Today is our last day in Philadelphia with Dan’s family. As we start to pack up from our week of holiday celebration, I was able to squeeze in a quick watercolor for #MakeupMonday.
As with all vacations, it was wonderful to be away for a bit and refresh — but I’m ready to get back to work in the studio 
I love making work, but I also love packing it up.
Over the three years I’ve had my online store open to the public I’ve accumulated a pretty good set of simple guidelines to help me with packing orders, as well as some things that I *wish* I had known when I started out.
First and foremost, DONT SKIMP ON PACKING SUPPLIES. Just don’t. Add on the extra cost to the shipping, or the initial cost of the item – but make sure the order is packed safely. Customers aren’t buying the work because it is cheap (hopefully), they are buying the work because they love it and want it in their space. A safe arrival is more than worth an extra dollar.
Once a store has momentum (especially around the holidays) packing and shipping work can easily take over the entire day. For the three weeks before Christmas, I usually put the ‘making’ of work on the back burner, to focus on the shipping. In short, that’s a LOT of time packing. It’s so, so much easier to commit to multiple days of packing work when it’s fun and spreads your brand. Finding the essence of the work, essentially the brand ‘flair’ and featuring it as the orders are packed not only gives the customer a more meaningful, valuable experience when unwrapping – but totally adds to the experience of packing. Quick note of caution here, it’s so so easy to get sucked into over-packaging, and when there are a lot of orders to go out, or a time crunch, over-packing can turn into a very stressful situation. I use stickers, washi-tape and branded envelopes to keep the process flowing quickly, but they also create that unique package, that’s as entertaining to wrap as it is to unwrap.
Along the same lines, unwrap your own packages!!! Embarrassingly, I spent about 5 months packing up my orders backwards. I put the entire bundle of work/packing slip/thankyous into the envelope so that when the customer opened it, the bundle came out upside down. Not exactly the image I wanted to portray. So, when a new system of packing is implemented, I totally recommend wrapping up one package and unwrapping it to experience what the customers will (and adjusting accordingly).
And perhaps the most obvious, SHIP EARLY. Even when I have 7 days lead time, I try to make sure the orders are shipped by the 3rd. I have complete faith in the US postal service, but things seem to spring up more often than not – and I like to have the luxury of a few days cushion. This is most important during the holiday rush, as I’ve experienced quite a few orders being significantly delayed (and even lost) during the hustle and bustle.
Hope this guide helps, whether the store is brand new or well seasoned. Any tips you’d like share? Leave them here or tweet them to me @fin_feather_art!
Happy Packing!!!
It’s been a Christmasy weekend here in the studio.
Between wrapping up the last presents, getting all of our winter clothes ready and general holiday revelry – my workspace has been more or less covered in all sorts of things Christmas. Yesterday afternoon was spent finishing up the Christmas cards, interspersed with batches of cookies, with a few small watercolors thrown in for good measure.
As it is every year, it will be a race to get everything packed wrapped and sent – but I’d like to think I’m making headway. Cookies help, right?
I’ve been feeling a little abstracty lately, and have been playing with watercolor washes and gold ink. No real reason, no real goal, just an experiment.
It’s been nice to have a fun little diversion in between wrapping and packing all the holiday orders anyway
I’m wondering if I might be testing the bounds of responsible coffee intake.
I’m right smack dab in the middle of the holiday rush and I am loving it. Though for the next 2 weeks I’ll be spending more time packing and printing art than I will be actually making it, I’m so incredibly grateful to be in a position where this is possible.
So for today’s #makeupmonday post, I kept it super short and sweet. Just an application of eyeshadow. And some eyeliner for good measure
In today’s exciting news, I’m thrilled to announce that I’ll be showing a number of pieces at the 9th Annual Ghost Gallery Extravaganza in Seattle Washington.
I’ll have a few originals, a few prints (framed and unframed) and some packs of my gemstone cards on display (and up for sale) from December 11th – February at the gallery.
I’m thinking about trying to set up a flight to go out and see the show for myself, it looks to be a great one!
I’m a sucker for a good lipstick.
I’m also on a relatively tight budget. One might call it; ‘The I Work for Myself and All Extra Money Goes Back into My Business’ budget. So, when I can find something I love and purchase it without neglecting the cost of supplies for my work I am a very, very happy camper.
This week I chose to paint some of my more frequently used colors. For winter I am *loving* deep rusty reds and ashy peaches, which, conveniently are some of my favorite colors to paint with. Serendipty, friends.
I’m almost through my entire shelf of makeup (I don’t really own that much and tend to wear even less) anyone have any suggestions for next week? Tweet me, Instagram me, leave me a comment here or hire a plane to write it in the sky!
(if you do actually hire a plane, I’d love you forever…)
Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!
