Using my Stash Almost all SU!

I am still trying to use up these SU! dps. I made 3 cards like this today. I still have plenty of the dp, but I ran out of the pink cs (Regal Rose, I think). I ran the yellow cs through my paisley embossing folder.

I used my SU! Many Marvelous Markers to stamp with. I do not own any SU! ink pads; just the set of markers. Sue had a 50% off sale on them ~1 1/2 years ago. This was a good investment for me. Now I can coordinate my stamping colors regardless of the dp without the expense and storage problems of ink pads and reinkers. I find that I use these all the time! I rarely even go to my ink pads anymore (which I have plenty of, but they are not SU!, and too much trouble to try to find a match.)

I used my white gel pen to draw dots above and below the "Enjoy" stamp. I mounted the entire panel on dimensionals. The only non-SU! item is the base card...can you guess? It's DCWV :)

I'd rather be lucky than crazy...

No, I'm not confused. No, I'm not really so prepared for Halloween, Christmas, and Valentine's Day that I am making my St. Patrick's Day cards already. It is simply that when I have the motivation to create something in particular, I need to go with it. If I waited until February, the motivation may no longer be there. Secondly, when I have something in my stash and I find it coordinates with something else, my goal is to use it up. This green DCWV card is hard to match, but as I mentioned yesterday, I know it matches this Reminisce "Good Luck" dp.

I meant to cut it in 4x4 squares and create 9 cards. Note to self: Do not cut paper when you are sleep deprived. I cut it in 3x3 squares. Uh oh. Kazan to the rescue! I saw this week's sketch challenge at 2 Sketches 4 You (see picture). So apparently I will be making 16 of these cards :) Maybe it is divine intervention. St. Patrick's Day is a pretty big seller at the coffee shops. Yes, seriously. I have never sent a St. Pat's card in my life, by my customers request them. I send Easter cards to some family members, but you know what? I sell more St. Pat's cards than Easter cards. Go figure. Halloween is a huge seller, along with Christmas, Valentine's Day, and then Mother's Day. Father's Day is slower (poor dads, not getting their props), followed by St. Pat's and Easter. So in February after the Valentine's Day card frenzy, I will have a nice breather with 16 St. Pat's cards ready to be invoiced. So I used up all the green cards pictured yesterday, including those in the new box! I need 4 more green card bases to complete all 16 cards. But at least I have plenty of time to purchase my next DCWV card box at 50% off.

The stamp is an SU! stamp set, "Pinch Proof", I purchased from Sue when she had her 40% off sale so she could earn her annual SU! cruise or Hawaii trip or wherever SU! sends their peeps. I never would have purchased the set if I didn't think it would be easily paid for if I sell only a few of these cards. The ribbon was in my stashed (never opened until today!) that I bought for fifty cents :) I used up all my green Bazzill primas (go, me), then got to open a new package of green primas I bought at Michael's a couple of weeks ago with my 40% off coupon. I know, I know, I say I'm only going to buy what I need (like adhesive refills), but they were so pretty! They wanted me to buy them. And they obviously knew I was going to need them now, didn't they?

My DCWV box of cards

My new box of cards is in da house!
I used the ACMoore 50% coupon at Michael's to buy my fifth box of 50 textured cards and envelopes. There are ten colors in each box like this one.
Pictured in front of the box are the remaining cards from my first four boxes :) You can see the two browns and the greens are different dye lots, but they are close enough; and one black card remains too.
Last February I had a lot of the green from the previous boxes. It is a pretty green, but difficult to match. I found it went perfectly with Reminisce "Greenday" dp. I had purchased 2 sheets at that time; one with shamrocks, the other with polka dots. I cut the shamrock dp into 4x4 squares and made 9 St. Patrick's Day cards. (Did you do the math? Yep, NO scraps!!!!) See those cards here: http://simplyelegantpapercrafts.blogspot.com/2008/02/finallyst-pats-cards-made.html
I still have the Reminisce "Greenday" 12x12 polka dot dp to use...look for my card tomorrow :)

Have Your Cupcake and Eat it Too

Yikes! bad picture...too much sunlight. No future in photography for me :)

I needed to make a card yesterday a.m. lickety-split for a 4yo's (boy) birthday party. I've had this cute Savvy stamp sentiment, but no cupcake stamps! I found the cupcake last week at Angela's Happy Stamper.

I grabbed my "masculine" dp scrap bag and I had a small ds scrap (blue cupcake wrapper and polka dot dp). Just enough for the cupcake! I mounted the top of the cupcake on dimensionals. I stamped the candles (Hero Arts), colored, and cut them out and mounted those on dimensionals too. I used my Sakura pen to add sparkle to the flames and to the polka dots on the cupcake. The green textured cs is SU! and the navy linen cs is from my blue scrap cs bag.

Sketch Challenge, Scraps, & Something New to Try

This is this week's sketch challenge at Our Creative Corner blog.

I've been wanting to try using SU! punches to create these cute little paper purses. This sketch seemed like a good place to start :)

I used all SU! papers from my scrap bag. The only non-SU cs is the scalloped circle (I used my friend Tracy's Nesties with white Bazzill cs). I used dimensionals behind the purse, a MM black mini brad, and a TLC rub-on sentiment. I used a CM paper trimmer to cut the waves.

