Zap clear acrylic charms setup

Clear Acrylic Charms Guide

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Clear Acrylic Charms Guide

Here’s a handy visual guide to show you how to create single or double sided clear acrylic charms like the one pictured above.

We print ALL of our layers onto the BACK of our clear acrylic. The clear charm is then flipped over and Side A is viewed by looking THROUGH the front of the 3mm acrylic.

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Clear Charm Exploded View ‘Loop’ Layer - Position this where you would like a loop adding.

‘Hole’ Layer - Position this where you would like a hole adding.

‘Cut Area’ Layer - Black silhouette at least 1mm larger than your artwork.

‘Gloss Varnish’ Layer - 50% Black with a choice of full gloss or spot gloss to highlight specific areas.

‘Artwork B’ layer - The artwork on this layer will form the back of your double sided clear charms. Do NOT flip this layer.

‘White’ Layer - Create 100% cyan areas to show us where to print your white base layer of ink.

‘Artwork A’ layer - Flip all artwork on this layer 90 degrees horizontally so that it displays correctly when viewed through the front of the acrylic. Notice how the writing is back to front.

3mm thick clear acrylic - Printed and laser cut to your specification.

‘Side A’ or the ‘front’ of your clear acrylic charm is viewed by looking THROUGH the 3mm thick clear acrylic. Like looking through a window.

All artwork on the ‘Artwork A’ layer should be flipped so that it is printed in reverse and displays the correct way around when the charm is turned over and viewed through the front of the acrylic.

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‘Artwork A’ Layer

Artwork on this layer will form the front (Side A) of your clear acrylic charm.

Artwork is printed in reverse onto the back of the acrylic, so that it displays the correct way around when the charm is turned over and the artwork is viewed THROUGH the front of the acrylic.

Flip all artwork on this layer 90 degrees horizontally. Note the backwards text in the example.

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‘White’ Layer

Our coloured inks are transparent so a white base layer of ink is required to make your artwork vibrant and opaque. Create a 100% cyan silhouette of your artwork to show us where you would like your white base layer to be printed. Areas with no white will appear transparent.

Reduce (inset) your silhouette by 0.25mm to 0.5mm (approx 1 to 2 pixels) so that no white ink is visible around the edge of your printed charms.

If you are creating single sided clear charms you can skip the next step...

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‘Artwork B’ Layer

‘Artwork B’ is printed directly on top of the ‘Artwork A’ and ‘White’ layers and forms the back of your clear acrylic charms (Side B).

Make sure that ‘Artwork B’ is the same shape as and lines up precisely with ‘Artwork A’ so that each layer masks the other and no unwanted elements are visible around the edges.

Do NOT flip ‘Artwork B’. This layer is printed the correct way around on top of the ‘Artwork A’ and ‘White’ layers.

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‘Gloss Varnish’ Layer

Highlight any areas that you would like to have a gloss varnish finish with a 50% black fill.

The example above is for full gloss coverage so a simple silouhette of the design was made.

If you only want to highlight specific areas with gloss varnish (spot gloss) then only fill those areas with 50% black.

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‘Cut Area’ Layer

Create a 100% black silouhette. to show us exactly where you would like your charms to be cut out.

This silouhette MUST be increased (offset) by at least1mm (approx 10px) so that there is a border between your printed design and your cutline.

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‘Hole’ Layer

A hole is a simple 1.5mm circle cut out of your design. Useful for threading jump rings, etc.

If you require a hole, simply drag the template over the area where you would like your hole to be cut.

The inner blue circle represents the hole and the outer dotted circle represents the distance that you should place the template INSIDE of your cutline.

For multiple holes, simply duplicate the hole template.

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‘Loop’ Layer

A 1.5mm circle is cut out of a 5mm circle to create a loop, which is placed on the edge of your charm.

Useful for attaching jump rings, etc.

If you require a loop, simply drag the template over the area that you would like your loop to be cut.

The inner blue circle represents the hole and the outer blue circle represents the overall size of the loop.

For multiple loops, simply duplicate the loop template.

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Clear Charm Exploded View ‘Loop’ Layer - Position this where you would like a loop adding.

‘Hole’ Layer - Position this where you would like a hole adding.

‘Cut Area’ Layer - Black silhouette at least 1mm larger than your artwork.

‘Gloss Varnish’ Layer - 50% Black with a choice of full gloss or spot gloss to highlight specific areas.

‘Artwork B’ layer - The artwork on this layer will form the back of your double sided clear charms. Do NOT flip this layer.

‘White’ Layer - Create 100% cyan areas to show us where to print your white base layer of ink.

‘Artwork A’ layer - Flip all artwork on this layer 90 degrees horizontally so that it displays correctly when viewed through the front of the acrylic. Notice how the writing is back to front.

3mm thick clear acrylic - Printed and laser cut to your specification.

‘Side A’ or the ‘front’ of your clear acrylic charm is viewed by looking THROUGH the 3mm thick clear acrylic. Like looking through a window.

All artwork on the ‘Artwork A’ layer should be flipped so that it is printed in reverse and displays the correct way around when the charm is turned over and viewed through the front of the acrylic.

www.zapcreatives.co.uk

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