Eat, Drink & Be Married

About a month ago I was asked to make a custom recipe book with Eat, Drink & Be Married on the cover. I loved the quote and design and knew I wanted to make a recipe book in the size and shape I offer in my shop. Over the weekend I finally had some down time and got it added! It can be purchased as is, or the bride and groom's names and wedding date can be added as well.

I love this quote so much and knew it would be perfect for other items in my shop as well. I decided to add it to a cutting board.

And a recipe box.

I'm also hoping to make some custom cards soon to make these boxes into guest book alternatives. One side of the card will have room for a message for the bride and groom. And the other side will have name, address, email and phone information. So the box is useful after the wedding and still has those special wedding wishes in it :)

Sports Team Coasters

I had one of those "Why didn't I think of this sooner" moments this past week! I've been making sports team coasters for my local shows and they've sold rather well every time I've taken them. And I've gotten a few custom orders at shows for different teams I don't have on hand. Why haven't I thought to add these to my Etsy Shop?!?

So yesterday afternoon, I did just that. My sports team beer mugs have done well on Etsy and I'm hoping these coasters will do well too :) They'd make great guy gifts!

One of my recent custom requests included two different teams with "Divided We Stand" on the coaster holder. I thought this was a fun option to add, so I put a note in my listing that I can customize the coasters even further with a special request like this.

 

Have you made/listed something before and wondered why you hadn't done it sooner! I hope I'm getting these listed at the perfect time with football in full swing :)

Engraved Plant Markers

Over Labor Day weekend, my parents were in town and my mom had a fun new idea for my laser! She comes up with some of the best ideas! She brought back some bamboo skewers to have me engrave and turn into plant markers!

My mom has a beautiful garden! My parents are selling their house and she thought it would be nice to leave the new owners plant markers so they know which plants are which when things start blooming in the spring again.

We did about 20 different varieties of plants and then went on a photo shoot to my grandma's house. It was fun to take some outdoor photos again! (Seems I only take product photos anymore!)

I need to get my hands on some more of these so I can add them to my shop. They're about 3/8" wide and probably 12" long making them perfect for plant markers. And since they're made of bamboo, they will withstand the outdoor elements well.

Teamwork

I'm so excited, my friend Dave from Sawdust Explosion sold his first item on Etsy this week! Dave makes beautiful pen and pencil sets (as well as MANY other awesome wood working items)! Each set is made completely by hand!

His Bamboo Set was the first to sell and the buyer asked if he does engraving. Lucky for him, he knows someone with a laser engraver...wink, wink :)

We ran a few test pieces and decided on the best format for the engraving...it turned out great! I can't wait to hear how much the buyer loves the pen and pencil set! She bought them for a friend who writes music, so we know they'll get a lot of use :)

Dave and I plan to work together on a lot more projects. He just built an awesome CNC router from the ground up! Check out the video on his blog! I already have several items on order! And I hope he continues to sell more items on Etsy as well...I love engraving new things :)

Custom Is Key

As I mentioned in my Winery Review post, when people found out I could customize my coasters any way they wanted, they were the hit of the show! People love anything they can personalize. Especially for gift-giving! It adds that extra touch to make a gift even more thoughtful and special. My Custom Name Albums have long been my best-selling item. And now that I have my laser engraver, I can customize so much more! Here are two different styles of custom coasters I've added to my shop this week: There can be personalized with any names, words, initials, photos, graphics, etc. you want! And what a great gift they make! Do you offer custom or personalized items in your shop? Give them a try!