Another cute freebie from Digital Scrapbooking Freebies!

How cute is this? I actually made a folder in my digi-scap foldrs called “happy and bright” because that is the only category I would put this adorable kit in.

A free kit at digitalscrapbookingfreebies.com

It’s so fun and you can grab it here! They have a new free kit every month and if you sign up for their newsletter they will notify you when it is up (that’s how I found out!)

Have a great Wednesday!

Lindsay

A pirates life for me!

All 3 of my little ones are have birthdays this fall and they all want a pirate party! My twins are having their party this Saturday and here is their invite:

Stamps by Inkadinkado and Inque Boutique, Paper: DCWV

Now I need to get party favors, I have pirate flags and compasses bit I think I may get pink bandannas or some cute pirate wooden necklaces they have for $1 at JoAnns. There is a Vegan chocolate mousse cake recipe in Vegetarian Times this month that I may make in addition to the scull & cross bones cupcakes. If you have any good ideas for party favors leave me a comment, I’d love some ideas!

Marketing Monday: Cash from your crafts!

I’m sure if you are reading this blog you are a fantastic crafter who likes saving money on their addiction…er, I mean..hobby.  Well how about making some money at it too? There are lots of places you can sell your wares. Here are some ideas:

Craft shows: This is the first place that comes to mind for most people. If you can produce a large quantity of stuff for a reasonable price AND you have good people skills give it a try. Generally you pay $10-$50 per table and you can arrange it any way you like. If it is an outdoor show you will also be responsible for providing a tent and your own displays (walls, tables and such). Here are my tips for success:

1. Bring a few “to die for” pieces to draw in the crowd, these would be the the showpiece necklace that took 40 hours to make with a price tag to match. This may not sell but when people see the quality and value of your work they will purchase your earrings and bracelets.
2. Don’t sell your self short, if it took 5 hours to paint a painting let the price reflect that, you are a small business…not a charity. But you can have nice prints or note-cards made of the painting and sell them for less.
3. Have business cards ready and put your contact info on all of your price tags. An email address is fine, no need to have strangers know where you live unless you rent studio space that is open to the public.
4. Demo it! I sell way more cards and painting if someone sees me “at work” plus it beaks the ice if you or your customers are shy about talking about the art. It also brings in a crowd, a plus if the show is slow. You may even get people interested in classes!
5. Research your shows. If one charges $50 it should be well advertised, certain shows bring in a more upscale crowd that will pay  a fair price for quality work..then you have the “plastic canvas” shows.
6. Go to craft shows. See what booths do well and which ones don’t. see how the vendors act, how they display and what they sell. sometimes it’s all about the sizzle!
7. Don’t just sit there! Act like you are having a great time and you want to be there, no one like a sour puss sitting there like a bump on a log. Be excited about your art and others will too. In fact Don’t sit! Take the chair away if you have to, unless you are demoing and need to sit but be doing SOMETHING!

Booth rentals: If you don’t like to “sell” and chat up your work you can rent a booth, stock it and as Ron Ronco says “set it and forget it!” This is great if you have a lot of stuff and no time to work a booth. I rented space in an antiques mall and it worked very well for me. I prefer a strait out rental, you pay a monthly rent plus a small (5%) commission and they handle sales tax and the business stuff for you. You can also join a co-op where you pay a monthly fee and have to work at the shop a couple times a month. Before you go this route make sure you follow these steps:

1. Research, how is the foot traffic in this store. How many customers come through a day? Do they advertise? Will my art sell here?
2. Talk to other vendors. How long have them been there? How much do they sell? they probably won’t say how much in $$ but may tell you how many items sold.
3. Do you make enough stuff to keep the booth stocked?
4. Can you afford the rent? How long are you willing to keep the booth if nothing sells?
5. Do you have the time? You need to add new items and move stuff around in your booth to keep it fresh on a weekly basis for optimum sales.
6. Where in to shop is you booth located? I rented two booths in the same shop. one was 8’x8′ in the middle of the floor. I had freestanding walls, shelves and a table to display my paintings, cards and jewelry. Everyone who came into the store passes by my booth at least once and my stuff sold very well. I closed that booth 2 weeks before my twins were born then reopened one a couple years later in that same shop. The shop’s sales and traffic had increased but the spot I rented was tucked away on the 3rd floor. I saved a few dollars by taking that spot but hardly anyone schlepped up the stairs to see! Many months I didn’t sell enough to pay the booths rent. Location, location, location!

