It's the most wonderful time of the year! Discovering the decorated windows, gardens and front gardens on a nice walk is always nice. Afterwards, there is usually a delicious hot cocoa and homemade cookies to warm up.
A beautiful, bright Christmas decoration was still missing for our own garden.
I discovered an LED star in the attic. Then I quickly came up with the idea for this new upcycling tutorial. It will be a larger project made of blocks that will be both cut and engraved by Mr Beam.
Material for your bright Christmas decorations for the garden
- Klötzchen (kindling sticks), for example from the Klötzchenmann
- waterproof wood glue
- a glowing LED star that is suitable for outside
- Dremel with mini drill according to the wire thickness
- wire
- Pattex 100%
- Linseed oil varnish and a cotton cloth for application
- and beautiful files for engraving your bright Christmas decorations
Mr Beam wood care set with stone pine oil and beeswax
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kraftplex Starter Set
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Mr Beam Welcome Box - Trial Package Materials
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Preparations for your bright Christmas decorations for the garden
Think about how big you want your Christmas decorations to be in the garden.
To get a more precise idea of how you will glue the blocks later, try putting them together as a test.
Remember to always stagger the rows of blocks, otherwise your Christmas decorations will become very unstable later. I make my Christmas decorations for the garden out of four by eleven blocks.
A board made up of five by eleven blocks would be far too big to cut and engrave in Mr Beam.
That's why you divide your board into about 10 blocks and initially only glue a few blocks together. You now let these glued blocks dry and then place them piece by piece into the Mr Beam for lasering.
Laser cut blocks for your bright garden decorations for Christmas - laser instead of sawing
The recess for the shining star for your Christmas decorations for the garden
Place the top four blocks of blocks in the Mr Beam by tucking them into each other.
Now place your glowing LED star on it, as it serves as a template for the recess. You only create the recess using the camera preview in the Mr Beam software and four lines.
It is now important that you set the object height so that the preview is accurate.
You can find the stroke shape under “Shape” in the workspace. The length is not relevant at first, you can change it later as needed.
Place the star on your blocks in the way you want the recess into which the star will be inserted to look.
Now arrange the four lines so that they virtually surround your glowing LED star.
By zooming, you can place the lines exactly next to each other so that there is no gap that is then left uncut or the two outer lines extend too far beyond the blocks. Now all you have to do is focus the laser head, and then you can start the laser job.
To get through the 8mm thick oak blocks, I used these settings:
Speed: 200mm/min
Runs: 10 and check progressive.
The engraving for your bright Christmas decorations for the garden
After the cutting job, leave your blocks in the Mr Beam and use the camera preview to place your engraving on the upper part of your bright Christmas decoration for the garden.
The upper part already consists of four of the eight blocks that have already been glued together.
I selected two files from Mom's things and also adapted something to my project.
Firstly, the“ Kugelei 2” and the“ Christmas tree bauble construction kit”.
I used the following settings for the engraving:
Intensity: 30%
Speed: 2000mm/min
Runs: 1
Line spacing 0.1 mm
I thickened the Christmas tree balls in my graphics program and adjusted the length of the suspension to suit my Christmas decorations.
When Mr Beam has finished the first engraving, take out the top part of your Christmas decorations.
I arranged and engraved the “it's the most wonderful time of the year” on the middle piece of my glowing Christmas decoration for the garden. This area also consists of four blocks.
They just come back into the Mr Beam stuck together.
To add a little Christmassy touch to the decoration, I had three stars lasered out here. You can also find these under “Form” and you can freely adapt them to your needs.
After this engraving, the Mr Beam is almost finished.
The bottom row of blocks now needs to be straightened so that the glowing Christmas decorations can be glued onto a stand.
To do this, create a line under “Form” that you position horizontally where your block plate should end.
Glue your bright Christmas decorations for the garden
Everything lasered ready! Now you need the waterproof wood glue.
Now gradually glue the ten pieces of blocks together.
To do this, apply glue to the respective edges and put them together.
While the glue can dry here, you now glue eleven blocks together in a row. This will be the stand.
Attach the shining star for your Christmas decorations
Now you need your Dremel and the mini drill. You need holes for two fastening wires per supporting surface of the star. So there are a total of 16 holes for the four support surfaces.
Accordingly, you now need eight small pieces of wire, which you shape into a U.
Lay down your blocks of Christmas decorations and place your LED star in the recess.
Now coat the two ends of the wires with Pattex 100% and guide them into the holes by putting them over the star.
This has to dry first. Meanwhile, glue your glowing Christmas decorations onto their stand by applying glue across the middle of the stand and placing the block plate on top and pressing down to speed up the setting process of the glue.
When the glue has dried, treat your Christmas decorations for the garden with linseed oil varnish so that they are more resistant to weather influences such as rain and snow. Use a cotton cloth to apply. After a few hours, you can apply excess oil again and then let it harden for at least 24 hours.
I recommend renewing this coat every year before putting your bright Christmas decorations back in the garden.
I wish you a lot of fun crafting and a nice pre-Christmas season!
Your Rina
