Posted on November 05 2018
Create your own Acrylic LED Light Keyrings using Adobe Photoshop by following the steps below.
1. Download our templates
To start submitting your designs you’ll need to download our design templates. Templates are available in various sizes ranging from 38.1mm (1.5") to 63.5mm (2.5").
Download our Photoshop templates >> here << and open your chosen size.
Each template comes with a working area where you will import or create your designs. Please make sure that your artwork fits INSIDE of the blue borders.
The LED light template can sit outside of the blue border.
2. Understanding our layers
Opening the template, you will notice that there are 11 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 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 inside, our logo and a brief description of the template size that you are using. DO NOT USE THIS LAYER.
The 'Artwork' Layers
Our LED Light Keyrings offer double sided printing on BOTH sides of the acrylic, which means there are 4 'Artwork' layers in total, 2 on side A of the acrylic and 2 on Side B of the acrylic.
Here's an exploded view to help you better understand the set up...
'Artwork A Front' Layer
The artwork on this layer forms the front (side A) of the acrylic keyring design.
'White A' Layer
The 'White A' layer sits between the 'Artwork A Front' and 'Artwork A back' layers.
Adding a base layer of white to your charms will make your colours opaque. Any printed areas without a white base layer will appear transparent.
'Artwork A Back' Layer
The artwork on this layer is printed onto the same side of the acrylic as your 'Artwork A Front' layer. This layer is printed underneath the Artwork A and White A layers.
'Artwork B Front' Layer
The artwork on this layer forms the back (side B) of your acrylic keyring design.
'White B' Layer
The 'White B' layer sits between your 'Artwork B Front' and 'Artwork B back' layers.
Adding a base layer of white to your charms will make your colours opaque. Any printed areas without a white base layer will appear transparent.
'Artwork B Back' Layer
The artwork on this layer is printed onto the same side of the acrylic as your 'Artwork B Front' layer. This layer is printed underneath the Artwork B and White B layers.
'Gloss Varnish' Layers
There are 2 gloss varnish layers. 'Gloss Varnish A' which is printed onto the A side of the acrylic and 'Gloss Varnish B' which is printed onto the B side of the acrylic.
‘Cut Area’ Layer
Use this layer to show us where you would like your charms to be cut. We'll use this information to create a path which will then be used to create a cut line for our laser cutters.
Please note that we do not print right up to the edge on any of our acrylic LED Light Keyrings. It is therefore ESSENTIAL that you create a border of AT LEAST 1mm between your artwork and your cut line.
Failure to leave a 1mm border on your acrylic designs can result in damage and lifting along the printed edge of your charms as a result of the heat generated by the laser. See step 5a for more info.
'LED Keyring Template' Layer
Drag and drop the 'LED Keyring' template onto your artwork to show us where you would like your LED light to be placed.
3. Importing your designs
Select the 'Artwork A' or 'Artwork B' layers and draw your designs directly onto these layers or, copy (CTRL+C) and paste (CTRL+V) previously saved artwork.
'Artwork A Front'
Create or paste the artwork that you would like to appear on the front of 'Side A' of your keyring design here.
'Artwork A Back'
Create or paste the artwork that you would like to appear underneath the 'Artwork A Front' layer here.
If you have text on this layer then make sure it's reflected so that it is the correct way around when you are viewing this layer through the 'B Side' of the clear acrylic.
[EXAMPLE OF TEXT]
'Artwork B Front'
Create or paste the artwork that you would like to appear on the front of 'Side B' of your keyring design here.
'Artwork B Back'
Create or paste the artwork that you would like to appear underneath the 'Artwork B Front' layer here.
If you have text on this layer then make sure it's reflected so that it is the correct way around when you are viewing this layer through the 'A Side' of the clear acrylic.
4. Check your Alignment
It's important that all of your artwork layers line up correctly. A simple way of checking this is to select your artwork layers and lower their opacity to 50%.
