New Gift Boxes!

I decided that it would be nice to ship all of my jewelry in a gift box, not just the pieces which are easily bent or are more expensive and not just at Christmas.
I'm sure you'll agree, jewelry feels so much more special if it comes in its own little box, whether it's a gift or not.

My new custom rubber stamp

Unfortunately the system I had for boxes before isn't great. The round stickers look ok but I was having to hand punch the circles out of the sticker paper. This wasn't just time consuming, it also meant a high chance that the printing would be off center.

I was all set to order pre-printed stickers when I decided to look into all of the options instead. I did my research properly and looked at pre-printed boxes (very expensive) and a wide variety of stickers. Along the way I got my heart set on kraft boxes with a metallic copper logo on.

Custom rubber stamp design

Eventually I found a fantastic solution and by far the most cost-effective - a custom rubber stamp with copper ink. I also found a great supplier for different sized, cotton-filled kraft boxes which look awesome!

I'm super happy with the results. The stamping still takes time but not nearly as much and the results are much more consistent. Any errors add to the handmade charm rather than just looking stupid. I'm definitely going to stick with these until I can afford to get custom-printed boxes!


What do you think?

Custom stamped copper on kraft boxes

Free Gift Wrapping

In case you didn't know, for the holiday season I'm offering free gift wrap on all online orders placed before January 1st.

I thought you might like a little look at what your gift-wrapped jewelry will look like!

Tissue paper wrapping

Orders throughout the year will always come wrapped like this; in tissue paper, sealed with an Embergrass sticker. Smaller and lower priced items will still be wrapped like this underneath their December gift wrap.

Embergrass gift boxes

More expensive or larger items will arrive in their own gift box, decorated with a larger Embergrass sticker. I currently have both kraft and white gift boxes but will be phasing out the white boxes.

Embergrass gift wrap

On top of that tissue paper or gift box, each item will be individually wrapped in rustic kraft paper.

Around the wrapping paper is a simple, white paper ribbon, sealed with a tiny Embergrass sticker.

Labels so you know which item is which!

What if I buy more than one item and they are gifts for different people? How can I tell which is which?


Don't worry, if you buy more than one item you will find a small strip of card tucked into the wrapping with the name of the item on so you can easily work out which package is for which person!



(You get this all year round, too, tucked into the tissue paper instead)

Anyway, I hope you like the gift wrapping. I'm very happy with the way it represents the Embergrass Jewelry style and looks so cute! Let me know what you think about it :)

New packaging

New Embergrass Stickers

A new brand requires new branding materials and I decided to take this opportunity to really go to town on the packaging and presentation of my products. I was already pretty happy with the actual packaging of my items but I realised there were several extra things I could add to spread my brand more and make my jewelry look more professional.

Inner Packaging

Old-Brand packages ready to post

I loved the tissue paper wrapping I was already using, finished off with the logo-branded sticker. Packages wrapped like this are already perfect to give as a gift or just to make my customers feel special when they receive them.


I knew that I definitely wanted to get more of those cute little stickers (from moo.com) so I put the new Embergrass logo in the centre and simply added the website address across the bottom. Sorted!
Next the tissue paper... I had been using up tissue paper leftover from items I had sent as gifts to my friends or reusing paper that had wrapped items I had bought or received. The assortment of bright, bold colours fitted in fine with the Carnelion logo but just weren't right for Embergrass. I was running low on tissue paper stocks anyway so I have decided to go for more pastel shades in yellows, browns and pinks to match the circles in my header background.

Inside the Package

Now for the new part! I had been using my business cards inside the packaging to provide some support (and also to send out my business cards!) to make the package a little more rigid but I decided I could do better than that and make it much more professional.

I started by designing cards to attach my jewelry to - these can also be used for display if I ever get around to doing any craft shows or selling in stores. You can see them on the right, I'm so pleased with the way they turned out, exactly what I wanted! I will post a tutorial soon explaining how I made them so look out for that if you are interested.

The best thing about these cards is that I can keep the business card out of the package itself without also taking out my branding and website address. I also designed a little Copper Care Card to offer advice to customers unfamiliar with copper on how to look after it best.

The new contents of a package ordered from Embergrass -
your order, neatly attached to cards, and a cute little care card.

