Chewing Paper - Confessions of a Paper Addict

Cherry Arte Newbies

It's hard not to love Cherry Arte!!  And the latest collection is as ever, divine.  Strong, bold, striking and beautiful use of colours.   You look at the papers and you can immediately visualise the layouts!  Check them all out on Cara Craft Supplies store HERE!! 

Scrapbook Heaven - CHA 2008 Previews!!

CHA - the American Craft and Hobby Association, have just announced a list of product previews that will be debuting at the show this year.  And they are TO DIE FOR.  Check them all out HERE.

Please - tell us - add a comment and let us know WHICH ARE YOUR FAVOURITES!!!  We'll do our best to get the most popular ranges in!!  We have Cherry Arte already on order, what else would you like for your collection??

Stateside Shopping

Well, I'm just back from a short trip to the US of A - to visit old friends, have fun with other friends, and of course, get in a little shopping at our favourite craft stores.  I stopped by Michael's - the crafter's superstore of superstores, and I have to say, this time round I was very much uninspired.  Although I could NOT resist the amazing rolls of 6m of edged satin ribbon for 25c each!!!  Maybe it's that our craft store has expanded to include nearly all product groups now, but the style of the products in the store was all very middle of the road.  Nothing as bold or striking as KI Memories, Autumn Leaves or the new Cherry Arte we have coming in soon.  Hardly any clear stamps (I've a yen for these lately), and the wooden ones left a lot to be desired.  Tons of stickers and LOADS of K&Company.  Having been there I'm going to look into more Scrapbooking Kits and Paper Stacks and pads - what do you think?  Something you'd like to see in our crafts store??

I also paid a visit to Paper Source - and had a similar experience, though I can't say they don't stock bold ranges - they do.  I think our shop has just matured to the point where I rarely see anything new.  Maybe at the Craft, Hobby and Stitch wholesale show this month in Birmingham (I believe they have a non-trade version of the show?)!

Setting up a Handmade Greeting Card Business - Part 4 - The Big One. Pricing and Money Issues

Hi all,

Apologies for the delay in posting this - between Christmas rushes and holidays, it's been difficult to find the time to get all the information together and post it up!

Ok. Having covered products, packaging and lots more, we're now going to tackle the money side of things.  Mainly - how to price your products to see wholesale to shops or at retail prices to family and friends, tax issues and setting yourself up officially.  I'm going to approach it in a Q and A fashion, starting with tax!

TAX Questions

A common question from crafters setting up their own business to sell their crafts is:

Q: Do I need to register for VAT?  Do I need to charge VAT to my customers?

(A caveat for this answer - this is not intended as strict tax advice - please consult with a professional tax advisor for official recommendations!).

The answer is: Unless you have an annual turnover greater than €70,000, you do not need to register for VAT.  This means you do not need to charge your customers VAT, and you do not need to make quarterly VAT payments to the government.  Here's exactly what www.revenue.ie have to say about it:

In the case of supplies in the State and intra-Community acquisitions, registration (for VAT) is obligatory where certain turnover thresholds are exceeded or are likely to be exceeded in any twelve month period.

(e) €51,000 for persons supplying goods (increased to €70,000 as from 1st January 2007)

In the case where you are exceeding that threshold, you need to register either as a sole trader or limited company, and start collecting VAT for the government.  If you do register, it means a lot more paperwork, but also you can claim VAT back that was charged to you by any Irish suppliers, and also on other things such as postage costs. 

If you are not registered for VAT, you do not need to charge any customers or shops that you are selling your crafts to VAT.  Do not worry that they will think you are not "official" - it is never one company's responsiblity to look after the tax affairs of another, so shops simply don't mind or care what way you are set up as long as you're professional!

€€€€ Pricing Your Cards and Crafts

Q: How should I price my cards?  What kind of pricing do I need to sell direct to shops?

Pricing your cards and crafts is one of the most common questions we see cropping up on our crafter's forum. A recent poll on our forum of 25 crafters selling cards both to shops and family and friends direct revealed the following:

• The majority of standard sized cards (C6, DL and Square) are selling for a retail price of €4.00 on average.  This means they are selling in shops at this price, or are being sold directly to family and friends at this price.
• Retail prices vary across the country, tending to be lower in countryside areas, and higher in cities.  A card that retails for €5.00 may retail in the midlands for €3.50, for example. 
• Larger cards such as C5/A5 size, tend to sell for higher prices - more than €5 and often up to €7 and even €10 each.  Some people also charge more for square and DL, though most don't (and shouldn't really - the perceived value to the customer is the same).
• Packs of 3,4 and 5 cards tend to sell for lower prices, as do Christmas cards - when people are buying in bulk and less likely to pay a high price for each card. 

Wholesale pricing

Wholesale pricing for selling directly to shops can vary wildly.  Some shops will take a card and mark it up 20%, others 200%.  As a general rule, shops take a wholesale price and add 100% plus 21% VAT to it to get their selling price.  So a card you sell to the shop at €2.00, they will sell on for €4.84 (or more likely 4.95 or similar). 

