Holly's Senior Trip

My children are the number one reason I began Ellie Marie Designs in the first place. I needed to supplement my husband's income in order to help my oldest two buy textbooks while I homeschooled Holly, my youngest.  Now Holly is just about done with high school.  This weekend we took her and friend to Va. Beach to the aquarium.

We went this weekend because we originally planned to go on a whale watching boat. The tours end the first week in March. But that didn't work out.  We knew it was too cold for the beach but we just had to go see it.  For a total of ten minutes.  Our faces were numb by the time we left.

The aquarium was a lot of fun!  I was even brave enough to touch a sting ray. The clammy, slimy animals really seemed to like me.  

 Holly's favorite animal is the sea turtle.

I love this picture of Holly.  It looks like the turtle is looking right at her!

I had a great time with my family celebrating our baby girl's senior year.  Next week she gets her driver's license.  Oh help!

What's My Biggest Selling Item on Etsy?

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.

 3.5 inch Kraft Tags

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.

 Set of 300 Kraft Tags

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.

What Should I Do with Those Scrapbooking Supplies?

So I had these stacks and stacks of scrapbooking supplies and had to decide what to do with them.  I did some research on Etsy and saw that people do sell 12 x 12 scrapbook pages.  But how do they ship them?  That route seemed too complicated for the beginning of my adventure.

Summer Beach Tags

 

I gathered my supplies and just started cutting, stamping and gluing and soon some festive little Christmas gift tags had been created. I listed about ten sets in my shop and I was a happy camper.  I was so pleased to have almost half a page filled up.  It took about two weeks to get my first sale.  I was ecstatic!  

Gift Tag Grab Bag

 

Decorative gift tags are one of my favorite things to make.  But I've realized that not everyone needs six or ten of the same tag.  So recently I've bagged up an assortment of ten different tags in a grab bag.  Each bag is different and it's a bit of a surprise what each customer will receive. There are baby shower tags, fall tags, teacher appreciation tags, Valentine's Day, wedding or bridal shower tags, birthday gift tags, etc. It's like an All Occasion gift tag supply.

Why Do I Sell Paper Products?

Trying to decide what to sell in my Esty shop was not too hard.  I am not really super talented in the area of arts and crafts.  When I was about 16, I took a macrame class.  I really enjoyed that and did quite well with it.  Then I tried toll painting, decoupage, stenciling, cake decorating, cross stitch, sewing, plastic canvas and whatever else was new.  It was always a colossal failure.  It wasn't any good or it was too messy, too expensive.  Some projects took too long and I lost interest.

Paper Posies - Scrapbook Embellishment in Bright Summer Colors 

 

Then scrapbooking came along.  Someone compared it to making bulletin boards, but on a much smaller scale.  Well.  I'm a teacher.  Bulletin boards I can do.

When we were in Romania, I started a scrapbooking ministry with the ladies there.  They had seen my scrapbooks and I thought it would be fun to get the supplies and show them how to make them. It was a fun way to reach out and fellowship!  When we left the country, I gave away a lot of my supplies.  But I still had a bunch that we brought back to the US.

 

Rainbow Flowers for Scrapbook Layout

So when I considered what to sell on Ellie Marie Designs,  I was inspired by the prophet Elisha in the Old Testament. He asked the widow who was in great need of making some money, "What do you have in the house?"  What did I have in my house?  Stacks of scrapbooking supplies.

Do you sell on Etsy?  How did you decide what to sell?

So Why Did I Start an Etsy Shop Anyway?

My family and I were missionaries to Romania.  And when we returned from the field, we found ourselves in Richmond, VA living on a single and insufficient income. So I started working too.  I subbed in the public schools anywhere from one day a week to full time.  John worked evenings, I worked days and somehow we managed to continue homeschooling our three children.

Lion Birthday Favor Tags

Then my oldest two, Gabriel and Hannah, graduated from high school the same year and went off to college.  So now we not only had the added expense of two children in college but working outside the home became complicated.  John's schedule had changed from permanent evenings to shift work.  That made it impossible for me substitute without leaving our youngest, Holly, home alone for hours at a time.  

 Upcycled Birthday Gift Tags

I was discussing my dilemma with a friend at church who happens to have a very successful etsy shop selling adorable baby bows and headbands. So I started praying about what I could do at home and soon Ellie Marie Designs had begun.

 Purple Goody Bag Labels