cardboard diy packaging
these paintings were ready to ship

I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining by writing this post because I’m truly most grateful, happy, and thrilled beyond words, but wooweeeee wowza YIKES!! What a busy couple days it’s been. Between my website, eBay, and Etsy, I sold 33 paintings, plus prints over the weekend. !!! My phone seemed like it was making a constant cha-ching sound. It was pretty exciting, but chaotic at the same time. I’ve been living in a giant ship storm ever since. lol 

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how I make my own DIY cardboard packaging to ship my paintings in. I sandwich each painting between the painted cardboard to keep them safe during transit. Getting so many orders meant I had to quickly frantically create 66 abstract cardboard pieces. !!! 

finished cardboard diy packaging
these paintings were ready to ship

Getting hit with a lot of sales for the 3rd time in the past few weeks has made me realize that I need to make some drastic changes. As much as I LOVE being generous, and giving away 2 free abstract paintings on cardboard for every original painting sold, it’s simply not feasible. I can’t continue to put so much time, effort, and thought into each design. Not only did it wipe me out physically, but it also overwhelmed me mentally. I’m not afraid to admit that at one point, I was literally shaking, and in tears from the stress.

On top of having to create 66 abstract pieces on cardboard, I also ran into some major issues. Like, I couldn’t find one of the portrait paintings that sold. I tore my studio and storage apart searching for it. After about 2 hours of looking frantically every place I could think to look – this is the part where the tears started flowing – I finally decided I was wasting time looking for it. I either 1. lost it in the move a couple years back or 2. I gave it away. I give a lot of my work away, so it’s likely that’s what happened. I knew I had to re-paint it. UGH!! Talk about stressful!! It’s never easy to make an exact copy of older work, but to do it under these stressful circumstances really turned up the heat on me. 

In the middle of all this chaos, I went to the kitchen for a glass of water, and discovered the fridge had died. I mean, ofc it did, right? So, I had to call my husband – who had his own stress going on. He was in the middle of editing a book for an author, and was under a tight deadline. Ack!! He had to drop everything, and make a mad dash to buy a new fridge. It was like 95F, and food was going bad quickly. I had to throw out a pot of homemade soup, and some other stuff. 🙁 Plus, deal with helping get the new fridge off the truck, inside, switching all the food over to the new one, and moving the old fridge out. When I say it was beyond crazy around here, it definitely was. Holy freaking moly. 

finished cardboard diy packaging
these paintings were ready to ship

I definitely learned a big lesson, and that is.. I never want to be caught that far off guard again. Moving forward, I will continue making my own packaging, but I HAVE to simplify the design. No more fancy mark making or drips & drops of paint which take literally forever to dry. I don’t know if you’re familiar with selling on eBay & Etsy, but you only have a short window of time to get your packages wrapped up, and in the mail – no matter how many orders you receive, paintings you can’t find or if your fridge dies in the middle of it all. lol I’m happy to say somehow I did it. I actually got it all shipped out a day early, but man, I never want to go through that again. K.I.S.S is my new mantra. 

Okay, now I’m off to get some licensing work done. I don’t know if I’ll be back here this week or not..depends on how everything goes, and how many edibles I have to eat to calm my nerves after all that. LOL If I don’t get the chance to write again, please be sure to check out my eBay store. I have 20 or so new paintings listed at low starting bids, plus more are coming every Sunday night at 8pm central. I just scheduled a bunch of new 9×12 figures and portraits last night for this coming Sunday. Remember to click the ❤️ to save me as a favorite seller, so you don’t miss out. 

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