Consignment Shops: If you answered “no” to a couple of the questions above consider consining you work. Consignment shops display your work and if it sells will keep a percentage, often 50%, of the sale price. You can negotiate this percentage though. If having your work in their shop bring them business they should lower their cut.  If you work had been published in a craft magazine, if you have a blog and advertise that shop there ask for a better rate. Once your name gets around you can set your consignment rates. I will not consign my work if  I don’t get to keep 75% of the sale. The upside to this is that if nothing sells you aren’t out any cash. The downside is they decide where your stuff goes in the shop. It may not be their priority to “talk it up” and display it well.

Free promotion: If you have a friend with a store whether it be a pet shop or a hardware store ask if you can put a basket of cards on the counter. You’d be surprised how much you can sell this way and they probably won’t charge you a dime. You can also ask you favorite local craft shop to display some small works for sale, after all the more $$ you make the more you can spend there!

Have Friends be your sales people: I have a friend who is a nurse and I gave her a earring/necklace set for her birthday. She wore it to work and colleagues asked her where she got it. She offered to bring some of my jewelry in to sell. She sold 35 pairs of earrings that week! I put my contact info on a card and attached the earring to the card and slipped each pair into baseball card page protectors in a 3 ring binder and sent them to work with her, she sold out the first day and asked me to bring more down to the hospital!

Good luck in selling your crafts and if you have tips to share leave a comment. I’d love to see your ideas!

Next Monday we’ll talk about selling crafts online.

Till next time, Happy Crafting!

A painting, a card and a template, Oh My!

Heidi-ho there, I had a chance to play with that freebie kit from digital freebies that I linked to yesterday and I came up with this:

Hey, Cupcake!

Here’s how I made it. I opened up a blank 11″x8.5″ document in Paint Shop Pro (but as always you can use Photoshop Elements or whatever image editing software you have). I also opened up the cupcake pattern paper. I cropped the pp choosing the area in the center so as not to get the distressed edges. Then I copied it and pasted it in to my blank document. I moved the pp to the right end of the page and re-sized it so the width was less than half of the blank document. Then I added a drop shadow to the PP. Flatten the layers. I printed out the paper, folded it in half and trimmed the unfolded sides for an even border.  If you only have software that lets you print photos just crop the paper and print it like a photo, trim it and glue it to a blank card for the same effect.

To make the cupcake I cut the bottom out of EK Success Architexture sheet metal (any foil or card stock would be fine too) then I cranked it through my paper crimper and inked it with black Staz-On. I cut the “frosting” out of self adhesive fun foam and added dots of tacky clue and guess what I used for the sprinkles…Baking crystals! Do you remember those? If you were a crafty kid in the 80’s you must have made sun catchers with them, there was a plastic outline and you had to pour the little chunks of plastic in the chambers they belonged in and there would always be that lone red crystal in the yellow section they you couldn’t get out until you knocked the whole thing over and an hour of work went down the drain…I wonder if they still make those? Probably some child welfare group deemed that craft too cruel and put the kibosh to it. My crafty SIL gave me a honkin bag of baking crystals and I never say “no” to crafty junk nobody else wants! But anyway I sprinkled some blue and pink crystals in the glue on the frosting.

I punched a 3/4″ circle and glittered it for the cherry and the scallop border I showed you how to make the other day. I also used a small heart hand punch to add hearts to the scallops…getting a sugar rush yet?

That’s about it! I also made a cherry stem out of a scrap of brown paper. I have print and cut template if you would like it here, and a SCAL version here. The SCAL version will cut best in the blackout mode. Enjoy!

