Posted on 22 December 202128 June 2022 by LaserSister — Leave a comment

Christmas Number One!

Screenshot of lasercut Christmas tree letter bauble at #1 on Amazon best seller list

Last month I wrote this article about experimenting with Amazon’s FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) programme – where the basic idea is that sellers ship a load of products to an Amazon warehouse, then Amazon do the picking, packing and postage for them. I’ll try to remember to do a more detailed report when the dust has settled and the Christmas rush is over, but for now let’s just say that the experiment appears to have been successful. In fact it’s been so successful that I have scored a “Christmas number one” this week, and here is my screengrab to prove it:

Screenshot of Christmas letter-bauble at #1 on the Amazon best sellers list

As shown in the screenshot, my personalised Christmas letter bauble is now officially an Amazon Best Seller.

When is a #1 not a #1…?

OK, it’s a bestseller in a subcategory of a subcategory of a subcategory. But I’m still taking it as a win!

It was hard work, though. In order to get to that stage I’ve had to sell a lot of bauble ornaments. And in order to get to that stage I’ve had to make a lot of bauble ornaments. For six weeks in the run-up to Christmas it felt like my whole house was a mini factory full of baubles, wood sheets, ribbons, boxes, and wrapping materials. My family became my factory workers, and my cat became very confused.

The final batch of ornaments was only processed by Amazon yesterday (21 December), so maybe that’s too late for even Prime customers to order my products. But in the meantime I’m just going to bask in the glow of having achieved a Christmas #1 in the charts.

They keep selling out, so by the time you see this they might all be gone again. And in that case it won’t be worth looking at any of my shops. But for just this brief window in time, I’ve been able to achieve a bit of an ambition to be a chart-topper on Amazon.

I guess my target for next year should be to try to reach #1 in a higher-level subcategory. So instead of Handmade > Home & Kitchen > Home Decor > Decorative Accessories > Ornaments, I should aim for Handmade > Home & Kitchen > Home Decor? Hmm – maybe that’s a bit too ambitious…!

Posted on 12 November 202016 July 2022 by LaserSister — Leave a comment

A Perfect Christmas Family Gift

(Feel free to skip reading this post if you aren’t interested in my laser-cut products and services, because that’s basically what this post is about. The basic suggestion is that the perfect Christmas family gift is one that I’ve made with my laser cutter…)

Apparently the December 2020 issue of Family Tree Magazine should be available for uploading and reading today. I already have a subscription to it via my local library, but I’ll be interested in this particular issue because it contains my first-ever advert in a magazine.

screenshot of family tree magazine on my e-reader

The issue includes a picture of what could be the perfect Christmas family gift…a personalised bauble:

family tree magazine Christmas edition advert for LaserSister - lasercut Christmas tree bauble

OK – I probably should have put one of my family tree artworks in the ad instead of the bauble design (what with it being the “Family Tree” magazine), but

I wanted to be friendly and wish the magazine a merry Christmas, seeing as it’s their December issue, and
My family trees are bigger and more expensive than the baubles, so maybe fewer people would be interested in them.

So if you’re reading this post because you saw my ad in Family Tree Magazine, then welcome! Here is a picture of a Christmas tree ornament that could (literally) have your name on it:

personalised laser cut Christmas tree bauble

This is one of my family tree artworks in comparison:

My Etsy shops:

I’m currently in the process of moving from my old ‘PolymerKay’ Etsy shop to my new ‘LaserSister’ Etsy shop. However, the personalised baubles should hopefully be available from both shops by the time you read this.

The shops contain a range of baubles; from pre-made letters to completely personalised messages.

…so in answer to the question of how to make a perfect Christmas gift for the family? Basically just visit one of the shops above, make an order including the family name, and I do the rest. Easy!

Do you have an idea for a personalised artwork that is a bit more ambitious? If so, please feel free to contact me, and I’ll be happy to discuss it with you.

Posted on 29 February 202017 July 2022 by keycraftscontact — Leave a comment

Latest laser cut family tree design

Laser cut family tree design

I’ve been a bit busy with my PhD recently, so have put all of my online shops into ‘holiday mode’ in order to devote more time to studying. But I do still accept occasional word-of-mouth orders from friends and family and existing customers. This week I made a laser cut family tree design for a friend:

This is one of my favourites – I particularly like the pattern of the woodgrain on this one.

And it’s always a good sign when you can read the names even as a tiny thumbnail-sized image. It usually means that in the real-life version, the design will be readable from across any room where the piece is hanging or standing. For the more recent designs I’ve been getting into the habit of leaving a lot more space around the letters than before, and the ‘less is more’ approach means that the names do seem to stand out a lot better.

