Packing and Shipping

While taking the photo for this week's On My Desk, I thought it might be a good time to show you how I pack my orders and try to stay organized.

Here's a look at some monkeys getting ready to move to their new homes. I generally try to ship several orders at once. I like to lay out all the bits & pieces I'll need before I get started.

I got a set of drawer organizers at Target to hold my labels, tags, business cards & such. This is much easier than grabbing things one at a time from my shipping supply drawer. Now I just pull out the tray and everything's right there. For each order I need a business card with a pinback button, a little tag with a handwritten thank you note, a return address label and a shipping label (I keep those ina drawer near my computer). It's quite a lot of work to send those packages out the door looking nice.

I use kraft tissue from ULINE to wrap my monkeys and baker's twine to tie them up. I also get my padded envelopes from ULINE, they ship really fast.

I print all of my own labels and tags myself. This is easy for me because I design my own graphics. I use 8.5x11" sheets of sticker paper from Avery to make my address and shipping labels & recycling stickers too. Check out the Avery website, you can design and print your own stuff online. The only thing I don't print or make myself is my business cards and pinback buttons (I let the professionals handle those items). I keep all this stuff in a small dresser in my sewing room. I got some inexpensive sleeves to help me separate everything. One for iSew, one for Monkey Travel Club and one for my fun colored papers.

My punches & tools live in a plastic shoebox that's stored in a cabinet under my cutting table. (How do you like my girly pliers? haha) I have my own set of tools, that ensures they stay clean (and where they belong!).

I've started to make some little gift tags to include with my Etsy orders. I try to buy paper that's fairly generic (although I couldn't resist those Chrismas trees). I've got some for every day orders too. I find the paper punch works better on heavier papers.

So now you know all of my secrets. Enjoy!

Rare Saturday Night Post

Hello my internet friends. I'm spending a quiet evening at the computer, checking messages, replying to convos, etc., etc. and thought I'd drop in for a quick post. I'm usually sewing on Saturaday night until the wee hours trying to prep for the market, but I finished early tonight. It's only 9:13pm and I'm away from my sewing machine. I think that's a record. HaHa
Just wanted to give you a peek at the quilt I finished this morning....

I've had this fabric in a bag and ready to be made into a quilt for over a year now. I'm glad I finally made it. I love that blue print, wish I had more too. We'll see how my market customers like it in the morning. I also made another baby blankie gift set today in a very soft pink color scheme. I am planning to take your advice and price the sets at $45 to start with. I'll let you know what happens. I had hoped to make a few more of those sets today, but ran out of time. I knew it was too ambitious for tonight. I'm thinking it was very strong of me not to try to get too much done before bed. (pats self on back) I need my beauty sleep.
And yesterday I didn't get a chance to tell you all about my amazing new bib template I had made. I make a lot of bibs these days and usually use a cardboard template to cut them out. This, as you can imagine, doesn't work great with a rotary cutter. So I decided to call a local plastic place & see if I could get an acrylic template made from the cardboard one. Well, they said yes!
It works pretty well, especially around the outside. It's still a struggle around the neck opening, but I think a new super tiny rotary cutter might solve that. It's a lot faster for me to get these made now, and with Nick on snap duty, even better. I got a load of new bibs done today in a lot less time.
So that's it for me on a Saturday night. Gotta inactivate some things in my Etsy shop and get to bed. Night night. Have a great Sunday & say Happy Birthday to my cousin Nicole who's turning 30!