births and edge lit signs

[Steven Wallace]

I combined the edge lit sign idea with the birth announcement tile from a thread I saw on here several months ago and came up with the following gift. Its a night light for the baby's room. The base I am using has 4 different colored LEDs in it that cycle through an aray of colors. These color changes show up on the ceiling of the room to sort of entertain the infant light holiday (Christmas) lights. At least that is my hope. Please offer your opinions. Clock shows time of birth and calendar (2nd) is larger indicating the date of birth.

[Dee Gallo]

Steve, I love this! Great combination of state map, birth factoids and edge-lighting... gotta be a winner!

Next level, someone has to include a baby picture in there...

cheers, dee

[David Fairfield]

Hi Steven

A night light is an excellent idea. Practical and fun. I like the personalized data too. I'm just thinking the graphics look too much like office clip art. The scales, clock and calendar bring a court hearing to mind, for example. I think most people don't want to be reminded of that sort of thing in association with a new baby.

I'd check out the wingdings on DaFont.com, for all sorts of free cartoony graphics. Or a graphics package if you don't mind investing the $. I'm sure there must be something geared for babies and baby showers.

HTH
Dave

[Paul Brinkmeyer]

Looks great.

Where do you get your lights?
I have used some, but the failure rate was too high and I am looking again for new bases.

thanks.

[James Jaragosky]

I like your creativity.
As with anything some will love it, some will hate it, most will be indifferent.
I love it.

[AL Ursich]

I am with Paul, Tell us more about the good LED's please and the failures.

AL

[Scott Balboa]

Steve, did you ever sell any of these? Great idea, IMO.

[Steven Wallace]

Scott, Yes I have a few of these. Most of them have been by word of mouth. I have not fold a place to like babies-r-us to place one in so that I can increase the market. Those that have bought them have liked them as I personalize them to their requests.

[doug king]

Great idea...

[Tom Bull]

I like it, too. The state shape is fab. I also agree that the scales are too legal looking. Maybe some scales that have a dial and you could do it like the clock.

[Jerry Hewett]

Super Idea!

We just had our 1st Great Grandchild and we were trying to think of an idea for her. This would be great, thanks for sharing this great idea!

[Steven Wallace]

Be a better idea if you bought the sign from me, wink wink. Just kidding sort of. If there are any questions or suggestions shoot me a message. Remember to reverse side engrave, makes a much cleaner presentation. Keep your cut lines above the bulk of the engraving. What I mean by that is that if you have a long item or name engraved and you cut the acrylic below it, the light will not have the same path. This means the engraved portion above the cut will either be dimmer than the rest or not illuminate at all. I usually run a small trial sample on a piece of scrap material before actually doing the engraving to make certain I have dotted all the "i"s and crossed all the "t"s. To me there is no such thing as scrap.

[Rick Larson]

HI I would like to know the size of the plastic. Also did you make or by the base? I have a grandson coming and would like to make one. Thanks:confused:

[Steven Wallace]

First to answer your base question. I purchase them from Decorandafter.com, Scott offers great customer service. Enough said about that. The base sizes that I have most commonly used due to owning a Mini 18 is the 6.5 inch base and the 16.5 inch base. There are a couple of sizes in between. There is also, I believe a 26.5 inch base but I currently can't engrave anything of that width. Height of the item... The bases take .25 thick acrylic and I have gone as tall as 12 inches with both. Trick here is to make the item look like it is sized correctly. You just have to work that out in your layout in Corel. The bases come with 2 stabilizing feet but you get too big and I think that they could become ineffective. The feet could be removed and then the item could be hard mounted. Even hung upside down like exit signs in some buildings and theaters. Lots of possibilities. If you have other questions send me a PM, I'd be glad to share what I know.