it is not the same. When engraving a word or image, the machine fills in the full area and the laser cuts deeper into the wood. When scoring, the machine will only do an outline and the laser just burns a little bit of the surface. For example, if you engrave a letter, the inside of the letter will be engraved into the wood. When you score the same letter, the outline of the letter will be scored into the wood. Scoring is a nice feature when you want the word or image on the wood but you don’t want it to be as deep.
For this next craft, I created some wooden Easter eggs for my kids. I used the scoring feature so the kids could paint the eggs. I wanted an outline of the design. I also showed how you can have your xTool machine score and cut at the same time, so you don’t have to worry about lining up the wood perfectly.
You can see the full tutorial here.
Now it’s time to get into a little more detailed laser cutter crafts. I love creating layered wooden signs. I love to be able to give a sign more dimension with the different layers. I think the hardest part about layering the wood is designing them, once you have designed them, the laser cutter does a fantastic job of cutting it out. For this next xTool project, I created some layered wooden signs for the band kids at my son’s school. The design of these were pretty simple, the only variations were the instruments and the names of the kids. I used the combine feature in xTool Creative Space to make it so the words and images where connected the border. That is the key when designing these signs, to make sure that all of the shapes and words are connected to the border so they stay together when being cut out of the wood.
You can read the whole xTool tutorial for these layered signs here.
I took the same ideas as these layered wooden signs, but made it bigger for this next project. I made this sign for my husband and he wanted a lot of details in it, so instead of each layer only have 1-2 shapes or words connected to the border, I had 2-3 objects cut out. I then took it another step further and engraved and cut out the designs at the same time. Yeah, the xTool can do that and it’s AWESOME!! I finished this layered wooden sign off by engraving an actual photo onto the back piece and it turned out amazingly!
Check out the full tutorial of this wooden sign here. Within the xTool tutorial, I show you how you can engrave and cut at the same time. It’s easier than you think it will be.
Having this amazing laser cutter makes it really easy to make meaningful and personalized gifts. For Christmas I was gifted a beautiful picture of my parents. This picture has a lot of meaning to me because it was taken 1 week before my dad passed away. I didn’t just want to stick it onto the fridge, so I created a beautiful wooden frame for it. I of course couldn’t have it just be a rectangle frame, I could have gone to the store and bought that. I decided that the frame needed to reflect the picture that was going in it, so I had the Boise Temple in the frame and then I engraved my parent’s anniversary date onto the frame. I love how it turned out, I have it displayed in my dining room :).
You can get the full wooden frame tutorial here.
I am a sucker for xTool projects that have names in them. I love to create gifts that have names in them because it isn’t something that you can go to the store and buy. Especially in my family. There are are so many gift shops that carry things with names on them nowadays but I never find any with my name on them, or my kids’. Actually, I have found some with my name on it, just not the way it is spelled…. Kaysi is not a normal way to spell my name. There is something about getting a gift that has your name on it, you know that the person that gave it to you spent some time on it. It has more meaning to me when it is personalized. So I created personalized wooden flowers, with names in the stems. These wooden flowers are great gift, perfect for birthdays, holidays or just because.
You can get the full xTool tutorial here.
This next xTool project isn’t one that I would call simple. This is by far that most detailed and complicated laser cutter craft I have done so far, but that being said, it was still fairly easy to make with the xTool. Designing it thought, that is another story :). It was just time consuming and took a lot of wood to create, but so worth it. It’s not every day I create a full board game using a laser cutter. I basically took all the knowledge I had learned and figured out about the xTool and used it all to create this Settlers of Catan board game. At one point, the machine cut, engraved and scored all at the same time. And once again, it did amazingly because the xTool is the best laser cutter around!
You can check out the full xTool tutorial of the Settlers of Catan board game here.
For this next xTool project, I decided to add twinkle lights to the sign to really take the sign to next level. They really did the trick!
As you can see from all of these amazing xTool projects, the possibilities are endless with xTool. I have just barely scratched the surface of what it can do! I truly believe that the xTool is the best laser cutter you can buy!
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