Just in time

Finished an order just in time! I leave for Disney tonight and I'm so thankful I found the time (and felt the creative juices flowing) to finish this order. :)

Now I get to enjoy my vacation without an order hovering over my head.

And I will start the 52 weeks of mail by sending a post card!

52 Weeks of Mail

I think this is such a wonderful event. One of our member's came up with this amazing idea, and a few others helped her implement it.

Of course we all love the internet, but there are many among us who just love to send and receive cards and letters.
When you think about it, it’s amazing to realize how easy it is to send cards, letters, and greetings anywhere in the world. Sometimes it takes a while to get there, admittedly, but there’s nothing like the look and feel of handwriting on paper. It’s not as fast as the internet, of course, but it’s just as easy, it’s accessible to everyone, and it’s deeply personal.


You might not know that World Post Day is coming up on October 9, marking the anniversary of the Universal Postal Union’s establishment in 1874. The union aimed to create and maintain a structure for the free flow of international mail around the world.


The Etsy Greetings Team, a collection of over 100 artists from all over the glove who collaborate to promote the art and craft of card making, is celebrating World Post Day by issuing a challenge that we are calling 52 Weeks of Mail. This idea sprung from one member’s desire to keep in touch better with friends and loved ones, and to be intentional about relationships. The idea is for people to commit to sending at least one personal note, card, letter, or postcard to people they know, once a week for a year. Of course, you can send MORE than one, but that’s up to you. Just think how happy this will make the Postal Services around to the world—not to mention those old friends!!


Here are three ways you can participate:
1. Send your card to Grandma (or whomever), enclosing a second card with a stamped envelope, so that she can send a card to someone else! Be sure to explain in your card what you are doing, so she will know why you sent her a brand new card.

2. Get your kids involved! Tell them stories of how snail mail was all there was when you were a kid. Let them write letters or send cards to grandparents, friends, etc. This will help keep the “art” of letter writing and sending alive.

3. Encourage friends, relatives and co-workers to join in on the fun, and challenge each other to see who can stick with this challenge, all the way through to October 7, 2012!


Do YOU have a great idea on how to participate? Please feel free to
share it with everyone on the 52 Weeks of Mail Facebook page.

And guess what! You can find lots of great handmade cards to send out to your friends and family at Etsy Greetings Team’s web page. Be sure to tweet your friends about 52 Weeks of Mail, using the hashtag #52weeksofmail, or share on any other social media you use.


Now get off the computer and send a card letting them know what they mean to you!

The Wedding Invites

For the first time I was approached to do Wedding Invitations. To say I was nervous would be an understatement! Thank goodness it was one of my best friends that I have known since I was 5 years old. Of course, there is a different kind of pressure when it's someone you know.

She was getting married on Valentine's Day so she wanted to go with a 'love' theme. Her fiance wanted the invites to look a little bit like Valentine's...so she came to my house and we designed them.

I tried to be as exact in what we designed but there were some challenges. The first one was that the design called for the card to open from bottom to top (instead of the normal left to right). I couldn't find paper tall enough to accomplish this. Plus it was supposed to open, then open again....so it was super tall! I didn't know how I was supposed to get this through my printer, even if I found paper tall enough.

The second challenge was getting the Heart cut out in the middle of the card. I needed a whimsical heart. At first I bought a punch for my Epic Six. When I got it home I realized it wouldn't work. And not only did I need a whimsical heart , I needed the exact same heart in a smaller size for the response cards. I finally realized that my Cricut had a perfect heart, and with the Cricut I can make the heart be from 1 inches to 5 inches. Perfect!

I went to Archiver's and they were so helpful. I went during a winter storm, so I was the only one there. She sympathized with me because she had done 6 friends Wedding Invitations. She looked at my copy of the design and showed me how to implement it! I bought everything I needed there, even though I could have gotten the materials cheaper somewhere else, because I feel good customer service deserves rewarding.

After many hours (and many of my tools: my cricut, my printer, my xyron machine, my Shimmer Mist, my edge rounder punch...) the invites were complete! She was very pleased with the invites and response cards. :) I was happy to put these invites to bed!

