Please help me with a page kit booth

[MerryPoppins]

Oy. I've been put in charge of a new scrapbooking booth at our church bazaar. How did I get myself into this?

I'm planning 5 of each page kit for sale (and one to put on display). I could do more, but since it's the first year for the booth, I have no idea what the interest will be and I hate to put the time into tons of each design. I'm thinking of putting my "finished" pages in an album with prices for the kit. Do you think that will work?

I'm planning to do several Christmas designs (since it's in December), several winter/snow designs, maybe a New Years?, a birthday or two, a couple of anytime patterns, and some football/college ones (since our theme is Oklahoma's centennial we're doing lots of OU/OSU stuff). Hopefully a few other scrappers in the church will do a few as well. Any other ideas? And how do I price the kits? I've purchased before but can't remember how much I paid. I usually do my own pages.

I'm going to need a ton of paper, so I'm watching for Michael's or Hobby Lobby to have a paper sale. But I'm starting on paper piecings now. Any idea where I can get baggies or envelopes big enough to hold 12 x 12 paper and page elements?

Any help you can give me would be appreciated. I've got a lot to do in the next few weeks if I'm going to pull this off. I hope I'm not wondering what to do with all these kits when it's over.

 

[TinkerKat]

Hi!
First and foremost, BREATHE I can feel you hyperventalating

Ok, here are my suggestions, first see if anyone in your "crop circle" is willing to "donate" paper for the cause! I myself know that there are papers in some of those DCWV paper packs I will Never use. I donate them to my son's art class.

I think the idea of displaying your finished product is definately the way to go.
People like to see finished product to get ideas.
Try to keep your designs simple, a newbie might otherwise feel intimidated and not want to purchase.
I think pricing is a personal thing. I usually check ebay and see what the going rates for premade pages goes for and work from that number. The reality is that your "TIME" is what counts most. You also don't want to overwhelm yourself. I think sticking to a list is good. For good measure, I find a Disney Layout will always sell ! I've even done "just borders" and sold them for $2-3 depending on how much embellishing.

The bags, Target carries I think they are made by Hefty, ziploc bags. They are two gallon size. I know BJ's also carries them in bulk.
I think if you keep it simple you'll do just fine!
Kat

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

I buy kits at my LSS for $16.00 they are 2 page 12x12 layouts, usually 3 photomats and 3 embellishments. I have one not completed that I just bought so I can open it and look what's inside.

 

[MerryPoppins]

I'm rethinking this a little. Do you think it'd be better to package up the paper piecings and page elements without background paper? That way if someone uses 8.5 x 11 format they could just find paper that works for them? I could just buy 12 x 12 for my example pages and it'd be a lot less expense that way. Even on sale the paper is going to be an expense. I could also just use regular baggies or manilla envelopes for the packaging if I don't include the 12 x 12 papers. What do you think?

 

[MerryPoppins]

Or I guess I could also hit up some ladies at church to donate paper or $ for paper. Hadn't thought of that. I might ask some scrapper buddies, but none of them go to my church, so I sort of hate to beg for stuff. I guess I shouldn't worry about the money. I can always sell the leftovers on ebay or something, right?

Yeah, I'd like to know what was in the package. I'm thinking a few might be more complicated, but I'm going to try to keep my designs pretty simple. I've already cut out two sets...a Santa one and a football one. I just need to get organized and put them together, then make some extra goodies to go with the paper piecing. I find it's not that much harder to make 6 of something than it is to make just 1. I just sort of get on a roll.

I've had one person volunteer to cut out pieces for me if I'll trace them in advance. That could be quite helpful. Cutting takes a lot of time. So I might even try to get a bunch ready to cut and see if I could get some people to show up at church one evening to help cut.

 

[LindaBabe]

If you put your sample layouts in a book, keep your eye on the book. Even though it's a church, such things have been known to take a walk. (experience)

 

[TinkerKat]

Tracing, cutting? What?
Time, Time, Time!
If you'd like, I could send you some snowflakes ... My 4 year old DD loves to use the sizzix! So please let me know. Maybe you should talk to church gals... it'd be a shame to put all this work and effort and then get minimal interest. I know, it's happened to me! Another lesson learned
Kat

 

[MerryPoppins]

Trace and cut is what I have to work with, but I'm actually pretty fast once I get a pattern figured out. Maybe I could use this as an excuse to buy myself a Sizzix?

Really, I am thinking of doing a couple of snow pages, so snowflakes would be great. I'm thinking 1 example page and 5 kits per design. I'm probably going to do a snowman page and a cocoa/mittens page. Not sure which I'd want snowflakes with at this point so I don't know how many per page. Also not sure what the size is of the flakes...what do you think? I'd be glad to send you paper.

Good call on watching the album. I'll certainly keep that in mind. I think my mother is in charge of some Christmas cactus they are going to sell, so I'm hoping we can combine booths and she can help me keep a close eye on my album. The only other option would be to hang pages on the wall, and I don't think we'd make as many sales if they can't get up close to look them over better.

Maybe as I get designs made, I can share them here. It's the least I can do after you help me figure out this whole mess.

 

[pjlla]

I'm sure that if you asked around here, a few of us would be more than willing to offer up die cuts of whatever shapes we have that might be helpful, as Tinker Kat offered.

