Chonk Gift Box with Conforming Inserts

    Andrew Crawford December 6, 2025

    I have seen some images and videos of flat boxes that incorporate a piece with a pattern cut into it that conforms to the contents to hold it in place. The pattern looked pretty easy to replicate for cutting with a laser or CNC cutting machine, and Deirdre Beth in the Glowforge community forum saved me the trouble.

    I needed a simpler gift box for one of the D20 chonks than the fancy wooden ones I made. It occurred to me that two conforming pieces would do a great job of holding a chonk in place for shipping.

    The box is my quick reproduction of a standard design like I use for shipping the dice reliquaries, cut from my dwindling stash of Violet Curious Skin cover stock. I thought a Celtic knot on the faces of the box would be nice. Because I didn’t want an hour-long laser job engraving them, I used a hatch fill and scored them instead. I put the Everrmore ambigram on the bottom as a maker’s mark.

    The inserts are cut from the Silver Curious Metallics card stock. I wanted something light that would make the contents stand out.

    This works every bit as well as I had hoped. Once ensconced, no amount of shaking seems to cause any movement of the die inside at all. It should be great for shipping, and make for a fun presentation.

    A 2.5"/63mm cubic purple box sits on a pearlescent white surface. A Celtic hatch-filled knotwork design adorns the visible face. The top is open. Inside is a silver-colored paper insert with an intricately cut lattice that allows it to conform to the shape of the object that rests on it. There is currently nothing there, and the insert is flat and unbent.
    Purple Paper Chonk Gift Box, Open Showing Lower Insert
    The two silver lattice-cut inserts for the chonk box. These are squares with tabs folded down on each edge. A pattern of lines that almost seems to be a stylized representation of cubes are cut into the square surface. This pattern allows the surface to conform to anything pressed into it.
    Chonk Box Inserts
    A 2.5"/63mm cubic purple box sits on a pearlescent white surface. A Celtic hatch-filled knotwork design adorns the visible face. The top is open. Inside is a silver-colored paper insert with an intricately cut lattice that allows it to conform to the shape of the object that rests on it. There is currently nothing there, but the lattice is deformed from holding a roughly spherical object.
    Purple Paper Chonk Gift Box, Open Showing Lower Insert
    A 2.5"/63mm cubic purple box sits on a pearlescent white surface. A Celtic hatch-filled knotwork design adorns the visible face. The top is open. Inside a purple and yellow 20-sided die sits on a silver-colored paper insert with an intricately cut lattice that allows it to conform to the shape of the die.
    Purple Paper Chonk Gift Box, Open Showing Lower Insert
    A 2.5"/63mm cubic purple box sits on a pearlescent white surface. A Celtic hatch-filled knotwork design adorns the visible face. The top is open. Inside is a silver-colored paper insert with an intricately cut lattice that allows it to conform to the shape of the object beneath it (a large 20-sided die).
    A 2.5"/63mm cubic purple box sits on a pearlescent white surface. A Celtic hatch-filled knotwork design adorns each face. A small semi-circle is cut from the top front to make the box easier to open. Three-quarter top-down view.
    Purple Paper Chonk Gift Box
    A 2.5"/63mm cubic purple box sits on a pearlescent white surface. A Celtic hatch-filled knotwork design adorns each face except the bottom. On the bottom is engraved an ambigram that reads evermore in two orientations.
    Purple Paper Chonk Gift Box

    2-minute assembly video:

    Butterfly OA/Kirigami Pop Up Card

    Andrew Crawford November 28, 2025

    I made these pop up origamic architecture/kirigami butterflies for the 2024-2025 holiday season. The butterflies are two pieces, laser-cut from the last of the Ice Gold stock (now discontinued). Alas the wonderful Curious Skin cobalt blue stock I used for the backing cards is also no longer available. I liked being able to accentuate the contrast between the blue and white with the extra cutouts, the flower on the inside and the spiral on the outside.

