Graduation Gift Idea- Personalized 2023 Light Up Sign
I don’t know how it happened but I have a kid that is graduating this year!! I could have sworn that it was just a couple years ago I was graduating from high school. That clearly is not the case but it sure feels like it sometimes! Since this is my first kid graduating, I wanted to go all out for it, including making some super fun graduation decorations. I don’t want the decorations to be basic either, I want them to personalized, meaningful and of course, awesome! I came up with the idea to make a personalized sign that would work as a graduation decoration or as a graduation gift. I love it when you can use it for more than just one thing. This graduation sign is special because it is personalized with all of the things that have had meaning in my son’s high school career. And the fact that it lights up, that makes it even more awesome!
Here is a quick video to show you the process of how I made this graduation gift, the class of 2023 light up sign.
If you are new to laser cutters, check out my xTool beginner’s guide.
This is how I made the class of 2023 light up sign. In xTool Creative Space, I opened an SVG file that I designed in another program. I then sized each number to about 4 inches wide. Each number had 3 layers, the top layer had something that had a design that was engraved into it. In order to get the xTool machine to do both cut and engrave at the same time, I highlighted the area that I wanted engraved and clicked engrave. The rest of the design, I had it cut, so I highlighted the rest and pushed the cut button.
I sent the design to the xTool machine. I used a 3mm basswood plywood for the numbers. I put the plywood onto the triangular prisms and used the air assist attachment to help with the cuts and prevent scorch marks.
Here are all of the numbers cut out of the wood. It’s amazing how well the xTool cut out the numbers, all the little details look awesome! Each design has special meaning to my son. He played golf, went to SHS, is going to UW and played french horn. And of course his name is Kanyon.
Here is another number. The meaning of these designs are: he is valedictorian, he is a member of NHS, he plays the trombone and ran his first half marathon this year.
The next number includes his high school name and logo, a golf ball, a sousaphone because he played it his freshman year for marching band and the Subaru logo because he bought his first car and it is a Subaru.
The last number has the logo for WMEA because he made All State band, 26.2 because he ran a full marathon, a music note because he clearly loves music, Walmart’s logo because that’s where he works, the University of Wyoming logo because that is where he is going and Vaporfly shoes because those are resemble running in general.
Here are all of the designs put together, I love how they look. Several of the designs I put in there as fillers, so there wasn’t too much empty space but most of them are very meaningful to him.
I glued all of the numbers with E6000 glue and then used painters tape to make sure they stayed put.
While the glue dried, I worked on the actual sign. I decided to upcycle a sign that I made because it worked out perfectly. Since I wanted the sign to light up and didn’t want the wires to show, I needed to drill a hole for each number. I used a 7/64 drill bit for the hole. I then painted the sign and added some white vinyl to the sign to cover up the words.
I put the twinkle lights through the sign from the back. I then pulled all the wire and lights through the hole.
Once all of the lights were pulled through, I started to glue the lights onto the back of the numbers. I started at the bottom of the number, in the middle and glued the wire and lights on. I put a dab of glue onto the wood, put the wire in and then used a little stick to set the glue. Sometimes I used my finger too, who needs finger prints anyways?
I went around the the number and continued to glue the wire and lights on. I made sure that the lights were on there good so when I glued it onto the sign, everything stayed put.
I continued to glue the lights onto number, I even glued some lights behind the design.
Here is what the 2 looks like all lit up.
I did the same thing for each number, here is the 2 and 0. I am LOVING it!
Here is the whole 2023 with the lights, ready to be glued onto the sign.
I used E6000 to glue the 2023 to the sign. I put some wood onto the numbers to hold it in place until the glue dried.
I glued the battery packs onto the back of the sign with hot glue to finish off the sign.
And that’s it!! Isn’t the 2023 sign amazing?? I love it so much!
All the personalized designs look great! I love how it looks, even with the lights off. I love that you can’t even tell that there are lights behind it, it’s going to look amazing for graduation day and for after. I plan on displaying it in my house all the time and I plan to make one for each of my kids when they graduate.
I absolutely love how it looks with the twinkle lights on!
I love how the designs are silhouetted with in the lights.
I decided to make a more basic class of 2023 light up sign. With this one, I just cut out the numbers of wood, painted them yellow and added the lights on the back. I just glued it all onto a block of wood, which I painted navy.
Just like the personalized sign, this class of 2023 sign looks awesome lit up!
If you like this idea, then you should check out all the other projects I have made with the xTool. You can find all of those here.
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