Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Ha, I just noticed the term is 'return receipt' in Eudora and 'read receipt' in Outlook (I'll refer to them as return receipts here, but they are one and the same).  I guess Deb and I are both right on what to call it    For anyone who isn't familiar with a return receipt, it's pretty straightforward and here's how one should work:

1.  You compose an email to Joe Q. Somebody.  You would really like to know if (or when) Joe reads your email.  As you compose your email, select in your email program that you would like to use a return receipt.  Send your email.

2.  Joe reads your email.  An automated receipt is immediately generated and mailed back to you.

3.  You receive the receipt and know that Joe opened the email (and presumably read it) at the date and time on the receipt.

Now that's the way it's supposed to work.  This is unfortunately not a perfect system.  Some email programs could give Joe the option of NOT sending a return receipt, a little window could pop up and ask if he'd like to send your receipt now, later or never.  He could pick never, so you'd never get the receipt regardless of whether he read the email or not.  In the best case scenario, you're hoping to get that little return receipt as confirmation that the email was opened (OK, technically Joe's wife could have opened the email and not Joe, but you know SOMEBODY there saw it).  If you don't get the receipt... maybe they never saw the email, or maybe they blocked the return receipt.  Regardless, I have use return receipts in the past if someone I was dealing with was just not responding to emails.  It generally does work.  Sometimes just the person seeing that you have requested a return receipt is enough to get them to respond, even if they cancel the receipt itself.

I can help with Eudora and Outlook users as to where to find this option in your email program.  For Eudora, as you are composing your email, look at the menu bar options at the top of the mail composition window.  About 4 buttons to the left of your Send button is one that looks like a letter with a green mark on one side.  If you hold your mouse over this button, it should say Return Receipt.  Just click on it.  When you send your email, a return receipt will be requested.

In Outlook, again start composing your new email.  In the mail composition window, select the Tools tab from the upper menu.  Select the option to 'Request Read Receipt'. This should work exactly the same as described above.

I'm not as familiar with other programs, but scout around in yours and you should be able to find an option for either a read receipt or a return receipt.

Hope this helps!
Kelly

Judi, I agree with others about giving him some time to catch up with things just in case he is willing to put everything right.  However... here are a couple of thoughts.

From eBay's viewpoint, I don't think they'll be able or willing to help you out with this.  As far as they'd be concerned, you sent an invoice, it was paid in full for the amount on the invoice and the product was sent.  This to them is a completed transaction.  I would not expect either eBay or PayPal to show any interest in how much money was or was not on the invoice.  Sad, but true.

Here's some useful information for people to know if they ever get ripped off / run into deadbeats / etc. on eBay.  You said that the phone number in his contact information was no good.  This is considered by eBay to be Invalid Contact Information and is a MAJOR no-no.  You can report him for invalid contact information to eBay.  His account will be suspended because of it.  And just in case you're worried about him leaving you nasty negative feedback should you take this route... if he does leave negative feedback before being suspended, eBay WILL remove that feedback from your records.  This is, of course, a big deal to get involved with, so only resort to it if you feel it is absolutely necessary.   I haven't had to deal with anything like this myself (luckily). 

Your other option if the guy continues to be non-communicative would be to accept it as an expensive lesson and move on.  We'll all keep our fingers crossed that this is a good guy you're dealing with, and just hasn't seen your email yet.  By the way, do you know how to send emails with a return receipt?  That will at least tell you if he is opening and reading your emails. 

Best wishes,
Kelly

Shelli, you shouldn't feel badly for one second about your win.  I know there were several nominees on this board, but I don't think any of us would want you to feel anything less than you should be feeling... extremely proud and very, very happy :)

For myself, I don't have one ounce of disappointment in being a nominee.  Being a nominee at all was an amazing and surprising position to find myself in!  I was not expecting a win, so not winning wasn't even a teeny bit of a shock, and certainly didn't make me feel badly.  Besides, even powerhouses like Michelle Lamb were 'just' (LOL!) nominees this year, so it's not like I'm keeping bad company!  The funny thing about me is that I am NOT competitive with other people.  I am very competitive with myself, I always push for goals that are too high to obtain, but comparing myself in relation to others is just not part of my nature.  I loved my big fluffy polar bear and other people told me they did too, that's all that matters.  So major kudos to you on your special day, Shelli!  The only way I'm going to feel bad about not winning is if YOU feel bad about it!  What a pathetic, sappy bunch we are.

