Vacation!

Just got back from a week at the beach with my bestie, Kendra- had such a great time!  So great, that it was hard to come home!

I haven't done much in the way of crafting for awhile, but am about to get back into it.  Both my Etsy shop and my booth at Top Drawer need some new stock, so I need to get working!  The good news is, my first month at Top Drawer was a success- I made my booth fee plus $2.65- woohoo!  Yeah, $2.65 isn't much, but since I fully expected to lose money my first month, I am thrilled!

Anyway,  I'll be back soon with new stuff!

Boutique Update, and a Few New Things

Hello!  Well, it has been just over 2 weeks since I started my booth at Top Drawer Resale & Boutique , and things are going better than I expected!  Honestly, I did not feel very well prepared for such a venture.  Coming out of my spring craft shows, I did not have a ton of inventory, so with half of it listed in my Etsy shop and the rest at the boutique, I feel like there is not a lot in either place, and I really need to beef up in both.  But of course, with it being the end of the school year, my son graduating high school, etc., there just has not been time for me to get into my craft room and make much new stuff.  Hopefully things will slow down now, and I will be able to get some things accomplished!  I have been experimenting with some new things, and that has been really fun.  One thing I wanted to share is this:

It's an earring holder that I made out of a picture frame, which I crackle painted with a nice deep royal blue base and a light turquoise top coat, and a piece of burlap where the glass would normally go.  Earring wires can be hung on the burlap, and voila- earring holder!  I have wanted to try crackle painting for quite some time, so I experimented on this frame,and it turned out great!  It was really easy too.  I painted the base color (the royal blue) and allowed it to dry completely.  Then I spread a thin layer of plain Elmer's glue and let it only partially dry, and when it was still tacky, painted on the top coat of the light turquoise paint.  As it dries, it gets the crackle effect- totally cool!  I gave it a coat of Mod Podge to finish it off, wrapped some burlap over the frame backing, and there you have it!  My ultimate goal is to try the crackle painting on a piece of furniture, but I want to make sure I have the process down before I do that.

So, I'm just over halfway through the month, and so far, I have sold enough to cover about 3/4 of my booth fee for the month.  To be honest, I did not expect to sell anything my first month, so anything that I do sell surpasses my expectations!  Most of my cards are blank and do not have sentiments on the front, because on Etsy, I customize cards with whatever sentiment a customer wants.  However, I think when people are shopping in a store, they want to buy a card with a sentiment on it, rather than a pretty card with no sentiment on the front.  I simply have not had time to add sentiments to my cards, so I figured they wouldn't sell.  But I have sold a few, so that's great!  I also sold a purse, so that was a nice chunk of the money that has been brought in.  Last week, I made a last-minute effort to make some Father's Day cards, since Sunday was Father's Day.  I took one in on Friday, went home and made several more and brought them in on Saturday morning at opening time.  When I checked back on Monday, I had sold 2 of the Father's Day cards!  Yay!  One thing I have noticed though: all of the cards I've sold there have been the smaller A2 size. I have not sold a single larger (5x7) card yet, and that's mostly what I tend to make.  Maybe it's the pricing- I am thinking of reducing the price on the 5x7 cards by 50 cents and see how they do.  Anyway, for the Father's day cards, I used a new design, which incorporated some of the geometric patterned papers that I used on my friend Matt's card-in-a-box birthday card.  Same basic design on each card, but using different colors and paper.  Here is one of them:

I did versions of this in green and red/tan as well.  The two cards that sold were green and blue.

In addition, I managed to make a card for my dad for Father's Day.  I always have a tough time with masculine cards, and I made his card before I developed the design for the cards above.  I had seen a card on Pinterest that used paper scraps to make a sort of patchwork card, and I liked that idea, so I gave it a try with my dad's card.

I took these photos inside so the light was not great and was a bit too reflective, but the square on the middle left of the card is actually embossed, not printed, with the diagonal stripes.  The lighting and shadows make it look printed though!  Again, I used the same papers I used on Matt's card.  It was fun to do this, since it was different than anything I've done before, but it was a LOT of cutting and adhering, so this design is not one I'd do a lot of in the future.  My dad is worth the effort though!

One more thing to share- I almost forgot about this, but it is sooo cool!  I made so many graduating exploding boxes this year that I got a bit burned out on them, and then had no idea what to do for my son, who was graduating this year.  He has seen so many exploding boxes anyway, that it wouldn't be that impressive.  After checking out some new ideas on Pinterest, I was curious to try out a money holder box card that I found there.  It actually turned out pretty cool!

