Getting Your Name Out There

Today I received a custom order request through Etsy.  This is a new feature that I just signed up for a few days ago.  The customer asked whether she could buy 5 of the same Thanks So Much card.  Of course I was excited to get my first custom order, and responded right away.  The customer's response was that she had found my card at Press Works on Paper and wanted more to thank interviewers for their time and looked on the back of the card where our logo and website are located.

While putting the logo on the back of my cards wasn't the first thing I thought of when designing cards and starting my shop, I did design a logo by the time I designed my second or third card.  I later updated my logo after I had Dingbat Press create a logo and business card for the shop.  I'm glad to get confirmation that it helps to get my name out there and that people actually do look at the back of my cards to find us.

Holy Moly - My 3M Thermofax is on it's way!

Yes, I love my Gocco, but sometimes I want a more consistent screen burn or yearn for a larger printing area.  I have invested in a 3M Thermofax machine and it could be in my hands as soon as tomorrow!!!  A Thermofax machine is an old school predecessor to the copy machine.  Copy machines were more reliable for making copies, so these machines were cast aside, often stored in closets and storage rooms for years.  They are now super popular with tattoo artists for creating stencils and for screen printers which has driven the price up on these vintage machines, but they're built like tanks and should last a long time.

The Thermofax, like the Gocco, burns carbon based images onto mesh screen, but does not use flash bulbs that much be discarded after each flash.  The per screen cost should be much lower than that of a Gocco, though eventually the Thermofax's bulb also needs to be replaced.  I believe that the image size can be as large as 8x11 or something close to that, so it's about double the size of a Gocco B6 size image which opens the door to a lot of new possibilities - larger format prints and maybe t-shirts or tote bags with larger images.  Any water based silkscreening ink, which is cheaper than Gocco inks can be used.  Finally, the screens can be cut and mounted onto frames that can be inserted into the Gocco machines or you can use the squeegee method which is sort of leaving the Gocco world behind and entering the more general screenprinting area.

I'm so excited!!  All I need is to find myself a little more time in each day and hopefully I'll be able to come up with new ideas and projects.  =)

Thanks a Million

Baby CP just turned two and celebrated with a much smaller get together this year than last.  Regardless, it was the perfect reason to design and print these new Marquee Light Thank You cards. I'm not sure if I was foiled by old batteries or bad screens, but it took a few attempts at burning the screen to get it just right.

I'm thinking a Yippee or Yay card in the same style would work really well.

Happy Birthday with Confetti

Long weekends tend to be the times when I print new designs and the 4-day July 4th weekend was no exception.  I wanted to design a new birthday card and thought confetti would add a nice touch.  It was a bit difficult to work with the designs because they were so spread out all over the screen.  The gold came out really well, and the blue has that vintage Gocco touch.

Confetti Birthday Card