Busy Bee

So, the above is where I've spent the majority of my 'free' time the past three weeks. In our sunroom which I've unofficially renamed my pinwheel studio. It was originally added on last year as a potential play room for when we have kids, but with the way the pinwheels are going, we may need to get going on another addition for the so far nonexistent children. After spending so much time here, I now don't want to give up this room. With all the windows, it practically feels like I'm outdoors. While working away like a queen bee, I've been imagining what I can do the space to officially turn it into my studio. Although I've also been envisioning turning our upstairs office into a studio as well as that is the perfect winter studio - only two windows and it stays pretty warm and cozy during the winter. Perhaps I need a summer and winter work space - leave it to me to make my life even more complicated. :)

For the past several orders I've really begun working on my packaging. The above is the calligraphy packet which is now sent with all of my seating card pinwheel orders. It includes the seating card attachments, instructions for the calligrapher and an extra pinwheel so he/she can get an idea of how to best calligrapher the cards.

I've also started shipping all of my items in re-closable zipper bags. In the past I shipped in fold-over or tie bags and I always had this fear that they would somehow get water damaged. (Yes, I'm a worry wart.) You just never know how long a box is going to sit on someones door step in a torrential downpour. So, hopefully I'll have one less thing to worry about now. :)

I've also started using my new pinwheel logo on labels which have been adhered to the bag. I looked and looked and looked at every office store for oval labels. Finally found them online. I love them!

I'd eventually like to have bags pre-printed with my business information but for now this works just fine and dandy.

I've also started enclosing little pinwheel FAQ sheets with all of my orders.

And above is one of my orders all set to be shipped out. A couple of months ago I purchased a scale and figured out the whole click-n-ship process. My is this process super easy plus I can give exact quotes for shipping. I'm loving it. :)

And ta-da, below are some of the orders I've recently shipped out ...

Custom Seating Card Pinwheels for a wedding in October.

I love the paper the bride chose. So fun and vibrant. A calligrapher is going to hand calligraphy each of the names of the guests on the seating card attachments. Very fun.

Above and below is a large order of pinwheel party favors for an event taking place in early September. I worked with the event planner on designing custom paper for this event. It's an eco-friendly event so the design was printed on recycled paper. Since the event is green friendly, of course the color green was utilized and so were butterflies (an idea pulled off the event invite).

One side of the pinwheels featured the sponsor's logo, repeated. The other side featured differing sizes of butterflies - some filled with varying shades of green and others once again filled with the repeated logo.

The above ended up too cool. I've recently purchased a printer that specializes in printing 12x12 scrapbook paper so hopefully I'll be able to easily print more custom papers in the future.

The above and below were for a smaller rush custom order for a 1st birthday party. I thought they turned out really fun, so why not feature them?

I adore the circle and dot patterns together.

While talking with the client we brainstormed on a fun idea for a party hat - see above. Considering the amount of pinwheels I've made lately Roger has joked with me that pretty soon everything I touch will have a pinwheel plastered on it. He even joked that I should stick one in the top of a party hat. I laughed it off then and said I would give it a try someday. This client gave me the perfect opportunity to try it out. The pinwheel on top actually spins and we even made it so the pinwheel could be removed from the hat after the party - it's still attached to a stick, it's just hidden away in the hat. I enjoy working with people who like thinking out of the box - it's fun to push creativity sometimes. Sometimes being too creative can flop and this was definitely borderline in the beginning but I still think it's too cute, especially for young age groups. :)

The pinwheels above were just mailed out today - all 175 of them. They are the mini cupcake topper sized pinwheels. The bride also wanted seating cards attached. (All of these seating cards slide on and off so they are super easy for the calligrapher and after the event they can be removed!) I can't wait to see photos of this bride's wedding - it's definitely going to be one fun and festive event. :)

Okey dokey - guess I've rambled enough for one day.

Time to get back to some actual work!