- 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