Boutique Chal-Baie

 

Introducing the newly opened Artisan Boutique in Bathurst New Brunswick Canada. Please visit our facebook page to join and learn about the local artisans and events taking place throughout the summer.

Green Pledge

Today I "pledged" my green business as part of the Greening Chaleur Businesses Program. This program has been initiative by the Chaleur Green Initiative whose mandate is to:

•To educate the Chaleur business owners and community leaders about sustainable development with a focus on local implications and benefits;
•To stimulate and implement green and environmentally sustainable concepts and practices within individual businesses and communities in the Chaleur region and
•Become the leaders in the community for both business and community alike to be wardens of best practices and the information provider for programs, services and information to all aspects of sustainable development, education issues and climate change issues.


I think this is a great program. I pledged to:
* Reduce waste in packing my items for shipping by only using what is necessary
* Use recycled packaging in as many cases as possible
* Use recycled paper for labels, business cards etc

Obviously my business itself is based around recycled material- so I mentioned that as well. This is a photo of some of my products on display. I had quite a few positive comments from the people in attendance and one request to display some of my coffee cup sleeves at a local art gallery.

Coffee Cup Sleeve Saga Complete

YIPPEE!! I have completed my order (the full story starts here) for 220 coffee cup sleeves. Everything is ready to be shipped and the only reason that they are not being shipped today is because we are in the middle of a blizzard and I am stuck at home! First thing tomorrow the sleeves will be off to their new home.

I have to say that I never realized how long and tedious it was to make the labels. I had to cut each with a cutter and then I punched this cute little maple leaf in the corner as my "made in Canada" symbol on each one (which took a hour alone!!). For the most part the sleeves fit on nicely and those that did not, I secured them to the labels with some hemp (which for some strange reason my cats became fascinated with!!)

Here are some of the final photos:


These are my labels and my tools to get the job done.










All of the sleeves packed up tight. I bundled the sleeves up in groups of 5 (made it easy for me to count and kept it nice and neat).









This is the final product...

Continuing Coffee Cup Saga

Well I thought it would be good to update everyone on my coffee cup saga. I AM DONE ALL OF THE SLEEVES!! Yes I have 220 coffee cup sleeves done (223 to be exact)!!! I finished them up Saturday evening and I felt very triumphant!! I worked my butt off to get them done, so that I could spend Sunday working on the labels- not that was work!! I have to cut, print and then cut again all of the labels. I am using file folders as the paper for the labels, because it is durable, the colour and texture I wanted and it is made out of 75% post-consumer waste. So before I could run them through the printer I had to cut them all, and then because they were so think, I basically had to hand feed them through my printer and then I had to go back and cut them out... I worked on them all day on Sunday and I have 169 cut, so I am almost there! I will then have to punch holes in them and attach them to the sleeves- that will probably take me to Tuesday night and then hopefully I can get them couriered out on Wednesday or Thursday. I am so happy that everything is working out!!!

The boxes with all of the sleeves!!







The labels in progress!! I will get there eventually...

~~One Heart One World Give-away~~

This is my first time entering- but the third year for the the One World-One Heart event (OWOH). Click on the badge to go to the main event's blog where you can find a list of everyone who is offering a giveaway for this year's event.

I am giving away a "the funky fun diva" kit as my give-away! The kit includes a really cute denim bikini should bag (that hangs about 24 inches), an adorable scrabble tile pendant, a bouquet of 5 fun button flowers and the rock my heart coffee cup sleeve. This would be great for yourself, your daughter grand-daughter or anyone who loves fun, funky handmade goodness!!!



So, how can you get a chance to win this great "funky fun diva" kit? Very easy. Leave ONE (1) comment on this post (not any other post on my blog)and have an active blog (meaning that you update it at least once a month) or a valid email address (leave it in the comments or have it on your Blogger profile).I also encourage you to check out my shop and let me know what your favourite item is!! You do NOT need to be a OWOH participant. Anyone can participate BUT I need to have a way to contact winners. Most people follow these requirements but if there is no way for me to contact you, I will remove your name from the entries.

Winners will be announced on February 12th. Good luck!

The Coffee Cup Sleeve Saga

Well this is it- the journey I have embarked on to complete a large volume order of Coffee Cup Sleeves....

Last Tuesday I was contacted by a person who said they were a marketing rep for a company and they were interested in purchasing 200 of my recycled sweater coffee cup sleeves to use in a promotion that the company was doing to launch a new environmentally-friendly line of their products. Of course I was both skeptical and elated! She wanted to set up a time to discuss this with me and so I told her that I would be happy to speak to her about this opportunity. Before I went any further though, I did some research to verify the legitimacy of the company (of course you want to be safe and this was a huge order). We chatted the next day and she expressed her delight in finding a person who not only made coffee cup sleeves (as she had been considering other ones) but ones that were made out of recycled sweaters- it was perfect for her product launch and she was so keen to use someone who sold on Etsy as she has been a fan of the site for ages. We continued to chat and then got down to business and discussed the arrangement for payment, etc and then I asked the question- "When do you need the order filled?" Oh she said, by the first week of February... What?!?!? OMG that was only 2.5 weeks away and I also needed to have them shipped. I still felt confident that I could do it- she also encouraged me to include with each one a story about how I made them and the value of a coffee cup sleeve. We finished the call and the next thing you know I get another email for an additional 20 sleeves- bringing the order to 220!! OK- I was already going to do 200 in 2 weeks so what's another 20?!?!

Well I got started:



This is a photo of the pile of sweaters I started out with. I am very fortunate to have my BF's mother- she loves this and went searching for sweaters for me and found a ton of them- most of them were ripped and so they were really inexpensive!!!




I worked diligently each night and all weekend:



This is a picture of me working away in my basement. I tended to cut and prep everything in my studio and then in order to be sociable I would gather everything up and head downstairs to assemble the sleeves.









One week into the job I have 171 sleeves assembled!!!













This has been such a great experience and I am so happy to have had the opportunity to help out such an environmentally conscious company and get my name out there! I love to take orders of any size!!!

Obama Craft Explosion

It is really quite interesting and exciting to see all of the energy around the inauguration of Barack Obama today as the President of the United States of America. Even as a Canadian, we can't (and don't want to) escape the excitement, with virtually every Canadian media outlet covering the big day. As a die-hard CBC listener, I have been able to sit here at my desk and listen to the various opinions/perspectives of various people about this historic day and the impact he will have on the world as we know it today. With that being said, he certainly has impacted the crafting world and am completely blown away by the amount of people on etsy who are selling Barack Obama inspired handmade goods. As you can see by the front page there are an amazing amount of fantastic items out there if you want to show your support for Obama.