[…] getting rid of clutter gives a disproportionate boost to happiness. 

Gretchen Rubin

One of the most visited pages throughout my blogging history has been the template for a cardboard necklace display stand and the smaller version for earrings added later.  I was asked to make some earring stands recently and wondered how easy it would be to adapt the design template I already had, in order to cut them on the Silhouette.

I found that I was easily able to make the basic cutting shape from what I already had and thought it was an ideal opportunity to make some design adjustments I’d had in mind.

Having done that exercise and made a batch for a friend, in a quest to reduce the amount of materials I have accumulated, I have made available some pre-cut stands in the shop.

As I have plenty of ivory coloured card of a nice quality, I am offering a dozen in a pack of that one colour or a mixed dozen in random colours, depending on what card I find of the right weight etc.

I am charging £6 for the 12 stands, which come cut out, pre-scored and flat ready to crease and glue yourself – this saves a big chunk in the postage, to keep the price down.  I supply assembly instructions, but I doubt that’s necessary, they’re very simple to do.  The price includes second class postage.

One of the modifications I made was to cut a tab into the bottom corner of the stand to allow easy placement of a price ticket.  In the past, I cut out my own printed prices and used Blutak to place the price on the stand.

But cutting a little tab allows prices to be added easily and the stands can be re-used for different earrings that bit more easily by just changing the price ticket.  A card with details of the materials or other information could just as easily be placed under the tab.

I also have an alternative version which could be supplied on request with a little circle tab cut around the earring hole to accommodate closed earwires like lever backs.

You are of course still very welcome to download the original template and make your own, it will remain available.

I’m having a clear out, so bag a bargain:

In line with my current thinking to try and make some more storage space, which I’m getting very short of, I decided that as I now do very few fairs in person, that my range of lower priced designs that I kept especially for events could be cleared to make some space.  So I’ve re-packaged a lot of pairs of earrings and am offering 10 pairs in a Lucky Dip pack for £15.  They could be ideal as stocking fillers, Secret Santas, cracker fillers or just as a treat for yourself – and who needs any particular reason to do that.

I do have a quantity of pairs featuring better materials, such as Sterling silver, freshwater pearls and Swarovski Elements, so will ensure that at least 3 pairs in each pack come from this category.  The savings with these Lucky Dip packs, over the original ticket prices, is considerable.  You can’t choose your own designs, they’re selected at random, but I’ll endeavour to choose a good variety of styles and quality.

Use them for fundraising:

I’ve re-packaged these earrings on plain cards and in zip-sealed bags with silicone tube backs to keep them in place, so you could use them for your own festive charitable fundraising events.  Granting this permission and removing my own branding does not infer any rights to the designs or to take credit for the work.

 

My work this week:

I don’t have much new to show for my time of late as I’ve been re-working older designs, which often requires them to be re-photographed and the details modifying, working on commissions and re-stocking the shop, along with my aforementioned clear-out, both on the site and in my stock.

I did however get some nice new beads to make bracelets and earrings with.  I have some designs that are perpetual good sellers, all using 10mm diameter beads, so I’ve been working on some new variants, including some gorgeous faux amber beads which as you can see in my header image above, are a glorious colour and have lovely light-catching inclusions.  I suspect that they must be a resin that when cooling has created plaques or fractures.  Whatever, they’re very pretty indeed.