How To Make Custom Acrylic Charms
This tutorial contains everything you demand to know about creating your own, printed clear acrylic charms.
If y'all are more of a visual learner, your may find our visual gear up guide more than useful. Click here to view our visual guide on issuu.com.
ane. Download our templates
To outset submitting your custom printed acrylic charm designs you'll need to download our blueprint templates. Templates are available in diverse sizes ranging from 0.five" (12.7mm) right up to 3.5" (88.9mm).
Download our Photoshop templates >> here << and open up your called size.
Each template comes with a working area where y'all volition import or create your designs. Please make sure that your artwork fits INSIDE of the blue borders.
2. Agreement our layers
Opening the template, you volition notice that in that location are 8 layers in your Layers palette. If you can't see the Layers palette, hit F7 to make it appear.
Important - Please don't rename existing layers or create additional layers as this will confuse our systems when processing your designs. If you lot have used any effects / layer styles on any of your layers you MUST flatten them before saving. To do this simply right click on the applicable layer and select 'Rasterize Layer Style' from the menu.
'Office Use Only' Layer
This layer contains the blue borders which your design must sit down inside, our logo and a brief clarification of the template size that you lot are using. DO NOT Utilise THIS LAYER.
'Artwork A' Layer
Nosotros impress your designs in opposite onto the 'back' of our articulate acrylic, earlier adding a layer of white ink. When you turn your printed charm over and view it through the front end of the acrylic, your design appears the right way around.
ALL ARTWORK ON THIS LAYER SHOULD Exist FLIPPED SO THAT IT IS A MIRROR Prototype OF ITSELF.
'Artwork B' Layer
We print the 'Artwork B' layer directly on top of the 'Artwork A' layer to create a double sided charm.
Exercise NOT FLIP/MIRROR THE ARTWORK ON THIS LAYER.
'White' Layer
Calculation a base layer of white to your charms will brand your colours crisper and more vivid. Any printed areas without a white base layer will appear transparent.
'Gloss Varnish' Layer
If you would similar your charms to have a gloss finish equally opposed to a matte stop, you can utilise this layer to bear witness u.s.a. where yous would like the your areas of gloss to be placed.
'Cut Area' Layer
Utilise this layer to evidence u.s. where you would like your charms to exist cut. We'll use this information to create a path which volition so exist used to create a cutting line for our light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation cutters.
Please note that we do not print correct upwardly to the edge on any of our acrylic charms. It is therefore ESSENTIAL that y'all create a edge of AT To the lowest degree 1mm between your artwork and your cutline. Failure to leave a 1mm border on your acrylic charm designs can result in damage and lifting along the printed edge of your charms every bit a result of the heat generated by the laser. See stride 5a for more than info.
'Hole Template' Layer
Drag and drop the hole template onto your artwork to bear witness us where you would like your hole to be placed. The dotted cherry-red line represents the recommended altitude that your pigsty should be placed Within of your pattern.
'Loop Template' Layer
Elevate and drib our loop template onto your artwork to show us where you would like your loop to be placed. The calorie-free ruby-red, outer circumvolve represents the loop size and the dark reddish inner circumvolve represents the hole inside the loop.
3. Importing your designs
Select the 'Artwork A' or 'Artwork B' layer and depict your designs directly onto these layers or, copy (CTRL+C) and paste (CTRL+V) previously saved artwork.
'Artwork A'
Create or paste the artwork that you lot would like to appear on the 'front' of your charm hither. One time you are happy with your patternFLIP IT then that it is a mirror prototype of itself.
We will impress this onto the 'dorsum' of the clear acrylic before adding a layer of white.
Your design will so be visible, the right manner around, via the 'front' of the acrylic.
'Artwork B'
This is where yous will create or paste the artwork that yous would similar to announced on the 'back' of your charms for our 'B-Side' printing option. Do Non FLIP THIS LAYER!
Nosotros print your B-Side ('back') design directly on top of the A-Side ('front end') pattern to create an awesome looking double sided charm.
4. Check your Alignment
If you're producing double sided charms it's important that your A-Side and B-Side artwork lines up correctly.
A simple style of checking this is to select your 'Artwork B' layer and lower the opacity to fifty%
Now view your artwork and bank check that both A & B are the same size and nicely aligned. Here is an example of how it should look...
5a. Adding a layer of white
To guarantee bright and crisp colours for your artwork, you will need to add a white base layer to your designs. This white layer will sit down behind your artwork and will ensure that the colours of your charms are consistent, regardless of what cloth you choose.