Using my stash...

Thinking of You, DCWV :)

I went through the Sunday sales ads that come with our Friday paper here in northern VA. (I've also lived in MD and NC and the Sunday ads come in Sunday's paper.) Anyway, there was no Michael's ad this week, but there is an ACMoore 50% coupon good for Tuesday. I'll take that coupon to Michael's on Tuesday to get my new DCWV card box (box #5, I believe). Yep, you guessed it! I used up the orange cards from the box making 2 cards like this.

Well, I actually had enough scraps to make 3 cards like this one (dps and ribbon are SU!; bling flower and bling brad are Bazzill; I used TLC rub-ons for the sentiments). But the 3rd card is just a card front until I purchase my new DCWV box :)

I started selling cards nearly 18 months ago (February 7, 2007, in Leesburg, VA), and added a second store almost 12 months ago (August 12, 2007, in McLean, VA). My friend, Amy Sheffer (Pickled Paper Designs), started helping me in October 2007. Our friend, Tracy (Suzy Scrapbooker) joined us in February 2008. Both stores are Greenberry's Coffee & Tea. Before G'berry's opened I was a Caribou Coffee girl. Before Caribou, I went to Starbucks. DH & I love mocha latte, and Caribou's tastes better than Starbucks, and G'berry's tastes better than Caribou. And G'berry's has awesome cinnamon scones (much better than Starbucks) and the best chocolate tea cakes. Okay, I am digressing...

I did some homework: I went back to Caribou and asked how well their cards sold. (They sell Papyrus cards. I LOVE Papyrus cards! They look hand made, and come in acrylic envelopes. I also checked the prices...$4.95 for A2). The barrista said they really didn't sell.

When I spoke with the district manager of G'berry's, part of our agreement was that my little basket of cards (holds 30 without being too full) had to be right beside the register.

What I have learned: To increase my profit margin, I try to always buy the DCWV card box or the Value Pack cards & envelopes from Michael's or ACMoore at 50% off, so the card and envelope only cost me 10 cents. I purchase the acrylic envelopes in bulk from clearbags.com, and they cost me about 5 cents each. These are worth it! I have never had a damaged card due to dirty fingers or spilled coffee. People LOVE to send handmade cards and I now have a sort of "following".

I started with stash cards in my closet that I felt were no longer good enough to send to friends and family (as I improve, I become more card snobbish. LOL!) Then in my spare time, I made cards to keep in my at home stash box to sell in the future. In an average month, I sold 32-39 cards. For perspective, the last 24 of that original old stash were still out at the Leesburg store in July 2007. July is an abysmal month sales-wise for coffee shops. I sold only 12 of those 24 cards. 12 cards the entire month! But I was actually okay with that. I got something for cards I no longer liked or wanted. The next month when I started selling at the McLean store, I moved those 12 cards there, and they all sold :) In July 2008, G'berry's sales are very slow again(for them, but not for me, Amy & Tracy!) For July 2008 we sold 38 cards at the Leesburg store and 44 at McLean.

The best sellers are "birthday" and "thinking of you". Baby cards, Anniversary, and Sympathy sell a little slower, but do sell. "Hello" and "Friend" cards are even slower. "Cherish" does not sell well. Everything sells eventually. If a card sits at one store for two months, I move it to the other store. For perspective, 4 of the "oldest" cards out for sale I made at the end on June. I try not to make more than 6 identical/similar(3 to each store) of any particular card. My customers like that their cards are (relatively) unique. But you know it all depends on the scraps. Sometimes my cards are one of a kind. This has created more sales. The customers have learned that if they like a particular card, they should buy it right then because they might not see one like it again if they don't buy it now. Kind of like shopping at a scrapbook store, huh?

Celebrate SU! & Creative Imaginations & DCWV

These base cards are from my DCWV box (only 2 orange cards left in the box, 2 brown, 1 black, and 8 green; Michael's needs to put them on sale SOON!) All the rub-on sentiments are CI. I matted the SU! dps on DCWV from the Spring mat stack.

I purchased an SU! Simply Scrappin' kit as part of a "Lotsa Cards" class I took from Sue (Inky Images) in May 2007. We made 37 cards in that class! I DO NOT like these papers, but
Sue's cards were sweet and simple. Those 37 cards are long gone. I packaged most of them in acrylic boxes (4 cards & 4 envelopes) to give to the teachers & therapists for teacher appreciation week in May 2007.

But I still have scraps from that class. Did I mention I don't like these papers? It is difficult to get mojo on with supplies I don't like. But I really want to use up these papers and my DCWV card base choices are getting slim. Here was my chance to use up the dp and the orange cards. Then I saw this sketch on so many of my favorite blogs, and I knew it was the right sketch for these papers. Did I mention I don't like these papers? But you know what? I think these cards turned out really cute! So I still have a large piece of the stripe dp (~6 "x 12" ?) and some small scraps of the circle dp and 2 orange card bases. I am trying to come up with another sketch to either finish up the orange DCWV cards or this dp. Wish me luck!