But last week I get a message from her saying that they are unfortunately postponing the wedding!! Oh dear. I guess the invites that I put to bed got out of bed!! LOL So now she needed me to somehow fix the invites and response cards. The invites were easy for me to figure out. Before I went to Archiver's I went to JoAnne's and got a pack of 12X12 white paper that I Shimmer Misted before I realized the paper was too thin for the invites. So all I need to do to fix the invitations is to cut the paper the correct size to cover the bottom part of the invite and run that through my printer and then adhere over the wrong info. No one will be able to tell that there is another layer underneath, and the paper is already Shimmery so I don't even have to waste time or money doing that.

Now the response cards were a different story. I mean, response cards are basically just the date on when you need them back. She told me to just use white out ('gasp'!)!!! Ummmm, no. So I decided to use the thinner white paper that is already shimmery and run it through my printer, then butt it up agains the red strip of paper. It will actually turn out to look better I think.

Now I just need to implement them! Wish me luck!

Resolutions

Who doesn't resolve to do something better in the New Year? This year Happy Elephant Designs resolves to make more time in creating, experimenting, and playing. Because I also watch kids during the day, I need to start creating more in the evening. It's nice that my Mom watches my daughter on Wednesday's and sometimes Tuesdays....but I need to start utilizing my nights and weekends so I can get more cards into the shops.

Been awhile

It's been awhile since I've found time to blog. Lots have been happening for my little company. I was busy getting ready for 2 craft shows in Septmember. One was a free one of the Gallery's I'm in in Downtown Cleveland on September 11th for Sparx. I got a few orders from there so that was successful! Not to mention that the owner of the Gallery ordered a dozen kids Birthday cards :) I had a ton of Halloween stuff, and some of them got sold.

Then the next weekend I had a craft show at my daughters Gymnastics. That one was successful because I received some orders from there too! On top of that I've had some birthday invitations that I supply for her Gymnastics (they have birthday parties there and they asked if I would make all the invitations as part of the package). That has been a great on going order (as a matter of fact, just yesterday I was asked to do 20 more).

I would have to say my most successful night was when I took my box to my Golf League night! Those ladies know how to shop!! Not only did they nearly clear me out of stock, but I got a few custom orders for Halloween Boxes.

I have started filling some Christmas cards and Christmas box orders, if you can believe it! I'll have to take a picture of the boxes and post it, it's really neat and has become a favorite to all that see them! :) Allison (the owner of Molly's Gymnastics) has also decided to give me a permanent table in the front where she wants me to have already made scrap book pages, some invitations and favor boxes for showers, and she wants me to create a Matte Board that she can frame that is decorated with gymnastics embellishments so she can put her daughters pictures in it, frame it, and hang it on the wall in hopes that others will buy them. They are super great there, always trying to come up with ideas on how to make my business more successful! It's great to have the support of friends who believe in your craft!

Featured Artist

I was just featured on Cleveland Handmade! W00-hoo, check it out when you have the time :)

http://www.clevelandhandmade.com/2010/01/shannen-cleis-happy-elephant-designs/

Harry Chapin and my Epiphany

This weekend I was driving to Akron to go to a Baby Shower with my sister and I was jamming to some tunes on my iPod. I don't know if any of you are familiar with Harry Chapin, but I was raised listening to him, Billy Joel, Cat Stevens...etc. You couldn't be in my family without loving Harry and belting out his tunes (just ask my siblings spouses...they just LOVE it! lol)



So I'm listening to one of my favorites by him called Mr. Tanner

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea6cgfU8bC4 and the words for the chorus really took on a different meaning this time to me. I don't know if it's cause I've been re-evaluating my company and trying to think of ways to turning it into a more profitable business, but those three sentences really touched a chord in my heart...



(chorus)

But music was his life, it was not his livelihood,and it made him feel so happy and it made him feel so good. And he sang from his heart and he sang from his soul. He did not know how well he sang; It just made him whole.



If you substituted 'music' for 'creating' in the chorus that is exactly how I feel. And it made me realize that I need to stop worrying about what other people think of my creations. Stop stressing about how to make my cards geared more towards the mass audience so that they will sell, but to make what is in my heart...and if it sells, then it sells. If not, then oh well.



That's not to say that I'm not going to try and make this business a success, but I'm going to try and do it so that my soul is still happy with my work!

Inspiration and the art at looking at things differently

I'm obsessed with shows like Top Chef and Project Runway. Especially the challenges where the chef's/artist have the same ingredients/materials and have to make something out of it. It fascinates me that people with the same stuff can make something completely different!

