Beading Birthday Party

Today I worked my first beading birthday party.  It was at the home of a student in my class.  She had five other girls, aged from seven to thirteen, plus herself at the party.  I'll describe my setup and equipment.  Each girl had a beading board (found at a local bead and jewellery store for $1.00 each!) a beading mat, and tools.  Since there were only a few girls, each could have her own round-nose pliers, chain-nose pliers, and flush cutters.  A few days ago I went through my bead inventory, and organized them into beads for my use, and beads for beading parties.  All the beads designated for parties were kept in clear round plastic stacking containers, and the findings and silver accent beads were in a flat, compartmentalized container.  The beads and findings were in the middle of the table, where everyone could reach them.  Each girl could make two items, necklace, bracelet or earrings.  I had pre-strung some bracelet-length and necklace-length beading wires with either a toggle clasp or a lobster clasp.  I talked briefly about using different textures, contrast, and accent beads, then let them loose on the bead supplies.  The girls made some beautiful things, and when they were done, I put each girl's creations in a beautiful organza bag, into which I had slipped a business card and a flyer.  With cleanup, I was there for a total of 85 minutes, which was about 15 minutes longer than I was supposed to be there, but that's because I let them make two things instead of one.  I did that because the girl is a student in my class, and I wanted to offer her some kind of bonus gift.  I also gave her a pair of earrings that I'd made, as a birthday gift.  I think the party was a big success, and I hope that there'll be more parties.  Here are some pics of the party.

New Jewellery Display Stuff

There are countless different ways to display your jewellery at a craft fair. I was at a loss for how to display my earrings, which I sell on my homemade earring cards.  I came up with this design for an earring rack.  They were easy to make, inexpensive, and they are light enough to carry to craft shows and fairs.  I keep these racks loaded with earrings, and covered with clear plastic bags, and when I have a craft fair to do, I just pull the plastic bags off, and voila!

This is the earring rack empty.

This is the earring rack fully loaded.

I used 12-gauge copper wire to hang the earring cards on, and bent it into spirals at the ends to finish the look.

 I love these earring racks!  I need to make more to hold all my new designs.  They only cost about $15 each to make.   

The Frugal Tycoon's Money-Saving Tips

Marketing and promotional materials are an essential part of building a small business and getting your name and product out there.  The costs of these materials can be prohibitive to a budding tycoon, though.  Through research and happy accident, I've found a few ways to save money on these promotional materials. 

1.  Make mini cards.  Buy pretty blank cards from the dollar store, and cut them into 1-inch strips.  Using a nice marker, write a personal note to the buyer on these and slip them into the package before shipping.

2.  Make your own promotional literature.  If you don't have Microsoft Publisher, consider investing in it.  I've used it to design my own business cards, flyers, craft booth signs, and e-invites for beading parties.  I printed my own colour flyers, on my ink-jet printer, on normal office paper.  After looking into the price of printing 50 colour flyers at a print shop, I figured that it was cheaper to buy a new colour cartridge just for this purpose.  I got 50 copies, and there was still lots of ink left.  Of course, this is economical only if your printer's cartridges aren't atrociously expensive (mine, thankfully, aren't.)  The flyers look great, and the whole thing cost about $30.00. If you don't want to buy Microsoft Publisher, you can download a trial version that lasts for about a month.