This is the front.  If I'd had more time, I would have created the closure using a light velcro or maybe a tie of some kind, but since I was making this at 11pm the night before his graduation party, I used temporary adhesive.  I'm actually pretty proud of how it turned out, given how sleep-deprived I was at the time!  Here is the open card/box:

It's flat when it's closed, then it opens up and sort of puffs up into a shallow box.  I glued a panel on the bottom of the inside and wrote a message about how proud we are of Josh, and stuck a $100 bill on top.  I'm not totally sure he even saw the message for being distracted by the money!  Anyway, it's a really cool card, and it fits nicely into a standard A2 envelope.  I'd be curious to try this in a bigger size maybe- it would be cool to not have to fold the money to fit.

Well, that's all for now- I hope to have more to share later!  I really want to get some more stuff in to the boutique, so that will be what I'll be working on in the near future.  See you later!

I did it, aka I must be insane!

As I reported last time, I was looking into having a booth at a cool new consignment shop/boutique.  Well, I did look into it...and I'm doing it!  I think I must have a screw loose to be trying something like this NOW of all times though!  I have a child who will be graduating from high school in 5 days and a middle schooler who has a week and a half left of school, and what that means is that the next week is going to be CRAZY busy.  Not to mention I have a custom graduation exploding box order that I need to finish up, my house is a disaster and we will of course be having people over next weekend for graduation festivities for my son, and that's just in addition to the usual business of life. So, yes, just what I needed- MORE to do!  Well, you know what they say about when opportunity knocks.  It had to be now, because the shop starts their contracts on the first of the month, and that's today.  I spent a couple of hours late yesterday afternoon setting up the bulk of my booth, and am going back today to finish up.  Here's what I've got so far:

It's a small booth- only 3' wide by 2' deep, but lots of height, so I built up!  I had my wonderful hubby build me a L-shaped lattice wall, which we painted white with a soft lavender trim. I went out scouring thrift stores and garage sales for fixtures, and managed to find a collapsible 3-shelf bookshelf and tall sofa table.  The sofa table is on top of the bookshelf, and then I have a small 2-shelf unit in between the two.  My spinning card rack fits just barely between my and Megan's space- that is hers to the left.  The lattice is great- it defines the space, and allows me to hang things from it.  I got a package of nice brushed metal shower curtain hooks, and they hook through the lattice so that things can hang from them.  Right now I've got some purses- the owner told us that since it is a shop that sells resale clothing and accessories, we can add those things to our booths as well as our own products.  I went through my closet and found some purses and shoes, and also found a few purses at the garage sales I visited, and hopefully that will help to supplement my sales and help with my start-up costs.  That lattice...it was not cheap, and all I can say is that I really hope this works out!

I have a lot of work yet to do- today I will be working on hanging things on the lattice on the window side.  The window faces a very busy downtown street so there is lots of traffic there, so I want to maximize that space.  It's a little hard to get back in there, so it should be interesting!  The shop is not open for business today, so thankfully I don't have to worry about being in the way of customers, or vice versa.  I also need to work on adding some sentiments to the outside of some of the cards.  I have always left them free of sentiments for the most part, so that buyers on Etsy can choose whatever sentiment they want to be added.  However, I think for a shop like this, people are more apt to buy if it has a sentiment on it.  I unfortunately did not have time this weekend to work on it, so that will have to be a task for later.  (Much later, with the way my week is looking.)  Longer term, I plan to make some higher-end products, like exploding boxes, never-ending cards, and other novelty cards, as I think that will help draw interest.  However, right now I can't see past graduation weekend, so I'm going with it as-is until I have time to get some more stuff in there.  My big debut is tomorrow- wish me luck!

Maybe a New Direction

Now that the spring craft sales are over, I figured I'd take a bit of a hiatus.  Last year, I was so burned out by late spring, I didn't craft all summer long.  This year is different though-  I still had a lot of stock left last year, so didn't have as much to do for the season this year, so a little less stress.  I've had a lot of custom orders lately, and have enjoyed working on those.  I have a graduating senior this year myself, so you'd think I would be stressed out and unable to create, but it has actually been the opposite- maybe I'm using it as an escape from the stress!  I have been browsing Pinterest a lot lately and finding a lot of new ideas and inspiration, and have a lot of things I want to try.

