Great Etsy Newbie guide

Short post, I just saw this great thread on the Etsy forums compiling an enormous amount of information and resources. Enjoy:

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5581122

Also,  some supply secrets:
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5185116&page=4

Some packaging supply links

I've been scouring the internets to find good places to get packaging supplies and materials. I've tried Pearl Paint and Michael's locally, but they really didn't have what we were looking for. Michael's had a few jewelry boxes that we picked up to use meantime, but they end up having barcodes on them: 

Which isn't all that aesthetically pleasing.

So here is a list of what I've found so far that seems useful, I'll update this post as I find more, and if you've had any experience (good or bad) with any of these companies, please comment:

Paperworks.com - pretty much a paper site, but they seem to have a nice variety of coated, photo, and specialty papers and envelopes. There's also a section to order samples, which might be all you need for a backer, header or insert.

Papermart.com - I just found this one and it seems like there's a ton of useful items here. All sorts of gift boxes and specialty boxes, including non-square shapes, tins(!), shred, and cello bags. Pretty much anything you can think of in the packaging department, they have. Including mops. For cleaning up, um, packaging disasters. SPLODE!

Uline.com - The old standard for bulk cheap boxes, though they seem to cater more toward larger boxes for moving and the like. There are some smaller boxes though. And they have a nice amount of poly bag supplies, including sealers for custom-size bags.

Royalmailers.com - standard bubble and flat rigid mailers (good for photos or prints, which I'll probably pick up for shipping my prints), seems more catered to flat and document mailing, though they have boxes as well.

Etsy.com - I've heard people had good luck searching for etsy sellers who sell packaging supplies. 

Rubber stamp packaging test

Last night I experimented with a possible packaging design for the rubber stamps.

First I needed some new stamp designs.

So I took the logo from the banner, printed it out, and transferred it to the stamp with a xylene blending pen. You're supposed to use toner-based printouts, but all we have in the house are inkjets, so I tried it anyway. It worked, but not well. Just enough to put in a faint image that I could carve around (I've also heard you can use a slightly-warm iron to transfer inkjet images, but I wasn't feeling adventurous enough).

Mona also made a SUNSHINE CUPCAKE text tag logo and I transferred and carved that as well. Mini letters are kind of completely evil, but I started using a harder pink rubber stamp material, so it was much easier to get the fine details. I still couldn't rely on the lino-cutters exclusively and had to bust out the xacto here and there.

Next I asked Mona to draw something "fallish" to add to the header, so she drew a happy acorn directly on the stamp rubber with a ballpoint pen and I carved that puppy out.



Then I used some Kiss-Off and a rubber stamp-cleaning pad and that got most of the ballpoint ink off. It also works well for pigment ink and dye ink, though it's not perfect if the ink's been on there too long. I found it to work best when it was applied directly to the cleaning pad without any water. Once water was introduced it got foamy, but didn't seem to clean as well. I tried using Master's Brush Cleaner as well, which works great for dried paint on brushes, but it didn't do much.


Next I tried using some inking markers we found at the craft store that are for coloring your stamps with multiple colors. I used yellow and orange for the cupcake sun logo. It was pretty much a disaster, as you can see. There was hardly any ink transfer to the paper, it dried too quickly. I'd read about people having good results with these so I was disappointed by the actual results. I'll stick with pigment pads.


Next I wanted to get our store website link on the package somehow. Eventually, I'll probably print out a text logo, transfer it to a stamp and carve it out, but for now I tried some alphabet stamps we had. I like the misregistration of it all (pay no mind to the smudge I made. There is no man behind the curtain).



And to top it all off, the finished mock-up, complete with Happy Cake stamp: