I hope everyone is having a lovely Monday morning. It was nice and chilly when I left for work, today, and it’s not even supposed to get too hot, either! That nip in the air definitely makes it easier to think about Christmas card making and all the other holiday fun.<\/p>\n
But onto today’s topic: why isn’t the Creative Mischief Kit available as a subscription box?<\/p>\n
Not for lack of trying, let me tell you!<\/p>\n
I had a few kit ideas in mind when I was planning to open The Crafty Branch as a brick and mortar store, but it wasn’t the main focus of my business at that point. When I shifted the plan to start with the kits, I sat down and dreamed up a dozen kits–themes, techniques, potential includes, etc.–before I was okay with going forward.<\/p>\n
Creating them as a subscription box was a very real possibility. After all, I love subscription boxes and the idea of getting something fun and new in the mail each month, why wouldn’t I want to create one of my own?!<\/p>\n
Two reasons:<\/p>\n
When I looked at the kit options I’d brainstormed and started to cost them out, the second kit showed a major pitfall: whereas one kit was $50 in supplies (retail), the other kit was coming in at $110! Subscription boxes depend on a set, recurring price and while I could, of course, change the options in each box, I really didn’t like having to scale a higher-value kit down so far as to be almost useless, or adding a bunch of extra chaff to a lower-cost kit to bring it up in value. Some skills and techniques are cheaper to learn, others might have a higher price of entry. It felt more honest to just take it one kit at a time, and have them cost what they cost, rather than having to shoehorn them into a particular price point.<\/p>\n
Another hallmark of a subscription box is the surprise element. That works fabulous for product samples, edibles, and handmade items. But when I really thought about what the Creative Mischief Kits are trying to accomplish–encourage creative exploration and help people find new hobbies by teaching creative skills and techniques–how would I feel, as a recipient, if I received a box full of things I already owned or had no interest in. I know I don’t like to feel like I’ve wasted my money, so I wanted to avoid anyone else feeling that way by being very up front about what’s in each kit so that the recipient has less of a chance at being disappointed.<\/p>\n
Buying inventory on the chance each kit sells (the non-subscription model) is a risk, but it’s one I’m willing to take to ensure, as much as I can, that you are happy with your purchase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I hope everyone is having a lovely Monday morning. It was nice and chilly when I left for work, today, and it’s not even supposed to get too hot, either! That nip in the air definitely makes it easier to think about Christmas card making and all the other holiday fun. But onto today’s topic: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[8,7,17],"class_list":["post-28","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-behind-the-scenes","tag-creative-mischief-kits","tag-subscription-boxes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7cd0I-s","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16,"url":"https:\/\/thecraftybranch.com\/blog\/were-go-for-mischief\/","url_meta":{"origin":28,"position":0},"title":"We’re Go For Mischief!","author":"Jennifer","date":"August 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Cue the muppet flails and excessive exclamation points because I, for one, am super excited to announce the first Creative Mischief Kit is now available!!! Whew! That feels awesome to say. Seriously. A refresher: Earlier this year I, Jennifer Vanderbeek, had the idea to open an arts & crafts supply\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Kits"","block_context":{"text":"Kits","link":"https:\/\/thecraftybranch.com\/blog\/category\/kits\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thecraftybranch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/thecraftybranch_creativemischief_pleinair-3.jpg?fit=600%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thecraftybranch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/thecraftybranch_creativemischief_pleinair-3.jpg?fit=600%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thecraftybranch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/thecraftybranch_creativemischief_pleinair-3.jpg?fit=600%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":45,"url":"https:\/\/thecraftybranch.com\/blog\/introducing-our-february-kit-print-your-heart-out\/","url_meta":{"origin":28,"position":1},"title":"Introducing our February Kit: Print Your HeART Out!","author":"Jennifer","date":"January 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Print Your HeART Out is all about monoprinting with the awesomeness that is the Gelli Plate. As usual, the kit comes with everything you'll need to get started with pulling prints from your very own 5\" plate including papers, paints, brushes, a brayer, a couple of stencils, and texture tools.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Kits"","block_context":{"text":"Kits","link":"https:\/\/thecraftybranch.com\/blog\/category\/kits\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thecraftybranch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/thecraftybranch_creativemischief_printyourheartout_kitcontents-1.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thecraftybranch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/thecraftybranch_creativemischief_printyourheartout_kitcontents-1.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thecraftybranch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/thecraftybranch_creativemischief_printyourheartout_kitcontents-1.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thecraftybranch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/thecraftybranch_creativemischief_printyourheartout_kitcontents-1.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":24,"url":"https:\/\/thecraftybranch.com\/blog\/eleventh-hour-save\/","url_meta":{"origin":28,"position":2},"title":"Eleventh Hour Save!","author":"Jennifer","date":"October 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Thanks to the efforts of my contact at the distributor, the final pieces of the kit puzzle\u00a0arrived last night, just in the Nick of time! See what I did there? It'll be more apparent in a minute... The time has come, friends, to let you see the next kit, or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Kits"","block_context":{"text":"Kits","link":"https:\/\/thecraftybranch.com\/blog\/category\/kits\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thecraftybranch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/thecraftybranch_cprholidays-1.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thecraftybranch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/thecraftybranch_cprholidays-1.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thecraftybranch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/thecraftybranch_cprholidays-1.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thecraftybranch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/thecraftybranch_cprholidays-1.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":100,"url":"https:\/\/thecraftybranch.com\/blog\/whats-your-flavor\/","url_meta":{"origin":28,"position":3},"title":"What’s Your Flavor?","author":"Jennifer","date":"May 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Not to be confused with Craig David's \"What's Your Flava,\" even if that's what runs through my head every time I think about it. Gotta love the Willy Wonka theme of that video, though, right? The flavor I'm referring to is the options for the upcoming Spark Kits! 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They were spotted at a recent First Friday in Thomasville, where I know we made at least one new friend and list-subscriber! 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The first book is a Coptic-Bound journal with a soft suede cover. Coptic binding looks really cool and complex but really isn't all that difficult once you get the hang of it! 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