And that brings me to this- an opportunity to consign in a new local resale consignment shop/boutique.  It has only been open for just over week, but I've been in 3 times already!  It's near my office, so it's easy to go over and browse on my lunch break.  I took my daughter there and she found a great dress for only $10, and I got a purse on the same trip.  They carry mostly clothing and accessories, but also have vendors who rent space and sell everything from jewelry to accessories, candles, bath and body stuff, and even some home decor stuff.  No paper goods though.  They posted on their Facebook page the other day that they had some vendor spaces available, so I messaged them on a whim and asked if they'd be interested in carrying greeting cards, and provided a link to my Etsy shop.  I got a message back that they'd love to talk to me!  I need more of the details first though- I have the cost info but need to find out about how they do payments, what I'd need to do as far as merchandising and pricing and whatnot.  It is a risk, because I'd have to put some money up front, and if my items don't sell, that's money lost. But, I have some funds saved from my spring sale season, so I am thinking about going for it!  My fellow crafter/Salem Etsy Team leader Megan is going to try it- she called me on the same day I heard back from the shop, because she had just been in that day and was really excited about it!  It will be a new experience for both of us- while she has done some wholesale sales to some locals shops, she has never done consignment before,and neither have I. Well, I'm planning on going down there today to get more info and maybe pick up a contract!

In the meantime, I just completed 2 new custom graduation boxes.  One was for a repeat customer- remember this?

I made this one 2 years ago for a local customer, for her niece who lives back east.  She contact me recently because her nephew, the brother of her niece, is graduating this year.  I explained that I am not making the octagonal boxes anymore, but would be happy to make a square one.  She was fine with that, and gave me lots of graphics to include.  Here's the new box:

While I was finishing up this one, I got another order through Etsy.  I was excited for this one, because I got to use colors besides red and/or blue!

Luckily it was a long weekend and I had time to spend on working on both of these!

I also made a card for a friend who has a 50th birthday coming up.  It is a new style- sort of a pop-up card, called a card in a box.  At the risk of having the picture out there before he sees it, here it is:

It was my first card of this style, and it did not go exactly as I expected it to go and does not quite resemble my original vision for it, but it's ok.  I guess I am used to working with the 4x4 exploding boxes, and this is smaller- when it's "popped out" like this, the box itself measures 3x2.75.  So some of the ideas I had weren't possible because they didn't fit.  Also I had trouble with putting the embellishments in in a way that they didn't obscure the layer behind them.  Oh well, live and learn!  Here is what it looks like when it's folded flat:

The other side (not pictured) is pretty  much the same, but I left a panel blank to write a message on.  This measures 6x6 when folded flat, so it fits well into the 6.5x6.5 square envelopes I have in stock for never-ending cards.

As I said, I have been looking at lots of new card designs, and want to try making more of these novelty-type cards.  I sell a few of the regular cards from time to time, but not much, so I'm thinking it's time to try a new direction.  If I end up being a vendor at this consignment shop, it's a great time to try some new stuff!  Also, my thought is that since I will have to pay a monthly rental fee, I will need to move some inventory, and if I can carry some of these types of cards that people are willing to pay more for than a standard card, that will help me cover the costs.

Gallery of Exploding Boxes

From time to time, a prospective customer will ask to see examples of exploding box designs that I've done in the past.  I have posted most of them here in the past, but since they are scattered around, I thought it would be easier to put them all in one post that I can direct people to if they want to see some of my past work.  Think of these as examples only- most of my work is custom, so I am tailoring a product to the particular person who is ordering it.  I prefer to work with each individual customer on the design of the box they are ordering so that I know that they are getting exactly what they want.

First up: a zebra-print box for a pre-teen girl:

This was the very first exploding box I made!  It was for a friend of my daughter who was having a birthday.  Her favorite colors were turquoise and purple and she loved animal prints.  I had my daughter give me cute one-word descriptions of her friend, and printed them for the inside panels, along with a Happy Birthday message.  My daughter made the origami box in the center to hold an ornament with her friend's name on it, since her birthday was just before Christmas.

This is my first graduation box, apart from the prototype that I never took pictures of.  When I got the idea to do a graduation box with a lid that looked like a graduation cap, I researched ways to make the box appear more round, like a real hat.  That led me to experiment with making an 8-sided box that, while VERY dramatic in presentation, is more labor-intensive than it is worth, and as such, I do not make these anymore.  More about the decision to discontinue those here.

And here is another one.  The student that this one was for was a varsity swimmer, and I was asked to incorporate that somehow into the box.  I found a swimmer graphic for that.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the look of these, I really do!  They are SO much work though.  If I charged what it actually cost me to make them in terms of supplies and labor, they would be so expensive, no one would buy them.  That is why ultimately I transitioned to offering the square graduation boxes only.

