10 Things You Can Make with a 3D Printer

Jewelry was the first thing I wanted to try making with our 3D printer. I like to wear pendant necklaces in simple designs and strong colors. I like the idea of wearing my own designs. 

First I designed a purple cog necklace. That seemed nice and geeky and techie! Then I designed earth pendants with cutouts so I can wear them on a top with a contrasting color to let the land or sea show through. 

I was really pleased with these and will definitely wear them. I'll be designing more jewelry for our 3D printer. 

I've shown these pendants, and wear them,  with the face down side outwards because I like the smooth effect you get. 

Buttons are ideal for printing on a 3D printer, you can use 3D printed buttons to give clothing a custom look or to replace lost buttons. 

Buttons are fun for crafting and sewing onto purses, bags and clothing. I'll be trying this out soon. 

Kids toys are another fun thing to make with your 3D printer. My older son loves snakes at the moment and asked for a blue snake. Luckily his Dad is quite creative and managed to draw a snake for him. 

You can see the detail of how the filament is laid down in this print. My son likes the rough finish. I'd like to see if we can get it a bit neater in future. 

We're going to try and create a true 3D design too. This one is a mostly 2D design with raised up areas. 

We'll definitely be making lots of things for the kids with our 3D printer. 

Little custom gift boxes or trinket boxes are a cute thing to make. You could put someone's initials on the top or a design that means sonething to them. 

You can make the box and lid as separate objects and design them to fit together. 

We've got some glow in the dark 3D printer filament. Fun! We're planning to make a ghost and other Halloween decorations. We won't be waiting until Halloween though!

Do you have a light or a ceiling fan or something else that has a pull cord. Why not make your own light pulls to hang on them. 

I've got a couple of light pulls that are too heavy and keep bashing into tiles walls, especially now I have two kids ... I'll be designing and printing light pulls to replace them. 

Using glow in the dark plastic filament is a nice touch for the bathroom. 

My boys need wall hooks at their height that they can hang their coats on. Making them custom wall hooks is a fun idea. 

You could make a small rack for hanging your keys on, or a hook for kitchen towels. Or any other items you need to hang up. 

For some reason we only seem to possess one eggcup. No problem, we can 3D print an eggcup for each family member who likes soft boiled eggs. An everyone can have their own color and design too. Fun and practical. 

My younger son loves eggs and his favorite color is yellow. I guess we could try a yellow birds nest eggcup. Or maybe an eggcup with comedy feet. 

Costume accessories for kids role play, cosplay or Halloween costumes are lots of fun. You can create just right finishing touch for a costume with a 3D printer. 

My boys love pretending to be ninjas so I think we'll have to print a couple of shurikens (ninja throwing stars.)

My younger son loves PlayDoh and air drying modeling clay. It would be fun to make molds and cutters to our own designs. We could even make extruders to push the dough through. Lots of fun to be had there. 

Of course you could also use molds and cutters for grown up modeling crafts with clay too.