Sunday, November 11, 2007

Chipboard Galore

I had the vendor sale today. It went fairly well, I made several new contacts and sold several items. No two sales are ever alike. What sells at one may may not sell at another. Today's hot sellers were fridge note pads made from half a junior legal pad and jumbo paperclip bookmarks. I had a few questions about the memo cubes so I want to take a minute to answer those.
**what do I sell them for? I can tell you that I sell them for 6.00 but that doesn't mean that is a price everyone should sell them for. I take into account what my supplies cost me and what I feel is a fair profit margin. That varies on each item. The cubes went up in price this year so I had to raise my price from $5 to $6. Consider though that I live in a more rural community and people aren't willing to pay much sometimes.
**how do I stamp on them? It is a pretty easy item to stamp actually. I buy the cubes precut and glued from StampOnThis.com (see the link in my sidebar). They come with very smooth sides. I know some people buy reams of paper and have a printer cut and glue them to save a bit on price, but I have not had luck with that. Getting the cubes even and smooth is tricky so I go with what I know is good. The only thing you need to be careful of is to hold the cube firmly when you are stamping onto it. You don't want the paper to move. I pinch the top and bottom of the cube with my fingers and stamp away, working around until I have all the sides done. You can stamp on the glue but it can be a bit slick so take extra care of leave it blank.
**do I stamp the bottom and tops as well? I do stamp the tops but not the bottoms, no one will see the bottom.

On to another subject...chipboard. Cosmo Cricket Buck Naked chipboard to be exact. My local stamp store was carrying a set of Cosmo Cricket chipboard ornaments/tags and as a separate purchase, the card stock die cuts to match. I had the best time putting this set together!! It can easily be done while watching TV or chatting with a friend. I did mine on a girls retreat and it didn't require so much mental energy that I couldn't also chat at the same time. I used Scotch Quick Dry adhesive to adhere the die cut paper to the chipboard. Then I used a sanding block to sand all the edges. Since this wonderful Cosmo paper has a more vintage feel, I distressed all the edges with a sponge and Walnut Distress ink. Several of the pieces layered to form even more wonderful ornaments. The stockings for example have pieces that layer for the top, heel and toe areas. The snowman has pieces for the nose and hat. Some of these pieces I incorporated into some projects I did for the 15th. That's all I am going to say about that :). I will show some other ones at another time. What you see in the photo is everything that the package made. These will make cute tags for gifts. I think these could also be done in the car if you have a road trip in your future. To me the best part was the die cut card stock designed to go with the chipboard. It fit the chipboard perfectly so there was no trimming required.
I would make another set just because it was so fun!
Thanks for visiting!

2 comments:

Rose Ann said...

Wow...these are awesome!! How fun!

Anonymous said...

Tracy: Your directions are the best ever. Can't wait till my memo cubes arrive in the mail. Thanks for your wonderful efforts.