Here is one of those:

And another:

And another recent one.  For this one, it was requested that I add some graphics to represent the personal interests of the student, who is an avid reader, had authored her own book, and planned to pursue a veterinary career.

I used a book graphic, and as the students' mom requested, I even added the name of the book that her daughter wrote to the cover.  Other graphics include a veterinarian symbol and the high school logo.

(Now, having looked over the last few graduation boxes I've done, I'm wondering if there are any schools out there that have school colors other than red and/or blue?!)

This one is a repeat customer- she purchased the red/blue octagonal box a couple of years ago for her niece.  Now her nephew is graduating, and I made this for her:

This one had more personalization in it than any other box I've done!  Her nephew is quite an active guy: he swims, plays soccer and tennis, loves music and Colombia, so she wanted all of those things represented, in addition to the symbols for his high school and the college he will be attending.  Boy, was it a challenge for me to incorporate all of that!  I did it though, and I think she is happy with it!  Here's a close-up:

And, finally, I got an order for a graduation box that is NOT red or blue!  I was so excited to work on this one!   No custom graphics on it, just school logos, so pretty straightforward, and I was able to complete it in a couple of days.

Incidentally, those were my high school colors as well, though it has been a loooonnnggg time since I was in high school!  Nowadays, when I see orange and black, I think of the Oregon State Beavers!

Here's another one that is a little different.  The graduate is headed to Harvard for college- wow!  Her mom, who purchased the box, asked that the center layer be crimson, which is Harvard's color.  I wanted to use the Harvard logo in this box, but their PR page was pretty specific that that was not allowed, so I just used the red, and added sentiments that her mom asked for.  She also wanted a blue lid instead of the black, because that's the color of the high school's graduation caps.

Now here's one that is a little bit different.  Not only are the colors ones that I have never used before in a graduation box (hooray for something other than red or blue!) but the customer wanted to have a holder for rolled up cash bills.  At first, I thought she meant standing up rolled bills, so was thinking of making a tube, similar to a toilet paper tube that the rolled bills could stand up in.  She wanted the rolled bills to lay down though, so I suggested a shallow box to lay them in.  She was happy with that idea!  In order to fit the box, I had to remove the inside layer of the box, so it only contains the larger two layers.

Here you can see the box in the center, where the rolled bills would lay.

I liked this project, because it was something different!  I think the customer liked it too.  I really enjoy making products that exactly match what the customer expects- their happiness is my ultimate goal!

New for the class of 2015.  Since I got a Silhouette Cameo for Christmas, I have revamped my design, and the layers now lay much nicer together!  See the 5th one down and beyond for examples.

Here is the first one I made with my new Silhouette Cameo. Notice how the inner layers now lay exactly diagonally instead of just barely offset.

This next one was one where I contacted the university to ask for permission to use the logo, but they never responded.  Sadly, this is not uncommon.  The customer suggested using the heart graphic, and I also used a dimensional graduation cap sticker on the front panels.

 This is another one that I had to use non-university related graphics.  I emailed the licensing office to ask permission to use the logo, but after 2 days I had not heard back, and as this was a time-sensitive order, I had to proceed without it.  I used some general graduation graphics instead, as well as a font that is close to the one used by the university on their website, and I think it still came together nicely.  Ironically, the day after I shipped the order, I got an email back from the licensing office, but of course it was too late to do anything then. My customer seemed happy with what I came up with anyway.

 I really like this next one- the customer asked me to make the lid green, because the actual graduation caps that the students wear are green.  This is only the second one I have made a non-black lid- I like it!

Now, onto some of the more creative boxes.  Last year, while poking around in the floral section at Michael's, I stumbled upon these cute little terra cotta plant pots that are just 2.5 inches high or so.  Adorable!  I wondered if I could create a little flower arrangement in one and put it in the center of an exploding box.  This was my first experiment with that:

I put a variety of different flowers in this pot, and also added a "floating" butterfly and dragonfly, which are attached to thin strips of acetate.  Not pictured is a little sign that I stuck in the pot that said "Happy Easter".  I just sold this box a few weeks ago at the Jane Austen Faire- the woman who bought it said she was going to her sister's for Easter and planned to bring it there.

This was my next garden box.  I decided I wanted to go with a theme, and picked daisies, because I had some lovely yellow and blue daisy paper.

