Tatted toppers

Let me start by sharing about the joy ~~I think~~ we all feel when receiving a package in the mail. Don't you remember that feeling you would get when you where a kid and your mom handed you a letter from the mailbox that actually had your name on it?? I know I do. Something about finding an envelope in the mailbox addressed to me seemed so important and made me feel like I was an adult. Now that I am an adult it's just not the same. I would guess the bills are to blame. However, as an adult, I still get that joyous feeling when I find something in the mailbox that doesn't fall into the bill, junk, or credit card offer categories. That's part of the reason of why I love Etsy.

Etsy encourages their sellers to be creative when it comes to packaging and shipping handmade items. In fact, one of the first Etsy seller tips I read was about making the experience of buying from your shop memorable. At first I didn't really know how I could do this so I just wrapped my items up in some bright tissue paper, tied it up with some colorful yarn, and topped it off with a handwritten note. Simple and cute, but not exactly memorable. It wasn’t until I made one of my first purchases on Etsy that I realized I had to step up my game in the packaging department. I wish I had taken pictures of this beautifully wrapped necklace, but I was way too excited about getting the necklace around my neck to think of taking pictures. I felt like I was opening a present for myself. It was in a cute little box that was sporting a fantastic logo for the Etsy shop it came from and then the box was wrapped with a bow and a note from the seller. I just loved it!

I had been challenged and I don't like to ignore challenges. The challenge was to create a cute, yet inexpensive, package that would give my buyers the feeling of opening a present. I mentioned my challenge to my mom (a.k.a. queen of creativity) and she started throwing out a few ideas. When she said something about a little keepsake bag or drawstring bag I immediately knew what I wanted, a muslin bag. Then, I decided if I could get a stamp of the Tatted toppers logo I could stamp the bags. Well, after several weeks of getting all those things in order, I was finally able to make my new packaging and send it off to my customers.

So when you order an item from Tatted toppers, not only is the item handmade, but the packaging is handmade as well. Here is a quick glimpse into the process...

Stamp, pigment ink, embossing powder, muslin bag, medium card stock tag

Ink up the stamp with the pigment ink

Center the stamp, and press down. I used a book as a base under my little craft pillowcase.

Voila!

The bag part is pretty simple, I just have to make sure to press hard and throughout the entire stamp. The middle tends to be the most difficult part to get a good solid image down.

I also use my stamp to create embossed tags. I tie the tags to the hat (or whatever item is ordered) and write a little note on the opposite side. I cannot even begin to express my love for embossing! It is such an easy and relatively fast way to make something look so fancy. I have used it mostly on invitations, but also to make some personalized stationary. Once you have the few essentials, you could literally go crazy embossing and creating all kinds of cool paper goods.

The essentials: Stamp, pigment ink, embossing powder, and whatever type of paper you are wanting to emboss. There is one more thing you need that is probably the most essential, but I'll get to that in a moment.

First, ink up the stamp again using pigment ink and stamp the paper or tag or whatever.

Then, pour the embossing powder over the wet ink. It is important that the ink is still wet so that the powder sticks. Also, I like to keep a piece of paper underneath to catch the leftover powder.

Next, pick up the stamped item and pour all the embossing powder off. A paint brush is helpful when getting rid of all those tiny pieces trying to hang on where they don't belong.

Here is the most essential and probably most fun part of the whole process. This little tool is what completes it all. It's about $20 at JO-ANN, but if you have a 40% off coupon then it isn't so bad. Just be careful, this sucker gets HOT

Turn on the heat tool and hold it over the image. Then, moving it around to the different parts, you will be able to see the powder magically turn shiny right before your eyes! Once the entire image has changed, turn off the heat tool and enjoy!