Gingham Gone Postal.

The missing color of gingham has finally arrived. I cut it today, packaged it and shipped it. If you paid via Paypal, you will have received an e-mail with the tracking number.

I know you'll love this stuff, it's awesome!

I still have a few shares on hand, if you missed out on ordering this one. I actually have all of the ribbons on hand with the exception of my May Shares, which are still on order.

Thank You Cards!!!

I had my auction committee over today. Most of them are non-stampers or newbies. We made 70 of these cards to send out to businesses who donated to our auction. It was a really fun project and I think I have some converts who will not be visiting Hallmark as often anymore!

I used SU's Pretty in Pink and Cool Caribbean paper and ran them through the Cuttlebug. I also used some of my organdy ribbons from the shares. The flowers are punched with SU's flower punch out of patterned paper. I used Crystal Effects and beads in the centers of the flowers.

Good News!!

First of all, I have shipped out everything.....all orders are on their way to you, most will have already received them.

The only exception to this is the gingham ribbon. I was told by the wholesaler yesterday that they shipped the missing color out. I'm not sure when it will arrive here, but I will post when I get it. It will take me a day or so to cut, label, and ship it.

One more note about wholesalers....I am no longer dealing with them, I'm only purchasing from manufacturers. Hopefully backorders will not affect future purchases.

FAQ's on my eyelet share.....

I've had a few recurring questions about my eyelet share. I thought I'd do a FAQ post.

1. Do you need the full payment up front, and if so, why? Yes, I need the full payment as quickly as possible. The reason why is that I have to pay 1/2 of the total amount up front, just to get the manufacturer to start making the eyelets. Remember this is a custom order and if I flake on them, they're stuck with them. We're talking about thousands of $$. I need 200 participants to fill the share. At $40 each, that's $8,000. You can see why it would be hard for me to cover the entire cost myself, even 1/2 is a lot of money.
2. Why will it take 2 months to receive my eyelets? The eyelets are being manufactured overseas. The manufacturer has quoted the wholesaler (and hence me) 35 days to manufacture this many colors. Then we have to allow time for the eyelets to be shipped from overseas, then to the wholesaler, then to me. On top of that, I'll be getting bags of 10,000 eyelets and I have to count them into sets of 50. When I did my other eyelet share, it took me about 30 minutes to count 5,000 eyelets using my counting scale. My engineering hubby has come up with a more efficient way to count them, so I'm hoping each set of 10,000 won't take more than 40 minutes. That's still 40 minutes for each of 60 colors. That's a total of 2,400 minutes, or 40 hours.
   
3. What colors are you using for the "in" colors? I'm using the current "in" colors because I sent these cardstock samples in to the manufacturer over a month ago. I wouldn't be able to get accurate 2007-2008 "in" colors until I can get my hands on some cardstock. That would put the eyelet delivery sometime in September. I don't want to make people wait that long.
4. Will you do the new "in" colors? Yes. When the new "in" colors are made available, I will send in samples and have them made also. At that time, I will be offering an additional share of the "in" colors, metallics, and neutrals as a supplement to the regular share. I would expect this to be ready to ship in September.
5. Are these aluminum eyelets? Yes. They are the nice, soft ones, easy to set, just like SU. They're not the hard brass ones like Making Memories. If you purchased a previous eyelet share from me, in the non-custom colors, they will be exactly the same because they are made by the same manufacturer.
6. When will the eyelets be ordered? I have just given the go-ahead (May 25th) to the manufacturer. I expect to receive the eyelets in the early part of July. I expect it will take me at least a week to count them, and then a couple of days to address and ship them. I will update my blog every step of the way when there are new developments.
   

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask and I'll answer them here.

A Get Well Card

Just thought you'd like to see what I've done with some of my gingham ribbon. I used a strip of gingham and a strip of grosgrain on this card. I used the Stampin' Up! Weathered background, the Farm Fever set, and Sweet Spot set. The colors are Summer Sun and Real Red. I used my watercolor pencils on the sheep.

I've had a few requests for photos of the gingham ribbons.
Here's a picture of 8 of the colors. One of the original colors has been
discontinued, so I have decided to send an extra 5 yards of black instead.

I'm still waiting on the light pink to show up.
As soon as it does, these will be on their way to all of you!