    Somewhat stylized kirigami pop up pearlescent white paper butterfly with Celtic spiral designs cut into the wings. There is a flower design cut into the base, which allows the cobalt blue backing card to show through for the petals. Three-quarters above right view.
    Somewhat stylized kirigami pop up pearlescent white paper butterfly with Celtic spiral designs cut into the wings. There is a flower design cut into the base, which allows the cobalt blue backing card to show through for the petals. Three-quarters above right view (higher up).
    Somewhat stylized kirigami pop up pearlescent white paper butterfly with Celtic spiral designs cut into the wings. There is a flower design cut into the base, which allows the cobalt blue backing card to show through for the petals. Top-down view.
    A collection of somewhat stylized kirigami pop up pearlescent white paper butterfly cards arranged side-by-side. The butterflies have Celtic spiral designs cut into the wingss. There is a flower design cut into the base, which allows the cobalt blue backing card to show through for the petals. Three-quarters above left view.
    A collection of somewhat stylized kirigami pop up pearlescent white paper butterfly cards arranged side-by-side. The butterflies have Celtic spiral designs cut into the wingss. There is a flower design cut into the base, which allows the cobalt blue backing card to show through for the petals. Three-quarters above left view.
    A collection of somewhat stylized kirigami pop up pearlescent white paper butterfly cards arranged side-by-side. The butterflies have Celtic spiral designs cut into the wingss. There is a flower design cut into the base, which allows the cobalt blue backing card to show through for the petals. Three-quarters above left view.
    A collection of somewhat stylized kirigami pop up pearlescent white paper butterfly cards arranged side-by-side. The butterflies have Celtic spiral designs cut into the wingss. There is a flower design cut into the base, which allows the cobalt blue backing card to show through for the petals. Three-quarters above left view.
    A collection of somewhat stylized kirigami pop up pearlescent white paper butterfly cards arranged side-by-side. The butterflies have Celtic spiral designs cut into the wingss. There is a flower design cut into the base, which allows the cobalt blue backing card to show through for the petals. Above and almost head-on view.
    Closed cobalt blue card with a spiral cut out in the upper right corner showing the white paper inside. There are also little triangles in the corners where the corners of the interior pieces come through to mount them.

    There is also a short video (1:50m) video showing assembly of a card and some rotating views:

    Jack-O-Lantern 2025

    Andrew Crawford November 1, 2025
    A 3D render of four jack-o-lanterns on and in front of a brick wall. The foremost jack-o-lantern, this year’s, in the lower right, has big cat-like eyes with spirals for pupils, two spirals arranged as a nose, and a jagged crooked grin. The jack-o-lanterns are all lit from within by candles.

    My 2025 jack-o-lantern in the lower right was created in Nomad Sculpt on the iPad, and added to the scene and animated in Blender.

    Relic Light-Up Pop Up Card

    Andrew Crawford October 26, 2025
    A tall, thin metallic copper four-sided pyramid with curvy organic cut outs on each face sits on a slightly pearlescent dark blue surface. The pyramid is lit from the inside, visible through the cut outs, with the light diffracted into rainbow shards. Three-quarter view from a little above, highlighting one face of the pyramid.

    I am once again participating in Chibitronics’ #LightUpPopUpTober event this year. This is prompt-driven, like so many other *tober events. In this case, people are making pop up cards that include light as an element. @5am_popup on Instagram provided the prompts, and @Chibitronics organized assorted artists, with each taking one of the prompts. Some people are making one for every prompt. That’s a bit much for some of us, given process and day jobs. My prompt for this year, on October 26th, is “Relic.”

    While I immediately came up with a number of humorous ideas for that prompt, I decided to go with another geometric abstract. A pop up pyramid is not particularly unique. In fact, I was a little disheartened when I was partway through designing this card to see someone had done another light-up pop up pyramid. Mine is more about the variation, embellishment, and the switching mechanism, though. So, I persevered.

