11.02.2011

Fingers, toes, and ribbons crossed!

I'm still in awe that I was lucky enough to be chosen as a presenter at the Country Living Fair Pitch Your Product event, held in Atlanta in October. After a long build up, I went in the room, said my perfectly-timed three-minute speech and fielded the questions.

Me, before going in to Pitch Your
Product at the Country Living Fair!
Can you see my knees knocking?


Was I nervous? You bet. The judges were very, very nice and seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say about Wrapagain. I got a good reaction when I told them about the tracking / Follow Your Fabric idea too.

It was great meeting all the other creatives out there who are eagerly waiting to hear as well -- we heard that there were about 120 of us pitching, probably just under 10 will be winners. I wish them the best of luck too!

So now it's just a waiting game -- they have until December 19 to notify those who won a spot in an upcoming issue of their magazine. Keep your fingers, toes, and ribbons crossed for me!

10.31.2011

Ho-ho-holiday fabrics

Thanks to my Uncle Joe for the title of this post :)

It may be Halloween today, but we're getting everything together for the upcoming holiday season.

This is your sneak peek at some of our fabrics this year (there's another set of chile pepper lights that's not shown yet).

Wrapagain is moving to Etsy!

Wrapagain is pleased to announce that it is in the process of moving its online store to the Etsy community. More fabric styles will be added over the next few days to www.etsy.com/shop/wrapagain.

If you see a pattern on our website that you want right away that hasn't made it to our store listings, let us know and we'll get it posted as quickly as we can.

10.12.2010

Holiday shopping

Historically, I have never been a fan of getting ready for the holiday season too early. Growing up, I would wait eagerly for the Thanksgiving Day parade on TV -- enormous, people-tethered balloons and marching bands became synonymous with the start of the Christmas season. That was early enough.

Many people will probably agree that the "season" seems to be starting earlier and earlier every year and certainly having a company specializing in gift wrap has changed a lot of my actions. Holidays patterns come into the fabric distributor in June and July. Sign-ups for some holiday trunk shows and open houses start in August and September.

Ginger & Company, Toledo
So today, despite being mid-October -- and I'm still wearing flip-flops -- I am pleased to announce that I just got back from Ginger & Company in Toledo where I officially signed up for my first show of the season.

Mark your calendar for their Holiday Open House on Sunday, November 28, 2010, from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at their salon Hess Road near Reynolds and Dorr.

Stay tuned for a complete list of vendors.

And while you are sitting there clicking away, see what else great stuff Ginger & Company has to offer by visiting their website at: www.gingercosalon.com.
  

10.11.2010

We don't share snack cakes, but we'll sell you some coasters.

Introducing Hostess Gift Sets!

Need a quick, unique, elegant, hand-made gift to take to your next soiree or dinner party? Order one of our Hostess Gift Sets today.


We strive to maximize each bolt of fabric and have sized our products to optimize a standard bolt, but sometimes we are left with a little bit extra due to how the fabric comes to us from the distributor. Each gift set consists of four matched fabric coasters, pre-packaged in a small Wrapagain for only $14.95. Because it's pre-wrapped for you, all you have to do is show up to your party and take all the credit for a fabulous hostess gift.

These sets are available in extremely limited quantities -- we're awfully good at optimizing our bolts -- but we thought you'd like them.

Currently, we have a set or two available in the following patterns: Seeing Red, Line Dance, Gold leaf and All, and My Blue Heaven (seen above and at right).

See our store for details and availability.

PS  While we encourage "giving again" especially when it comes to sharing your Wrapagains, we aren't re-gifting the wine glasses in the photos. They're ours and you can't have them. :)

9.22.2010

I Got the Rest!

Growing up the youngest of three, I always looked for ways to bug my older brothers – because I could, you know, and I’m pretty sure that’s part of the job description of being the little sister.

Mike, me, and Brian in Kansas City, circa 1980.
Dessert always seemed that much sweeter when I happened to get the last butterscotch brownie, the last springerle at Christmas, or last slice of birthday cake – when it wasn’t even my birthday.

It was also very sweet when I got to tell them (insert childlike sing-songy voice), "I got the rest! I got the rest!"

Bratty? Probably.
Worth it? You betcha.

So we're giving YOU a chance to get "the rest." Visit us at the sixth annual Ottawa Hills Fall Festival this weekend (September 25 from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm) for some sweet, discontinued patterns.
   

9.02.2010

Green is the new white.

Let us help you make your wedding greener! Wrapagain is excited to have been invited to be a vendor at the 2010 Hayes Presidential Center Bridal Exposition on Sunday, September 12 at Spiegel grove in Fremont, Ohio.
From the flyer:

"If a wedding is in your future, the Hayes Presidential Center Bridal Exposition will introduce you to the Center’s new Grounds Rental options, while highlighting area wedding-related services that can make your special day magical!

