Learn with Kim & Garrett Make It!
Ready to feel more confident creating and editing your own laser designs? We have brought our original Adobe Illustrator for Laser Crafters classes together with additional design training so you can learn, practice, and come back whenever you need a refresher.
Start with finding your way around Illustrator, build your skills with shapes and text, and work toward cleaner files for your laser. Then take the next step with advanced cleanup and product mockups. Everything is organized below, with each video embedded right where you need it.
12 classes • Approximately 9 hours 31 minutes of video • Learn at your own pace
Before you begin
Have Illustrator open on your computer, keep a folder for your practice files, and plan to pause often. For the final mockup class, have PhotoRoom and Photoshop available if you want to follow along with those tools.
Watch a little. Try it yourself. Then keep going. You do not need to finish a whole class in one sitting. The practice prompts below are optional companion exercises you can use to turn watching into doing.
Pick one simple project, such as a personalized tag, bookmark, or ornament, and keep improving it as you learn. You will have a much clearer sense of your progress when you can see the same design developing along the way.
Module 1: Build Your Illustrator Foundation
Begin with the workspace, then move through drawing, appearance, and text. These four sessions give you the building blocks for the rest of the course.
Lesson 1: Navigating Adobe Illustrator
Start by getting comfortable inside Illustrator. This first session introduces navigation so you can find your way around the program before tackling more detailed design work. Keep Illustrator open beside the video and give yourself permission to pause. Nobody gets extra credit for finding every button on the first try.
Lesson 2: Basic Shapes and the Pen Tool
Once the workspace feels more familiar, start building the artwork itself. This session moves into basic shapes and the Pen Tool, giving you two approaches to creating the outlines that make up your designs. Think of this as your foundation for drawing custom parts instead of relying entirely on existing files.
Lesson 3: Color, Fill, and Stroke Fundamentals
Now give those shapes some structure. This class explores color, fills, and strokes through a custom bookmark example, with additional work on swatches, libraries, and the Eyedropper Tool. Pay attention to the difference between the inside of a shape and the path around it.
Lesson 4: Text Tools and Typography
With shapes and appearance under your belt, it is time to add words. This session covers text tools, fonts, typography, text warping, and working with text on paths, along with considerations for laser-cut lettering. A name or phrase should feel like part of the design, not something squeezed into the last available space.
Module 2: Develop and Organize Your Designs
Next, expand how you create artwork and make your files easier to manage. Work through tracing, layers, shape construction, and patterns in sequence.
Lesson 5: Image Trace Tools
Next, explore another way to create vector artwork: Image Trace. This session focuses on Illustrator’s tracing tools. Use it to build your understanding of how an image can become editable paths, then take time to inspect the result before treating it as a finished design.
Lesson 6: Effective Layer Management
As your artwork becomes more complex, organization matters. This session walks through the Layers panel, sublayers, template layers, layer color coding, and exporting. A clear file structure makes it easier to find the part you need and keep other pieces out of the way while you work.
Lesson 7: Pathfinder and Alignment Tools
Now bring your pieces together. Pathfinder and alignment tools help you build more deliberate designs from the shapes you have already learned to create. This is a useful next step when separate objects need to become a coherent layout or a new shape.
Lesson 8: Patterns
With drawing and layout skills in place, move into patterns. This session introduces pattern work as another way to add visual interest to your designs. Think about where repetition can support a project, whether it is a decorative detail or part of a larger composition.
Module 3: Prepare Your Work for the Laser
Bring the design skills together with optimization, cleanup, and production preparation. This module includes the final original session and two follow-up classes.
Lesson 9: Design Optimization for Laser Cutting
The original series finishes by turning attention toward production. Design optimization is the bridge between artwork on your screen and a file you intend to cut. Use this session as a reason to slow down and review your design before committing material to it.
Lesson 10: Advanced Illustrator: Layers, Pathfinder, and Image Trace
This follow-up class brings layers, Pathfinder, and Image Trace together in a more practical cleanup workflow. The class description includes cleaning imported SVGs, understanding groups and compound paths, tracing images, and using scripts or plug-ins. The project focuses on turning a messy PNG or SVG into a personalized ornament or keychain.
Lesson 11: What Makes a Laser-Ready Design
After practicing the individual tools and the cleanup workflow, return to the bigger question: what makes a design ready for the laser? Use this class to connect your design choices with the finished object and review your project as a whole.
Module 4: Present Your Designs with Mockups
Finish by exploring how to show your work clearly, from a personalized concept to a product presentation.
Lesson 12: PhotoRoom & Photoshop: Mockup Magic
Your file is only part of the story when you are making products for customers. This final class shifts into PhotoRoom and Photoshop for mockups, connecting the design work with how you present an idea or finished product. It is a useful next step for personalization previews and product presentation.
Bring it all together
You have worked from navigating Illustrator to presenting a design. Now give those skills a practical finish: complete one small project and create a second personalized version.
- Save an editable Illustrator original.
- Keep the artwork organized so you can find and change individual parts.
- Inspect the design at its intended physical size.
- Export and check the file in your laser software.
- Verify the operations and run a small test using settings appropriate for your machine and material.
- Create a mockup that accurately represents your design.
The second version is where you see the value of a reusable file. Can you change the name, adjust the layout, and prepare the next order without starting from scratch? That is a skill you can take straight into your maker business.
Keep this classroom handy
Bookmark this page and return to the lesson you need when you hit a snag. You do not have to memorize every tool. You just need enough confidence to try, troubleshoot, and keep creating.
We love to do it ourselves. You love to do it yourself. Let’s do it together!
Kim & Garrett