Ready to Start the Week

I'm not usually a "Monday person", but today I'm ready to start the week! I have so many projects I'm working on that have me so excited :) I had a great, productive weekend and I'm hoping this week is much of the same!

I currently have 38 Custom Name Albums on order...WHOA! They consist of *20 Sorority Albums (my first wholesale order)

*12 Girl Scout Albums

*And 6 separate albums that will be given as Christmas gifts

Over the weekend I got an order for 39 Wine Glasses and 8 Coaster Sets from one person! The wine glasses will go in sets of two along with a bottle of wine as a company gift. I'm etching the company's logo on the glasses for them :) And the owners sister ordered the coasters to give as wedding and Christmas gifts! I'll be sure to blog about this more as I get it completed!

And I got a sample Etched Pint Glass done to send to my mom's employer. They give pint glasses in sets of 4 for service award gifts with their company logo on them. If they like the sample, they'll be ordering 100 Glasses in February!!!

I've also been getting quite a few orders at work as well. I've sold 11 glasses in varying designs and 5 Engraved Wood Photos. I'm also going to make a box for a coworker that he'll give his dad with his brothers picture on it. His brother passed away a few years ago and he wanted something special to keep his ashes. I was so honored when he asked me to make the box for him :) I'll definitely be blogging more about this as well!

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How did your weekend go? Are you ready for the new week?

Have It Your Way With Custom Options

One thing I love about the items I offer...They can all be customized! Pretty much everything I make can be changed/personalized/designed to fit each person's needs and ideas. I love doing custom work as each item is special and unique :)

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I recently started making Real Wood Greeting Cards. For now, I only offer them in one size. But that doesn't stop me from making them any size you'd like! I had a custom request for a larger card with a special tree design. I went searching for the perfect tree and made the card 5"x10" (twice the size of my normal cards!) and even made a special printed card with instructions for the recipient.

I also recently started making Wood Guest Books and Photo Albums. Again, I offer these in one size and with 20 pages. But I can add extra pages, make the album larger, etc. I can also customize the font and wording any way my customers like :) Here is a book I just shipped out yesterday with a Spanish inscription.

I sold a Custom Photo Ornament at a show recently and the buyer was concerned because she wanted all three of her boys on one ornament and she didn't think they'd fit in a circle format. No problem...I made it into an oval instead :)

And don't forget about my Custom Name Albums. These can be made ANY way you like! I have yet to come across a request I couldn't fill with these :) I started making these in 4"x12" sizes until I had a customer request an album that would fit 4"x6" photos. Along came my 6.5"x12" albums...and people love them!

I also recently made my first ever 11.5"x12" Custom Double Name Album! This album was so fun and I never would have thought to make one this big if I hadn't had the request :) I LOVE Custom :)

Do you offer custom items in your shop? You just might want to consider it :)

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This is my favorite post from this week, so I'm linking it up at Artful Rising! Come check it out!

Happy Father's Day

Here's wishing my dad a Happy Father's Day :) I wish I were there to give him a big hug and tell him how much I love him! I guess a phone call will have to do for now. Here is the card I made my dad this year. I'm really loving these engraved wood photos! And I'm loving these wood cards as well! I hope to get them added to my shop soon in premade and custom versions!

I hope all the dads out there have a wonderful Father's Day!

The Importance of a Good Picture

One of my favorite things to do with my laser engraver is to engrave photos! I've sold quite a few Engraved Wood Photos off Etsy and have received great feedback :) They make such great gifts! One thing I have to be sure of is that the original photo is of good quality. It needs to be a high resolution digital image or a good quality print that I can scan at a high resolution. The better the photo, the better the engraving. I can play with settings in photo editing software, but the original photo is important. While getting ready for the open house at the winery, I wanted to have a sample photo to set out. I scanned a favorite family photo and did my needed adjustments and lasered away. The results were less than stellar as you can see here: When I scanned the photo, I didn't realize it had scanned as an 8.5x11 screen size making the actual photo a small size. You can see how the detail gets lost and the image is dark. After scanning it again to a true photo size and raising the resolution, the second results were much better :)

You can see much more detail. The engraving is beautiful! I got lots of complements on this photo at the open house and I'm so glad I tried again and fixed my mistake. But I'm glad to have the "mistake" photo to show people how important it is to have a good photo to start with. What "mistakes" have you learned from lately?

When All Else Fails...Read the Instructions!

I've had some success with engraving photos and was pretty happy with the results. I had a friend at work order a custom photo plaque and I was happy to take on the task. He emailed me his photo, I did the necessary photo editing and started engraving. Here are the results...

I was SO disappointed when this was done! It was too light, there was no contrast to the engraving...it was a mess! And I couldn't even attempt to sell this to him! I remembered I had printed off a tutorial a while back for engraving photos on wood. Off I went to read the instructions and try again! There were just a few minor adjustments I needed to make to the original photo and I was ready to give it another try. Here is the second try after reading the tutorial...

Isn't it awesome!!! It is by far the coolest engraving I've done so far! I'm very proud of the results and I hope his girlfriend loves her gift! Now my mind is racing with other things I can make out of engraved wood photos!!! You'll be seeing more of these soon!