These past few weeks, I have really neglected everything besides making jewelry, in preparation for my first home jewelry party. It was nerve-wracking to have a deadline, but it was good to build up my inventory. I don't have a studio, so as you can see from the picture, my dining rooms has happily agreed to fulfill this position...at least temporarily! It's hard to keep organized and since we STILL have out house on the market, I often have to pack up a few times a day. REALLY kills by creative buzz sometimes, so when I really am working, I usually just keep working, even when people are going through the house. I have actually been asked for my card a few times so, hey, not a bad idea!
But I digress. The first picture is of my popular Sweet Dahlia Ring in my shop. I made 8 of these and they have all sold out. I made another version, in a pinky coral color. I have ordered more supplies for the Plum version, so stay tuned! These rings were among the 95 items that I managed to make in time for the jewelry party on May 29th. My hostess said that it seemed like there would be about 50 people there so I was totally stressing about not having enought items. As it was, only about 20 people came, but that was totally fine by me! I ended up making 11 sales and got 2 custom orders, so all in all, a pretty good first run! My two biggest hurdles were 1)Packaging my jewelry and 2)How to display the jewelry.
For hurdle one, I made earrings cards out of cardstock. I just used Word to make template and then copied and pasted it until it covered a page and then printed them out on cream cardstock. The square measure a little larger than 2 X 2. I found an image of a treasure chest in my clipart so for the earrings, I just faded it to a watermark. You can definately see it, but it doesn't compete with the earrings. Across the top I put my shop's name and then I just poked holes with a safety pin and put the earring through! For necklaces, I used a dark coffee brown color, and the cardstock was heavier than the paper that I used for the earrings. Also I changed the treasure chest to an actual picture instead of a watermark. Instead of squares I made rectangles measuring about 2 x 4, so when I printed them out, I cute them out, folded them in half, put the necklace into that space, and then stapled the top! All done!
So the second hurdle was how to display everything. I got a lot of great ideas from picstues and of course my Etsy friends! I love Etsy, how people you have never met before are always so willing to help you! I basically just used what I had around the house. A cardboard box, binders for necklaces, serving trays....and I bought some inexpensive black fabric and just draped and covered everything. I used a silver dip bowl for my business cards and added a mirror and VOILA! My simple and easy display! My favorite part was using a decorative box that looked like a treasure chest and I filled it with crumpled newspaper, tucked in black fabric, and put my necklaces on these! An instant treasure box! 