This is why I find art and creativity amazing. The different ways that people have of looking at the same exact things....that's just great! Even in my own studio, where I'm looking at the same materials that I had the day before. Yet I am inspired to create totally different things from day to day.

2010 Resolutions for Happy Elephant Designs

The new year is upon us, which is a perfect time for me to sit down and re-evalute where I want this company to go. For the new year I would love to have more sales, get my cards out there more, and create, create, create! In order to do this I made a list of 13 things that I think would help me do this. Hopefully I'm not biting off more than I can chew! :)

Here goes:

1. re-vamp my etsy shop and 1000 market shop so that it is geared more towards inviations (which I think sell better on-line than individual cards).

2. Read up more on how to letterpress with my new machine and then implemant it.

3. Market myself more by advertising (cheaply)...like with Project Wonderful Ads, twitter, Facebook, blogging, chatting in Etsy, etc.

4. Blog at least once a week and get more followers. This may be a challenge, but I believe it will help me get my business out there and make a connection with the community.

5. Learn more about Facebook Fanpage and implemant it.

6. Become more involved with my teams, especially Cleveland Team. I feel that there are alot of opportunities out there in that team that I'm not utilizing.

7. Get stock up to at least 100 cards so that I will have cards to list once a day.

8. Rotate stock more at the brick and mortar shops that I'm in. I believe I will sell more if I keep the merchandise fresh.

9. List at least once a day on Etsy and 1K market. This means doing a better job of getting my pictures taken of the cards.

10. Utilize my GA and SEO better.

11. Make Holiday cards at least @ months prior to that Holiday and get them in the shops and online.

12. Read all the articles in my inbox that I've been meaning to get too. There are some great tools in those articles that I've been putting off that I think will help me become more succesful.

13. Jump into the forums on both the 1K market and Etsy to get my name out there.

One of my favorite techniqes

I wanted to share with you a technique I like to use sometimes that is quick and easy, and that anyone can do. It's a great way to add texture to your cards or any project. Here is what I used:



A punch (any kind, I used 1 3/4 circle punch)
Files (I used a 3M file for the bigger circles and a small file for the half circles)

You also need textured cardstock with a white core. The white core is important because when you sand the punch, the white core comes through. This is what gives the card it's dimension.



I then punched some circles out of the textured cardstock. I cut some of the circles in half to use on the edge of the card. Then I sanded the circles and half circles with my files.






After all the circles are sanded, I rearrange them on the card until I get a pattern that feels right to me. The card consists of a white card with sage green cardstock cut slightly smaller, and then the purple textured cardstock cut slightly smaller than that. When I have a pattern that feels right with the circles, I place the cirlces in my Xyron machine. A Xyron machine can make anything you place into it a sticker. You can use any form of adhesive you feel comfortable with though.

Take the circles off the Xyron sheet and adhere to the card. I chose to put a polka-dot ribbon with a metal buckle at the bottom of the card.

Here's the finished product! This is a great technique to use for the up coming Holidays. All you need to do is use a Holiday punch and you can make your own pattern paper.

I hope you enjoyed learning this technique as much as I enjoy doing it.

You never know when...

So I made a Halloween Card for my daughters gymnastics Teacher and gave it to her today. I made sure that on the back I had my label which has my name, my company's name, phone number, and shop addresses (because you never know who is going to receive your card and love it! ).



She was floored by it and loved it so much. It turns out her and her Mom own the place. She didn't know I made cards for a living and wanted to know if I could make Birthday Invitations for their upcoming parties that they are throwing. I told her I LOVE designing cards, so if she gives me the general idea and some colors, I could make up a sample for her, then she could okay it and I would make the cards.


Then she said she wanted to expand the front of the reception area to be more of a pro-shop and that she would also love to display my cards there for parents to buy! This is a perfect situation for me. The receptionist (a friend of mine) says that parents are always milling around their waiting for the kids to be done with their classes, and end up buying things just out of boredom. So what a perfect place to have my cards, I'll have a captive audience who most likely have expendable money (the classes aren't cheap, but thanks to my Mom, my daughter can go).


So I wanted to let you all know that you never know when opportunties will come up. That one free card can turn into many possiblitles to making money!