Rather than one impersonal hall, vendor displays are scattered amid the grounds of Spiegel Grove and inside the Hayes Museum. The Hayes Home veranda is the site of a 3:00 p.m. Bridal Style Show
."

Vendors displays will be scattered amid the grounds of Spiegel Hall and inside the Hayes Museum and available from 1:00 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. Wrapagain will be set up inside the Museum. For brides and grooms, we offer package deals on attendant gift sets and registry.

A $2 admission and a validated ticket also get you entered to win door prizes donated by all of the vendors.

We invite you to RSVP to this event on our Facebook page.

7.29.2010

It's been a long (lonely, lonely, lonely) time.

Boy, have we been busy. First, we hope all y'all saw our article in the July 2010 Toledo edition of Abec's Small Business Review. If you happened to have missed it, you can check it out here:

Abec Small Business Review: July 2010

Next up, we are pleased as punch to be sewing again. We think you're gonna love our new selections! We're adding in three new patterns for the end-of-summer/start-of-show-season. Start your comments on name suggestions. We have already decided on the blue-on-blue name: My Blue Heaven (unless you can convince us otherwise). The other two are up to you!
My Blue Heaven
The stripey, greenish, beady one.
Sea foamy.


And what could be better than new patterns? Getting things FREE!

Here's the deal: Now through September 15, 2010, we will be offering FREE shipping to all US orders. It's so free, you don't even have to do anything in the shopping cart! No special codes to remember to use, you're special enough without having to jump through hoops.

Order through our store today!

That's about it for now -- stay tuned for a full list of September show dates where you'll be able to pick up some of the new patterns.
 

1.09.2010

After all those holiday treats, I'm feeling a little stocky...

First, the good news about our Wrapagain stock: We were able to get some more fabric for the Classic Flowers pattern. We have re-posted all sizes on our online store: small (12" x 12"), medium (21" x 21"), and large (30" x 30"). This means you can also purchase this pattern in the 3-2-1 set (three smalls, two mediums, one large) for the discounted price of $49.95.



Second, the not-so-good news (for you, anyway):
After a year-end review of our stock, the Retro Flowers series is seriously depleted. We are completely out of some and have posted low-stock notifications on most of the others in this group of three patterns. Visit the store for details.



The upside of the downside (hey, we like to try to stay positive here) is that this low stock will let us go shopping soon for a replacement pattern for the Retro Flowers. For that, we are very thankful and excited.

12.19.2009

How cool is that???

The word about Wrapagain is spreading... "organically" you might say.

Those who follow us closely already saw this news, but our appearance on WTOL 11 back in early October of this year has been picked up by an NBC news affiliate in Myrtle Beach / Florence, South Carolina.

Thanks, WMBF!!!

http://www.wmbfnews.com/Global/story.asp?S=11699967

And it just keeps getting cooler: "Find ReUsable Bags" pulled from the WMBF post:
http://www.findreusablebags.com/2009/12/woman-wraps-her-way-into-a-brand-new-business-wmbf/

12.10.2009

Following your Fabric

Just some quick notes for all you Wrapagain owners who are following your fabrics. We are working hard to streamline this process to make it simple and straightforward.

At this point, updating the forms is not automatic. After you click the submit button on the form, we receive an e-mail. We modify your page in ye olde HTML and re-post the page with the updated info. It is not ideal, but at launch, it was the best option available to us. We knew we wanted the tracking feature in place from the "get go" and that was our quickest (and least expensive) avenue.

On another front, there have been, unfortunately, a small handful of "lost" forms. Every once in a while, we receive an empty form and we are working hard to figure out what the heck is going on there. If you have submitted a form, but do not see your page updated after about a day, drop me an e-mail (susan@wrappingfabric.com) and I'll check it out.

After the first of the year, we plan on pulling all of our 2009 data, crunching some numbers and showing how much paper we've saved. We'll also be able to tell you which Wrapagain has traveled the farthest, so be sure to update all of your pages. We're very excited -- we heart spreadsheets...

Remember, pages are in the following format:
www.wrapagain.com/followthatfabric/123456789.html
where the numbers before the ".html" are the numbers that appear on the back of your label.

Thank you for coming along with us on our journey and for your patience as we grow out of our infancy as a business!

11.09.2009

Arterior Motives, Art Show {and Sale}



Come on out to Integration Yoga Studio Sunday, November 15 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. to get a jump on some fabulous holiday shopping. Nine Toledo-area artists will be there for one day only! They are:
  • Mark Beeman {woodworking}
  • Nancy Beeman {ceramic arts & mixed media, digital imagery}
  • Susan Frantz, Wrapagain LLC {reusable gift wrap}
  • Anne French {quilts and fiber art}
  • Lois Morgan {one-of-a-kind collage jewelry}
  • Wendy Nathan {mixed media & upcycled jewelry}
  • Mary Pat Peltier {fiber art}
  • Evan Straub, Miss Sweet Thing LLC {handmade confections}
  • Steven Tozer Wipfli {paper collage}
Integration Yoga Studio is located at 4463 W. Bancroft St. in Toledo.