Outside the Package
Of course, I still want to be sending business cards out with my orders so people don't forget where they got the jewelry they love so much and maybe even tell someone else about me :) I was running low on business cards anyway so now was the perfect time to reorder. I loved my moo cards last time so I ordered more and this time 2 sets! I've taken advantage of their feature of having an assortment of photos on the back of the cards to showcase some of my best items. The front has the circles and grass logo and, of course, all the information.

My 2nd set of business cards are coupon cards to make it really easy for me to send out discount coupon codes to great customers! They look almost exactly the same as my business cards but, instead of my details on the front, they have space for the coupon code and some information about it as well as my website.

Outer Packaging
If all those gorgeous contents are going to make it safely to their destination they need to be packaged snug and secure against being bashed around with all those other packages but that doesn't mean it has to be boring or unbranded. I'm using standard, light brown bubble mailers because they've served me well so far and they're just the right size to fit the printed insurance label on the front.

I've simply added a home-printed return address label (with the circles and grass logo) on the back and a branded label to the front, on which I write the recipient's address.

My new address labels

What do you think of my new packaging and branding materials? How do you prefer to receive items you've purchased online?

How to: get your head around the USPS shipping options

I decided today to find out exactly what my options are for mailing items via USPS. Its not the first time I have researched it but my previous attempt involved looking at the information online and then going into a post office and being told that I could ship my items first class when I had thought I couldn't! I'm not sure if this is knowledge that Americans pick up as they grow up or if they, too have to spend time researching it. Anyway...

I mailed several items in December and had a different experience with each. The first was the kind gentleman who told me my package was fine for first class after I had assumed first class was for envelopes and not packages. The second involved 2 guys who told me my envelope was unsuitable via series of very confusing conversations. They proceded to sell me a new envelope which I would have been fine with. However when I attempted to clarify, before I left, exactly what was wrong with my envelope I was told 'nothing'. This left me even more confused and convinced that I had just been ripped off. My final experience went smoothly although the lady asked me to make sure that next time my envelope was big enough to fit the insurance sticker onto.

Before I attempt to kick start my shop for the new year I figured I should sort out the envelope issue, work out exactly what I need and find a supplier for postage materials so I can calculate exactly how much packaging will cost for each of my items.

I found out (when I googled for envelope) that USPS provides free packaging materials (boxes, envelopes and padded envelopes) for their Priority Mail Flat Rate service. This is what prompted me to take another look into all the shipping options so I could decide if that was worth it. Having got a printer recently I also wanted to familiarise myself with the service allowing you to print shipping labels from home.

My results:

First Class Mail

• Letters and small packages under 13ounces
• Extra services, such as insurance, available
• Price varies depending on destination and weight (and possibly size too)
• A 2oz package shipping from CA to MA will cost $1.39
• Must purchase own packaging materials
• Cannot print online shipping labels - must go to post office

Priority Mail

• Packages under 70 pounds
• Extra services, such as insurance, available
• Fixed price - whatever you can fit into the Priority Mail box/envelope of your choice ships for the price associated with that box/envelope. They also have a zone-based option which I did not investigate
• A padded envelope will ship for $4.95
• Packaging materials provided free and can be mail ordered
• Can print (and pay for) shipping labels online

Parcel Post

• Packages under 70 pounds and less than 130 inches at longest point
• Extra services, such as insurance, available
• Ground Mail only
• A 2oz package from CA to MA will cost $4.90
• Must purchase own packaging materials
• Cannot print online shipping labels - must go to post office

In conclusion, if your items are less than 13oz, first class mail is absolutely the way to go. If your items are above 10oz priority mail may be best depending on the cost of your envelopes or boxes. A 10oz item from CA to MA ships for $2.75 so if your packaging costs more than $1.95 a flat rate padded envelope will work out cheaper. If you don't live near a post office then it may also be worth paying the extra for priority mail for the convenience. Priority mail claims items will arrive in 2-3 days, I have not noticed first class items taking any longer than that.

If you have heavier items or require other options, such as holding an item at the destination post office for the customer to collect it, then you may need to research for yourself which service would work best for you.

As yet I have not looked into international postage options, look out for another blog post on that sometime in the future. Oh and let me know in the comments if I have missed out a service that may work for me :)