Custom Roller Derby Team Necklaces

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If you've been following along for a bit, you know I'm a retired rollergirl. My very good friend and I founded the Jet City Rollergirls league in 2006.

It was one of my best life choices. We created a community of camaraderie and inclusion. Especially within our own "home" teams. My team is the Camaro Harem. The "Harem" celebrated a championship victory this season.  

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The captains wanted to give a season end gift to the team and asked me to help by creating team necklaces. 

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My former teammate saw the necklace I had on at a bout and thought it would be a good season end gift. 

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We're not huge fans of using acrylic because of the smell that it creates when it's cut. But it is a must for certain projects. I personally added chain to each necklace so the total length was approximately 20" inches. Not too long, not too short. 

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John designed the stacked layout with a Harem star, because it was just too long to put on one line. Plus the font was much smaller. This stacked version is easy to read and looks really great and similar to the team's current logo. 

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I absolutely loved this project, I love how they turned out. Of course it was close to my heart and very special. 

Lasers and love - Thea 

Small Batch Manufacturing - Pinoy Stitch

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While we do have our own retail line, we also do a lot of small batch manufacturing for other companies. Small batch manufacturing is a cost effective way for companies to test their product out on the market. Especially handmade makers, where many of us have other employment commitments, makers that are just starting up or like us, makers that take pride in American made products. 

A great example of that is Pinoy Stitch's DIY Slide Tin Trinket Box and DIY Circle Pendants. 

Pinoy Stitch provided us with their vision and artwork and through a small testing process we created components for their products. Personally I am a needlework fan (junkie) so I've been  excited about their product development and the end result of course!

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We're proud to produce components for such a great idea!

To grab a DIY Slide Tin Trinket Box or DIY Circle Pendant for yourself please visit Pinoy Stitch!

Lasers and love - Thea

(Photos by Pinoy Stitch - used with permission.) 

Japanese Mon

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We recently had a request to make some family reunion keepsakes. They really wanted to have something simple and nice that their family members would actually use and display. Rather than just another t-shirt. The asked us to engrave their family mon onto ornaments with a little commemorative message on the reverse side. 

Japanese mon are the equivalent of European's family coat of arms. An emblem to represent the family. Japanese mon have great clean lines and shapes. The designs translate so well when it's engraved.

They turned out beautifully. What a great family reunion gift to give to an entire family! It was also a unique project for us. We do a lot of private label and manufacturing work as well as our retail line. It was fun to work with a family who wanted to present a thoughtful gift to their family. 

Lasers and love - Thea 

A Little Party Never Killed Nobody - Custom Art Deco Cake Topper

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First, I hate that I just quoted a Fergie song BUT it was a big song in the recent connotation of The Great Gatsby movie. It's hard to shake it. 

Gatsby represents the roaring 20's with art deco architecture and design splashed everywhere. It is a long time personal favorite era of mine. Gimme that, art deco design and patterns, loud music, gold on black accents, flapper dresses and lots of liquor. Sounds like the perfect theme for a wedding! We recently had the pleasure of creating a custom cake topper for such a themed wedding.

Custom design by our customer - engraved and painted by 6 by 6

The groom had readymade custom artwork of their own so this project was a breeze. Clean angles with their initials engraved in the center. We painted it a soft gold tone and coated it with food grade wood oil.

A beautiful heirloom keepsake of their very special day. 

Ah...love. 

With that, I'll leave for now wishing you a wonderful weekend!

Lasers and love -Thea 

Wedding and garden planning!

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While our "plates" have been quite full lately, and we've been managing pretty well! We're so excited to have some new wholesale accounts! A few of them are brand new stores! So exciting!!! What would be typically a slow time during the year has been a busy one for us thanks to that support.

Late night gluing magnets together party!

Wine bottle openers, paint brushes, spoons and a shot glass = evidence from working late at night.

We also have the added bonus of preparing for our own wedding later this year. Being creative people, we of course can't just settle for readymade anything. We created our own save the dates. We are currently designing our own wedding invitations and programs. We're trying to enlist as many of our fellow makers and small business owners for the things we need for the wedding. I'm very excited to be doing it this way. I will admit that I did buy a store bought dress. I had the crazy idea to make my own. But I came to my senses and realized that I wouldn't have time to actually do it. Nice thought though! 

We made our own save the dates! This is a shot of our envelopes laser cut out of weighted cardstock from French Paper Co.. This is our go-to for simple envelope design.

We also have domestic family stuff too. I've been a long time avid gardener (I only grow food well!) So like I do every time around this year I plan out our garden and start seeds. We've had quite the boost with the early warm weather already hitting us here in the PNW.

Wildflower seeds gifted to us by Native Ideals for Montana. 

Wildflower seeds gifted to us by Native Ideals for Montana. 

I typically only focus on growing food. I do have flowering trees & shrubs and flowers for pollinators around the yard. But we were so kindly gifted some wild flower seeds from Native Ideals (their based out of Montana) I have to plan on including them in the garden this year! Their artwork on their seed packets are simply amazing! 

That pretty much catches you all up to date with us. At least for the next 24 hours! We are headed to Central Washington this weekend for some domestic stuff but I'll still post any interesting or ridiculous things we encounter on our Instagram. 

Lasers and love - Thea

Demo Sign - The Lettermate

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A few months ago Kimberly from The Lettermate contacted us hoping we'd do a small project for her company. Some simple trade show signage. It was a simple job and the end result looked great!

We actually had the opportunity to meet Kimberly in San Francisco at the Renegade Craft Fair at Fort Mason. She was so super nice and her show display looked awesome. (I unfortunately do not have those photos handy at the moment.)

