The musings and offerings of a burgeoning greetings master

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Mr Cardmaker is a Begging for Advice Guy

So, here's the plan--

  • I design a bunch of samples that I think I can recreate in a great number.  Birthday, Holiday, Wedding, etc...Maybe even some boxed sets would work here.
  • I make a presentation book of these samples, and take them to boutiques and gift stores in my area.
  • I send copies of these samples to gift stores in the resort areas to my north.
  • People are (at least) mildly wowed, and order my cards, give me cash, and I get to do what I love and make money at the same time.

So, what am I missing here??  HELP Mr. Cardmaker.  There have to be THOUSANDS of things that I missed in this very sketchy plan, including things like angel policies (which really could be made simpler, folks!  And WHY doesn't everyone make a stamp that says "© mycompanyname" for this purpose??), marketing plans, production schedules, yadda, yadda, yadda....

ANY and ALL advice would be SO appreciated!

But back to cards and stuff--

My dear friend, Miss Betty Ann Grove, former star of the Broadway stage, had a birthday this past Sunday.  I made her this--


This is a pretty simple card, for the most part.  I used almost all SU! card stocks and DPs, with the exception of the light green piece.  That, I believe is by Fiskars, and I bought a single sheet of it ages ago. 

The fun stuff happening here is all the die cutting I did.  I cut the oval (Spellbinders Classic Ovals), and then the grass with A*Muse Studio's grass die.

Then it begins to get tricky! 

I used a Spellbinders Wonky Rectangles die to start the cut of my "hill" piece.  This was done by sticking just one edge under the cutting bar, and leaving the rest out of the way.  It didn't make a big enough cut, so I grabbed the oval die that I used for the yellow piece and used it to make the second "bump".  there was a tiny portion that didn't connect the two, so a quick snip with my Cutterbee snips took care of that.

I would NEVER have been able to make such clean cuts with my snips.  I definitely like how that happened to work out.  It definitely makes your dies work in a MUCH more flexible way!

Since I was going crazy with my dies, I used the wonky rectangle die to cut the white piece for my sentiment.  It had to work on this a while, because I was not thrilled with the results I was getting, but it all finally worked out pretty well.  I stamped it with a Think Big stamp from PTI with Memento Dandelion ink, and then edged the piece with a foam applicator in Memento Cantaloupe.

I used a Jenny Bowlin for Fiskars punch to make my bird from some pink DP, and adhered it to my sentiment, which I then popped up with some foam tape.

To finish up, I ran some blue card stock through the Cuttlebug with my swirls embossing folder, layered that on a piece of pink DP, and put the whole thing on a green card base.  Last but not least, I added some bling in the form of some sweet little felt and rhinestone flowers I got from the dollar bins at Michaels.

This is a fun card for a birthday, but I'm thinking I could also do this for Easter, or just as a spring card, since these colors certainly fit the bill. 

Thanks so much for stopping by, and a BIG thanks in advance for the advice you have!
All Best-
Richard




7 comments:

  1. Miss Betty Ann is going to be so happy with her beautiful card! You've done a great job, and aren't you the clever one? Love what you did with your wonky rectangle die! Yikes, as far as advice, I'm not really sure. I live in a VERY rural area, with no outlet for selling what I make (very sad face here). It sounds like you are giving it a lot of thought. As far as the angel policies, most companies don't mind you selling what you make with their images, as long as you are not selling the images or photo copying the work. In other words, you are making each card yourself, from scratch...and as Forrest Gump would say "that's all I know about that"... I wish you well, my friend! Tried Etsy, and didn't get a nibble, so I think you are on the better track :) Good luck, and keep me posted - I'd love to know how this turns out for you!

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  2. Oh that is such a sweet card!!! It reminds me of a fabulous stage scene!! I'm sure it will be treasured!! As for selling...I keep thinking I want to open an Etsy shop. I tried a small place here locally...but I truly live in smalltownville and with retail stores wanting a decent percentage I can't charge enough for my cards to make it worth it. So keep in mind price points but also how much you need to make from each card. I wish I had more to help with but that's all the experience I have so far. I wish you a major success!!!! Hugs!!

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  3. Good luck with selling your cards- I'm sure there are a lot of boutiques out there that would love them. They will ask you how much you want to charge and will take a percentage of that, so the trick it to charge enough but not too much. Lol don't forget the cost of envelopes to. I wanted to pop over and say thank you for your nice comments!! About the stick pins... You could buy little clear earring backs to put on the pin ends or if you didn't like the bulk that would cause, try tucking the ends down into something like felt or burlap, for example if you cut a snowflake out of felt, make sure the end of the pin is well hidden into the felt. Thanks for the reminder, that didn't even occur to me when I made my card. :)

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  4. Sorry about all the typos above! My iPad froze on me and wouldn't let me correct them or finish what I was typing. Lol anyway, have a good day and thanks again for stopping by!
    Danielle

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  5. your cards are terrific, and so is your blog! thanks so much for stopping by to see me at mine! :) the world needs more male cardmakers! keep creating! :)

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  6. No advice I'm afraid (good luck though, I'm sure your cards will be snapped up & I agree for mass production purposes, the designs should relatively simple) but wanted to say you card is gorgeous! Have a great weekend :)

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