Now view your artwork and check that all artwork layers are the same size and nicely aligned. Each artwork layer should mask the other, with no rogue elements of artwork visible around the edges of any of the layers.
5a. Adding a layer of white
You will find 2 white layers in our LED Light Keyring templates.
'White A' sits between your 'Artwork A Front' and 'Artwork A Back' layers
'White B' sits between your 'Artwork B Front' and 'Artwork B Back' layers.
Areas of your designs with a white layer printed underneath them will appear opaque. Areas that do not have white ink behind them will appear transparent.
[TRANSPANRENCY]
We highly recommend having transparent areas in your designs as these are the areas that will light up when you activate your LED light.
[IMAGE OF KEYRING LIGHTING UP]
To create your white base layer simply hold down the 'CTRL' key and click on the thumbnail of your 'Artwork' layer. This will select all of the elements of your artwork layer.
Inset your selection by 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 go to EDIT > FILL (Shift & F5) and select the 'Color' option from the 'Content' drop down menu.
Choose 100% Cyan as your colour (C:100 M:0 Y:0 K:0)
Click 'OK' and 'OK' again. You should now have a Cyan silhouette of your original artwork, placed on your 'White' layer.
Be aware that contracting your selection in this manner can have an effect on the pixels selected. Always 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 decide to only contract your selection by 1 pixel if you have a lot of fine or intricate areas in your designs.
Repeat this process to create your 'White B' layer.
Please remember that we always recommend ordering samples before committing to large print runs, so that you can check that you are happy with the results. Mistakes can not be rectified once your charms have been printed.
5b. Identifying unwanted areas of coloured ink, white & varnish
Using soft brushes in Photoshop can result in unwanted, low opacity pixels causing issues around the edges of your artwork.
These pixels can be invisible to the eye but get picked up by our printers, which print ALL pixels on your white and gloss layers, no matter how low their opacity, as 100% white or 100% gloss. This can cause unwanted areas of white ink and gloss varnish around the edges of your finished charms.
A simple way 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 background black.
The paint bucket will fill all areas of the background except where there are any low opacity pixels. These can then be easily identified and removed using the selection and eraser tools.
IMPORTANT - Please remember to undo the black paint bucket fill before submitting your designs.
5c. Transparencies
The 'White' layer can also be used to create areas where you don't want a white base. Areas with coloured ink and no white ink or areas with no coloured ink and no white ink.
We highly recommend having transparent areas in your designs as these are the areas that will light up when you activate your LED light.
[Transparent charm]
To create a transparent area, simply delete any 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 see this effect on our clear acrylic charms above.
6a. Working with gloss varnish
You can choose to have a gloss or matte finish on your designs by selecting the matte or gloss option when placing your orders. If you choose 'Gloss' as your option, you will need to create grey silhouettes on the 'Gloss Varnish' layers, similar to how you created the cyan silhouette on your 'White' layer in step 5 of this tutorial.
Select the 'Gloss Varnish A' layer from the layers palette. Copy your artwork from the 'Artwork A Front' layer and paste it into the 'Gloss Varnish A' layer using the 'Paste Special' command SHIFT + CTRL + V.
With the 'Gloss Varnish A' layer selected, click on the 'Lock Transparent Pixels' icon.
Now go to EDIT > FILL (Shift & F5) and select the 'Color' option from the first drop down menu. Enter the following colour values to create a grey fill C:0 M:0 Y:0 K:50
Click 'OK' and 'OK' again. You should now have a grey silhouette of your original artwork, placed on the 'Gloss Varnish A' layer.
If you would like a gloss varnish finish on side B of your design, repeat the steps above on your 'Gloss Varnish B' layer.
6b. Spot gloss varnish
As well as being able to add gloss varnish to your entire design, you also have the option to limit this to certain areas, in effect highlighting particular elements of your design. Handy for creating textures like water droplets or snakeskin.
To do this, simply delete any unwanted parts of the grey silhouette that you 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 border / cut line - Important!
