An exciting time

So a few weeks ago I decided to bite the bullet and have some cards made. I thought, seeing as how my aim is only to make enough money to replenish paints, that cards were easier to sell and therefore I could peddle them easier particularly at work.

I looked at a number of sites: Redcliffe inaging, who I had used previously but I thought were rather expensive, Sixprint whose ordering facility was unduly complicated and required photoshop and, finally, Penny batch who made it really easy to order and were reasonable in cost.

I ordered online and their upload facility was brilliant – very easy to being in your image and manipulate it. It was simple to change paper types, envelope quality and include cellophane wraps.

My order took over a week to arrive compared to Redcliffe who only took 2 days, but oh the quality is very much better. Every card had a crystal clear image even to the point that on “poppy” I could see the structure of the acrylic gel.

I chose ten cards of 12 designs for my initial print runs, and created myself a sales form so could keep and easy tally of how many of each design I had sold. Day 1 I sold 19 designs, 3 at work, 1 to a family member and 15 to my son’s tae kwondo teacher. I am not sure how to sell to strangers but I figured that loading them all to etsy was the easiest move. I had over 16 views n the first day which I know isn’t much but is a lot when you are new to these things.

Day two and I sold another 10m again to work colleagues. It is fine selling to people you know. Personally I think they are more likely to come back and buy more. I find the people in my office incredibly supportive. In order to make myself feel better I also pay 10p per card into a charity account. It helps stress I am not trying to make money from this, the money just covers basics of paint and canvas – I also like the idea of making someone else’s life better along the way.