10.07.2009

Wrapagain Tutorial (as seen on WTOL)

Wrapagain on WTOL in Toledo!

10.04.2009

Order Holiday Fabrics Online!

We're ready for you! Our seven holiday fabric combinations are posted on our Web site (www.wrapagain.com) and can now be purchased over our secure server.

Remember, Toledo, if you want to save shipping costs and give us some exercise, call us at (419) 410-5420 to place your order. We'll deliver on foot, on blade, or on bike, depending on how far away you are from us.

If you'd like to see our wares in person, we will be at the Epworth Harvest Bazaar on Saturday, November 7 (@ Epworth United Methodist Church, Toledo), and Arterior Motives, Art Show and Sale on Sunday, November 15 (@ Integration Yoga Studio, Toledo). We're also scheming two more appearances (one before and one after), but they're not finalized yet. Stay tuned!

9.27.2009

Our first holiday line of fabrics

There's a slight nip in the air, the days are getting noticeably shorter, and although we don't typically condone thinking about the holiday season until AFTER Thanksgiving, Wrapagain is very proud to announce our first line of holiday fabric combinations.

We debuted these seven options yesterday at the Ottawa Hills Fall Festival (which was a lot of fun and we will be posting pictures of our booth in the next couple of days!), and they were all a big hit. We are working to incorporate them into our online store and hope to have that completed by the end of this coming week. So without further preamble, here's some eye candy for your Sunday afternoon...

If you can't wait for the fabric combinations to be added to the online store (and some of you have told us you can't, and we totally understand), you are most welcome to e-mail us with your order at :
susan@wrappingfabric.com

Pricing is the same: $5.95 for a small, $10.95 for a medium, and $15.95 for a large (plus tax in Ohio, and plus shipping). If you e-mail us, we'll give you a phone call back to get your payment and shipping details, so be sure to send along your telephone number.

9.23.2009

Ottawa Hills Fall Festival

If you plan on being in the Toledo area this Saturday, September 26, be sure to stop by our booth at the 5th annual Ottawa Hills Fall Festival (11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. @ Geresy Field at the high school).

We will be debuting our seven holiday fabric combinations. You'll be happy to hear we have settled on the following names:
  • Points in Teal
  • Baubles and Bells
  • Beady Delivery
  • Treasured Traditions
  • Let It Snow
  • Happy Hollydays
  • Winter Woodland
After Saturday, come back here to the blog to see pictures of the event as well as pictures of all of the fabrics.

Enough chit-chat... back to the sewing machine!!!

7.25.2009

Wrapagain all over!




Yeah, fun stuff!

7.20.2009

Name that Fabric!

You might not be thinking about the upcoming holiday season yet, be WE are!

We have purchased (all) and received (most of) our pattern selections for Wrapagain's first holiday season and we're staying very busy by sewing (and cutting ribbon, stamping numbers, ironing, blogging, and even twittering: follow us at twitter.com/wrapagain).

We need your help though. We are stuck in the naming of one of our pattern combinations and we have reached the point of silly suggestions, which really don't help anyone. In short, we're too far gone, and would like to hear your suggestions.

Many of you know us and are hip to the kind of name we are looking for. At the least, the name should be directly and visually tied to the pattern combo. At best it should make total sense, make us giggle, make us stop and think, or any combo of those. We'll know it when we see it.

We're not releasing all of the fabric selections yet -- need something in reserve to blog about in early September -- but some other names for other sets are Winter Woodland and Baubles and Bells. That's right: All About Alliteration.

So put on your thinking caps and send in your suggestions for this set:

Thanks in advance!


7.16.2009

We're feeling a little bit low.

Just a quick heads up -- we have three low stock notifications in our store right now so if you really have a hankering, you might want to order today!

We have only four smalls available in the Classic Flowers series, which means only one of you can purchase a 3-2-1 package of this pattern! We think you are all special, but only one of you is special (or fast) enough for this last set.



The 3-2-1 packages -- each containing three smalls, two mediums, and one large of the same pattern -- are certainly the ordering option of choice at the discounted price of $49.95 (plus tax in Ohio).



Our Retro Flowers I series is proving to be the most popular pattern combination despite the guesses of some of our fans (and employees!). We have two mediums remaining and one large, so again, just one of you may purchase a 3-2-1 package of this pattern.

If you are concerned that someone else will snatch your Wrapagain(s) before you can click the "Submit Order" button (and before we could update the site), give us a jingle or zip us an e-mail to secure it.

And don't forget fellow Toledoans, call or e-mail us to avoid shipping costs! (No silly, not Toledo, Spain, Toledo, the Ohio one.)

Go to our Web site: www.wrapagain.com
Go straight to the store: www.wrappingfabric.com/wrapagainstore