Bear hugs,
Kelly

Congratulations, Shelli!  You know, this is the second year in a row I've looked at the nominees and tried to pick who I thought would be the winners.  I was only right in two categories this year (and wasn't very accurate last year either), but your win was one I had predicted.  Your photo really stood out in your category!

Bear hugs,
Kelly

A couple of thoughts from a long-time eBay veteran.  I've been on eBay forever.  Well, it seems like forever, but since very near the beginning of their site.  (And to think I was offered the option to buy their stock when it first came out for a great price, and didn't buy any... ARGH!)  After thousands of transactions (obviously, my bear ID is newer and was not my original eBay ID) I really have rarely had anything but smooth sailing in every transaction.  Even minor headaches were just that, minor.  I hope I am not jinxing myself.  Anyway, here's some advice from someone who has 'been there, done that' on eBay and lived to tell about it.

Shari, your bears are lovely!  Don't worry that you are being personally targeted, though, that is definitely not the case.  I think you tend to run your auctions as Featured items though, scammers aim for featured items as they are easy to find and tend to run for more money than other auctions.  When I feature something, I know that I'm at a much higher risk for getting the same kind of garbage and fraudulent offers. 

For anyone who has had problems receiving a questionable 'Ask Seller A Question' email through eBay, step one is to use your head to see if it looks even remotely legitimate.  An incredibly bad grasp of the English language combined with an unusual request (something like 'can you ship this C.O.D. to Nigeria?') is a red flag for fraud.  Don't even respond.  Do NOT respond.  Seriously.  Delete it and forget about it.  Some people will go through and use 'Ask Seller A Question' to harvest email addresses for spam when you reply to their question.  A red flag for this is someone that asks about what you have for sale in a very generic way.  'I am interested in your item, please send more information'  How many serious bear collectors are going to refer to your darling bear as 'the item'?  If it looks like such a generic question that you can imagine someone copying and pasting that same text into 5,000 'Ask Seller A Question' emails that day, ranging from teddy bears to Ford trucks to ball bearings, ignore it.  Do NOT respond.  If you are ever in doubt as to whether something is a legitimate question or not, make sure to reply through eBay NOT just hit reply in your email program.  Replying through eBay means you can hide your true email address from the person until you figure out if they're on the level.

Speaking of emails, never NEVER be caught off guard by those fake emails (phishing) that go around that your eBay or PayPal account 'is suspended' or some such garbage.  One excellent initial check to find out if this is fraudulent is just to look at who it is addressed to.  eBay and PayPal KNOW your name if you are a registered user.  If they were going to send you a very important email like 'your account is suspended', it would be addressed to YOU, YOUR name.  Fraudulent emails start with 'Dear customer' or other generic titles.  Regardless of anything else though, NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER (I could go on with this forever, it is that important) NEVER NEVER click on a link in an email like that.  Regardless of how legitimate you think it is or is not.  DO NOT CLICK ON ANY LINKS IN THIS TYPE OF EMAIL.  If you are concerned that there is a problem with your account, go to your browser and manually type in the address for the site in question to access your account.  Go to eBay at http://www.ebay.com/ or go to PayPal at http://www.paypal.com/  Once you've logged in, look around.  I think you'll find nothing is wrong with your account.  DELETE the offending email, or there are safety groups at both eBay and PayPal that the email can be forwarded to so they can try to catch the bad guys.  The problem with clicking on a link in a fraudulent email is that scammers try very hard to make the link look legitimate.  They make sure it looks like you're really going to click on a link to eBay.  What actually happens is that when you click on their link, you are rerouted to a fraudulent site.  They even make the site look like it's really eBay.  They ask you to log in.  When you do that, they have your user ID and password.  People that fall for this get their accounts hijacked, suddenly you find someone listing fraudulent items under your account and you're hit for thousands of dollars in fees.  They may ask you to verify credit card or bank account information by typing it in.  Now they can steal anything they'd like from you.  I don't think I need to go into the damage that could be caused once someone knows your banking information.  You can avoid ALL of these possibilities by NEVER CLICKING ON A LINK in an email like those described above.