    The pyramid is 141lb white card stock, which is pretty heavyweight. It was perfectly adequate to stand up to spraying it with metallic copper paint. I drew some curvy abstract cut outs for the faces in Inkscape.

    I had some paper glasses from Edmond Scientific with diffraction grating material over the eyes when I was a kid. I remember loving to see the rainbows everywhere. A quick check revealed that the film is easy to come by these days. A lot of people are using it to make chocolate molds to produce chocolates that throw off a rainbow reflection. I have plenty of diffraction grating left, and may get around to trying that, too.

    The stuff I bought didn’t really say exactly what the material is, and I didn’t feel like researching that. Since some types of plastic have corrosive and/or toxic combustion products, I decided to cut it with the plotting cutter instead of the laser.

    I recently replaced the MacBook I use in the studio, and got new Mac OS native software (SCAL) that drives my old Bosskut Gazelle plotting cutter. This was the first run at using that, and it worked great. I even guessed the right blade depth and pressure settings on the first try, which is pretty amazing for something I do not use often.

    I also got some “holographic” sticker paper and tried that on one of my prototype pyramids. It does a nice job making rainbows with reflected light, but really doesn’t do anything with light passing through it.

    The base card is three layers of the lapis lazuli blue Stardream 105lb cover stock. The circuit works in three dimensions using the paper as an insulator, and creating a switch across the outside/back of the card. A Chibitronics heartbeat/slow pulse white LED Circuit Sticker provides the light. The traces are all conductive fabric tape, which seems to hold up and connect better than the copper tape on flexible surfaces.

    The other big improvement with the switch is that I used matched 1/4” square 1/32” thick magnets behind the positive traces and the bridging strip to hold the switch closed while the card is open. They provide enough force to do that, but not enough to even be noticeable when opening and closing the card.

    The cold laminator with the permanent and repositionable adhesive (the later for the panel covering the battery) was great for assembling the base card. A glue stick would probably work, too, but this was easier.

    I tried to explain and document how it all works as clearly as I could in the build video. So, check that out if you are interested in how it works.

    The pyramid gets attached to the base card with heavy cotton thread and glue as part of the base card assembly.

    I was amazed at how well this worked on the first pass. While I made couple pyramid prototypes, and destroyed a couple pyramids and several base card components (frequently by applying adhesive to the wrong sides), the card you see in the videos and photos is the first (and currently only) finished card from this project.

    A tall, thin metallic copper four-sided pyramid with curvy organic cut outs on each face sits on a slightly pearlescent dark blue surface. The pyramid is lit from the inside, visible through the cut outs, with the light diffracted into rainbow shards. Three-quarter view from a little above, highlighting one face of the pyramid.
    Side view of the Relic pop up card, rotated slightly off the hinge fold.
    A tall, thin metallic copper four-sided pyramid with curvy organic cut outs on each face sits on a slightly pearlescent dark blue surface. The pyramid is lit from the inside, visible through the cut outs, with the light diffracted into rainbow shards. Three-quarter view from above towards one edge of the pyramid.
    Side view along the hinge of the Relic pop up card.
    A tall, thin metallic copper four-sided pyramid with curvy organic cut outs on each face sits on a slightly pearlescent dark blue surface. The pyramid is lit from the inside, visible through the cut outs, with the light diffracted into rainbow shards. Top-down view from directly overhead showing all four faces of the pyramid.
    Top-down view of the lit Relic pop up card.
    The open dark blue card prior to installing the pyramid sits on a translucent cutting mat with a ruled grid. A hand holds it open. The interior portion of the circuit is visible, including traces made from silvery conductive fabric, a flat battery, and a heart-shaped Circuit Sticker.
    The internal portion of the circuit for the Relic pop up card.
    The closed dark blue card sitting on a translucent cutting mat with a ruled grid. Hands appear to have just set the card down. On the left edge of the back of the card can be seen a strip of grey conductive fabric tape with two similar strips with a gap on the other side of the hinge.
    The view of the switching mechanism on the outside back of the Relic pop up card.
    The last panel is being added to a dark blue card with a metallic copper pyramid in the center. The pyramid has curvy organic cut outs in the faces. The card is sitting on a translucent cutting mat with a ruled grid. One hand holds the card while another pulls a mounting thread through a hole in the final panel.
    Adding the final panel of the Relic pop up card.

