To help you make the most of the current discount on Stainless Steel we wanted to share some of the all time most popular products 3D printed in Stainless Steel.  Of course if there is nothing that tickles your fancy you can also (quickly) design your own as long as you get your order in before the December 31st at 04:59 GMT. Enter code jv9dv at checkout where it says "Promo Code" (not "Apply Credit").

A favorite in the Shapeways office, especially on Friday afternoon, the Klein Bottle Opener.

One of the most popular items of all time on Shapeways, the Thorn Dice Set with Decader.

We see waves and waves of the Explorers Ring - U3 Version rolling out of the Shapeways 3D printers.

With MILLIONS of views on YouTube, we had to include the Twin Rail Mobius can-take-a-ball - Pendant

3D Printing is not always about the new, sometimes it is about repair the old, like a (very) personal favorite of mine, Repair Part for a Bugaboo.

If you are designing something new to be 3D printed in Stainless Steel, be sure to pay close attention to the design guidelines for stainless steel. A few of the most important things to keep in mind: 

• Your design must have a minimum thickness of 3mm.
• The entire part must be bigger than 3x3x3mm and smaller than 750x381x381mm.
• No interlocking or moving parts.

Do you really believe every snowflake is unique? Until we can really preserve and analyze every single snowflake that has ever fallen to earth how can we really know? Really, none of that matters when you can get 3D printed post modern snowflakes to hang from your tree thanks to Kimotion Arts.

Whether it be Batman, Lego Man or He-Man inspired snowflake, or even a snowflake for the folks in Colorado and Washington State, there is sure to be a 3D printed snowflake for you. 

We have seen our 3D printed ceramics used for quite a few applications that take advantage of the heat resistance and food safe properties, but this is the first smoking hot design to use those same properties for smoking tobacco.  Pookas has also designed the Skull Tobacco Pipe with a Bronze Stainless Steel mouthpiece, a clever use of combined 3D printed materials. 

This is a fully working tobacco pipe. The head is made 3D printed in glazed ceramics, the mouthpiece is 3D printed in antique bronze glossy.

A pipe is definitely a matchmaker. It makes you look distinguished and sexy. Like a successful scientist, a confident playboy or an experienced sailor.

Yeah, tabacco is bad for your health, so use bubbles instead! Works even better cause it gives you a great lemon flavor, but this depends on the dish soap you use. The ladies will appreciate it!

Pookas as bubble blowing playboy. 

Yes, the free, awesome and easy 3D modeling app 123D has now been extended to 123D Design, available for OSX, PC, iPad AND Web App. That's four times as fantastic with interoperability between all four and the rest of the 123D suite making it easy for you to design for 3D printing with Shapeways.

With Autodesk 123D Design, anyone can have fun designing and making things. Whether it's a new design of your own, replacing a part of something you already have, or reimagining something so that it's just right for you, with 123D Design you can create a digital model of your idea and then directly 3D print or fabricate the things you want, just the way you want them. And the way you work with 123D Design is similar to how you work in other everyday software you're familiar with, so you can avoid frustrations and enjoy the process of making things.

I have had the opportunity to play with an early edition of the software and it is easy to learn and export to 3D print with Shapeways.  This is a perfect tool for someone starting to design their own products as we will be sure to cover in our Design for 3D Printing 101 series. 

Every Product Page on Shapeways has a Favorite button to the right so that you can let designers know just how awesome they are.  The Wishlist Button helps you to keep track of the 3D Printed goodness you want to have and hold.  Clicking either button will send love to the Feed, so everyone can see what 3D Printed products are popular at any one point in time. Let's take a look at the 10 most popular 3D printed designs for the past week in order of popularity from number 10 up to number 1.

10. Death's Head Hawkmoth Skeleton 

The iPhone 5 Design Contest is now over and we are 3D Printing some of our favorites right now (HINT: you may have seen them exposed in the feed) but Apple have just released the specs for the iPad Mini so it is time to start designing for the next range of Apple Fanboy Accessories.

You can download the specifications for the Wifi Version and Cellular Version from the apple site (yes, they are ever so slightly different but you may be able to make a design to fit both).

SO, what shall we do to get you all designing some cool new accessories for the iPad Mini?  

What applications do you see for this device that the iPad is too big for and the iPhone too small?

What is the point of differentiation that Apple is aiming for and can you amplify that difference with your design?

Tag Your designs with Apple, Fanboy and Ipad Mini so we can find your designs and we will find a way to reward your creativity.

Thanks to Core 77 for pointing the way to the specs. 

360vr.nl have posted an interactive 360 panorama of the Shapeways booth at Dutch Design Week 2012 in Eindhoven. Take a look around and see if you can find any of your favorite designs from the Shapeways community.  Name them in the comments for a chance to win a 3D print of one of the items.

Launched by Mayor Bloomberg at the Shapeways Factory of the Future, Next Top Makers is New York City's is challenge makers, designers, and engineers to create product prototypes. 

New York's Next Top Makers is a challenge to prototype new designs that have commercial potential. The goal of the challenge is to support design-driven production, and promote a culture of innovation and commercialization within New York City's industrial business, design and engineering communities.

Starting in mid November, makers, designers, engineers and others will be invited to enter prototypes in the challenge. It is anticipated that New York's Next Top Makers will be open for submissions until mid February 2013.

Finalists will be selected by an expert judging panel, and will receive assistance on the path to commercialization during the studio phase. Assistance will include studio space from sponsor NYDesigns, business support, and mentorship from industry experts such as Adafruit Industries, Honeybee Robotics and Shapeways. It is anticipated that the studio phase will run from April to August. Judges will award an additional cash prize to the most promising winner following the studio phase.

With the launch of our new, smooth 3D printed colors last week at Shapeways we are also offering a 10% discount on our new colors until October 31st.

We are really excited about the increase in quality of surface finish with our new colors and we want you to get your smooth, bright 3D prints into your hands as soon as possible.

Please be sure to enable your models in the new colors if you have not already done so and we LOVE to see photos of the new colors in your product pages of your shops.

Being smooth, colored 3D prints they are so much easier to photograph than white nylon (WSF) 3D prints.  Check out the photography tutorial if you need any pointers.