Make an iPad Cookie Cutter on a 3D Printer?

Christmas is over a month behind us, and I am just now getting around to writing this article about my famous (in my mind) cookies.  As the title suggests, I made an iPad cookie cutter on our 3D

printer and baked 4 dozen cookies for the Lower School faculty. As crazy as that sounds, I originally was planning on making 350 cookies so that every student could have one. In hindsight I am glad I changed my mind.  Here is my story:

It all began about two weeks before winter break. I was trying to come up with a fun little gift for the students and/or teachers that I work with most often.  I came up with the idea of baking cookies. However that's not very original, teachers are always getting baked goods. 

So I let my creative juices flow and started searching the web for technology-related cookie cutters. Much to my dismay, I found very few.  That night I sent an email to our Maker Education teacher Andrew Carle (@tieandjeans) that went something like this. "Hey Andrew, I am thinking about making a cookie cutter on the 3D printer. You know, the kind that can actually cut through dough and make cookies. Please let know what you think." He quickly responded that it's absolutely possible and probably pretty easy to do.  

That's when I started playing. Google Sketchup and Tinkercad were the only two design programs I had at my disposal so I jumped right in.  Google Sketchup was pretty easy to use but I was having trouble importing the basic iPad design into it. Whereas Tinkercad was very easy to use, and I was able to easily find a basic shape to use as my starting point.  After a few hours I had this.

I sent the file to Andrew and our Upper School Computer Science teacher (who also has a 3D printer) and asked them for feedback.  The only feedback was superficial and before I knew it, I had my cookie cutter in hand.  

So excited to get started, I picked up some sugar cookie mix at the store that afternoon and started baking.  

In the end I only made just enough for the faculty. I am glad I gave up on the idea of making them for the students. Especially since it took me hours just to make the 4 batches that I did make, I can only imagine how long it would have taken to make 350.  YIKES!!!!