Plywood Postcard

I wanted to use some high tech to send a low tech holiday greeting card.

Materials

• 4mm Plywood
• Clear varnish

Software

• Inkscape

Tool

• Laser cutter
• Paintbrush
• Guillotine

After finding artwork online that I wanted to use, I loaded them into Inkscape, using Trace Bitmap to convert them to vector drawings.

I then set the colours so that the relevant lines would be etch, cut or engraved. From previous experience I have found that engraving around an etched area brings out that area very nicely, hence my etched areas often have a blue (engraved) outline.

All text was concerted to a path so that I did not loose the font when transferring the file between machines.

The fonts that I used were:

• Santa's Sleigh
• Christmas Time 2
  

Using the laser cutter, cut the image out on the plywood.

Print the "Postcard" part out on paper and use the guillotine to cut it out to fit on the back side of the card. Write done the note that you want on the card.

With the paintbrush, apply a coat of varnish to front (picture side) of the wooden card.

Once the varnish is dry, turn the plywood over and apply varnish to the backside. Immediately attach the "postcard" part to the wet varnish and then apply more varnish over this, ensuring that the paper is stuck down properly. Your note needs to be written before varnishing.

Apply your stamp and post; well that was the theory.

One arriving at the post office I was told that

1. the card was too thick.
2. When posting to Australia, wood was a restricted product and so I would need to send it as a parcel and that there was no guarantee that it would get through customs.

As the card was already made, I took my chances and sent it as a parcel but next time I will use 2mm cardboard instead.