And now for the painting…

Copyright Lindsay Weirich 2008

I couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I had a few hours to myself and I had started and almost finished a painting, well on the kids first day of school I finished it. I mentioned it so that I would have to finish it, kind of like throwing a party because you really need to clean your house, It’s motivating! Thanks for listing to the ramble, have a great weekend!

Lindsay

A cute freebie mini scrapbook kit at Digital Freebies!

Happy Friday! That’s what I thought when I opened my email and saw this cute kit by Amanda Geils as the Friday Freebie at Digital Freebies. You can snag it here. I love the cupcake paper, I may just print it off to use traditionally. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

The Friday Freebie at Digital Freebies!

Make your own paper ribbon & a Freebie!

Don’t you love all of the new deco-edged scrapbook supplies out right now?

Home-made paper ribbon

My favorite is the paper ribbon. Bazzil has “Just the Edge” card stock strips and there is Paper frills by by doodle bug but at $10 a pop it can get pricey especially when you can custom make your own in any color that you want for pennies! Here’s how:

Take decorative edge scissors (everything comes back around doesn’t it, I bet your glad you kept them…or you kicking yourself for purging them from your stash when they became passe) and cut long strips of paper or card stock. Use hand punches to make them “lacy” if desired. Voila paper ribbon! You can also use your cricut to make this. The green and lavender strips I made with my Cricut and SCAL software using a lovely font called “DB Pretty Borders” available at Scrap ‘n Fonts. I got it on sale for a buck, yay! I just chose the border I wanted to cut, re-sized it and hit “Cut” easy peasy. If you don’t have (or don’t wan’t to buy that font you can still make it easily using Cricut Design Studio (trial version or paid version), or SCAL. Here’s how: Open either program and select the shapes option. you will use the George cartridges with the shapes keypad visible or if using SCAL under the font library choose shapes.)

step 1 click on the rectangle and drag it the length of the mat. click weld.

Step 2 click on the circle and keep adding circles until they are the same length as the rectangle. Drag the circles up so they overlap the rectangle halfway. click weld.

*note in DS you might have to type and weld each circle seperatly, I’m not sure. Please leave a comment if you know 🙂

step 3 under the cutter menu hit preview and you will see if your shapes are welded, in DS click on the eyeball. Hit cut and you are done! Since I made one I will share it with you. Click here to download my scallop boarder…dang, I could of saved a dollar!

Till next time, Happy Crafting!

Recycle and make your own scrap-products!

Hi there! I’m so excited to share this layout with you. It is of my son and his “big boy” bike. It is featured along with 11 other of my projects in the August/September issue of Ready-Set-Create! You can get your copy here. As for recycling I saved some puzzle pieces from one of those 3-D puzzles that were all the rage a few years ago. All of the “gear gadgets” are leftover from a puzzle. To make some of them silver I pressed them into a clear embossing ink pad then sprinkled them with silver embossing powder and attached them with a screw top eyelet. How Fun! To make the journal box transparency I used a journal brush by N.B.K. Designs and typed my journaling (Bulky Refuse font) in it then printed it on ink jet transparency film. I cut it out, flipped it over and painted it with acrylic paint them placed it on the layout while it was wet so the paint would “glue” it down so I wouldn’t have adhesive showing. The awesome stamps I used were by Technique Tuesday except for the ticket which was Inkadinkado. Paper is DCWV. Thanks for looking!

Ticket to Ride by Lindsay Weirich

The “print and cut” bookmarks are up!

If you were waiting for the printable version of the bookmarks I posted Saturday you can get then here. Feel free to share them with teachers or anyone who does craft projects with kids. Print them on cardstock, the file should fill a 8.5x11sheet. All 3 animals fit on one sheet. I’ve updated Saturdays post so the link to the file is there too. Enjoy!

Check it out! Scrap ‘n Art!

Hey everybody! Check out page 76 of the brand spanking new issue of Scrap ‘n Art for my Back to School project. There is lots of goodies inside and best of all it’s free! You can download yours here!