The Magnet Saga

Last we heard from our fearless heroine she was inkless but not inspiration-less! Fade to present.

So, as promised, I went and bought ink. On my lunch break. (It should be noted, I do not usually run errands on my lunch break. I do this really novel and bizarre thing called eating lunch.) Then, after work, I went and bought a punch. (It should be noted that I also don't usually run errands after work. Yea, I pretty much do everything on the weekend or make the hubby do it.)

This was BIG. I was ready. I was prepared. I was going to print, cut, punch, and package magnets with a vengeance.

Only one problem. The ink I bought? The one I made a special trip for? Yea, see that was the photo ink not the color ink. So I was still printing blue instead of green. And I had gotten home late because I had stopped off to buy the punch and now I was inkless and cranky and it was way to cold and late to go back out. Sigh.

Day two, I went back to the office supply shop, bought another ink cartridge (again on my lunch break), and held my breath for better luck.

When I got home from work, I installed the new ink cartridge and voila! Green! Then I tried it with the heavy paper (holding my breath the whole time). Only one tiny hitch. Whew! Then I finally got to cut and punch and package and be far too pleased with myself! That inspired taking the remainder of the photographs that I needed to start listing them. : )



At the risk of making this blog entry ridiculously long, I have to say that this is a real new item for me in a lot of ways. First, and most obviously, it is a magnet, which is new, so duh. But is also a whole new approach to my dragonlings. Previously each dragonling was on a card that listed three likes and dislikes. Unfortunately, that part of the process was immensely time consuming. And that drove up prices. And I'm sure that affected sales.

I loved the idea of my dragonlings having little personalities, but let's face, most people probably aren't leaving the pins on the cards, so all that effort is lost as soon as someone uses it.

And buyers were split. Some people (just as nutty as me), would ooh and aah over the interests and read them all. Many people would dig through for just the right ones. Other buyers just wanted the cute little dragons and didn't really care what the cards said.

So on this round I am trying something new. Each dragonling is "a dragonling of" something. Sort of like patron saints or guardian angels, or fairies. This still lends them some personality and flavor but without adding TONS of extra time to the process.