    Wood Inlay Pumpkin Pins

    Andrew Crawford October 4, 2025
    A small pin in the shape of a pumpkin made from orangey padauk with ribs of inlaid walnut and a white oak stem resting on a background of green paper with fiber inclusions.

    I have been wanting to try this technique for detailed wood inlay since seeing it demonstrated in a video Trotec posted last summer. I originally tried to make this pumpkin pin design last October with cut-through pieces like I have done for other wood inlay pins. The tiny walnut ribs just burned to charcoal, though. I thought of trying this new approach immediately, but had a lot of other stuff going on, and did not get to it until now.

    The base of these is 3mm thick padauk, picked for its orange tones. The ribs are walnut veneer, and the stem is white oak. Aluminum tape is applied to the veneer. A mirrored image of the inlay pieces is engraved all the way through the veneer to the tape (which the CO2 laser won’t touch) in multiple passes. That makes it possible to create small and delicate pieces without incinerating them. Slightly larger matching cavities are engraved into the base piece. The cavities are filled with wood glue, and the inlay pieces, still attached to the tape, are pressed in. That gets clamped flat until dry. Then, the tape is removed, the tape residue is taken off with isopropyl alcohol, and everything is sanded flat, and finished.

    A small pin in the shape of a pumpkin made from orangey padauk with ribs of inlaid walnut and a white oak stem resting on a background of green paper with fiber inclusions.
    Wood Inlay Pumpkin Pin
    Back side of the wood inlay pumpkin pin showing the glued-on pin backing and a metallic gold AC inscribed as a maker's mark.
    Wood Inlay Pumpkin Pin (back)
    A small pin in the shape of a pumpkin made from orangey padauk with ribs of inlaid walnut and a white oak stem resting on a background of green paper along with a bottle cap and the end of a pencil to show scale.
    Wood Inlay Pumpkin Pin with Bottle Cap and Pencil for Scale
    A trio of small wood inlay pins: two skulls from white oak, walnut and, padauk (one predominantly white oak, the other predominantly walnut), and a pumpkin pin of orange padauk inlaid with walnut ribs and a white oak stem.
    Wood Inlay Pins in October Themes

    I made a 2.5-minute process video:

    Embossed Off-Center Celtic Spiral Print

    Andrew Crawford September 28, 2025
    An off-center counter-clockwise tapering spiral surrounded by twelve small circles is embossed on a small (70mm) square of toothy paper. It sits on a background of crinkled blue paper (momigami).

    An experiment for the OpenPress Project + Haus des Papers Rising Print exhibition: an embossed off-center Celtic spiral. I did this using a plate of glued-up laser-cut MDF pieces on a heavyweight Arches paper (probably Rives – I inherited a stack of it and don’t know for sure) using the OpenPress Project’s Postcard Printing Press.

    As I went to print this, I discovered that a piece had separated from the finished plate and disappeared into the ambient studio mess. A 30 second power outage caused some kind of disaster for the local Internet provider, leaving me without service for 20 hours. Fortunately, I was able to move the Glowforge to the cellular network to cut a replacement piece, and attach it with CA glue.

    The finest bits did not stand up to pressure very well, but the resulting prints are neat. I will be able to design better for a future attempt.

    A wooden embossing plate made from pieces of MDF glued to a base: a Celtic spiral surrounded by 11 small circles. One circle is missing.

    Here is a short of the printing/embossing process.