New cards in shop!

new cards
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

I've been working away on some new cards and I've started listing them in my etsy shop. There's some completely new designs, like the zen set and a mix of old-and-new like the choose-your-own cupcake set. And I decided to make a few of the romantic skulls cards. So far I've just listed one on white, but I also made some black-on-pink ones. I've also got some more of the stamped little city cards made, but not listed. I'll continue listing things in the next little while. Custom requests are, of course, always welcome.

A card for the morbid romantic?

skulls in love
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

Some dear and unusual friends recently got married and as they have rather non-traditional tastes (their wedding cake was black and red and decorated with skulls), I decided that a shiny white wedding card wasn't going to really be quite right. So in order to make them a special card, I carved a new stamp... a skull with hearts for eye sockets.

I'm quite pleased with how it turned out and I hope the card made them smile. I now, however, have a stamp that isn't quite in my usual style. I'm debating whether or not I should make some similar cards for my shop or if it really was for an audience of two. So here's the question ... would YOU buy a card with a skull that only has eyes for love? You'll find the poll in the sidebar.

New things for a new month

cityscape card
Originally uploaded by allisongryski
A friend asked me to make some cards for her. Inspiration struck and the result was eight new stamps! Partly inspired by that 1960's blocky sort of children's book illustration, I made a set of city and country stamps. Here's an example of the style of 1960's illustration I mean.


red house card
Originally uploaded by allisongryski
I made a few extra cards (the ones shown here) which are now in my etsy shop. If you want a set or some particular colours, I'm always happy to take custom requests. You can see the other cards in my Papery set.


purple houses card
Originally uploaded by allisongryski
Happy February! Keep your spirits bright in this shortest of months by getting out in the sunshine when you can. I know a little walk on a sunny day, even if it's cold, does wonders for my mood. I'm thinking of buying myself some spring in the form of cut flowers since actual spring is still two-and-a-half months away for me. And to those in climates where it's lovely in February ... thank your lucky little boots and get out and revel in it for the rest of us! (Yes, I'm looking at you, my beach-going friends in NZ!)

Pick and choose

stone & statue photo cards
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

For awhile now, people in the know have been able to buy 6 of my photo cards for $15 (or buy-5-get-1-free). I've decided to make this deal generally available in my etsy shop.

I spent a bit of time today putting together photo montages of all the different designs available. In addition to the stone & statue ones above, there's also cupcakes, and butterflies, and orchids, and other bits of nature. Mix and match and pick and choose!

Fragile Facade

Fragile Facade
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

So here is the first card made with some inchies. As usual, the paper bits come from that tatty old copy of Jane Eyre that I've been chopping up for my collages. There's also some pencil crayon, water pencil crayon, watercolour, and ink. The middle square is based on a doodle in my sketchbook from more than a year ago. All my inchies are one-of-a-kind... I find that I keep having new ideas before I'm even finished with the current one. I might play with the same themes, but individually, they'll be unique.

Read between the lines ...

Read between the lines
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

I've listed a couple new collage/mixed media cards in my etsy shop: a string girls one and a woven paper collage one.

The latter was a bit of an experiment as a result of a mishap. I mucked up the alignment of my signature stamp on the back of a card, so it was essentially scrap. I started thinking about how I could use part of it to make a fun flap-door on a card. From there, I was thinking of hidden meanings, and the phrase "read between the lines" popped into my head. You can see the front of the card in my Papery set at flickr or click through on the etsy listing.

Cupcake cards in shop!

Yellow birthday cupcakes card
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

The cupcake cards are now available. I've listed one pink and one yellow to begin with. I have a few other styles that I'll be adding in the next few days.

Shipping confusion

As a new etsy seller, I have to say that the most confusing thing for me is setting shipping rates. CanadaPost has a ton of information online, but that doesn't make it much easier. There's lettermail, light packet, small packet, parcel post, not to mention all the pricey priority xpresspost courier stuff. Lettermail has 3 rates depending on weight, before you're into oversize and then there's 3 more weight categories. If that's not enough, there's also dimension and thickness rules. The small/light packet rates have weight and dimension rules, but it's more about the sum of the dimensions than any specific one, and on and on.

Etsy adds an extra layer of complication by offering a secondary shipping cost that would apply if the person bought more than one item. This is great and something I would definitely like to offer, but it brings up the problem of the weight restrictions. 1 or 2 cards fit into one rate, but if you add a third, then it bumps into the next one, and if you add a fourth, you're starting to look at the thickness restriction. Ideally, I'd like to find one envelope that could work for lots of things, but if I just go with something larger then the shipping costs will be a deterrent.

Currently, I am using a larger envelope with thick backer board. I'm looking for a replacement for that backerboard since it's both costly and weighty. I think it's perfect for protecting my photos, but for my cards, I'd love to find some smaller cardboard mailers,. The only ones I've seen are for letter-size pages which moves you into oversize lettermail. Bubble mailers are way too thick even with nothing in them.

I will report back with what alternatives I find.... I'm sure there's others starting out who will encounter the same issues.