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Thread: Holiday Season

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Location
    York, PA.
    Posts
    50

    Holiday Season

    With the holiday season almost upon us, Christmas ornament sales are already booming. I'm sure the ornaments pictured look very familiar to most of you. The demand for the photo ornaments in the middle of the picture has been incredible. It seems that for each one I sell, I get 3 more inquiries about them. Thanks again for this great forum. It is indescribable what a help it has been to me.

    Web Christmas Ornaments.JPG

    Dave Strickler
    York Laser, Inc.

  2. #2
    As a new laser owner, my Universal M-300-50W will ship on the 23rd.

    What material are you making them out of?
    Price points?
    Venue that create the best sales?

    Above questions are only if you, or others don't mind telling.

    It would be nice to generate some cash before Christmas since I just bought this machine!

    Thanks for suggestions or lending a helping hand.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    Sacramento, CA
    Posts
    231
    Dave do you have a store front? And may I ask what you charge for the photo ornaments?

    Jeff

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Location
    York, PA.
    Posts
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    Hello Ed,

    Welcome to The Creek. The wood ornaments in the picture are made from 1/8" red alder which I get from http://www.lazerwood.com/ .

    The acrylic ornaments are made from clear and white 1/8" cast acrylic which I get from http://www.delviesplastics.com/ .

    The photo ornaments are made from 1/4" cast acrylic which I also get from Delvies Plastics.

    I charge $15.00 each for the photo ornaments, and from $3.00 to $5.00 each for the regular ornaments, depending on the time it takes to make them. Prices can vary greatly depending on the venue you are selling them in. I've done very well at craft shows selling the ornaments, and taking orders for photo ornaments, photos engraved onto marble, and cake pans with personalized lids.

    Most of the ornament designs came from http://www.berrybasket.com/Berrybask...endorID=AP-WDB

    Search this forum and you will find a lot of info. adressing each of your questions. I've had my laser ( 30w Explorer) for about 9 months and this forum has been invaluable to me.
    Last edited by Dave Strickler; 11-18-2005 at 3:05 PM.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    Sacramento, CA
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    I agree with you on the huge amounts of invaluable information here. Just testing the waters on pricing I am in that ball park myself. I have that berrybasket cd its worth every penny.

    I have only been to a couple craft fairs and not been really sucessful. Don't know what I am doing wrong.

    Jeff

  6. #6
    Do you use PhotoGrav to do the picture ornaments?

    I have not ordered it yet.

    Is there another easy way to engrave pictures?

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Location
    York, PA.
    Posts
    50
    Hi Jeff,

    I don't have a storefront yet. To save on overhead, I started the business out of my garage and after about 2 months of practicing and learning, I started setting up at craft shows. My stand at the craft shows drew a lot of attention, and even if I didn't make a sale to someone, I made sure to give them a business card, and a lot of sales came after the show itself. Word of mouth has been my only advertising thus far, although I am planning on doing some newspaper advertising soon.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Location
    York, PA.
    Posts
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    Ed,

    Yes, I use Photograv for the ornaments. They can be done without Photograv, but it is much more time consuming with mixed results. I highly recommend Photograv.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
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    Sacramento, CA
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    Dave do you have a problem with the dang white box around your bitmaps when you put an elipse around the pic and power clip it into the elipse.

    Jeff

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    Sacramento, CA
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    As far as craft shows go I get alot of the "wow thats cool" i'm gonna take your card and call you. ...........................well i can tell ya I havent gone over my min's yet.

  11. #11

    Holiday Season

    Hi Dave

    I was wondering what material do you specify for the acrylic picture ornaments, in Photograv. If it is custom defined, then how do you do that.

    thanks
    Abdul

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Location
    York, PA.
    Posts
    50
    Hello Abdul,

    For material selection in PhotGrav, under plastics, use clear acrylic(cast type). When you save the engraved image, it will ask you if you want the picture flipped. Check yes because the engraving looks better when it is on the back of the acrylic and viewed from the front, through the clear acrylic. After I powerclip the PhotoGraved bitmap into the snowflake in CorelDraw, I add a black fill to the snowflake. This causes the entire star to engrave a frosty white except for the dark areas of the photo itself.

    To prep the bitmap for PhotGrav, I use Corel Photo Paint. For most pictures, I cut the subject out of the background, then add a white background so it blends with the white of the snowflake better. I also found that the photo looks better on the snowflake when I "wash it out" in Photo Paint, making it brighter with more intentisty than I would for a picture going onto black marble. It takes some experimentation to see what works best.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    Sacramento, CA
    Posts
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    Thank you for all of your responses David.

  14. #14
    Dave

    thanks a lot. i will try it in a day or two and let you know.

    Regards

    Abdul

  15. After reading this thread, I loved the cast Christmas ornaments, so we ordered the cast acrylic, thank you Dave for sharing.

    I have tried the link to the berrybasket but it says they are off line. Does anyone know when they'll be back on line. I tried a snowflake that I had but I am not crazy about it and we really want to order the ones from berrybasket.

    Thanks again for the ideas, you're still a great bunch of people!

    God Bless,
    James & Zelma (Psalms 18:2)

    Just figured out I can always email them. Thanks
    Last edited by James & Zelma Litzmann; 09-08-2007 at 7:01 PM. Reason: to add

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