Craft Project #5 - Chalkboard Wine Labels

Finally, spring is in the air! We've had occasional small glimpses of spring over the last few weeks and it's giving me the itch to get out and do something fun! I know I'm not the only one whose caught the spring fever, during a recent phone conversation with my best friend about the upcoming spring break at our kids' schools, we decided to plan a weekend trip with our two families. This is a first for all of us, jumping into 3 days of togetherness with wonderful people we don't see often enough.
As our trip nears, I've been thinking of fun things to bring to occupy the kids on the 6 hr drive as well as in our rental when the adults are ready for some time to simply enjoy the company of friends. Hoping to keep the interruptions and distractions to a minimum, I so far have a very limited assortment of the usual: board games, toys, video games and movies. These are all well and good, but I wanted something new and fun that they could all make use of, at least once. Something that would make a special memory for all of them to share.

Now, my friend and I like a glass of wine on occasion, so I bought a bottle to take with us for an evening in at our cabin. I had this idea that the kids might enjoy their own fancy bottled beverage, so I bought two bottles of sparkling grape juice for them.

A few days later, I was sitting at my desk making notes in my journal about different projects to make using my new chalkboard vinyl and viola! I thought of the grape juice bottles and my chalkboard wine labels were born!

-First, I cut out a 4" x 6" piece of chalkboard vinyl with some decorative crafting scissors.

-Next, I applied a small vinyl decal of a modern grape vine in the corner.

-Last, I simply peeled off the backing paper and applied the new label over the existing label on the glass bottle.

I thought it turned out rather cute! The kids can now write their names, keep score for their games or draw right on the bottle. I'm also going to make a couple for my kids to use on clip boards in the car. I was so happy with my idea I listed a set of 4 of these labels in my Etsy shop here.

These labels are not only for wine bottles, they can be used several different ways,like to leave little notes around the house for those you love! Put one on the inside of your child's lunchbox and leave him notes from home, add one to a clipboard and take it in the car, or put it on the refrigerator!

Chalkboard vinyl is becoming popular and can be found several different places online, as well as in some sign shops but if you want a completely do-it-yourself project for a real bargain, you could also use the bottle itself as a dry erase board. Carefully peel off the existing label ( you may need to soak it in soapy water first) and use any dry erase marker to mark directly on the clean glass bottle. It wipes off easily with a tissue, and can be used over and over again.


I hope you all have a great weekend and Happy Crafting!

Jill♥

Too Much Branching Out?

In July of 2008 I decided to try my hand at running a small business from home. This has always been a dream of mine, and although I knew I had to start out small and grow slowly, I didn't realize how hard it would be to just grow period. So I made a website, opened a business account got my tax ID, signed up to be a reseller of printed items through a well known online company and started advertising.

My first newspaper ad in my small town brought in absolutely nothing. Seriously, $50+ down the drain and not even a phone call. So I found a list of e-mail addresses of local businesses through the chamber of commerce website and sent them all a friendly e-flyer advertising my business. Later I learned that this is kind of spammy and I really shouldn't do it, but hey, I did get an order from it.

Ok, so there really isn't much of a demand for straight up graphic design in my small little farming county, so I started looking into other marketable product that required graphics to some degree. I already new how to sell cast plaques, so I added those first, then gradually got into other types of signs. Vinyl wall designs were getting popular and I thought these were right in line with what I liked and knew how to do - graphic design and selling signs. So I bought a vinyl cutter and taught myself how to use it pretty fast.

Most of my orders were, and still are, from my local community through word of mouth. But I felt like I needed to expand my target market (which encompasses a wide range) so I went online and found Etsy.

Let me say that again ... I found ETSY! (insert excited squeal here)

I made myself wait for a month, until after I did some research on the handmade site and learned how things worked. I told myself not to get into too much, but I could sell my vinyl wall designs and my graphic design on Etsy to a larger audience (who were specifically looking for handmade things) so I couldn't resist jumping into it.

Etsy has added new meaning to the word advertising. I spend loads of time promoting, connecting and sharing my products with other online creatives like me and while I completely enjoy it, sometimes I can get lost in it. My sales don't reflect the time I spend on the site yet, so I need to take a step back every now and then to look at what I should be doing (more creating) vs. what I am doing (promoting a lot!)so I don't get sucked into the black hole of lost time. Don't get me wrong, there is a happy medium between the two, but I sometimes have issues with time management.

Now I have such a wide variety of products with a diverse customer base, I wonder if I've branched out too far? Yes, my sales have increased as I've added each new product line, but my sales are still not really steady overall. Also, I can't tell that one specific product sells better than another.

I've read that most businesses start out with a lot of different products, then as they grow, narrow down to a few specific products that they do really well.

So the big question is.... how much is too much branching out? Do I narrow down now, or wait until I have more sales to see what works best? I don't know how to choose, and luckily, at this point I don't have to yet. But I'm sure the time will come when I am either fed up with trying to make my business successful, or so busy that my head spins and I have to make a major change. I guess for now I will just "keep calm and carry on".