Customer Spotlight: Jungle Invitations for a Baby Shower!

Oh my GOODNESS! Is that cake the cutest thing or what?

And the amazingly decorated cookies! Yow!

I had a customer who wanted to use my jungle invitations for a baby shower -- they've been used that way probably more often than for birthday parties already, a super cute theme!

Rovie was kind enough to send me photos recently of the shindig. Doesn't it look amazing?

I loved hearing this:

"The invitations were a BIG HIT! Oh, yes!! Everyone raved about them (both kids and adults alike).

I am super thrilled that you made them because it set the tone for party which, by the way, was a huge success!"

This is what went on the back of the invitations (all of my spinning wheel invitations can have overflow text go on the back easily):

I love books as a gift for a baby shower! I know that of all the wonderful items we received when the twins were born (clothes, gear, toys, etc), it's the books that we still have and still look at occasionally.

Rovie was such a fun customer! We worked together on getting these absolutely perfect -- she asked me to substitute a lion in place of the tiger as the new mom and dad are associated with a monkey and a lion.

So much fun!

Thanks so much for sending me photos, Rovie!

Customer Spotlight: Lolo and Mamala

I had a request a while back to customize some of my three reasons cards for a customer, which I was very happy to do. Instead of "Mom" the buyer had asked that I put in "Lolo" and "Mamala" for the names.

?

Anyway, I was so pleased to get this very nice note (with explanation) from her this week:

Hi Molly,

Thank you SO SO much for the 3 mechanical cards I ordered. I am filipino and in our language, 'lolo' means grandpa and 'lola' means grandma. My mum didn't want to be called lola as she thought it made her sound old so she is known as Mamala to my son.

The cards were a great hit. Mums birthday was on the 1st of Sept, Fathers day on the 6th. So the cards went to both my mum and dad and the hero one went to my husband for fathers day.

They were all written as if they were from Xavier (my son) so for the million reasons there were things like 'I can do anything I want and never get into trouble' (one of the reasons for Mum's card); 'When you carry me and introduce me to all your friends, I feel very proud because I know how proud you are to be my lolo' (one of the reasons for dads card); and 'You work hard everyday so mummmy can stay home and spend time with me' (for my husband's)

They were loved by everyone and dad has his displayed in his office..

Thank you once again!

Aren't those great reasons?

Thanks, Faye, for allowing me to share your note with my readers!

Customer Spotlight: Joe's Surprise 40th Birthday Party

Okay, the is the BEST Customer Spotlight!

Kathleen, from New York, contacted me to create the invitations for her husband's circus-themed surprise birthday party. She was not about to let him turn 40 without a little bit of fuss.

I worked with her to customize and create 140 Spinning Circus Birthday Party Invitations. Kathleen sent me a number of photos of Joe to appear in the window below as text scrolled through the banner above. I also made custom labels for the envelopes for her:

A few weeks after the order, I received a note from her asking if it were possible to create some simple folded cards to send out as follow up cards to her guests. This is the text she asked me to include:

"April 1, 2009

To all our friends and family,

As most of you all know, we recently had new neighbors move to our town; Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. They have graciously accepted the invitation to attend Joe's 40th Circus Birthday, and they are requesting that our guests bring no cameras.

They have provided a photographer who will be at the party throughout the evening and will post all the photos online for all to see/print.

Thanks everyone for your cooperation, and get ready for some fun on the 16th!"

I FREAKED out (as I'm sure many of Kathleen's guests did)!

I ran around the office that entire day, telling just about anybody who would pause by my cube long enough about my two degrees of separation with the most glamorous couple in the world.

Angelina Jolie was going to actually see my invitations! I Googled Shiloh Pitts' birthday and discovered that it was two months away. Perfect, I thought, for a loving parent to see some unique birthday party invitations and decide that her daughter needed something similar. I pictured myself breaking into some crazy Hollywood birthday party extravaganza circuit.

Anyway, I responded to Kathleen's request with a cool, very professional note, letting her know the cost of the new order and how long it would take for me to turn it around.

Her next response revealed that it was an April Fool's Day prank! I missed the April 1 date on the card!

Agh!

The beauty of the joke, for Kathleen, was that Brad and Angelina WERE actually moving their brood into the neighborhood. Her area was all abuzz with the news. The kids had just been registered in the nearby school, so this story really did have the ring of truth to it.

A few months later, Kathleen and her guests (all dressed in the most amazing costumes ever) surprised Joe at what has to be one of the best surprise birthday parties ever. Guests flew in from all over (wouldn't YOU for a chance to meet Brangelina?)!

Kathleen was gracious enough to share the photos of the party, a few of which I've shown above. Don't miss that fun topsy turvy cake!

Great fun!

Customer Spotlight: Love from Singapore 2

More photos from Nicolette, our flea market friend in Singapore (read about her in this previous blog posting)

I was excited to see two of my Three Reasons cards at the top of the yellow display that her friend made for her (top middle photo). Yay!

Here's what she says:

As you can see, I put both your cards on the yellow stand, and I swearrrr at least 10 people asked me how that worked!! It was really cool, and I was so happy! Didn't manage to get a decent shot of the crowd cuz once they started coming, I was swamped!!! The last picture is a picture of my friend & I (right). She follows me to all my fleas and helps control my spending!! Even then, I'm often way over my budget. I will always remember how nice you were to give me such a good price for the cards!! :)

We were so busy we didn't even have time to eat! At around 3 or 4 in the afternoon more friends came (thankfully!) and helped us to take over so we could fill our tummies (no food since the night before!! Busy preparing, haha!) and for a toilet break. Friends are awesome sometimes aren't they!