Light Box

So I purchased a light box to better my photo's. Thanks to some nice fellow card makers, I found the perfect one on Amazon.com and set it up with help. Above is a picture of the light box fully assembled. I went to Walmart and purchased 3 lights with two 25 watt Ott lights.
I was excited to see if it would make a difference in my photo's.

What do you think? Here is a picture of my new card Pumpkin Harvest.












And I re-took a picture of my Fairy Princess stick figure girl.














Here's my light box set-up.

I have lots of things planned for the future. I have many ideas for Halloween cards that I need to get creating before the holiday comes and passes me by! Especially if I want to sell them in my shops on Etsy or 1000 Markets. I actually should have posted Halloween cards 2 months ago, but I'm the kind of person who gets inspired by her surroundings...so it was kind of hard to create fall/Halloween stuff when it was the height of the summer.



I also have an order from one of my most loyal and best customer, Lisa. Love that girl, she always thinks of me when she needs to give a card. And she lets me go wild with creating whatever I want. She just gives me a theme and says, "Go at it!".



Then there's The Local Girl Gallery http://www.localgirlgallery.com/index.html . She contacted me saying I have a few checks coming in the mail from past sales (woo-hoo!), and that she needs more cards for her store. So I'm stopping by there next week with some cards...last time I went there she took all of my stock! Needless to say, I want to make as much cards as I can before I go so I'm not left empty handed again. :) Then she has two up-coming events in her Gallery that are both deserving causes. The first is October 17th. It's a benefit called Land Escaping with proceeds going to Lakewood Earth and Food (LEAF) Community. LEAF has over 125 community gardens in the city, and funds raised from this event will go toward the 2010 growing season. She asks any artist to donate their interpretation of a landscape or garden, and the finished artworks will go up for auction the evening of the benefit. The second benefit is October 24th for The Children's Glioma Cancer Foundation "Sunflowers of Hope". For this one she asks any artist for their interpretation of the sunflower, or hope. So I would love to create 2 cards for her for the silent auctions because they are great causes and any exposure is good exposure.

I need to start getting motivated on making Christmas cards too. A woman I've dealt with who has a boutique in Singapore has sent a call out for Christmas cards, tags, and 2010 Calendar's for wholesale. I would love to participate in that, but fear I might not be able to make enough Christmas cards for my Etsy and 1000 Markets, my personal Christmas cards, Christmas sets for both The Local Girl Gallery http://www.localgirlgallery.com/index.html and Artefino http://www.artefinogallery.com/ (the other Gallery my cards are in) AND for Paultette (the girl from Singapore).

Last, but not least, I need to re-take all my pictures of my cards for both my sites. I just ordered a Light Box off of Amazon. I'm excited because it wasn't expensive, and it collapses like a tent. I was going to make a homemade one for only $5....but was concerned where I was going to store it when I was through with taking pictures. But one of my Etsy Greetings Team members directed me to the one she purchased and uses, and her pictures are amazing. It was only $30, so I went for it. I can't wait for it to arrive! Now I can take pictures whenever I want, day or night, and it will reduce my time in editing on photo shop.

So there you have it! All the projects I have coming up in the future. And that doesn't include the trip I'm taking to Oregon the first week in October. That's going to eat up some creative time...but I'll be having a blast with my brother and his family! :)

Feature

I'm being featured today at my Etsy Greetings Team blog...check it out :)
http://www.etsygreetings.blogspot.com/

Go team!!

I was contacted by someone who saw my stuff posted on Facebook, who gave me the nicest compliment. She said she loved my cards, and was trying to think of an occasion that she could use them for. Her daughter was starting her first day of middle school, and her son was beginning his first year in tackle Football. So she asked me if I could make cards for those two occasions. I was so excited! I love creating things for special events in people's lives.

So I sat down, and this is what I came up with for the little boy. His school colors are purple, black, and white and she wanted 'Good Luck' on there somewhere. I made this football from paper that looks like leather. I then pounded some eyelets in and used some thread as the laces.

It was so fun to do, and I think it turned out great! I hope little Jarod gets a big smile on his face when he gets it from his mom :)

The Local Girl Gallery

Well, good news and bad news. Good news is I just got back from The Local Girl Gallery (http://www.localgirlgallery.com/index.html) in Lakewood, Ohio and she loved my cards and decided to sell them in her Gallery. She's taking a dollar, and I get $3 for every sale. What's good about this gallery is that they support local literacy program, so a part of any sale goes towards that. She also said she would put my info up on the website and some of my cards, so that's cool!


