Sisters wedding invitations

[Alick Ford]

I've been experimenting with my sisters wedding invitations and managed to cut lasering time down a lot by cutting 5 sheets at a time!

I've managed to fit 2 designs on a single A4 sheet, then I taped 5 sheets together at the edges and ran 100% speed, 65% power.

It's taking about 8 mins, which is about 50 sec's each design!

I'm going to take out a bit of the detail and clean up some of the design. Try and get it down to 30secs each!

There is a slight char on the lower sheets, but a gentle wipe gets ride of it!

Any advice on cutting time etc?
191903

[Jiten Patel]

Nice work Alick. There seems to be a lot of browning though?

We found we got this when we tried to stack card. Doing it one at a time stopped this but we can only really afford to do this as we have a galvo.

Is that a wrapture around a pocketfold similar to our ribbon collection?

Are you looking into getting into wedding invitations? Also do you have a picture of the other side?

[Alick Ford]

There is a bit, but not as bad as I thought it was going to be, might sound silly, but I've kind of grown to like burn marks!
I'll try and put take some more pics when I've got the new design lasering!

This is a wrap for the evening invitations, the main invitations were a centre fold design with some lasering detail.

I've only been doing it for friends and family really but it's something I'm seriously considering because of the profit margins!
I'm thinking more down the line of wood and perspex designs.
I'm graduating this june so I'll have a lot more time to persue some ideas!
How is business going? I love your invitations, they really are stunning!

Nice work Alick. There seems to be a lot of browning though?

We found we got this when we tried to stack card. Doing it one at a time stopped this but we can only really afford to do this as we have a galvo.

Is that a wrapture around a pocketfold similar to our ribbon collection?

Are you looking into getting into wedding invitations? Also do you have a picture of the other side?

[Jiten Patel]

We like it sometimes too. It gives a real vintage feel, which brides love. You either love it or hate it.

Business is incredible. Managed to break even in 7 weeks which is pretty good by any standards we think. Not enough time in the day.

Weddings are lucrative if done properly. We spent 8-10 months designing everything before we went live, but it's paying off now.

We are getting a new lens which allows us to get 4 times as much details and speeds up things 3 times, which will mean invitations will take anywhere between 10-30 seconds! Can't wait.

[Dee Gallo]

Looks like you've made a great start, Alick! That looks really nice and the stacking process is going to save quite a bit of time. What kind of paper are you using? You guys are giving me ideas... I recently picked up some cardstock which is two sided (different pattern/color on each side) to play with, just for fun.

Good work! dee

[Jiten Patel]

Love to see pictures of what you manage to conjure up Dee.

[Alick Ford]

Jit - By breaking even do you mean you have recouped the cost of your galvo already?!

Thanks Dee! most of the time is spent on the computer sorting out vector paths etc!
I've worked with two tone card, it looks great but rastering takes so so long! I'm really tempted by a small letter press, think it's hard to beat the original look!

[Jiten Patel]

Alick,

Yes, break even as in make back the money we put into the business. So not just the galvo, but the building that we built, and all the other equipment (printers etc etc).

Dont I know about many many many (did I forget to mention MANY) hours at a computer with a mouse, graphics tablet, keyboard and screen, oh and Illustrator. Takes hours to get the designs perfect. But I assure you, once you get the rules, and understand the limitations, it becomes much easier and quicker to produce designs.

[Alick Ford]

Well done! You've put me even more in the mood for the wedding market if your making so much $$$!!

Do you print directly from illustrator to your galvo ( if so how)? I'm getting feed up going from illustrator to corel!

[Jiten Patel]

No the galvo has dedicated softward. So I export out from Illustrator then into the software. Bit tedious, but oh well.

Dont get me wrong, earning the $$$ took a hell of a lot of work. 7 days a week, 18 hours a day for over a year now. We invested heavily in branding, website, and marketing. You can have a great product, but if no one knows it exists, whats the point.

Magazine adverts are not cheap, but have to be done. Wedding shows cost a fortune, but again have to be done. You need all the capital up front in order to do them. It helps as I have a 9-5 which allowed us to pay for everything to get set up.

Sounds like easy money, but in reality, it's been tough. But worth every minute and penny!

[Dee Gallo]

I'm getting feed up going from illustrator to corel!

Alick, I was a dedicated FreeHand (Mac) user before getting my laser - then along came the need to use Corel. At first, it seemed clunky and tedious compared to FH, but after you get used to it, it is just fine. Personally, I never liked Illustrator as it seemed too much like a windows program and I was a Macuser. But after using CorelDraw for that past 5 years, it does everything I want it to do, other than photo work.... I still go to PhotoShop for that. It's a simple, straightforward program. So bottom line is: give CD a bit of a try and you might be able to disconnect from Illustrator without losing the control you are used to.

cheers, dee

[Alick Ford]

I do enjoy some of the features included with CD, the vector trace tool is one of the best I know of! If Epilog would hurry up and bring out a mac print driver my world would be complete!!


Alick, I was a dedicated FreeHand (Mac) user before getting my laser - then along came the need to use Corel. At first, it seemed clunky and tedious compared to FH, but after you get used to it, it is just fine. Personally, I never liked Illustrator as it seemed too much like a windows program and I was a Macuser. But after using CorelDraw for that past 5 years, it does everything I want it to do, other than photo work.... I still go to PhotoShop for that. It's a simple, straightforward program. So bottom line is: give CD a bit of a try and you might be able to disconnect from Illustrator without losing the control you are used to.

cheers, dee

[Bill Cunningham]

No the galvo has dedicated softward. So I export out from Illustrator then into the software. Bit tedious, but oh well.

Dont get me wrong, earning the $$$ took a hell of a lot of work. 7 days a week, 18 hours a day for over a year now. We invested heavily in branding, website, and marketing. You can have a great product, but if no one knows it exists, whats the point.

Magazine adverts are not cheap, but have to be done. Wedding shows cost a fortune, but again have to be done. You need all the capital up front in order to do them. It helps as I have a 9-5 which allowed us to pay for everything to get set up.

Sounds like easy money, but in reality, it's been tough. But worth every minute and penny!

Any orders from William & Kate?
Wouldn't THAT be a nice feather in your cap!