We were totally thrilled that she hit us up again for a large scale version (15" x 12") of her product for teaching purposes in her instructional classes! Oh, in case you're wondering what exactly The Lettermate is, its an awesome hand lettering tool for addressing snail mail envelopes. We will be picking up a couple for our own wedding next year. A few of you fellow Pinterest junkies might have seen The Grommet sharing info about The Lettermate.

Like our work - The Lettermate is made in the USA!

We love projects like this! It doesn't hurt that the lady behind The Lettermate is pretty stellar too! 

Lasers and love - Thea 

Coming Soon From Our Friends At Bread And Badger!

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As I've mentioned before, one of the best side effects of being in the laser cutting business is doing work for friends! We're so excited to share a couple projects that we recently did for our friends at Bread and Badger!!!

Bread and Badger - Ornaments & Pendants

Bread and Badger's sandblasted mugs, glassware, jewelry and gifts - feature some really fun designs. Probably most notable is their "I like it here" state(s) design. I actually bought John a Washington State "I like it here" travel mug. He drove up from Oregon every weekend for a few months before we got engaged. As a couple, John and I have a shared love for their work. Also, the family behind the company are some pretty cool people. 

They've also been a part of the PNW maker scene for quite sometime. I've often vended at the same shows with them with my other business. Their brand is very familiar to me and my friends. I know at least 3 people with the narwhal glass. Because everyone needs a narwhal glass! I considered it a complete honor when Bread and Badger asked us to manufacture a couple new products for them! Pendants, ornaments and magnets! Featuring many of the their most popular designs.

We laser cut and engraved their designs into this beautiful lightweight (fantastic smelling) USA alder wood. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for their launch on their site. Also this is a great opportunity for me to remind everyone that while we can do engraving on glassware, we prefer not to. It's just not our area of expertise. We recommend Bread and Badger for your custom drink ware needs. They are top notch. 

Lasers and love - Thea

Game On

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Well, I wrote out a great blog post and Comcast crapped out on me and didn't save that amazing post. Ahh, I guess it wasn't meant to be. Alas, I wanted to share what we've been up to lately. While I do wish it was gaming. (I'm personally eagerly awaiting the Final Fantasy 7 remake!!!) But we've been producing new works as well as custom items. Like these large laser cut and engraved chess and game piece wall decor:

Custom Phoenix Shield

Custom Phoenix Shield

Black and White Knights. 

Black and White Knights. 

They turned out pretty great. They were hand painted and laser cut and engraved. A fairly simple design but really awesome. 

Speaking of games...have I mentioned that we have a new Critical Hit design? In addition to our original Script style we now offer our Modern Block style for our Critical Hit signs. Available in ten colors! I'm a little sweet on the red:

Well back to work! We picked up a handful of beautiful reclaimed maple wood sheets that are calling to be laser cut and engraved into something awesome. 

Lasers and love (8 bit heart love), Thea 

Stem

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Recently we had a great opportunity to do some custom work for Stem a company based in Millbrae, California. Stem creates solutions that are changing the way energy is used and distributed. More about the amazing things they do are available to read here. Pretty fantastic.

We were asked to create a large company sign for their corporate headquarter's office. They chose bamboo as their material of choice for the sign. The results were fantastic. 

Photo by Stem, Inc. 

Photo by Stem, Inc. 

Photo by Stem, Inc.

Photo by Stem, Inc.

We're tickled to see our work out in the wild. But this one is a little bit more special due to the company it was for. 

Lasers and love - Thea

Will you be my Palentine?

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2015 opened with a stream of custom work requests for us.  We recently created a custom "Happy Palentine's Day" sign for a customer.

Our customer throws an annual "Palentine's Day" party for her friends. Which is a totally awesome idea!

There's still a bit of time left to have a custom love sign made for your sweetie or for your friends for Valentine's Day. Just shoot us a request if you're interested. 

Lasers & Love - Thea

Custom Trade Show Display Pieces - Melanie Casey

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Since our inception last May, we had a specific business plan about what products we wanted to provide. What we didn't plan on was the great opportunities we've had to manufacture customized items for fellow makers. 

Recently we had a request for a more elaborate display piece. Melanie Casey is fine jeweler  based in Boston Massachusetts. She is participating in the NYNow trade show later this month and needed some display signage for her booth display. 

Her logo is simple and quite elegant.  The feathered tail required fine laser work. 

Gorgeous detailing that suits her line. It was a fun project for us. As well as great discovery into a fellow maker's fine work. 

Lasers & Love - Thea

handmade. la conner

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One of the biggest surprises we've had after buying our Epilog Laser, was being approached by a handful of our fellow artists to do packaging and business related items for their businesses.  Oddly, that wasn't a consideration with our original business plan. It's definitely been a really fun learning experience and something we really enjoy.

handmade. la conner is one of those companies. Now to start I will admit that I am a wee bit biased for the following reasons. Number 1: Robyn makes THE best lotion balls. Period. I love them they work really well. I'm like an unsolicited walking advertisement for them. She makes other really great items that I can praise too. But the lotion balls are my personal favorite.  Number 2: I had the great pleasure of being next to Robyn at her very first Urban Craft Uprising show with my other company. She was fresh and new on the scene. I was really impressed with her effort and attitude. It was no surprise to me to witness the great growth she's had. Number 3: Her brick and mortar store is in La Conner, Washington. I was born and raised on Northeast Whidbey Island. La Conner is just a hop skip and a jump away from there and it's absolutely beautiful. Robyn's shop compliments the beauty of the town. 

We recently created her new laser engraved business cards on 140 weight cardstock that is made in the USA. 

handmade. la conner

handmade. la conner

We hope that she will give out many as she's getting a bit of attention from Martha Stewart's American Made contest. We've been voting for her and you can too by following this link. 

Lasers & love - Thea