BEFORE
My name is Robin and I am a craftaholic.
I am so addicted to crafts.
Yes…it’s a curse, just ask my hubby.
Okay in all seriousness – here’s me. I have been crafting for over 50 years. Yeah yeah yeah, I am older than dirt, but hey, I have enjoyed the ride.
My obsessions have been all over the place. I love anything paper. Yes, anything. Just take one look at my inks and paper supply and you will know I hoard. Yes. I am also a hoarder.
1978 – I opened my own shop, selling dry flower arrangements. My shop was so full of stock, but we had no walk in traffic, so I paid to attend a strip mall craft show. Packed up everything, setup and sold EVERYTHING. I. OWNED.
I was so discouraged, I went to the store and nothing, I mean nothing on the shelfs that I worked so hard to fill. What a problem right! Well it discouraged me and that was the end of selling for me until…
2000 – I found out that folks were selling on Facebook! Oh my I was selling everything I made from handmade burlap flowers, greeting cards, box’s, greeting bags, home decor, rhinestones, to chalk painted items including furniture. I kept my manual sizzix and my cricut expression so busy. I was loving this! My strong suite was custom vinyl wall designs.
2012 – I setup my Etsy Shop and starting selling so many things…anything I could ship. My strong suite again, was custom vinyl wall designs and custom pintables delivered as electronic downloads.
2014 – In May, I retired as a Network Administrator for a Large California School. I was responsible for over 100 sites, information on 75,000 students, all computer training for over 130ish employees along with the network, servers, wiring, computers and yes, all hardware connected to the sites even down to a dymo machine. Enough of that, I retired in 2014.
2015 – Amazon contacted me in early 2015, unsolicited, and I thought why not, as I had recently retired, I had the time. I started the first day Amazon opened up Handmade. That was sometime in September. I sold right away. However in October the cha-ching went nuts. I was selling about 70 cups a day.
I quickly reduced my inventory to only cups with a personalized adhesive vinyl and have been selling every since. Each year, my sales grew. I had to zero out my inventory with Etsy, as I could barely keep up with the Amazon sales. Remember I told you I was older than dirt?
Well so is my husband. He’s older than I am, not sure what he is older than other than me. Just inventorying cups, vinyl, tissue paper, business cards, and box’s wore us out. This is not to mention creating and shipping many cups. As of this writing, I have sold over 13,000 personalized cups.
Which brings me to a new beginning. I missed creating digital items, like invitations, business cards, flyers but most of all, I missed creating SVG files.
SOOOOOOOO
I missed helping others create their own precious gifts for their loved ones.
Creating SVG files for others allows me to do just that! Creating digital images for electronic die cutting machines or laser machines allows me to share all I have learned from the past 50+ years and that makes me happy!
God has been good.
AFTER