By the way, there used to be a list of countries that eBay and PayPal both discouraged trading with, due to the high level of fraud in those countries.  I just tried to find it, and it looks like the list is either very well hidden these days, or not published like it used to be.  What I can tell you is to never deal with Indonesia.  Indonesia was always at the top of the old list for countries that shouldn't be dealt with, and probably still is.

Now that I have thoroughly scared everyone.  Look, what I wrote above was the ugly underbelly of dealing with eBay.  It is 'need to know' information, but I didn't intend for it to be so scary that people would stay away.  The bad stuff is also an amazingly small percentage of dealing with eBay.  I like eBay.  The bear market is tough there right now and is really only being kind to the handful of artists with a long-standing 'eBay following', but I still like eBay.  As far as my mother's and my own bears go, I'm planning on listing bears there more consistently than we ever have before, in the hopes of building up our own 'eBay following' over time.  We will not be listing bargain bears, however.  eBay is a finicky market, but we are solidly in the mindset that our prices are our prices regardless of the venue, and we will not undersell ourselves in any one location.  We have a set price range and with those prices we make good sales at shows, good sales off our web site, good sales through magazines and as for eBay... well... so far we do so-so on eBay.  It is a funny market.  Of the last six bears we listed, 3 sold and 3 did not.  I don't think that means we should give up though, I think it means we need to hang in there and keep putting up good work at our set prices.  We'll see in the long run if demand increases with increased exposure.  That is my current theory, anyway.

To anyone that is curious about selling bears on eBay, but has never actually been on eBay as a buyer or seller before, here is my advice.  First start watching eBay auctions, poke around the categories, get familiar with how it all works.  Get yourself an eBay account.  Don't think you need to register your bear business name as an eBay ID right away either.  You always have the freedom to change the name later.  Start buying small value items for yourself so you get an understanding for how the eBay sales process works.   Look at the feedback for any seller you're considering buying from, only stick with people with very good overall feedback and NO recent neutrals or negatives.  These good, established sellers will help guide you through your first purchases smoothly.  I would recommend building up at least 10 feedbacks (so buy from at least 10 unique sellers) on your new account before even considering selling something.  More than that is even safer.  People that come in with a brand new 0 feedback account will be met with suspicion if they try to sell something.  Potential buyers won't be very interested in buying something (especially a pricey teddy bear) if they have to sit there and wonder whether you're fraudulent, whether your products are any good or whether you have any idea what you're doing.  Build up good solid feedback as a first step.  As an interesting side note... even if you are considering putting bears on eBay in the distant future, it wouldn't hurt to start your account now and build up your feedback ahead of time.  People can click through on feedback on your account and see what you have bought for up to 90 days.  After 90 days however, it's nobody's business what you bought so don't even worry if what you're buying on your future bear-selling account isn't bear-related.

Well, that was long-winded.  Hope this helps somebody!
Kelly

I hate to say it, but I'm getting a bit of a mental image involving bears with giant red backsides.  Of course, I am a little odd...

I do like apple in the name though, it's a word with a very country cozy feel to it.  Appleseed?  Apple Dumplin' Bears?  Apple of my eye?  Whose Cider You On?  OK, I'll stop now, I don't think I'm helping  

Good luck!
Kelly

Dilu, I think your bear has quite a self-satisfied grin for all the trouble she put you through!  Good for you for sticking with her and making it all work out, she is a really fun bear.  And the next bears will all seem so EASY after this one (just keep telling yourself that).

Hugs,
Kelly

Hi Nanc,

I would always change the dpi first before doing anything else.  With the size of images your camera takes, this is going to shrink them down tiny, you won't have much size left to work with at the higher resolution.  But that is interesting that the magazine has been able to use pictures from your same camera before, though.  Could you email the woman you worked with for your initial submission, and find out what she did with those original submissions that made them acceptable for publication?  I think that would be your best bet.

Good luck!
Kelly

Chris, your polar bear is just perfect.  He has such presence, excellent work on your part!

Kelly

I buy most of the synthetics we use from Edinburgh (including Kirby the avatar bear and Henry who was mentioned above), and unfortunately yup they can be as pricey as the mohair.  They are very nice quality and I think easy to work with though, you don't have to worry at stretchiness or knit backs at least.  If anyone wants to know a specific item # on any of the synthetics I've used that interest you, I should be able to look it up.  But I have seen very nice results with many varieties of synthetics, so it's worth a shot to do some experimenting!  I've recommended two other places to buy synthetic furs before, just in case anybody wants to check them out here they are again (Jane, the one place carries Tissavel which I think is French, could this be what you were looking for?)  These are both less expensive than much of what Edinburgh carries, though I have samples and some yardage from them and they are actually quite nice.

