So as most of you know by now, I joined the Baton Rouge Chorus. (And if you’re new to the site, you probably want to check out my stage makeup saga, my competition weekend with them, and a video of the chorus.) A few months ago, Patty asked the group if anybody has any craft hobbies to see if they would be willing to make something to auction off at the competition in Houston. I thought to myself, well, I have a craft hobby - but I didn’t know if it counted. I guess when you do something so often you think of it as ordinary, not auction-worthy. However, Patty told me I could absolutely make homemade greeting cards to auction off, and that’s how the adventure began.
I’d never done this before, make cards for somebody else – that I don’t know – for them to give cards to somebody else – that I don’t know. So I was stuck in the conundrum of making a nice card, that didn’t have an occasion associated with it. It was harder than I thought. I had a world of possibilities. I ended up deciding on using my favorite sheet of paper that I recently bought – one with little birds on it – to make 6 cards. Then I made corresponding envelopes. Check it out.
I took the pack of cards to work, and I had everybody try to guess how much we should start the bidding at – we spanned the gamut – everything from $10 to $30. I ended up telling Patty that they had a value of about $20 (yes, I’m ever the compromiser).
Now, I did consider making cards with music notes on them since I was going to a CHORUS convention, but I really just didn’t have any paper cute enough on hand. There was another lady there who made 8 homemade cards that had treble clefs and note all over them. Last I checked, her cards were being auctioned off for $45. Now I know for next year.
I was pretty proud of myself though, last I saw, the highest bidder (by somebody from my specific chorus) was $12. After the auction was over, I went to ask her if she ended up getting the cards, and she did not – so right now, all I know is that my cards went for more than $12. Which I feel good about. Why? Because I put myself out there – which was definitely a risk for me.
Check out the final product – packaging and all. Let me know what you think!
