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Here are some decoration ideas:
The best part about selling coasters, is the opportunity to offer them in sets. You can set up coaster “packages” with large quantities having a slight discount. This will encourage customers to buy more.
Cork is a popular coaster material because it’s lightweight, durable, easy to store, and if it’s dropped – it won’t break! And the best part as a decorator – it’s cheap!
Heat Transfer Vinyl is the best way to decorate cork coasters because it has great adhesion and you can do it right in the comfort of your own home.
Triton Heat Transfer Vinyl is a premium brand of vinyl that comes in tons of different colors and weeds super easily. It can be used with a hobby cutter like a Cricut or a professional-grade cutter like the Graphtec ce700.
Now, adhesive vinyl is another way to decorate cork coasters. This method doesn’t require the use of a heat press so it can be a more affordable way to get started. However, adhesive vinyl is not as durable and long-lasting. It also has a very “sticker-like” look.
Another convenient advantage of Triton HTV is it doesn’t have to sit under the heat press for very long.
Here are the steps we took to decorate cork coasters with Triton Heat Transfer Vinyl:
1. Place your coasters on the bed of your heat press and carefully place your weeded transfers on top.
2. Put a finishing sheet on top and heat press the coaster with medium pressure at 300 degrees for 25 seconds.
3. The cork does hold some heat, so you will want to let it cool a little bit before taking the vinyl’s carrier sheet off.
4. After you take the carrier sheet off, place a flexible finishing sheet on top of the coasters and heat press them again at 300 degrees for 5 seconds.
[We recommend the flexible finishing sheet for this final press because it will give the vinyl more of a cork-like texture.]
You can get 80 of these blank cork coasters on Amazon for $16.99.
Based on the price of $33.95 for a 15-yard roll of Triton Vinyl, we estimated each of these monogram decals would be about $0.30.
This means each monogram cork coaster is going to cost you about $0.51 to produce.
Blank Coaster ($0.21) + Vinyl Transfer ($0.30) = $0.51
After a quick online search, we found that cork coasters usually sell around $30 for a set of 6.
If we sold these monogram cork coasters (in the video above) as a set of 6 for $30, we would make an easy and quick profit of $26.94.
Cost to produce each coaster = $0.51 X 6 coasters = $3.06
(Retail value) $30 – (Cost to produce) $3.06 = $26.94
Custom home décor, like cork boards, are another unique way to utilize cork and heat transfer vinyl. You can use vinyl to make calendar or schedule templates on them or decorate them with names or fun designs.
There are some other ways you can make your own custom coasters, like with sublimation, white toner transfers and UV printing. These technologies also allow you to decorate more than just cork coasters. Let’s talk about some of the different things you can do with these printers.
UV Printing gives you the freedom to print directly on virtually anything that fits on the bed of the printer. This technology uses UV-LED lights to instantly dry the ink as soon as it’s applied to the object.
The cool part about UV printing coasters, is that they don’t need to have a smooth surface. For example, we were able to print on porous stone tile coasters, with the Compress iuv600. This would be impossible to do with heat transfer vinyl because the vinyl would just sit on top of the holes.
Another advantage of this machine is that you can fit tons of coasters on the bed of the printer at one time AND (if you want) print something different on each one of them, all in one pass!
This is also a digital printing system so you can customize coasters with photos and aren’t limited to just letters.
Sublimation differs from UV printing in the sense that you aren’t printing directly onto your object. The sublimation process involves printing your design onto a special transfer paper and then heat applying it to the coaster.
The sublimation toner then dyes the fabric on the coaster, so there is no hand feel.
The catch – the coaster must have a special polyester coating. Blank sublimation coasters are going to come in very limited styles, but you can find some at bestblanks.com
Sublimation is also a digital printing system, so you can print colorful logos, portraits and more.
DigitalHeat FX is like sublimation, because you will print your design onto a transfer paper that will later be heat applied on the coaster. The transfer’s created by the DigitalHeat FX System are also referred to as white toner transfers.
These transfers are extremely versatile, and they can be applied to a ton of different substrates.
Here are a few of the coaster types that can be decorated with white toner transfers:
One disadvantage to white toner transfers is that when heat presses, they require even pressure to adhere properly. So, coasters with porous or rough surfaces can be tricky to decorate. These types of coasters would be better suited for UV printing.
Now that you know a few ways to start making your own coasters, you have to determine which technology is best for starting or expanding your business.
Heat Transfer Vinyl is a very affordable way to start making monogram or initial coasters. Vinyl cutting systems also have a low learning curve, so it’s easy to get started. Heat Transfer Vinyl is also a popular way to create simple t-shirt designs.
Sublimation printing and the DigitalHeat FX System are great ways to expand your vinyl business or get your customization business started. You can offer items to your customers, like t-shirts decorated with photographs and other digitally printed promotional goods.
UV Printing is a great way for t-shirt or hobby printers to start getting serious about promo goods. With a UV Printer, you can create custom tiles, canvases, signs, phone cases, golf balls, and more.
The best way to figure out which system is right for you is to live chat with one of our pros. So visit, ColDesi.com to learn more.