You can now decide on the thickness of your border, which will be used as a cut line. It is ESSENTIAL that you make this border AT LEAST 10px wider than your artwork. Failure to do so can cause your printed design to lift along the cut edge as a result of the heat generated by the laser. A 10px border will prevent this from happening.
To do this go to SELECT > MODIFY > EXPAND and enter your chosen width. You will see that your selected area has grown by the amount of pixels you chose.
Use the 'Fill' command (SHIFT+F5) or EDIT > FILL and fill this area black. This colour will not be printed, it's simply for our designers to use as a guide when creating your cut line.
TIP - Use the paintbrush to cover any areas missed by the 'fill' command!
7b. Positioning the LED light
Drag and drop the LED light template into position on your design to show us where you would like the light placing.
We recommend placing the LED as close to your printed design as possible, without actually touching the printed area.
Remember that the LED bulb also has the chain and split ring attached to it, which will turn your acrylic charm into a light up keyring.
Please don't merge the LED Light template with your design as we will need to remove this before printing so that it's not visible on your finished charms.
8. Visual Guide
Here's an exploded view of an LED Light Keyring, showing how each layer sits together to make your custom designs.
9. Submission checklist
Congratulations, you've finished creating your custom LED Light keyring! All you have to do now is check the following before submission...
- Your artwork fits INSIDE of the blue borders.
- Your white base layers are 100% Cyan and located on the relevant 'White' Layer (Step 5a.)
- Your gloss varnish layers are 50% Black and located on the relevant 'Gloss Varnish' layers (Step 6a.)
- You have checked for unwanted elements using the steps at 5b.
- The 'LED Light Template' layer has NOT been grouped or merged with the rest of your design.
- Your border is AT LEAST 1mm (10px) thick.
- All text has been converted to outlines.
- Your template contains 1 keyring design only. Additional designs will be sent separately.
10. Saving and submitting your designs
There are 3 different ways to save and submit your designs...
1. Submit your artwork immediately
If you have already created your designs, you can send them to us using the 'Upload Artwork' button, located on our product pages or by emailing them to ‘info@zapcreatives.com’.
Save all Photoshop files in .Psd format. Here’s how…
Name each of your designs appropriately so that we know which designs you are referring to. Your file names should include 1. your name, 2. design number, 3. chosen product and 4. the date that you placed your order through our website. Here’s an example…
Select all of the designs that you would like to submit, right click and choose SEND TO > COMPRESSED (ZIPPED) FOLDER.
This will create a compressed folder containing all of your designs. Rename this folder so that it contains your name and the date that you placed your order on our website. Like this…
Please add all of your designs into one folder. 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' button.
2. Submit your artwork later
If you have placed your order via our website but your designs aren’t quite ready yet, that’s ok. You have up to 2 weeks to submit your artwork to us, which allows you to take advantage of any special offers that we’re running.
To submit your designs later, save them with 1. your name, 2. design number, 3. chosen product and 4. your order number. Then email them to ‘info@zapcreatives.com’.
Save all Photoshop files in .Psd format. Here’s how…
3. Placing a re-order
If you have placed an order in the past and would like to re-order those designs that’s great! We store your artwork for a maximum of 6 months, which saves you the hassle of having to resubmit your designs via email.
To place a re-order, simply place your order online, email us with your previous order number(s) and let us know that you are placing a re-order.
You may only want to order 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 it…
Hi Zap!,
I’ve just placed an order #12345 on your website and would like to re-order the following designs from a previous order #12121. Please can I have…
10x [YOURNAME]-DESIGN1-LEDKEYRING-12121
20x [YOURNAME]-DESIGN2-WALNUTKEYRING-12121
10x [YOURNAME]-DESIGN3-ACRYLICPIN-12121
Thanks!
[YOUR NAME]
If you have any questions about this tutorial or any other aspects of our website and manufacturing processes, please do not hesitate to get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.