Despite being raaaather busy (or maybe because of it?!) I also accidentally got sucked into dabbling with Instagram this week, so have now properly activated my account and have put this ‘Doreen’ family tree image on my account (@LaserSister). So if Instagram is your thing, please do have a poke around my images and say hi over there (once I upload some more content onto it!)

Right, must go and do some more studying. But in the meantime if you have urgent need of a unique personalised family tree, feel free to contact me or to check on the ‘Shop‘ tab at the top of this page to see if any of my online stores are up and running at the moment.

Posted on 16 November 201917 July 2022 by LaserSister — Leave a comment

Nantwich Fridge Magnets

As mentioned in a previous post, when we visited the lovely English town of Nantwich, we couldn’t find any fridge magnets there. And as I also said last week, I think fridge magnets are a superior form of souvenir. (They take up less space than commemorative mugs, for a start). So I had a look back through the photos from our visit, and invented…a Nantwich fridge magnet design:

Nantwich fridge magnet with pen for scale - LaserSister Kay Vincent

Below is one of my photos from our visit. Nantwich has such picturesque houses that I hardly needed to make any changes to the image. For the magnet’s design I added a heart for extra cuteness, but that was more or less it!

I was so pleased with the end result that I tried the design as a souvenir keyring as well…

So if you’re visiting Nantwich and also happen to be a fridge magnet fan (and depending on whether they still have any in stock), you should hopefully now be able to find one at Nantwich Museum. In fact I like the design so much I’m going to put one on my own fridge 🙂

The museum itself had some really unusual local history features – e.g. how Cheshire cheese was (and is) made. Plus, of course, the story behind those iconic black-and-white buildings around the town.

Posted on 5 November 201917 July 2022 by LaserSister — Leave a comment

Laser-Cut Porto Fridge Magnet

Even on holiday I always have my eye out for laser-y items. And better still if they happen to come in the form of my favourite souvenir…which is a fridge magnet. I like laser-cut fridge magnets so much that I’ve created a special category for them here. So last week when we were on holiday in Porto I was very happy to find a laser-cut fridge magnet.

I think this one shows the river and the Dom Luís I Bridge and the city very well. The typical rabelo boat (carrying its barrels down the Douro river) sort of gets lost in the background – but then compensates by physically standing out from the flat surface. (I’m not sure how the boat could be made to stand out better – maybe cut it from darker wood?) I couldn’t see any details of the artist or manufacturer, but if you know who it is, please let me know and I’ll credit them here.

Closer up:

Here’s the fridge magnet from a different angle – looking straight down at it:

laser cut porto fridge magnet - different angle

The boat shows up a bit better in this one, but the Dom Luís I Bridge still looks like the star of the show. Mind you, it is a very impressive bridge! And it definitely does stand out in real life. Apparently it was designed by a student of Gustave Eiffel (as in the Eiffel Tower).

The picture is missing one of the key features of the bridge, though, because in real life it’s got two different levels for the different modes of transport across it. Top level: get a Metro tram-thing across the top of the bridge (or walk across as a pedestrian). Lower level: use the road for a car or bike (or walk across that one, as well).

Anyhoo – I like my new fridge magnet, even if it uses quite a bit of ‘artistic licence’. I like the way that they’ve made it into a serrated stamp-shape as well. It just screamed ‘souvenir!’ at me, so that’s another reason I chose it. And now I’ve got another laser-cut piece of artwork on my fridge door, plus some lovely memories of our holiday in Porto/Oporto.

In the meantime I’ve been having laser-cut-fridge-magnet adventures of my own, but more about that later…

Posted on 30 October 201917 July 2022 by LaserSister — Leave a comment

Halloween! Lasercut Sugar Skull Pendant

halloween sugar skull necklace - lasersister - Kay Vincent

Here is a lasercut sugar skull pendant – Happy Halloween!

halloween sugar skull pendant - lasersister

OK, sugar skulls are traditionally more of a ‘Day of the Dead‘ thing than Halloween, but what the heck 🙂

Lasercutters: Can’t be bothered to design your own sugar skull? Why not buy a licence to use someone else’s design? (That link above is to a post I wrote a while ago, about why and how you can fast-forward your lasercutting business by using stock images and designs.)

That’s actually what I did in this case. The design is brilliant and so detailed, and etches really well – so why re-invent the wheel? I bought the extended licence and now I am able to cut and sell this design in my own business. As well as Halloween lasercut sugar skull pendants and earrings, I’m also hoping to adapt it into a papercut version. That might take a while though. Maybe by next Halloween…

I got this particular sugar skull design from Vectorstock (that’s an affiliate link, by the way. Not that I’ve yet made any money from any of my affiliate links, but they are only a minor part of this blog – I just enjoy sharing (and discovering) lasercutting skills and news!)

