I've been selling on Etsy for over 4 years now. During those years, I've learned a lot of do's and don'ts. I've had busy times and slow times. I've made great items that I was sure would be best sellers only to find out they weren't and other items turned out to be a smash success.
My best all time selling item is the plain and simple kraft tag -
I've sold 3,500 in the first 2.5 months of this year. I haven't counted the total for all 4 years. That might take a while...
People use them for weddings, price tags in their brick and mortar stores and craft shows or make their own gift tags with them. They can be purchased in my shop in sets of 25 up to 1,000. I can also make a custom listing for just about any number you need.
Another surprise big seller has been my paper luau flowers -
I had an excess amount of paper in 4 different colors and decided they would make nice party decorations. I sold quite a few sets in quantities of 25-100. Then one day a museum event coordinator contacted me and asked if I could make 10,000 of them. SURE!! The girls and I worked hard for quite a few days on that. I no longer have the original colors but I'm offering the ones pictured above.
People don't often tell me what they are doing with the items they buy but it's fun when they do. The last person to buy my paper flowers said they were poking a hole in the middle and making lollipop flowers to give away at a hospital! What a cute idea.
If you'd like something for your next event, be sure to stop by Ellie Marie Designs. If you don't see what you're looking for, send me a message! I love custom orders.
Life just doesn't ever slow down, does it? The past several days have been a whirlwind of activities for me and my family. Here's a quick summery of what's been going on -
* Last Thursday, Hannah, Holly and I traveled about 2 hours east to help Gabriel move from a temporary room rental to his first apartment that he will share with his soon to be bride. It's a furnished apartment over a garage - a nice little one bedroom. So we just had a few boxes of personal items to carry up the steep but beautiful dark hardwood steps. The AC had just gotten turned on and it was literally 90 degrees in the little place. Had to cool off by going to the grocery store. We bought frozen pizzas and cooked them in the oven which didn't help with the heat. And we found out that "fully furnished" doesn't include a pizza cutter. So I cut the pizzas with a steak knife.
*John did not go with us because he had to travel to DC to pick up our Romanian friend, Marius, from the airport. He was supposed to arrive around 7 PM but the flight was delayed until after 11 PM. It was 2 AM before they arrived home.
* On Friday morning we left for yet another trip. We had to take Hannah to New York City to meet her team at the airport there to go on a two week mission trip Romania. So we spent the night with my former college roommate in New Jersey and left her house on Saturday. She lives about an hour away from the airport so that was incredibly convenient and we were blessed to spend some time with her. I was amazed at the amount of money we spent on tolls, round trip from VA to NJ to NY and back to VA - about $70.
*We got back on Saturday night and Sunday evening was the beginning of our church's Vacation Bible School. I'm teaching the 1st - 3rd graders.
*Come Friday morning I can breathe a short sigh of relief before getting serious about all the last minute details for Gabriel's rehearsal dinner and wedding. Soon I will post some pictures of some of the things that Sarah has asked me to make for the reception. Meanwhile, here's on order I'm working on this week for a fall wedding -
What's my biggest selling item from Ellie Marie Designs? Amazingly it's these plain brown kraft tags. I started out with a set of 25. A potential customer sent me a message and asked if I could do 200. 200? What does anyone want with 200 plain brown tags? Doesn't matter really. I can do 200.
Three years and thousands of tags later, I'm still selling them. I've done several sizes from 1.5 - 5.5. The 3.5 is the most popular. And I've done anywhere from 25 to 2,000. They've gone all over the world from Hawaii to New Zealand.
So what do people do with these tags anyway? Mostly, they don't tell me. I know that some have been used for:
*Escort labels at weddings
*Price tags for brick and mortar stores
*Etsy sellers gift tags.
*DIY Christmas tags
*Yard sale price tags
*Fundraisers
Need some plain brown tags? Visit my shop! I can also make a custom listing for special sizes, quantities and even colors.
