I don't consider myself an artist. I just like to play with paper and rubber stamps and ink and double-face tape. The idea of selling cards seems like a simple, enchanting way to make money, but it's, of course, more complicated than that.
-Many rubber stamp images are under copyright, which means you can't sell anything with that image without specific permission or a monetary arrangement with the copyright holder. But the good news is that many stamp manufacturers will allow you to sell small numbers of works with their images as long as it is hand-stamped and not reproduced via a copier or printer, and sold in informal venues. Like at a dance camp. I had to choose my images carefully to make sure they were under these "angel" policies. But as many of you know, I have plenty of stamps, so this was not really an issue.
-Trying to make money from small-time crafts is tricky because you have to try and figure out what the public wants. The more you cater to public whims and desires, and the more you reproduce a simple image, or work with one single theme, the less fun it can be to create. But luckily for me, I don't think that selling cards will ever really be a money-maker for me, so I stuck with a few guidelines for this first endeavour:
- A single, simple design for all of the cards
- Sets of six cards and envelopes, each with 1-3 images
- White base for all cards with a single color accent
- Object images that were not cute, but fun
Results: I sold 9 of the 14 sets! Success!!!
The take away:
-I'm glad I went into this venture with the attitude that if the cards didn't sell, I would have my own thank you/all-occasion cards for the whole year. (I still might - see leftovers above.) I'm still glad that over half of my inventory sold.
-Will I do it again? Probably. But likely not often. Selling at camp is easy. Selling at other gigs maybe okay, but I'll have to see if it's worth it.
-Tools make all the difference. One of the reasons I was able to make these cards so quickly is because I purchased a paper cutter last year, and then a scoring board this summer so I could fold the cards perfectly and easily every time.
-I really like the A2 size (okay, what they seem to call A2 in the US...) of 4.25' x 5.5". It's easy to create those from standard size paper with minimal fuss.
-I suspect that every time I decide to sell, I'll probably want to make new cards, as well as try to sell off the older ones. I will always keep the designs simple so it's easy to make a bunch of them, but that the designs will be different each time. For instance, this first group were all object images: kitchen implements, yarn, clocks, shoes, etc., mounted on color, mounted on white. The next set maybe very colorful by comparison, use texture, feature vellum, etc.
Wish me luck! Send me card ideas! And if you're interested in a lovely set of cards with clocks, yarn, shoes, or radishes on them, let me know...
