🔗 xTool M2 Laser + Print + Rotary

✨ Supplies:
→ Color MDF Boards
→ Keychains & Clasps
→ xTool Primer Spray for Printing
→ UV Resin
→ Faux Leather Sheet
→ Bookmark Tassels
→ Bookmark Cellophane Bags

If you are walking into a market or craft show with no plan, I promise you — you are about to spend a full day setting up and standing there and barely cover your booth fee. I’ve been doing this for 12 years and trust me, if you want to make some actual money at one of these things, you’re going to need products that are made to sell and are priced to move.

So, whether you are short on time or want to challenge yourself like I do, let me show you exactly how I used ONE machine to make over seven hundred dollars worth of products in 24 hours.

Let’s dive in!

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Today I am doing something I genuinely love — prepping for a live market – Cat Fest! A fully cat-themed market event, and yes, I am extremely excited about this one. I travel across Colorado so I can be at each one, every year.

But time is scarce, so I wanted to run a challenge. One machine. Twenty-four hours. As much sellable products across as many categories as I could make.

Now — the machine I’m working with for this challenge is the xTool M2.

My xTool M2 has a 10-watt diode laser head AND a print head. Laser and full-color print, from one machine.

And I picked three products today specifically to show you what that combination can actually do.

But before I cut a single piece of anything, we need to know the math. Because if you skip the math, you are just making pretty things and hoping. And hope is not a business strategy.

For any market, I run three tiers.

Impulse buys: under fifteen dollars. These are the grab-without-thinking products.
Anchor items: fifteen to thirty-five dollars. This is what they come back to after they’ve walked the whole show.
And what is now known as hero products: forty dollars and up. Not everyone buys, but everyone sees it, and that is what makes your booth look like a real bougie business.

For this challenge, we’re just going to worry about those Impulse Buys and Anchor items. It’s what moves the fastest, so it’s what we need the most of.

Time to start that timer!

Cat Keychains

If you think people don’t buy keychains, you are incorrect.

These are not sad little rectangles. These are fun laser-cut cat shaped, tiny paws, adorable little takeaways that move fast.

My material cost is:
18 cents for the keyring and clip
18 cents for the little tassel thing
About 25 cents for the laser cut pendant

61 cents total!

I’m going to be pricing these at $5 each or 2 for $8.

I can run multiples of these at a time on one sheet of wood or colored mdf, my favorite!

At a market full of cat people, these leave the table before I finish setting up. They’re a miniscule, non-lifechanging amount of money – for the customer.

But sell enough of these, and my $150 table cost is covered.

I made fifty of these. If I sold them all, that’s $250. Being realistic, I probably won’t sell all 50, but even half would be $125.

PLUS, chances are a percentage of the people who buy a keychain will buy something else. So let’s make something else!

Printed Wood Earrings

One of the coolest things about the xTool M2 is the print head. It’s what really differentiates is from literally every other laser out there. AND it’s 1000% less of a hassle then having a uv or dtf printer.

It’s just a simple printer. To replace the ink cartridge seems high at about $100, but when you make strategic products with it, you’ll be making plenty of money once the time comes to replace it.

So, let’s make some printed cat earrings! Really simple to make and easy to sell fast.

Here’s the secret sauce though – xTool makes a wood prep spray specifically designed to work with the print head. You spray it onto your wood, let it dry, and then the print head lays full-color art directly onto the wood surface.

This prevents the water-based inks to spread throughout the grains of wood and stick exactly where you want it.

Once everything is printed, I quickly replace the print head with the laser head and cut the shapes out. Cat faces. Cat silhouettes. A ton of fun!

Here’s how we add a whole bunch more value to these earrings. First, seal with UV resin.

This will make that print last a lifetime. It will resist hairspray, sweat, all sorts of stuff.

Then stick on some studs or hooks, and you’re ready to party!

Here’s the thing about earrings at themed markets. Cat people wear cat things. Earrings are a wearable souvenir, and at fifteen dollars a pair they sit perfectly in that “I’ll treat myself” zone where people don’t have to think about it, they just hand the money over. This is on the lower end of the “anchor” item we talked about a while ago.

It’s not something that will break THEIR bank, but will certainly start adding up for us.

So the working price for these vary by size and type of findings you use to make the charm into a jewelry piece. Even at $2 give or take, a $15 selling price is amazing and covers your labor, as well as the materials and ink used.

I made twenty pairs. That’s $300. Not bad.

Faux Leather Cat Bookmarks

This is a machine that most people think of as a “wood laser.” And it absolutely is great at wood. But here’s what nobody tells you — this 10-watt diode also cuts and engraves faux leather. Cleanly. Beautifully. And the result looks completely different from anything else in your booth.

This is a faux leather cat bookmark. I cut the shape and engraved the design in one pass. Added a tassel at the top. Clean back. No burning, no rough edges, no weird smell. Just a really nice product.

Here’s why I chose bookmarks specifically for this event. Cat people are readers. It is not even a stereotype at this point, it is a demographic fact.

And you will find no matter which market YOU are getting ready for, you’ll run into a reader. Or a cat person, dog person, family person, someone who loves the color blue, these are all just universal truths.

I priced these at eight dollars each. The cost of the tassel was 4 cents, and the faux leather sheet was only about $6 and I can make more than 10 bookmarks with it, but let’s just say 60 cents.

I made 20 of them. That’s $160 in product value.

But here’s the fun part, especially if you think I can’t get $8 for a quick little bookmark.

Packaging. The xTool M2 makes more than a product. It’s a whole little branding machine, tool.

With this plain natural cardstock, I’m going to print a fun background with my working logo for my latest brand – Unhinged Cat Lady.

Now we switch the head to the laser and cut them all out.

I got these little cellophane bags. Package it all up and now we’ve got ourselves a product.

Now it has even more value for about 15 cents of packaging material. Perfect for gifting, perfect for building trust and a brand image that shows you make products NOT crafts. And you can charge more for products.

THE REVENUE MATH REVEAL

Alright. Let’s do the math.

Fifty keychains at $5: $250
Twenty pairs of earrings at $15: $300
Twenty bookmarks at $8: $160

Total product value created in 24 hours: $710.

One machine. Three materials — wood, printed wood, faux leather. Three price points. that are priced to fly off your table.

Now, will I sell ALL of that at Cat Fest? No. I never expect to sell out. But if I move 50% of that inventory, that’s $350. And at a themed market where every single product is made for the exact person walking through the door? I can probably hit that. Even if 25% of these sell, I’ll have my table fee covered, and I do plan on bringing a lot more than just these 3 things.

The best part of this challenge, by far, was it didn’t actually take me 24 hours to complete all these. More like 6. And when one thing is cutting out, I’m putting tassels on a keychain. When I’m waiting for studs to dry on some earrings, I’m putting tassels on a keychain… I made a lot of keychains.

Here’s what I actually took away from this challenge. And it is not really about the machine — even though the machine is the creative hero here.

It’s about having three different material capabilities in one setup. Three different textures. Three different aesthetics. Three different reasons for shoppers to stop and check out my booth.

The xTool M2 is really awesome and a super entry level, inexpensive choice to kick off your laser business journey! I’ve got a link down below, so click that and see the incredible price and other amazing things this laser is capable of!

In fact, I go over 15 other profitable product ideas you can make in THIS POST.

You can ask more questions about in the comments below or in my free community called the Laser Lair! Come hang out with me, get additional business training and become part of a growing group of laser enthusiasts.

Thank you so much, and happy crafting!