Check out the charms below by jwhitneyart.com. Using a white base layer of ink means their designs wait the same on our white and blackness acrylics.
Please note that we ask that you create this white layer for ALL of your amuse designs, fifty-fifty white acrylic charms. An additional do good of creating your own white base layer is that y'all can let usa know EXACTLY where y'all would similar u.s. to impress your white areas. This allows customers to add additional features to their designs, such equally transparencies (encounter 5c), every bit well as reducing any areas of white creeping around the edges of your artwork. To create your white base layer simply hold down the 'CTRL' cardinal and click on the thumbnail of your 'Artwork' layer. This will select all of the elements of your artwork layer.
Inset your pick past 2 pixels using SELECT > MODIFY > CONTRACT and enter the value of 2 in the pop up 'Contract Selection' window. Insetting your white layer by 2 pixels will prevent any areas of white from showing around the printed edge of your charms. Now become to EDIT > FILL (Shift & F5) and select the 'Colour' option from the 'Content' driblet downwardly menu. 
Choose 100% Cyan as your colour (C:100 G:0 Y:0 M:0) Click 'OK' and 'OK' again. Yous should at present have a Cyan silhouette of your original artwork, placed on your'White' layer. Be aware that contracting your selection in this manner can take an outcome on the pixels selected. Ever zoom in on areas with fine details such as strands of hair or small point text and check that you are happy with the results. You may determine to only contract your selection by 1 pixel if you take a lot of fine or intricate areas in your designs. Please remember that we always recommend ordering samples earlier committing to big print runs, so that you lot can check that yous are happy with the results. Mistakes tin not be rectified one time your charms have been printed.
5b. Identifying unwanted areas of coloured ink, white & varnish
Using soft brushes in Photoshop tin can result in unwanted, low opacity pixels causing problems around the edges of your artwork.
These pixels can be invisible to the eye but get picked up by our printers, which printALLpixels on your white and gloss layers, no matter how low their opacity, as 100% white or 100% gloss. This can crusade unwanted areas of white ink and gloss varnish effectually the edges of your finished charms.
A simple mode to check your artwork for low opacity pixels is to click on your artwork layers, your white layer or your gloss layer, select the paint bucket tool and fill the groundwork blackness.
The paint bucket volition make full all areas of the background except where there are any depression opacity pixels. These can then exist easily identified and removed using the selection and eraser tools.
IMPORTANT - Please remember to undo the black paint saucepan fill earlier submitting your designs.
5c. Transparencies
The 'White' layer can also exist used to create areas where you don't want a white base. This upshot works especially well on our clear acrylics to create transparencies (areas with coloured ink only no white ink or areas with no ink at all).
To create a transparent area, just delete whatever unwanted areas on your white layer using the eraser or any of the other tools at your disposal in Photoshop to achieve your desired effect. You can meet this effect on our clear acrylic charms above.
6a. Working with gloss varnish
Yous can choose to have a gloss or matte end on your designs by selecting the matte or gloss option when placing your orders. If yous choose 'Gloss' equally your choice, you will need to create a gray silhouette on the 'Gloss Varnish' layer, similar to how you created the cyan silhouette on your 'White' layer in step five of this tutorial.
Select the 'Gloss Varnish' layer in the layers palette. Re-create your artwork from the 'Artwork' layer and paste information technology into the 'Gloss Varnish' layer using the 'Paste Special' control SHIFT + CTRL + V.
With the 'Gloss Varnish' layer selected, click on the 'Lock Transparent Pixels' icon.
Now go to EDIT > Fill (Shift & F5) and select the 'Color' option from the offset drop downward card. Enter the following colour values to create a greyness fillC:0 M:0 Y:0 K:50
Click 'OK' and 'OK' once again. You should now have a grey silhouette of your original artwork, placed on the 'Gloss Varnish' layer.
6b. Spot gloss varnish
Too as being able to add together gloss varnish to your entire design, you lot also have the option to limit this to certain areas, in effect highlighting detail elements of your design. Handy for creating textures similar h2o droplets or snakeskin.
To do this, just delete any unwanted parts of the gray silhouette that y'all created in step 6a. or create a custom silhouette based on the areas of your design that you would like to highlight.
7a. Adding a edge / cut line - Important!
You tin at present decide on the thickness of your edge, which will be used equally a cut line. It is ESSENTIAL that yous make this border AT LEAST 10px wider than your artwork. Failure to do so can cause your printed blueprint to lift along the cutting edge as a result of the rut generated by the laser. A 10px border volition prevent this from happening.
