Screen Printing
Screen printing is another animal entirely!
This is something you can do yourself on t-shirts and flat materials if you have a crafty, hands-on streak, but it is messy, limited in color and detail, and can be labor intensive. Screen printing is a process best suited to producing a large number of products at once, since most of the time is spent in set up and clean up.
Screen printing is literally done with a very fine screen, usually of silk, and is also called silk-screening. Onto this screen is applied a layer of photosynthetic goo. A transparency of your design is laid over this, and light is applied. Where the light hits, the photosynthetic stuff becomes a solid barrier. Where the light was prevented from shining by the lines of your design, the screen is still permeable. After setting, the screen is rinsed, and ready to use. It is important to note that very fine detailed lines do not work as well as bold, clean line-work for a procedure like this.
The screen is put tight against the material you will be printing on, and ink is put on the exposed side of the screen. The ink is squeezed through the tiny holes in the screen wherever the screen is still exposed, with a squeegee and a long even stroke with plenty of pressure. When the screen is lifted away, the ink remains on the material in your design.
For more than one color to be applied, there must be a screen for each separate color, and the material must dry thoroughly between each layer.
Screen printing can be applied to just about any kind of cloth, and also to plastics and some metals. Because of the intensive set-up, jobbing this kind of work out often comes with minimum orders. 144 is a common starting number, though screen-printing services are usually commonly available locally and often will be flexible (if more expensive) with smaller orders.
Bookmarks
Bookmarks, like magnets and stickers, are a low-cost item that allows customers to own a useful piece of art without investing a lot of money. This makes them a popular sales item.
As with everything else, there are a number of ways to make your own bookmarks. The easiest is just to print your work on a heavy cardstock and cut it down to shape. This, of course, probably won’t hold up very well over time. One step further is to buy pre-made bookmark sleeves, which are basically plastic bags to slip over your bookmark-shaped print to protect it.
A very slick-looking option is to print your work onto good, high-resolution print paper and laminate it. I laminate mine with 5 mil lamination for a sturdy, quality feel.
If you are not willing to purchase a heat laminating machine or job out your lamination, there are several sizes and brands of self-adhesive lamination available. Large office supply stores often carry these packages. A great tip for applying these sheets: do not attempt to put them down on top of your work. The sheets are very flexible, and wrinkles develop extremely easily. Peel off the backing and lay the lamination sheet sticky side up, then rest your work on top of it and press flat.
To finish a laminated bookmark, radiused (curved) corners look classy, disguise minor cutting imperfections and remove the sharp corner as a weak point most likely to peel or snag on things. You can pick up small, portable corner clippers in the scrapbooking section of a craft store. These are generally not strong enough to punch through two layers of thick lamination and a layer of cardstock, but they can imprint a precise curve that can then be cut by hand with scissors.
It is a simple addition to punch a hole in the top of the bookmark and thread in a pre-made tassel. Tassels are inexpensive in bulk. A ribbon or attractive string could also be substituted if you like the extra dangly bit but aren’t keen on the commercial look of the tassels. Experiment! Maybe your bookmarks could include a beaded dangle, or feathers. The more personal touches you add and the more original each bookmark is, the more value it will have.
Because a bookmark is something that a customer will have and use often, it is your best advertising. Put your URL or contact information attractively in the design, or place it on the back. A simple address label can be used under lamination or inside of a sleeve, or you can print your information on the back. Because it is sometimes tricky to get double-sided printing lined up correctly, consider a repeating design with your web address, name and personal logo.
