SmartGirl.me Book Purses: 2012

Sunday, July 8, 2012

SmartGirl.me Book Purse will have it's own online store soon

As many of you know I make purses out of leather bound books. So far SmartGirl.me brings the visitor to a landing page that will bring the shopper to my etsy store. I've done well with it over the years and I find etsy.com to be user friendly. It is easy for the customer to make a purchase, it streamlines my accounting and shipping and the cost to list the book purses are minimal. The problem is that, over the years other craftsmen who visit etsy.com started making book purses and now you can purchase a book purse for as little as 50.00. SmartGirl.me is leading customers to other sellers. A little competition is good but the quality and standards are vastly different. The SmartGirl.me book purses I make, are by far superior because of the high quality materials I use and the way I make them. I spend a lot of time searching for interesting fabrics and trims and most important I am meticulous so my SmartGirl.me Book Purses are made to last.

I will be spending the next couple of weeks working on this. I cannot wait to share.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

My New SmartGirl.me Workspace

Some of you might remember the last time I designed a workspace to create my SmartGirl Book Purses. I took over my daughter's playroom and made myself a great working environment. Well at least I thought it was. After spending countless hours on Pinterest decorating my daughter's bedroom and bathroom, I came across this pin that spoke to me. The caption read "I must get rid of the primary colors."

After perusing many pins I started to get to work. First I used a great tool from Better Homes and Garden called Arrange-a-Room.

I planed my furniture layout and then got started on priming the walls and getting rid of all of the primary artwork.

Before

After

After seeing this

Because my ironing board should be cute too!

I thought I should have a cute ironing station too .

This

inspired me to add this desk I had.

I saw these on thefabricorganizer.com, and absolutely loved them.

By using these cardboard magazine protectors, I was able to save some money.

comic book backing board as fabric storage board

Now all of my fabrics are organized.

I LOVE MY NEW ROOM!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Newest and Latest SmartGirl Book Purse

Everyday I plan on showing you all one of my new purses. I've been very busy making them and selling them and I have not posted in more than a year. That's crazy.

Here are some pictures of one of my most popular SmartGirl Book Purse.

Sherlock Holmes SmartGirl Book Purse

What is SmartGirl you ask?

As some of you know, I am quite the crafty chica and have been trying to make a living out of my craft room for some time. I also have a book club and know many smart mommies who love books. But the thing that I am the most passionate about is being a woman. Women rock! I love everything about us, from our soft feminine side to our strong, tough side and with the use of our intuition we can accomplish anything. If we make sure our girls know that, great things can and will happen. This is partly why I became a Girl Scout leader (Amanda being the biggest part) and this is why I surround myself with amazingly smart women.

So you still ask “what is this SmartGirl”? Well, while I was on my 10th year anniversary cruise with Ben which was eventful in itself….we had a man-overboard situation. Yea…can you believe it? Anyway, while we were at one of the late-night pool-side parties I saw with my slightly intoxicated eyes a woman carrying a book or maybe a purse, either way it looked stunning with her outfit. On closer inspection it was just a purse, nothing special, however; what if it was a book purse? How cute would that have been?

So when Ben and I were not having a romantic moment, or sleeping, eating, dancing, or thinking about the man overboard, my mind was on how I was going to make a book into a fashionable, wearable, piece of art and how it can make a statement about the woman who is carrying it. My creative, entrepreneurial mind would not stop.

Imagine, ordering a one of a kind purse that shows off your favorite author, or that one book that changed your mind about reading or where you wanted to go with your life. Your purse would not only be a story in itself but it can be a way to express a snippet of your story.

Now imagine with every purchase of a SmartGirl purse, a $5 donation went to help fight illiteracy, or $5 went to help a girl across the world get an education or even $5 going to a local non-profit that helps young girls meet their full potential.

Better yet, imagine the girl who instead of buying a purse with some designer label or a celebrity’s pick, chooses to buy a SmartGirl purse. What does that say about her?

So, I have been busy researching, and crafting since I’ve been back from our cruise. With the help of my friend Juliet, I think I figured out what these purses are going to look like and how they are going to be made.

Oh and if some of you are wondering how this book-loving, Prius driving, re-user can destroy a book…no worries. I carefully remove the pages from the used book, and I've commissioned my daughter Amanda to create the artwork for new book covers so that the actual pages can be enjoyed again if one wishes.

I’m excited! These purses are going to be stunning. The SmartGirl bag is going to bring literature, fashion, art and charity together. I will keep you all posted.