Boutique

I know I haven't posted anything about New York yet, but those posts are going to be so much longer than this one, I thought I would get this one finished first.

Did I really just spend all day as a vendor at a boutique? It is sooo not like me. Something I have never done in my life, or probably even thought about. However, I have some VERY talented friends, and I spent a weekend a few months back on a girls craft weekend. The only thing I had to take was my sisters Sizzix machine and her die cuts. I had to BORROW the machines to be crafty. I did go to JoAnns though to get all the paper that I thought was cute to use.

So during this weekend while everyone was making jewelry, doing Blurb books, and making quilts, I was die cutting and making paper tags. Not too exciting, but I was making A LOT of them. I needed them for myself, and for end of the year teacher gifts. They were actually turning out cute, and I was enjoying myself.

Two of the girls there, hold a boutique twice a year and one of them suggested I make them for the boutique. What??? Most seemed to think they would sell and suggested I put 10 tags on a ring and sell them for $5.00.

I left that weekend with lots of tags and when the girls gave them to their teachers near the end of the year, both teachers LOVED the tags and other teachers in the grade level mentioned how cute they were too. I started thinking then, that maybe I should give the boutique a try.

I started buying more paper when it was on sale, and the girls would help, and we just made tags whenever we felt like it. I ended up finding a machine on Craigslist that came with some small heart and star die cuts, and found the big tag, and small tag die cuts on ebay.

I found some cute Christmas paper and decided to do some sets of Christmas Tags since I had the "star" die cut, and it would be close to that time of year. We just had so much fun making them. They girls loved it, and we had a fun "assembly line" as we sat for sometimes a couple of hours mass producing gift tags.

In the end I had 29 sets of Christmas Tags, and 25 sets of Assorted tags, plus 13 sets of Mini Tags. After talking about it with my mom, I decided to put 12 tags on a ring instead and still charge $5.00, and she helped me tie some ribbon on the rings while watching conference a few weeks ago.

I really went into the day not having ANY idea how this was going to work, and what to expect. I had dreams of not selling ANY, and opposite dreams of selling them ALL by lunchtime and taking sign-up for more sets. I just knew that if I had 67 sets of gift tags left over that I would never have to make tags again, and lots of teachers and neighbors were going to be getting tags for Christmas.

Here is my booth space, "center driveway"

The boutique was from 8:00-3:00. I was the 7th booth in line at the beginning. I think by 10:00 I had sold 5 sets. Everyone thought they were really cute, but most weren't buying them, some would say, "I'm gonna walk though first and then come back. " Ya right. I was starting to second guess myself, and feeling kinda bad. Was this a dumb idea? Is $5.00 too much, are they not really very cute, caus really anyone can do them if they have the right die cuts.

I was excited when I had sold 7... I had paid for my "space" at the boutique, I was satisfied to go home. But then I sold 4 more, the cost of the machine from Craigslist. And finally at one point after selling a few more, I was making a "profit."

I was very pleased with the day by the time 3:00 came around. It was fun to sit next to Crystal and chat with her all day, and talk to everyone that came by. Thanks for buying them. It really was a fun day.

In the end, I didn't come home with very many sets. In fact, I will have to make more tags before Christmas to give to the kids teachers. I would say my day was successful.

Will I do it again?? I don't know.