I'm really excited for the one this coming weekend! It's supposed to be really big & I really can't wait! Will let you know how that goes Molly! :)

So there you have it! I am now a global card manufacturer! Thanks for the update, Nicolette!

Customer Spotlight: Love from Singapore

As I've blogged before, I'm a member of the EtsyGreetingsTeam, which is a group of cardmakers who sell on etsy. Among other things, we have a very active discussion board in which we discuss marketing tips, success stories, favored vendors and everything else under the sun.

In the past people have brought up the topic of "Nicolette from Singapore" who had tapped several members and made several wholesale purchases from various teammates. She seemed like a very glamorous and mysterious figure.

Naturally, I was totally thrilled when Nicolette contacted me with a request for a variety of cards -- I felt like I was suddenly part of a very elite club.

After she had given me some very nice feedback, I felt like I had to ask her about where she sold the cards. I knew that she sold them in some sort of flea market, but I wanted to know more. I was pleased to get a response from her in just hours! This is what she told me:

I've participated in about 5 fleas so far, the latest was the most successful!! I only have pictures from 2 of the fleas though, my card reader is spoilt and I've got to grab a new one!!!

For all the fleas, it's always been first-come-first-serve, so my partner & I would DRAG ourselves up really early in the morning just so we can grab a good spot later in the day!!! It's REALLY tiring!

I play with a limited number of things as 'props' for the cards. Due to the LACK OF SPACE (most often, I get a 3m by 3m area, if I'm LUCKY!), I can't afford to display the cards exactly the way I want them! Which really sucks actually :( I've also combed Ikea a thousand and one times looking for cases that can hold and yet showcase the cards well but to no avail :( My partner then put together the yellow thing you see in the pictures! Haha, yes it was made from scratch! Acrylic holders are SO EXPENSIVE!! (Btw, I would LOVE any ideas any awesome etsyians can give me about displaying my items!!!)

Anyhow! I'll talk about the latest flea since I brought most of the stuff along with me to that flea! As I said, that was THE most successful flea ever! We had a corner booth with lots of space at the side, so we laid down red cloth (EYECATCHING!) and laid cards & tags & notecards... you get the drift! on the cloth. People REALLY stopped to look! That was on top of the usual display I'd do on the table! At one time, there could be up to 10 people crowding around my small area! Which I had some photos! I'll definitely update you with them!

People were really intrigued and interested in the items. More often than not though, they walk away empty-handed unless they really have an occasion to buy for! Do you encounter this too? I guess it's the recession or something :(

I put 2 of your cards on my yellow stand at the latest flea and I think I demonstrated at least 10 times how those work!! Haha.

I've another HUGE flea coming up next weekend. That's going to be huge as there are about 200+ vendors! Plus it's coined the biggest flea in Singapore so the turnout should be awesome. Will let you know how that goes!!!

Please do relate all this to the etsygreetings team!! I know many people have asked me but I have been SOOOO busy since June started!!! I had to rush to get the items prepared for the flea once my aunt landed and I have been SWAMPED! This month alone, I've had 2 fleas so far and 1 more coming up! Please relate my apologies as well!

Fleas are REALLY tiring, but really worthwhile at the same time. I feel like with each flea I'm 'educating' my peers (most are teenagers / young adults like me!) and stuff. I feel like I'm bringing them loads of cool stuff! Haha! I've been told a thousand times how awesome and wonderful the cards and stuff are!!

Also, please help me let everyone know (I guess you guys have a forum or something? Haha!) that everyone who has worked with me is making my dream come true! So I'm really thankful and blessed :)

I hope this answers all of your questions! Let me know if there's anything I missed out on! :)

Love,

Nicolette

So there you have it. The mystery of "the girl from Singapore" unravelled!

I'll post any additional pictures that she sends me after she gets her card reader working again (she says that in the new photos we'll be able to see some of my cards -- yay!).

In the meantime, if anyone has any wonderful tips to share with her (like ideas on how to display her wares at the shows), convo her at etsy, she is forneverlove. (I asked her specifically if she would mind if I posted her "etsy handle" and it sounds like she would love to hear from you!)

Customer Spotlight: Calyra's Princess Party

When Nancy started looking for party invitations for her daughter's birthday, she found that she really liked the Circus invitations in my shop, but, of course, acrobatic monkeys had little to do with the princess theme that Calyra had her heart set on.

She contacted me and we talked about a custom Princess-themed birthday party invitation with the same interactivity as the Circus cards.

A quick search for some pretty artwork later resulted in a castle invitation with princess-type icons appearing in the windows. Nancy was thrilled with the custom Princess  invitations (and I got something fun to post to my store afterward)

Nancy's party was at a castle that specialized in making children's birthday party dreams come true. Click on the photos above to enlarge them. Isn't that table picture-perfect?

Some of the activities for the day included dress-up, storytime and stuffing a special pet.

In addition to the invitations that she ordered, Nancy also asked for coordinating gift tags, which she put on her Disney princess-themed lunch boxes (which were stuffed with a treasure trove of royal gifts).

Nancy was happy with the invitations, telling me this: "Thank you again for your patience and quick turnaround on the invitations, favor tags and thank you cards!  They all came out perfect and my guests loved them!"

Nancy, thank YOU for being a perfect customer and sharing your story with my readers!