Be a doll! Give your opinion!

[Elyzabel]

Ok, so, I think it would be awesomeness to start selling the greeting cards that I make, and I think a fairly untouched market are stylish cards that are NOT pastel and frilly. I'm thinking: Pink and black, pink and brown, silver, gold, lime; with some neat ribbon detailing and... well, I've got a bunch of ideas, but I want to do some market research so I'm posting both on here and on craftster. If you saw a neat set of party invitation, would you spring for them? Or a birthday card for a friend? If so, what kind of card would you be most likely to buy? What kind of decorations do you think would go over well?

Thanks a bunch! ^^  

[KariudoMegami]

Possibly, it just depends. If I didn't craft, yeah, I most likely would. But as is, I'm much more likely to just make my own... sweatdrop  

[Umberella]

Handmade cards are almost always cool, especially if they're unique! I've seen so many different styles...I say go for it. It would be really cool if you could sell them locally....now I'm just living my own fantasy!  

[Lychee Fruit]

I personally only send cards at Christmas time, and even then, only one or two. I'm bad about things like that. ^^; But for so many cardshops to exist, I'm sure there's a market for it, especially for cards of very bold design.  

[DecemberFlower]

I was actually thinking about buying some cards to kind of get back in contact with some of the people I knew in high school. Sure, I could use email to do it... but doesn't everyone like getting stuff in their mailboxes? For that, I'd probably just get some cards with blank insides.

I think making your own cards is an awesome idea. If you learned how to emboss things, I think that would give a great touch to what you make. It's not that hard, from what I remember. When I was in 5th grade or so, we did something like that with stamps, this sticky stuff on a stamp pad, and some gold powder. Use the stamp to put the sticky stuff on the paper, and sprinkle the powder over it... and then heat it with a hairdryer... and you get a nice little piece of embossed stationery. You could probably find more detailed info than that someone online... but that was the gist of it. And I think they sell the powder by the stamps in most craft stores. Now you've got me thinking about playing with the embossing... I want to make my own wedding invitations, when the time comes to actually do that. xp  

[Elyzabel]

DecemberFlower

I was actually thinking about buying some cards to kind of get back in contact with some of the people I knew in high school. Sure, I could use email to do it... but doesn't everyone like getting stuff in their mailboxes? For that, I'd probably just get some cards with blank insides.

I think making your own cards is an awesome idea. If you learned how to emboss things, I think that would give a great touch to what you make. It's not that hard, from what I remember. When I was in 5th grade or so, we did something like that with stamps, this sticky stuff on a stamp pad, and some gold powder. Use the stamp to put the sticky stuff on the paper, and sprinkle the powder over it... and then heat it with a hairdryer... and you get a nice little piece of embossed stationery. You could probably find more detailed info than that someone online... but that was the gist of it. And I think they sell the powder by the stamps in most craft stores. Now you've got me thinking about playing with the embossing... I want to make my own wedding invitations, when the time comes to actually do that. xp

Yep, I can do embossing and I have the materials. I love the effect! I'm learning calligraphy so that I'll be able to do some really pretty embossed lettering. ^^  

[spacekitten]

I think everything's worth a try, as long as you don't like, dump all your life-savings into it all at once.

I don't recamend selling them online, however. Not individual cards, anyway. My experience is that non-crafters simply go to the nearest Hallmark or whatever, since cards are only like $2 and adding shipping to that isn't worth it. But if you're going to make large lots of invitations for weddings and such, then the internet could work well for selling.  

[jbeth]

one of my friends bought some really cute handmade notecards not too long ago. I'm pretty sure they were printed somehow and I want to say they were a set of four.

you could make sets of cards like that, or put together cards that had the same theme, like initial notecards with the letters in different types but in the same colors. I wouldn't do random ones unless you want to put together an "emergency" card kit (a couple birthday, a get well, a sympathy, some blank ones). I think that would be kind of neat. *_*

*rereads first post* lol, what I suggested is kind of like the invite set you mentioned. 3nodding

if you wanted to sell single cards, people might go for them if they include some kind of gift. like, I don't know if you're an artist or make jewelry, but if the front of the card was some sort of thing that could be framed, or if the design included a pin or even a cool magnet or something.

wow, I get rambly when I'm tired. I hope I've made sense. >.>;;  

[QueenBea]

there are a lot of people selling hand made cards over at the Etsy website. You could check out what they are doing and what prices they are asking. I usually alter cards myself.  

[acornio]

there used to be a shop by where i live that sold art and little crafts that local artists had made, and i bought a whole bunch of cards there, just because i thought they were pretty, though i didnt have any where to send them.  

[DecemberFlower]

Elyzabel

DecemberFlower

I was actually thinking about buying some cards to kind of get back in contact with some of the people I knew in high school. Sure, I could use email to do it... but doesn't everyone like getting stuff in their mailboxes? For that, I'd probably just get some cards with blank insides.

I think making your own cards is an awesome idea. If you learned how to emboss things, I think that would give a great touch to what you make. It's not that hard, from what I remember. When I was in 5th grade or so, we did something like that with stamps, this sticky stuff on a stamp pad, and some gold powder. Use the stamp to put the sticky stuff on the paper, and sprinkle the powder over it... and then heat it with a hairdryer... and you get a nice little piece of embossed stationery. You could probably find more detailed info than that someone online... but that was the gist of it. And I think they sell the powder by the stamps in most craft stores. Now you've got me thinking about playing with the embossing... I want to make my own wedding invitations, when the time comes to actually do that. xp

Yep, I can do embossing and I have the materials. I love the effect! I'm learning calligraphy so that I'll be able to do some really pretty embossed lettering. ^^

Cool. ^^ I bet that'll look really nice. :3  

[Ditzo]

I'd buy stationary - eg. notepapers, funky envelopes etc. I wouldn't buy a card for a birthday or whatever because I always make them myself. I'd buy a funky card to put on my corkboard or in my scrapbook for my own enjoyment though. In that case they'd have to be cheap enough for me to think - o go on, it's not that much. If you sold ever so slightly less than Hallmark etc you'd make squillions on what your materials/time cost but people would think you were bargainous! Big card companies are extortionists. You can pay like a fiver for a crappy card with a sound effect in some places - little handmade cards have so much more character. Good luck!  

[Elyzabel]

Thank you everybody! These feedback is really helping. What I think I've decided I'm going to do is just make cards for swaps at the moment, thus working out some designs I could mass produce (which for me, means like six at a time ^^) later and sell in sets. Then this summer I'll set up an Etsy shop because it looks a lot more profitable than e-bay, and sell cards on there. I'm also going to look into other possible paper crafts like stationary, recipe cards, etc.

So basically I have concluded it would be a good summer project ^^