A quick guide to pricing Wedding Invitations

As a very quick and rough guide, the absolute lowest you should be charging for a very simple, very small, very plain handmade day invitation we think would be about €2.50.  But, we would expect that a normal handmade day invitation would be more likely to cost in the region of €5.00.  Evening invitations tend to be about 60% of the cost, place cards less, mass booklets can be more as they require a lot of work to print.  We highly recommend that before deciding your prices for your stationery, you check out your nearest competitors to see what their pricing is like.  Make sure you don't undersell yourself - by far the most common problem.  Crafters rarely have lots of confidence in their work and are unlikely to overprice!!

Other General Tips

• Try not to underprice yourself!!!  Most of our crafters do and have no confidence in their work.  Does someone want to buy one of your cards?  That's because they're GOOD - not because they are doing you a favour.  It's a business transaction and you are providing them with a product SO much better than what they can get in the garage or shops.
• Research the shops you want to sell into.  See what they're charging now for cards so you can get a feel for acceptable pricing. 
• Ask friends and family what they think your cards are worth.  Believe them when they tell you.
• Always have a special offer to encourage people to buy more.  €4 for one card, 3 for €10. 

If you have more questions, please post them here!!  Or have a look at our forum for more posts about the topic. Above all have confidence in what you're doing.  Judge yourself by what people say about your cards and whether they want to buy them...and take it from there.  You're doing great already :)

Just a quick one to say the fantastic Scrapbooking Pop Culture range from KI Memories is now in stock and oh my goodness but is it to die for.  Some previews below!!!  The range features lacy die-cut cardstock, rubber "softies" and other accents, shimmer paper and tons more!!

Oodles of Doodles

Doodling is big in Scrapbooking right now but can seem hard to do if you aren't *artistic* or have the steadiest hand.  People use it to add a freestyle accent to a scrapbooking page/layout - often using white pens to create a really "standout" effect.  One of the members of our Project Design Team on our Craft Supplies Site - the uber-talented Elisa, has done a fantastic tutorial on our Craft Supplies Forum to take you step by step through doing your very own doodles.  Start with the left picture, end up with the right!

Find the tutorial HERE - along with lots of other online classes!!  Checkout Eva's class too on the Doodle Flower - great for cards or wedding invitations - and a good place to start! Also, check out Elisa's more advanced layout she did using doodling - here. And if you're hooked already, visit Inky Mole's doodling website

Updated to add - Elisa has just added a 2nd tutorial on vibrant flower doodling - see it here!

Pop-Pop-Pop Culture

Oh. Wow.  The new Pop Culture Scrapbooking papers from KI Memories are to *die* for. Elisa and the girls on our Crafters Forum gave us the heads up on these - fingers on the pulse as ever. 

Unfortunately for us, they're not available until mid October but we'll be adding a pre-order section for it (and other goodies) soon.  In the meantime, feast your eyes and you can check out a sneak preview of the range here.

It's all about new lacy die-cut cardstocks, fun chipboard alphabets, new "softies" accents and buttons and great ribbons and shimmery patterened papers.  Phwoar!!!!

P-P-P-Pick up a Punch

Paper punches are a staple in every crafter's tool box.  For making wedding invitations, we always recommend the Long Reach Single Hole Paper punch (right).  You can use it to reach right up along the spines  of wedding invitations to punch two holes and then thread a co-ordinating ribbon through to bind the pages together.

Chatting in the office today however, we were talking about the various "features" of punches that can sometimes make punching difficult.  I felt a blog article coming on, so here's a few facts and tips about using and maintaining your paper punch collection.

1. Paper punches in general are only suitable for punching through normal paper or light/thin card.  Because they punch vertically rather than cutting horizontal like a scissors, they are not usually suitable for using with soft papers, fibrous papers and in some cases, tracing papers.  Something to bear in mind.
2. If the paper is a little fibrous, we often find that when we punch the shape out, the punched piece has a few little fibres along the edge of the paper.  This is pretty normal, and to fix it we usually just run a slight wet fingertip along the edge to smooth it down.
3. If your paper punch gets sticky or stiff, try punching through some wax paper to loosen it up again.  If you have no wax paper at home, run a candle over some paper to make your own!!
4. If your punch has gotten blunt (this can happen if soft papers are used or if the punch has been used a lot), try punching through some tin foil to sharpen it up again, or alternatively some fine grain sand paper.
5. It can be really effective to buy the same punch in several different sizes to use for layering up, shadowing and other effects.  This works particularly well for shapes like flowers, squares/circles/ovals/recatangles.
6. Probably the Queen of all the Punches is the Crop-A-Dile from Memory Keepers which we sell   on our Irish Craft Supplies Site.  It punches 1/8" and 3/16" holes, sets eyelets (small, medium, large, cone shaped) and snaps.  Rumour has it the next version is going to do the washing up as well.
7. Stello added a comment on the blog (thanks Stello!) about a technique I forgot to mention - if punching through thinner tissue papers (not fibrous) it helps to put a layer of stiffer card underneath. 
8. Below is a list of some of the most popular punches we sell on the Crafts site all  year round.  The one at the left of the list is the most popular, going down in popularity along the line!