I have a multi-piece sizzix die of a gift.... could easily be a Christmas gift. And I have multiple sizes of the Mickey head punches.... I could do some embellishments or borders in sets for you if you decide to go ahead with a Disney package. Let me know here or PM me if you want...................P

 

[MazdaUK]

Speaking as someone who doesn't have a sissix, I think baggies of specific "things" on a theme e.g. animals, transport, dinosaurs, flowers etc would go well with people who scrap but want some fancies - one of the on-line scrap stores I uses sells bags of, say, 10 camera or boat shapes (from Bazzzill 3-packs) for about £2. And I have to say as a swapper I have LOVED having the colour page kits - those are easy to put together, and I bet if you ask people to donate leftovers you could make up lots of sets (cos all those with boys would give you pink and vice versa ) - they are quicker to make and you could even get people who know nothing about scrapping helping with the cutting and assembling. If you get lots os paper donated you don't know what to do with you could make upt "lucky dip" bags - I often buy those as they are cheaper and I like the challenge (You know me and a challenge )

 

[bigsis1970]

I think the idea of not doing the background paper is a good one and just doing elements to complete a page.. here is the element list we use on the Swap boards I would choose 3 items per page (or 5 -6 for a 2 page layout) and go from there.. I also agree with Madza about the color idea (you can choose blues for boys, pinks for girls, orange/browns for fall, blues/purples for winter, yellow for summer, greens for spring) I also like the boarder idea too.. I can always find a few I like at a crop to purchase. good luck on this.. Michelle

Journaling Box: at least a 3x3 writing area, double matted and embellished with actual journal area placed on top of the two mats
Tag: double matted and embellished, include either ribbon/fiber or eyelet/brad in the hole - may include both...the fiber and or eyelet does not count as an embellishments
Embellished Shapes: double matted and embellished. These can be circles, squares, flowers, etc. be creative. If it is a shape that would not look right double matted please use your best judgement.....Just make up for it in another way. Maybe make a few extra or throw in something extra.
Slide Mounts: 2PP be creative here please
File Folders or Matchbooks: Please make sure to enclose a blank page in the matchbook if this is the element you choose to do.
Bottle Caps: 2PP if metal, 4PP if paper
Library Pocket and Tag: embellished, no smaller than to hold 2x3 a tag that should have ribbon/fiber or eyelet in the hole
Shaker Box: be creative please
Paper Piecing: be creative please
License Plate: be creative please
Signage/Bookmark: 2x6, double matted and embellished
Song/Lyric/Poem: double matted and embellished
Altered CD cover: be creative please
Altered letter: matted at least 4 inches
Altered Paper Clips: 3 large size ones
Embellishment baggie to include the following items: 3 yards of fiber, yard of ribbon, 2 pieces of 6 X6 coordinating paper, 8 brads and 8 eyelets.

 

[wdwmickey]

These are great ideas! I've done a border sale before and sold borders for $3 each. I love the colors idea! I would be happy to donate paper (I have tons I'll never use) just PM me if you're interested. I also have some leftover borders if you'd be interested in those (Disney, baby, spring). Cheryl

 

[MerryPoppins]

You guys are really too sweet. I'd be thankful for any help. Especially since at this point I don't know if anyone else at the church has a clue what I'm even talking about.

I might just go with the kits minus the background paper. Then they could just put it together however it works best for them. Thanks for the element ideas.

I like the border idea. I could do a bunch of borders pretty quickly and I bet they'd sell. Would I package them in sets of two or sell them individually?

I guess I mostly just need to figure out which of my ideas I want to go with and get busy. I have over a month to get them put together.

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Here's a link with pictures of most of our Swap items, It will give you an idea of what we make here. Some are more complex then others.
And great addition to kits are brads, buttons, ribbon, fiber, etc....

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1306021

 

[MazdaUK]

For a swap, boarders come in a 2-pack, one for each side of the page. You could do toppers instead - they come singly - and you could add a few embellishments or simple words like "spring" to match the trims.

 

[MerryPoppins]

I just wanted you to know that I haven't forgotten about this thread. Life has just been getting in the way of my DIS time.

I went to the Michaels sale this week. They had packages of 12 x 12 paper on sale 25% off. I got several packages. I also picked up some smaller packages so I could do page elements with those. Now I'm in the process of figuring out what pages to do and what color schemes, etc.

I might still take some of you up on sissix and borders. I think pairs of borders would go over well.

Feel free to share other ideas you're having. I'll try to work up some pages and share them here. Maybe then you could help me price them.

 

[disneyfan2]

i would to see photos of the creations....

 

[MazdaUK]

Have a look at some of the "scrapping with swapped items" (previous threads as well as current) to see the sort of things poeple make in bulk. Some of them are more work than you'll want to do for this purpose - there's some talented poeple here! - but it might give you some ideas

 

[MerryPoppins]

Today I got some Santa paper piecings put together. Just need to make titles and some other elements and one kit will be done.

I'm off to Michaels to get more paper. I realized I didn't get enough blue paper for the packages I'm planning. Need to pick it up while it's on sale.

 

[bigsis1970]

glad it seems to be rolling right along for you - keep us posted on what you're making and how they sell