Selling in Shops Nationwide

It's funny how businesses change over time. When I was doing Nice day Designs full time I felt torn about selling to shops, it seemed like so much money to hand over in commission. The truth is I wasn't that realistic about the amount of hours I was spending out in the cold trying to sell my work at markets. I wasn't paying myself for that time, and I think looking back I was too exhausted to make smart decisions about my business.

Now that I've scaled things back a lot I can make the work that I enjoy making and pass on the chore of selling onto someone else. A few months ago when I went through a period of unemployment I put aside some time to make tonnes of handmade cards to send to various shops around the country. It was a lot of work doing so much all at once. I think the concentrated working time had a two fold effect, it honed my card making skills really establishing an aesthetic. As well as that it gave me a clearer idea of the true cost of in labour and materials of the cards, without a sustained run at any craft it is sometimes hard to  calculate these things.

I'm happy to say that I'm now selling in several locations throughout Ireland, and still looking for more venues, so if you are a craft shop owner please get in touch. Thanks to all of those who have already agreed to sell my work, you guys allow me to focus my energy on what I really love doing-making stuff!

List of suppliers;
Chez Le Fab-Limerick

Lucky Lane-Limerick

Sheelagh Na Gig-Cloughjordan

Baobab Cafe-Celbridge,Co.Kildare

Coffee Time-Co.Donegal

The Ennis Bookshop-Ennis

Handmade As Gaeilge Christmas Tags

My blog is starting to get that sparse look as I frantically try to make Christmas stock. Don't worry I haven't forgotten you, I'm neglecting everything in my life at the moment, except my sewing room, that's getting lot's of 'me time'.

I've been making tonnes of felt Christmas decorations, I hope to post some hastily taken snaps of them later in the week. Today's post is about a project I started a year ago, last Christmas, and abandoned as I was really short for time. I ordered a bunch of blank wooden tags like these ones from MissDiycrafts, except mine had a kind of burnt effect around the edge. I remember thinking they were really good value until I calculated what I would be able to charge for them, so hence the abandoned project. Stupidly this calculation only occurred after I ordered them! 

I stumbled across a bag of half finished paper covered tags the other day and remembered that we'd had a request for handmade tags in the shop. So I decided I wouldn't waste good supplies and finish the batch. I covered the rest of them in paper, varnished them, and painted the backs of them gold. After that I printed out a bunch of  'Nollaig Shona Duit' text boxes in different colours and fonts. I then realised I needed a 'To/From' label for the back which I aged with some brown ink. I had gotten a box of Christmas embellishments from the Art and Hobby Shop the other day, filled with little Santa's, trees and snowmen, it was great to have enough that they all matched(although now I have to go buy more card making embellishments!). After that is was a case of picking out ribbon, and attaching a label for price and barcode. 

I did everything in batches so it really helped with production time, if I was to sit down and compose each one individually it would have taken me a week to make them. Luckily I had loads of the materials already, I have tonnes of ribbon, paper, stickers sheets, and adhesive dots already. I'm scarred to think of the price of making them from scratch if you had to buy all the materials, you'd need to charge a fortune for them. Having said all that my initial instincts were right; they are really time and material consuming and I'm not sure if people will see the work, at the end of the day it's just a gift tag. Because of this I'm keeping the price as low a possible in the hopes that I'll sell all 50 of them, they are €2.50 each. I can't see myself making them again next year even though I think they are really pretty(although if they sell like hot cakes then I might be swayed!). 

I only realised after finishing them they then turn into keepsake Christmas tree decorations when the presents have been opened. For example a husband buys his wife something special for Christmas, and buys one of these posh tags for it, then every year when she puts this on the tree she remembers the lovely gift she got. My mother has a story behind each of her decorations, of holidays taken, presents from family, or special craft shops she visited(always in Sligo or Kilkenny strangley!). It makes our family tree totally personal to us, when the grandkids call over she tells them the story behind each one, it's really lovely actually.

Feedback on the price would be really appreciated, for once I'm quite confused!

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As Gaeilge Christmas Cards

 I'm in the middle of making up my Christmas cards for this year. Since I started selling As Gaeilge cards earlier in the year, I made sure to make some Nollaig Shona Dhuit cards too. I also had lots of fun making my own cards embellishments in photoshop, like the mittens or the string of lights below.

As Gaeilge Handmade Cards

I've been meaning to make As Gaeilge cards for forever and an age and i finally got around to it the other day. A lot of people have asked me for them over the years as they find it hard to get Irish language cards that aren't twee and 'Oirish'. I made my  cards as normal in my usual style and I made up some As Gaeilge greetings on photoshop and printed them out on photographic paper.
If my Irish school teacher could see me now she would laugh quite a lot as I was a really terrible student and never put any effort into her class. I was renowned for being the kind of pupil that was excellent at the things I liked/was good at and very lazy at the subjects that had no interest for me. I found Irish very hard so therefore I didn't bother. I regret this now in later life, but I think that's stands true for a lot of adults in Ireland. After a quick Google search I came up with the correct spelling for all the phrases. If anyone has any suggestions for other occasions requests are welcome.
As usual I will only be selling my cards at the Milk Market for €4 each or 3 for €10, but in this case if someone wanted to order a few of them then I would be happy to ship, just contact me via email. Above are some samples of the ones I've made already, I don't duplicate cards but similar ones can be made in the same colour schemes etc.

Ps: Sorry for the poor image quality, I had to snap off a few pics late at night before I packaged them to go to the market the next morning.