To practise this get to SELECT > Change > Aggrandize and enter your called width. You lot will encounter that your selected surface area has grown past the corporeality of pixels y'all chose.
Apply the 'Fill' control (SHIFT+F5) or EDIT > FILL and fill this area black. This color will not be printed, information technology's just for our designers to utilize equally a guide when creating your cut line.
TIP - Utilize the paintbrush to cover any areas missed by the 'fill' command!
7b. Adding a hole
Drag and drop the hole template into position on your design to show us where yous would like a hole placing.
The solid inner circumvolve represents the hole and the dotted outer circle represents the recommended altitude that your hole should be placed INSIDE of your design.
Please don't merge the hole template with your design every bit nosotros will need to remove this before press so that it's not visible on your finished charms.
7c. Adding a loop
If y'all would prefer a loop instead of a hole d rag and drop the loop template into position on your design to bear witness united states where you would similar a loop placing .
The light carmine outer circle represents the loop size and the dark cherry inner circle represents the hole inside the loop.
Please don't merge the loop template with your blueprint as we'll demand to remove this before press and then that it's not visible on your finished charms.
8. Visual Guide
Here'southward an exploded view of our articulate acrylic charms, showing how each layer sits together to make your custom amuse designs. Y'all can view the total visual set guide here.
9. Submission checklist
Congratulations, you've finished creating your custom amuse designs! All you lot have to do now is check the post-obit before submission...
- Your artwork fits INSIDE of the blueish borders.
- Your white base of operations layer is 100% Cyan and located on the 'White' Layer (Stride 5a.)
- Your gloss varnish layer is 50% Black and located on the 'Gloss Varnish' layer (Step 6a.)
- Yous have checked for unwanted elements using the steps at 5b.
- The pigsty and loop layers have Not been grouped or merged with the remainder of your pattern.
- Your border is AT LEAST 1mm (10px) thick.
- All text has been converted to outlines.
- Your amuse template contains 1 charm but. Additional charms will be sent separately.
x. Saving and submitting your designs
There are three dissimilar ways to save and submit your designs...
1. Submit your artwork immediately
If you accept already created your designs, y'all tin can send them to us using the 'Upload Artwork' button, located on our product pages or past emailing them to 'info@zapcreatives.com'.
Salvage all Photoshop files in .Psd format. Here's how…
Name each of your designs appropriately so that we know which designs you lot are referring to. Your file names should include i. your proper noun, 2. design number, 3. chosen production and 4. the date that you lot placed your club through our website. Here's an case…
Select all of the designs that you would like to submit, correct click and choose SEND TO > COMPRESSED (ZIPPED) Folder.
This will create a compressed folder containing all of your designs. Rename this folder and then that information technology contains your proper noun and the appointment that you placed your order on our website. Like this…
Please add all of your designs into one folder. And so, if you purchased charms, stickers and pins, for example, just pop them all in the same, compressed folder and upload it using the 'Upload Artwork' push button.
2. Submit your artwork later
If you have placed your order via our website but your designs aren't quite ready yet, that'south ok. Y'all accept upward to 2 weeks to submit your artwork to us, which allows you to take reward of any special offers that we're running.
To submit your designs afterward, save them with 1. your name, 2. design number, three. chosen product and 4. your social club number. Then e-mail them to 'info@zapcreatives.com'.
Save all Photoshop files in .Psd format. Here'south how…
3. Placing a re-order
If you take placed an order in the past and would like to re-order those designs that'southward great! We store your artwork for a maximum of 6 months, which saves you lot the hassle of having to resubmit your designs via electronic mail.
To place a re-club, simply identify your order online, e-mail united states with your previous order number(s) and let usa know that you lot are placing a re-order.
You may simply want to guild 1 or 2 designs from your previous order(s). To do this simply quote your old file name(s) and let us know how you would like them producing and in what quantities.
Here's how to do information technology…
Hi Zap!,
I've just placed an social club #12345 on your website and would like to re-order the following designs from a previous order #12121. Please can I take…
10x [YOURNAME]-DESIGN1-CLEARCHARM-12121
20x [YOURNAME]-DESIGN2-WALNUTKEYRING-12121
10x [YOURNAME]-DESIGN3-ACRYLICPIN-12121
Thanks!
[YOUR Proper name]
If you have whatsoever questions about this tutorial or any other aspects of our website and manufacturing processes, please exercise non hesitate to make it touch. Nosotros'd honey to hear from you.
Source: https://zapcreatives.com/blogs/zap-blog/how-to-create-printed-clear-acrylic-charms-using-adobe-photoshop
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