Fabulous-Furs: http://www.fabulousfurs.com/search.asp?t=c&c=9

PreFurs (carries Tissavel brand): [url]http://www.prefurs.com/10Browse.asp?cat … y+Tissavel[/url]

Hope this helps!
Kelly

Gee, you folks are nice   Just wanted to answer some questions that were asked...

Sandi, I could barely find where the magnets were on Katy even though I knew where they were.  I think the length of her fur helped hide them even pressed up against the fabric, she was big, about 20" tall with thick 1" fur.  The little mink bear Petey had magnets that were more noticeable inside his paws, but he was only 7" tall so they were proportionately much larger in him.  I guess the answer is 'it depends'...?

Eileen, I may have an even less helpful answer for you.  As to whether her wrist joint is like a double-jointed neck, the answer is both yes and no.  If I left it at that, you'd hate me, I know    Her wrists do not have a separate wedge piece like a double-jointed neck would, so that part is the 'no'.  But what we did do was cap the two ends with fabric circles like you would on the ends of a double-jointed neck (instead of gathering), so that where the two parts join is much smoother and less noticeable.

I did take a series of photos with Katy to show how her wrists could move with wrist joints + magnets in the inner paws.  Here she is holding them regularly, with the turned down paws design built into the pattern.

Here is Katy with her wrists turned at their joints, so that her paws turn inwards toward each other.

And here she is with her paws straightened back out in their regular turned down paws position, but with the magnets on the inside of her paws stuck together.

Hope this helps!
Kelly

Nanc, if 1280x960 is the largest format your digital camera can take pictures in, what I'm about to say isn't going to help you very much.  But maybe it can help somebody else?  IF a digital camera takes large enough images, even if it's only capturing the image at 72 dpi, you should still be able to come up with a reasonable quality image for magazine submissions at 300 dpi.  Keep in mind this in not what you should be doing if you're planning on printing out calendar or poster size prints, but for magazine submissions you're talking about something that is going to be printed out a couple of inches wide.

Shelli posted a screenshot above where you can see width, height and resolution listed for the image on the screen.  If you have a very large initial image at 72 dpi, here's an experiment you can do.  Before doing anything else to the image (no cropping, nothing) FIRST change the resolution to 300 dpi (pixels / inch or whatever your program calls it).  Watch what happens to the width and height of the image when you do this!  The width and height will decrease as the program takes the pixel information that it has and crams it into a smaller space.  There are more pixels per square inch in 300 dpi (dots per inch) than 72 dpi, right?  Taking those spread out pixels at 72 dpi and packing them together at 300 dpi means that the image takes up less vertical and horizontal space, making the image smaller in both height and width.  Hope this makes sense, but try it and you'll see what I mean.  I think you will also find that your image quality is not going to suffer noticeably, even if you're doing this all in a jpg file format, which inherently loses data.  Here's the catch though.  IF your original image was large enough in height and width to take this process and STILL have at least 3" x 5" or 4" x 6" in height and width, which is the minimum size requirements for a submission, you're still in good shape.  All you need to do is crop carefully as needed to get your image to an exact 3" x 5" or 4" x 6" submission size.  Anyway, Nanc, I do not think 1280x 960 is large enough to do this, I think you will find your image size squishes to about 3" x 4" when you change 72 dpi to 300 dpi, which is not enough to work with.

Hope this helps!
Kelly

I've been on a big synthetics kick the last few months, I can get such realistic bear and bunny fur that way.  I can honestly say I've never tried bright purple... though if grizzlies and bunnies ever start coming naturally bright purple, one day I may have to :D

Anyway, not all synthetics are created equal.  I have some that do very well trimming short, my avatar bear is one of them.  I have another brown synthetic that for some unknown reason has WHITE backing.  Blech.  I like the fur fine, but I do not trim that one short!  I would never, ever trim all the way down to the backing as you could with mohair as synthetic backing can have an odd appearance, but as long as the color of the backing is not an unusual color compared to the fur you can get close to it without ill effects. 