The best thing about clear acrylic jewellery is that it goes with anything! It’s like wearing a chameleon. Hmm. I might make one of those, one day…

Posted on 8 August 201917 July 2022 by keycraftscontact — Leave a comment

Fridge Magnet Shortage in UK Tourist Attractions!

Rob and I are on holiday in the UK at the moment, and I’m recharging my ‘creative batteries’ by going to lots of museums and lovely English towns and castles.

The other day we went to the town of Nantwich, and none of the shops or museums that we visited seemed to sell fridge magnets. There is surely a gap in the market for them, because I actually know quite a few people who collect fridge magnets.

Here are a couple of examples below of buildings that I think would look nice as fridge magnets:

Heck, you could even make your own mix-and-match village of cute little black and white buildings on your fridge or freezer if only you had a few of these buildings cut out as fridge magnets.

I am now on a mission to create some magnets for myself, to see if they come out as well as I imagine they will…

Posted on 23 August 201816 July 2022 by LaserSister — Leave a comment

Laser-cut Personalised Jewellery Holders

Laser-Cut Jewellery Holder

Here is something I’ve been playing with this week – the design of a laser-cut jewellery holder.

I made one for my mum last Christmas…

As you can see, it can hold lots of different types of jewellery (rings, necklaces, bracelets, watches, earrings). However, it still needs some tweaks.

What I like about it is:

As mentioned above, it can hold nearly all types of jewellery. The only exceptions I can think of at the moment are hat pins, scarf pins or brooches.
You can see all of the jewellery in one place. It’s not in a drawer or box, so you get to enjoy your favourite pieces like mini artworks.
It’s personalised and therefore unique.
It’s versatile, so (e.g.) the same horizontal bar can take either hook-type earrings or post-type earrings, and the vertical side bits can hold either rings or bracelets or watches.

Things to improve on the design:

Create a way to hang it so that it is held away from the wall, to make it easier to hang earrings.
Have a way to store brooches and pin-type jewellery (e.g. a tray at the bottom)

As a very basic version though, this is the design that I used:

If you’ve got a laser cutter and you’d like to have a play with this design yourself, I’ve made a vector file available below.

Basic jewellery holder design for lasercutting - copyright Kay Vincent - LaserSister 2018

(Click here for basic jewellery holder design for lasercutting)

Hope you found this post useful! If you think it might be of use to other makers/designers, please feel free to share the link to the post via Twitter (@LaserSister), Pinterest, Facebook (@LaserSister), etc…

Posted on 18 April 201816 July 2022 by keycraftscontact — Leave a comment

William Morris Style Laser Cut Birthday Card Designs

william morris style K card topper - KayVincent - LaserSister

William Morris Style Laser Cut Birthday Cards

This week I’ve been developing William Morris-style laser cut birthday cards.

After a couple of days’ tinkering, I ended up with some really nice filigree designs of card toppers:

William Morris style laser cut birthday card: E — Birthday card design: E

william morris style laser cut birthday card F — Testing a gold “F” design

Where to find images and inspiration for your laser cutter

For the letters shown above, I bought the extended licence from Dreamstime, which is a website where you can buy royalty-free photos and vector-based illustrations.

Here are the art nouveau alphabet images that I used. Alternatively, you can enter your own search terms in the box below, to look for specific resources. For example, type “Art nouveau”, or “William Morris alphabet” in the box, and then click the ‘search’ button.

Search Free stock images on Dreamstime:

Another great resource that I’ve found for royalty-free designs is Vectorstock.com. They seem to have forgotten to use an apostrophe in the link/banner below, but they still do a brilliant range of illustrations. And because their files are all vector-based graphics, that means that they are usually very straightforward to cut with a laser cutter:

And at the moment (April 2018) both sites are even more useful if you have your own laser cutting business, because they can provide a little bit of extra income on top of your actual laser-cut products. You can either upload some of your own original designs and allow people to buy licences to use them, or can sign up as an ‘affiliate’.

For example, with Vectorstock I uploaded my elephant design so that other people with laser cutters can use it in their own designs. Then every time someone purchases a licence for the elephant, I receive a few cents, but there is no extra cost to the purchaser. Win/win!

Similarly, with affiliate links and referral schemes, you can also receive small payments just for pointing people towards something that they are already interested in. As another example, if you include the banners/ads for these services (like the ones shown above) you could receive a small payment each time someone signs up and/or purchases a licence.

Hope you enjoyed this post. Don’t forget to say ‘hi’ via the contact us page, or to tweet me @LaserSister if you’ve tried any of the above ideas or if you’ve got comments or questions.