Wedding bouquet charm photos from customers

As the frantic summer wedding season winds down,  I'm taking a look back at the year so far, what worked well, restocking my supplies, ordering new colours and developing new design ideas for next year.
 With my husband's assistance, I am now stocking 2-sided frames and also photo lapel pins in my Etsy shop. I've been working on my photos & added new options to many of my charms, like adding my photo service as an option as they make their purchase. This has saved a lot of time and conversations, making it a smoother purchasing experience for my customers. I still ship most of my charms the next business day, in order to get them to my customers as soon as possible and have managed to keep my shipping prices low.  I also started offering  Expresspost shipping, which still takes a week, but has tracking.  Although it's pricey, I don't make a dime on Expresspost, and it means a 1/2 hour drive to town to our main post office, but my customers appreciate that service & knowing their charms will arrive in time.
Unfortunately the cost of my supplies has gone up, and I will be reviewing my prices as the year winds down. It's not something I like to do, however it's necessary, so now's a good time to get them as I will be increasing the price of my charms in the future.

 Some of the stories behind the photos have been so touching.
I just love the feedback and notes I get from my customers and as a bonus getting wedding bouquet photos too once in a while!
Here's a few photos I can  post - Thank you ladies for letting me share your pictures.

Pearl Heart wedding bouquet charm.

So pretty

Set of 3 wedding charms in crystal or pearl

True blue crystal wedding bouquet photo charm

Let me Do the photo for your charm.

Photo by Ildiko Gagyor Photography 

You're just about to order one of my wedding bouquet charms and are thinking to let me do the photo for you, but it costs $5 more.
Here's what my customers say.

 I increased the price of my add-on "Photo service"-  from $3 to $5.
Yes that's a big increase and here's why:
   It's really EASY to do the photos yourself... (IF you have access to a printer, can resize a photo and have a little patience... ) or you may know someone that could easily do it for you.
My customers agree that it's rewarding and intimate to add your own photo to one of my charms, that's why they are offered as a DIY (do it yourself) ....  but the reality is, not everyone can or wants to do it.  So I started offering to do the photos (a couple of years ago) on my Etsy shop. It was so seldom requested and I enjoyed making them, so $3 was a good price.

It's not hard to add your own photo

   I enjoy making them, although I often get teary or sad knowing that this person's image I am editing, is no longer with their loved ones and sometimes this is the only picture they have. So I do my best to fix what I can.
I rarely know anything about these fine folks, but just looking at their faces & what they are doing gives me a tiny connection as to who they were, and I want this photo & charm to be perfect to honour their memory for years to come!

It often takes a lot of my time to edit photos. The best ones have been scanned, but some  are thumbnails or smartphone photos of photos... (sometimes the original pictures are so old they are yellowed, cracked,  orfuzzy to begin with. )

Not all shoppers are techies, so I try to be as helpful as I can. One lovely mom actually mailed her only treasured pictures to me, so I could scan them, make the charms with the photos, and send her pictures back- with the charms :)  Luckily we had lots of time to do it that way.

I use a clear plastic dome "sticker" to enhance and protect each photo then cut each one to fit snuggly into it's frame.
Anyhow if I want to keep offering the service I should pay myself a bit for doing so.
I think you'll find that for $5 it's still a great deal!

I'd love to add the photo for you.

Back from Holidays... more frame charms

Short version:
 I've had a once in a lifetime holiday with my kids, visiting family overseas.
I'm back to my "normal life", and have been making new Wedding bouquet photo frame charms.

Memorial frame charm.

Simple freshwater pearl frame charm.

 Now that I'm back at work, and getting back to my normal life, I've been making more wedding bouquet frame charms, and they are getting to be quite popular.

I love knowing that my charms will hold the photo of someone dear, and help them be remembered, especially on a special day.

Here's a peak at some of the new frame charms that will be popping up in my shop soon.

                                    

Long version: 

I've been on holidays for the last 6 weeks.

  Since I haven't had a real holiday in years, it's been long overdue.  I had an opportunity to take my kids and visit my sister, aunts, uncles, cousins, neices, nephews and their families in Finland, Hungary and Slovakia. Then my husband and I visited friends on Vancouver Island for a few days, and did some beach combing and shopping. It was the best holiday I have ever had, but I'll write about it in a separate post/s.

 white and subtle, memorial/wedding frame charm.

Wouldn't this be adorable, for a flower girl's bouquet?

  I'm also trying something different with the photos of my charms, by including some flowers from my garden.
  I love the textures and colours. It's so much more interesting than a plain white background,
although it might be a bit distracting...
what do you think?

        

Wedding bouquet photo frame charm. Roses.

Wedding bouquet photo frame charms and more

Wedding bouquet and memorial photo frame charms.

Short story:

   My son is getting married this fall, so I made a couple of photo frame charms to clip to his bride's bouquet,
 I enjoy making them, so I've made more and added some of these charms in my Etsy shop.

Longer version:

Since my son is getting married this fall, I've made up a couple of photo frame charms, I'm hoping his grandparents can be included on his special day. 
It's a lovely way to remember them.  

These charms can be clipped onto a bouquet or just about anywhere, so I made some more to include in my Etsy shop. They are so well loved by my customers, I've added many more colours and designs :)

I love this combination of antique silver and freshwater pearls
I call these my "Classic" charms.

              

Now I have so many colours and styles available!

Here's a link to these charms.

Small and meaningful keepsakes.

It's easy enough to add a little photo to these charms, as they have slots in the corners to hold the photo in place. You can also cut out a small rectangle of clear plastic to use as a clear cover to protect the photos.

A red shell pearl, lovely for a winter wedding.

(Tip: To get the photo corners tucked in place, I use a toothpick.)

I also have some lovely little frame charms that don't have any slots in the corners, so the photos would need to be glued into place. 
 (I haven't listed any of these ones yet).  
















A piece of two-sided tape should work fine, but I thought I'd use Dimensional Magic and see how that works.  I made some memorial charms of Spike, using it as a glue and clear coat for these frames and am very happy with the results.

Here's the finished charms of our dog Spike. He was the best model ever...
he never complained about my sharing his pictures :)

This photo frame charm features a baby blue shell pearl

(and my boys when they were little... don't tell

them I posted this :)

I love these pink shell pearls.