Hi First name / friend,

 

I almost hate to say it, but August in underway and the holiday season will be here before we know it! You've likely started planning and prepping for Q4 (or thinking about it!), as have I. It feels a little strange to be cutting out Christmas trees while sunburned, but that's the life we've chosen :) 

 

Now, the last thing I want to do is add something new to what's probably a very full month for you, but I have a question that I just want you to tuck in the back of your mind…have you though about selling SVG files instead? 

 

What if you could trade the masking and peeling and packing and shipping for just a few new products that sell continuously? Christmas file sales can be just as big as Christmas product sales, and my first holiday season after transitioning to digital sales was such a relief. 

 

Ok that's all I'll say for now, but if selling SVGs has been on your mind, hit reply and let's talk through some of your hesitations! It's a perfect time to get started.

 

Already selling SVGs? It's never too early to release holiday files! Challenge yourself to get a new collection listed before the month is over. You've got this!

 

Did you know you could image trace a thin line raster image and expand it to a single stroke for scoring? I had one of those aha moments in Adobe Illustrator this week where I discovered a solution that I've been searching for for so long—and it turned out to be so simple!

 

You might already know about this, but just in case there's anyone like me who's been looking for a centerline trace feature in AI, there's a great way to turn rasterized line art into a single stroke vector for laser scoring using image trace > line art:

 

The key is to expand it after tracing- I hadn't taken that step before which is why I didn't know this existed! There's usually still some cleanup needed, but this line trace feature could save a lot of time vs. hand drawing with the pen/pencil/curvature tool. *Note: this really only works with thin line art like the tumbler above, the thinner the lines, the better!

 

I could see this working well with images from Adobe Firefly, sketches from Procreate, or even filled vector designs that you rasterize within Illustrator first (including thin fonts!). Have you been using this tool to create single line scoring designs for a while? I'd love to hear your best tips!

 

What started out as a bit of a gag gift to turn my sister's Stanley into a keychain ended up morphing into a larger file collection over the weekend—aaand I maybe got a little carried away.

 

I'll be honest, I'm not one for the fancy large water bottle trend (do you like peeing every hour?), but I have plenty of people in my life who love them and I bet you do too! Now you can make an extra personalized keychain, backpack tag or ornament to match their favorite influencer drinkware. Or if you're a tumbler engraver, a matching engraved mini could make a great upsell ;) 

Until next time, happy lasering!

xo,