My husband used to say that 3D printers would soon be in houses everywhere. I would humor him with a nod and think how it was still a ways off. Then, a couple months ago I got an email from HP with an offer to try out their HP Sprout with what?! 3D scanning and printing capabilities. Seriously? I thought. This is a sure fire way to become the coolest wife ever. So I agreed and our journey started.

I am so excited about the possibilites this has opened up. I started with something fun for fall and embarked on my first 3D scan and print project, owl bookmarks. Are they not the cutest?

Wanna see what they started from? I had this quirky thrift store owl I had purchased a while ago gathering dust on the shelf just waiting to have a purpose. He fit the recommended guildelines (matte, fits within capture stage, light colors, etc.) for optimal 3D scanning with the Sprout and I thought he would be really fun printed tiny for jewelry or bookmarks.

So, how do you get from your inspiration object to being ready to print? I made this little video to show you the steps and tips I learned along the way for the best experience with 3D scanning. It will show you all you need to know to be on your way. You can learn even more at sprout.hp.com.

If your first scan does not work perfectly, don’t worry! I found objects can easily take six cycles or more to get a full 3D capture for a print. Like a lot of new technology it has a learning curve, but once you have it down the possibilities are endless! With software like Meshmixer and others you are not limited by what you can scan, only by what you can imagine!

Now, once you have your object scanned and changed to an .OBJ file you are ready to make your 3D print. I used the Dremel Idea Builder and man is it cool! See the printer in action on my Facebook page. My little owls only took 15 minutes each! Here’s one still in the printer.

Once I had all three printed, I painted them with liquid guilding to give them a metallic sheen. I love how they look in silver, brass, and gold! Then, I just glued them to some paper clip style bookmarks and that was that!

It has been so fun playing with 3D scanning and printing as well of the other features of the HP Sprout like the 2D capture and touch mat for editing. And now that the cat is out of the bag my husband is chomping at the bit to get his hands on it. He already has a line up of projects planned including printing a replacement leg for his keyboard that broke.

Check out more projects created with the HP Sprout by clicking here.