Release: Paper Flower Art Collection Notecards
Large notecards bearing the images in the Paper Flower Art Collection.
Read about my process for sourcing a printer for my Paper Flower Art Collection notecard stationary sets.
There's something truly special that happens when you send out a handwritten card to someone, isn't there? The whole world stops as you sit and write out your thoughtfully crafted message. And when your friend receives the beautiful card and reads your handwriting, it brings such joy. I don't know about you, but just seeing an envelope with my name on it excites me and stirs my curiosity to no end (I don't think there's a need to clarify that bills are an exception, but here it is).
On the urging of one of my favourite collectors, I created a set of boxed stationary for the Paper Flower Art Collection.
Lovingly designed and packaged by yours truly, each of the large card is 5" x 7" and comes with a beautiful white envelope. Sets come in 5 or 10 cards. The 5-card box set consists of one of each of the five Paper Flower Art print, while the 10-card box set consists of two of each print.
It took me a while to source a printer that would offer what I was looking for. Part of the reason was that I was very indecisive, so I didn’t commit for a while.
I had some serious hesitations about the sizing of the cards. Most boxed sets come in 4" x 6" notecards, but when I initially sent proofs of the images to my printer, I actually had ordered 5" x 7" prints in addition to 8” x 10”, 10” x 12” and 11” x 14”. Although I didn't end up offering sizes other than 10” x 12” for my limited prints, the 5” x 7” prints had turned out beautifully. I loved the proportion of the oval framing to the negative space, and 5” x 7” is the usual size for single cards. So when I was looking for a printer to create these notecards, my inclination was to look for one that would print out 5" x 7" notecards.
Size 5” x 7”, these large notecards are the perfect vessel for a thoughtful handwritten message.
Ideally, I would only print out and pay for cards that had already been purchased in my Shop. No overhead, no putting out money before a guaranteed sale. However, none of the PODs offered 5” x 7”, which meant that I had to hold inventory. Fine I thought. I forgot that I had 5 different prints.
Since I wanted to offer an assorted pack that included all 5 prints, it meant that I had to pay for 5 separate print runs. No local printer would print a run without a minimum of 25. Therefore, the minimum run for 5 images was 125 cards. I figured I could use at least 5 of them myself, and then sell the rest of them in sets of 5 or 10, so that would make about 24 to 12 boxes.
I had also purchased envelopes with the cards from the local printer. Without an actual sample in front of me, I purchased their regular envelopes. Big mistake. When they arrived, I hated them. They were thin and I thought they looked cheap. In the past, I ordered Moo notecards in and I had been really impressed with the envelopes that came with the cards. I ended up eating my loss and ordering those envelopes for my note cards. These envelopes were about $0.60 each.
Twelve to 24 sets is a good number to start with, however, I was really surprised at my total cost and what I had to pay out of pocket.
For one, there was the cost of printing the cards + shipping + tax. Including the envelope, it was about $2.20 per card + envelope set. Then there was the cost of packaging, which was $1.50 for a clear stationary box, and bubble poly mailer, $0.75. I’m pretty sure I’ll have to wrap the box with additional bubble wrap or corrugated cardboard or tissue. So just at cost (which doesn’t even include my labour), a set of 5 card + envelope set was $15.52. If I were to sell it to a retailer at wholesale pricing, it would be $30 (the general rule is to double the price at cost for wholesale), and then retail would be double that at $60 (also a general rule). The math doesn’t add up! I mean it does, but it makes for a very expensive purchase and not much profitability.
With volume, the pricing gets significantly cheaper. However, I would have to order 25,000. Which is a lot of stationary sets and an upfront cost of more than $15,000 for printing alone. I’m not quite there yet.
At this point, I’m really just testing the waters and taking it as a learning experience. Every time I look into producing products of my artwork and photography, I’m doing a ton of research and it’s giving me a better idea of what to expect of costs. I think ultimately what it means is that if I want to sell more of my notecards, I’ll want to garner interest and orders from potential retailers first, before investing in production.