I love this one!  I will tell you, though, those daisies took FOREVER to make!  There are at least a dozen in that pot, all individually made with a daisy punch and mini-pompons that I had to ink with yellow pigment ink, then hot-glued to a floral wire.  Love the result though!  I sold this box last year at our Salem Etsy Team spring sale, for a Mother's Day gift.

This one was a custom box, requested by a frequent buyer for his girlfriend's birthday:

 

For this one, I was asked to make it in reds and pinks, and that was all the instruction I received.  I came up with the rose theme on my own, based on those colors.  Like the daisy box, the roses in this one were quite a lot of work.  These were made with a 3D rose die, which punches out a sort of a spiral shape that you then coil to form the flower, then hot glue to keep them intact.  They are very small- only about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch wide each.  They are hot-glued to floral wire for the stems, and again, there are at least a dozen in this box.  I really like how it came out though, and more importantly, my customer did too!

This is a Mother's Day box that I made in 2013 but didn't list in my shop until recently:

This one is much simpler than the ones with the pot, still pretty though.

And this is my most recent creation.  This one is brand new for Spring 2014:

This mum-themed box was inspired by the colorful washi paper with the mum pattern on it.  I love washi paper- it is one of my favorite mediums to work with, but I've never used it in an exploding box before.  This was one of those ideas that came to me and I just HAD to make it!  I have to say that it turned out at least as well as I had imagined it.  I used the mum paper on both the outside of the box and on the middle layer of the inside.  On the larger inside panels, I used a mum embossing folder to create the nice textured panels that you see in green.  There are a couple of blue 3d mums on the inside layer, along with two panels with "Happy Mum's Day" text- since, you know, Mother's Day is coming up.  (Clever, right?)  Finally, the pot of mums in the center.  These are made by layering different sized punched daisies together.  I used larger flowers than in the daisy box, so there are fewer in this one- just 3 larger flowers, and 4 smaller ones, but the effect is still a nice, full bouquet.

This is a recent custom order that I made for a customer who tracked me down at the Jane Austen Faire last month.  She remembered me from the previous year and wanted to find me to order a custom box for her daughter's 18th birthday.  Her daughter is in the military and likes the color turquoise, is not a girly-girl, is athletic, and loves to read.  This is her box:

This one is different that my usual style, but that is OK- I enjoy doing something different!  The customer who purchased this is very happy with it and feels that it reflects her daughter's personality well.

A Mother's Day box, for a mom who is into Tae Kwon Do:

I mixed some pretty red washi paper in with the martial arts imagery to soften the look a bit and make it pretty.  Every mom needs some pretty on Mother's Day!

Another floral box using Japanese washi paper:

And here's something new- an exploding box with a gift card holder in the center!

This next one was a custom order for a customer who wanted to send a nice gift to a friend, who is a hard working FT working mom of a toddler.  Boy, do I remember what THAT was like!  She sent me photos of her friend and her family to be incorporated into the box, and wanted bright, cheery colors like orange and yellow.  I chose this Chiyogami washi paper because it had just the right colors and is very cheerful.  I think it turned out great!

Here is a recent custom order for a Valentine exploding box.  I worked very closely with the customer, as she had a lot of very specific things she wanted to include.

As you can see, there was a lot of text that I was asked to incorporate, and I got to really test out my Silhouette Studio software!  I learned a lot by doing this project- as the ideas came to me, I researched how to create what my mind was seeing, and in the process learned things I had not known before.  That is what I love about custom orders- they really make me think outside the box (pun intended!)  This one had some neat things- word wrapping around a shape, some cool polygon fill effects, and it was another opportunity to make word collages, like I did in a previous project.  The feedback I got from the customer when she saw the photos was very positive.

Here are some highlights from the graduation season 2017:

 Note the new cash holder that I added this year! (2017) It has been pretty popular!

Also this year, I am expanding to add customized wedding exploding box cards! This is the first- I made it for a wedding I am attending, and it is made in the couple's wedding colors. I also included a quote and bible verse that they included on their invitation. I am really excited about this one, because I got to try adding reactive foil accents! It's hard to see in the photos, but the gold paper is a shimmery gold, and the panels that are printed in gold are the ones with the foil.

These are not the only boxes I've made- there have been others, mostly graduation boxes,that are similar in style to the ones I've shown here.  I've also done a couple of holiday-themed ones, but I am still working on that concept, so haven't yet made one that I'm ready to put "out there".    Anyway, my goal here was to have a gallery of examples of boxes that I can easily point customers to when they want to see what else I've done.  Hope you've enjoyed browsing!