The bad news is she took them all!!! :) Bad news because I'm totally out of cards now and have to hurry up to make more to put in my online shops.



I'm kind of in a bind because I went out on a limb and signed up to do something for the first time at Etsy Greetings Team on their blog. They picked me to do the Featured Sale next week and now I'm out of cards!! Of course, this is a good problem to have :)



So I better get on it and get busy creating some more.

Get on the ball

I really need to get on the ball and start creating some new cards!! My brother and his family were in town for 2 weeks over the Holiday, so I didn't get any work done then. Then my 2 year old decided to bite her binks and put holes in them, and the maker discontinued them...so I've been weening her off of binks during naptime and bedtime! Bedtime went great, naptime...not so much. So there went my creative alone time!

Well, she's back to napping (knock on wood!!) so time to get back to it!!

Here's a picture of a new card I made and just posted on Etsy and 1000 markets. Hope you like it :)

Closer look at my workspace

So here's the second part to my blog about organizing my workspace. As you can see, I reuse alot of things I had laying around the house and repurposed them to hold other things! Hope it helps you guys out a little. :)




I got this at Home Depot...it's supposed to hold nuts and bolts!

but I put all my embellishments in them (in alphabetically order)

I repurposed this box to hold my more frequently used adhesives

A top view of my stash of adhesives

These are two little containers I put my thread

A top view of my thread

A tin box I got with something I bought a long time ago...now I keep all my word chipboards.

As you can see I Xyron'd the chipboard so it's already for me to use when I feel the need.

These are the repurposed boxes I used to keep my thread in as a child...now it holds my buttons.

This came with a set I bought on QVC, now I use it to hold my spillover of buttons. It was made to orginally hold something else.

My button box closed up.

I can't remember where I got this clear plastic case from...but it was like the thing above, came with something else and I repurposed it to hold my many embellishments!

I have alphabet transfer, tiny buttons, flower buckles, metal party hats.....it goes on and on :)

And these little plastic tins come right out!

I bought these at Michael's I think.

They hold my ribbons now....

And one holds all my alphabets.

I put all the A's in one compartment, B's in another...that way when I need a letter I don't have to go searching.

This is where I store my stamps. I had these trays as a little girl too, don't remember what I kept in them.

but what's nice about them is that they accordian (or spin) so that I can access the bottom ones. They also lift off of each other if need be. I stamped all the stamps in a notebook, though, so I could see them all at a glance.

where I keep my sharp little scissors that I use all the time, my pens, chapstick, little eraser...

this is like the first picture, but littlier drawers. I keep all my embellishements here that i use the most....

...like mini brads

just another pic of my most frequently used things.

This is a standing plastic folder that I got at Orential Trading Magazine for really cheap. This one holds all the projects I'm working on, my notebook that has all my ideas in, the stamp notebook with all my stamp pics in.

These ones hold my 8 X 10 papers that I got at Hollo Papercrafts (this awesome store that sells paper by the pound so you can get TONS of papers for only a couple bucks. And they have great texture and heft to them)

these ones hold my 12 X 12 papers. Put in a rainbow order.

this is a filing cabinet one of parents had laying around....

...it now holds my 8 X 10 pics in rainbow order....

and the bottom drawer has folders with things like "seasons", or 'Halloween" papers, in alphabetical order

an old plastic container with drawers. As you can see it has my scissors, glue, .....

closer look of a drawer

an according folder that holds my 12 X 12 scraps

an inside view

this is how I hold my ribbons that came on a spool thingy . I got this at Joann Fabrics I think

closer look at my ribbons

this used to be my mom's cookie jar. Now it holds my silk flowers!

this is a tin container I got as a gift. It had lotions in it...i use it to hold my fabric paints!

This is a shoebox I use to hold the envelopes I got for free at Hallmark and American Greeting (did you know they will give you envelops for FREE!)

A basket my mom had that now holds all my envelopes

baskets I got at Michaels on sale. They hold my inks, chalk, some projects, pictures....

closer look inside the basket of inks and chalk

another old plastic container drawer. It now holds my pens and punches.

where I keep all my scrapbooks and idea books