I always love getting mail. Letters are the best, of course-- loving letters from friends and family-- and so are handmade cards and lovely magazines. There is always such a thrill in recieving something just for you. It's magical.
This is one of the reasons why I love to make all my packages be pretty. These are a few of my favorite things... I don't use much brown paper, but I do use lots of string!
I recently had several orders from the Shoppe and photographed my "shipping process." I've had several queries from fellow handmade artists concerning shipping... I certainly don't have all the answers, and since my Shoppe is small and I don't have a lot of money, I haven't done several things that are good ideas for business shipping (someday I would love to get gift boxes and stylized packaging!).
However, every order is shipped with love and care, and hopefully makes the reciever smile. So, for what it's worth, this is the way that I've been shipping items lately!
The first and most time-consuming step is making little jewelry bags. I use scrap fabric from old sewing projects (thank you to several friends who gave me their scraps!) and some beautiful fat quarters I found on sale.
Each one is cut to size to fit my plastic baggies (see below). This batch that I sewed up in November used several "Christmas-y" fabrics.
Sometimes if I'm in a hurry I don't fold over a hem on the top of the bags. It's still pretty that way.
Tip for anyone wanting to use this idea: Sew the bags in batches. It's much faster and less stressful.
I don't always use fabric baggies. Sometimes I use brown paper tied up with pretty ribbon, or peices of a wedding tablecloth (also tied up with pretty ribbon!).
The jewelry goes onto cards (printed on cardstock with holepunches for earrings and slits for necklaces). These cards are then slid into the fabric bags.
I have two sizes of cards, baggies, and bags to accomodate most peices of jewelry.
Isn't it pretty?
Each item gets its own baggie, and I usually put up to three baggies in each fabric bag (or brown paper package).
My business card also goes into the bag. Right now I'm printing them on cardstock and cutting it out with a paper slicer, but someday I intend to get some professionally printed.
The reciept and fabric bag slide into a padded envelope.
Right now I have some lovely brown envelopes that I quickly stamp on.
Unfortunately I'm running out of the pretty envelopes and will soon have to go back to the boring manilla ones.
I ship everything via USPS First Class mail with delivery confirmation (unless I'm asked to ship with other specifications). I print postage from Paypal, which is really nice because I never have to drive out to the post office.
Larger items get shipped Priority Mail.
In this photo you can see the "wedding tablecloth" that I cut up and tie with string or ribbon.
Did I mention that it's an absurdly large roll of wedding tablecloth? Mom found it at a resale store for me!
It's pretty and swirly. :)
Anyways, after the package is sealed and the postage is taped on...
I put the packge in the mailbox and imagine the smile on the person recieving it!
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