New Shares for May

New Shares for May, 2007

All new ribbons for May are May Arts Brand Ribbons (No pun intended)

¼” Ric Rac:

• 15 colors
• 75 yards
• $25.00
• Available in: champagne, green, yellow, ivory, olive, orange, black, pink, brown, natural, light fuchsia, light blue, red, burgundy, royal blue

1/8” Ric Rac:

• 11 colors
• 55 yards
• $21.00
• Available in: white, yellow, celery, black, orange, red, brown, olive, light blue, pink, royal blue

3/16” Stitched Center Grosgrain:

This is the same width and similar to SU’s ribbons in their collections.

• 18 colors
• 90 yards
• $23.00
• Available in the following colors: (all with white stitching except where noted) champagne, pink, gold, orange, lavender, mauve, royal blue, black, fuchsia, antique gold, purple, red, burgundy, olive, yellow, light blue, antique gold/antique gold stitching, lt. brown/lt. brown stitching

Burlap String:

This is similar in feel to jute, but very skinny like hemp cording.

• 13 colors
• 10 yards of colored string
• 15 yards of white, gold, and silver
• $12.00
• white, ivory, pink, brown, navy, natural, burgundy, gray, red, bittersweet, lavender, green, gold, black, olive, silver

To order, you can drop me an e-mail at pinkhedgehog@yahoo.com or pinkhedgehogpapercrafts@gmail.com

Polka Dot Grosgrain Gone Postal!!

I have the polka dot grosgrain all cut, boxed, and shipped. I still need to cut a few shares of 3/8" striped organdy and the 1/4" and 1/8" solid organdy. That should all be done by tomorrow and then everything......EVERYTHING!!!!........everything!!!!......will be cut and shipped. I love sending out happy boxes of ribbons around the world!

OK, not totally everything. I'm still waiting on that last stinking color of gingham to come in. The wholesaler said it would be shipped this week. I'll update here when I get notified of shipment.

I'm Almost Done!!!

Tonight I'm cutting the polka dot grosgrain. Most everything else is cut and packaged. I just need to print the shipping labels. Nearly every package will go out Monday, if it hasn't already.

The only exception is the gingham ribbon. I'm still waiting for the last color to show up.

I'll post a list Monday of all of the packages that went out yesterday and this coming Monday. Happy mail on the way!!

Share Update

I'm cutting and shipping about 10 orders/day. Lots of people have already received their ribbons, brads, etc. I'm hoping to have everything but the gingham and polka dot grosgrain cut and shipped by Monday. I'm quickly catching up!!

I have created a new document with a list of all of my current shares. If you'd like a copy of the document, please e-mail me at pinkhedgehog@yahoo.com and I'll send you one.

You'll get info about my 3 new May Arts shares, which will not be posted here on my blog until Monday, May 14th.

Missing Polka Dot Grosgrain Arrives!!!!

I'm finally in possession of a full set of polka-dot grosgrain colors. I'm going to finish cutting the other types I'm working on and then start in on the polka dots. Yippee!! I expect it to take me a couple of days of cutting to finish the polka-dot grosgrain. I'll update here when it ships out to you!

Can I just say I HATE BACKORDERS!!! Just a little anyway. :o)

Shipping Update

I've been busy cutting ribbons! I have a number of orders ready to ship and I'll be printing shipping labels this morning. The following orders are going out, at least in part today:

Laurel K.
Heather H.
Vicky W.
Julie K.
Cheryl H.
Gina S.
cischroed (SCS name)
Angela J.
Michelle I.
Shelly S.
Melissa N.
Sam S.

I again want to thank you for your patience as I dealt and continue to deal with backordered ribbons. I heard from the polka-dot grosgrain wholesaler that my last color shipped. I'm still waiting on word for the last color of gingham. Everything but the gingham is on it's way to my house.

More Backorder Notes

The polka-dot grosgrain wholesaler has informed me that the remainder of my order has shipped. I should have it early next week.

I've had a number of questions about shipping. I am cutting and shipping out what I have here. If you ordered something other than gingham, polka-dot grosgrain, or 5/8" striped organdy, you can expect your items to start shipping soon. I have everything else here and it's just a matter of how fast I can cut and ship it. If you paid via PayPal, you'll automatically get notified when I print your label and you can use PayPal to track your shipment. In the case of multiple shipments, you'll get notified each time I ship.

OK, back to cutting!

Backorder Update

Just a quick update on backorders.

I'm still waiting for the following:
1 color of gingham
1 color of polka dot grosgrain (used to be 4, but 3 more came, I requested a substitution.)
2 colors of 5/8" striped organdy (I think this is a shipping error, not a backorder)