I think either trimming or shading may be the way to go with her to make her mouth noticeable.  With your trimming do smooth scissor cuts, just make sure you don't start / stop halfway through where you want a curve to be.  I would figure out where your mouth will lie, then do a sweeping upwards curve back away on either side to give some shape to the lower cheeks.  You may be able to get away with just that as far as trimming goes, it will help give definition to the location of her mouth.  If you're not happy with the thought of trimming, try some subtle shading in a straight line down from the nose where the septum and mouth will lie.  Start LIGHT with the shading, if it is not what you want go progressively darker a little at a time.  Biggest mistake would be starting too dark.  Do not underestimate the power of shades of grey for shading, it can soften the effect of just about any color.  But start very, very pale in color.  You can always add more, but you can't take away.

Hope this helps!
Kelly

I am so bad with names Wanda, I KNEW there was somebody else from this board I should have been looking up at TBAI and completely blanked on who out of 50+ artists it was!  I really should have done my homework and written names down before I went, so I actually could have met some of you great folks in person.  (sigh)  A belated 'hello', and I'll have to catch you next time!  I loved your gallery bear and remember being very impressed walking past your table display.  The funny thing is, I met so many wonderful people at that show, but this just reminds me how many people I didn't get a chance to meet because the show was so big!  Next time, next time...

Cheers,
Kelly

Marie, I'm late jumping in on this, but hugs from us, too! One can never have too many hugs    Just take it day by day and listen to your lawyer, you have received very good advice from everyone here.

And I also wanted to add my 'welcome' to the new members!
Kelly

We have done a couple of bears with magnets and they can be such fun!  I would suggest using the strongest magnets that you can find.  They still need to attract each other and hold together even with two layers of fabric between them and the weight of the arms and gravity tugging against them.  I think you'll find if you use magnets that are too weak, or pad in between them much (I don't recommend burying them in the middle of a bunch of polyfill), the magnets will not stick together well, if at all.  We usually just tuck them right up against the fabric where they need to go.

Here is a picture of Petey and his Poppy, a little mink bear with magnets tucked in the middle of his pawpads so that his hands clasped together.  Interestingly enough, the wire inside the silk flower stem also stuck to each magnet, so he had a VERY secure grip on the flower with the magnets together, and probably could even have held it upright in only one paw.

And this is Katy, a very new bear for us who has jointed wrists.  She also has magnets tucked on the inner side of her paws, so she can hold her paws together in front of her and clasp her gingerbread man tightly.

Hope this helps!
Kelly

We're back from the Binghamton show, and I wish you'd all been there!  Also sorry to say I had no camera with me, but maybe somebody else from here did?  The gallery display was unbelievably good, I've never had the chance to see such amazing works of art all together and up close before.  The pictures on the TBAI web site don't do them justice, up close some of them are so much bigger (or smaller and more intricate!) than you could imagine from the photos.  Francisco Carreno Stewart's amazing Romeo and Juliet got 1st place in the People's Choice awards for the over 8" pieces (1st place had one award for over 8" and one for under 8").  Dolores Austin's Winnie the Pooh shadowbox got 1st for the under 8" pieces, and it was just exquisite.  I had the chance to sit with Dolores at the banquet, and our table was near her's, you would not believe the work she did on that piece.  She needlefelted all of the characters and did teeny tiny little accessories all by hand, flowers in the scene were done one petal at a time!  Every time you walked past her shadowbox, you saw something different, it was just that intricate.  Anyway, onwards... 

Oh, Laure!  The Laure from this group IS the Laure I'm thinking of, right?  It was you that got 2nd place in the People's Choice awards for the BIGGEST most amazing rabbit I've ever seen, Ungle Wiggily?  I think that it was, major congratulations on an amazing work of art and an award that was much deserved!!! 

Rounding things out, I think that 3rd place went to Mariann Wills' The Yearling, which looked even better in person that the photo shows.  I don't know how people chose winners out of the gallery, I cast a ballot too and was stumped with who to choose.  I wanted to be able to tie 5 or 10 or 15 pieces for first, but there was no room on the ballot   Shelli, Willy Wonka was there in the thick of things looking very handsome, with his eyes sparkling in the lighting.  I saw one lady in the crowd weaving and dodging in front of him, I think she was trying to see his eyes from every angle!  She may have been the one who bought him, because right after that I saw he was marked sold.  Janet, Alice in Wonderland was every bit a sweetheart!  Wish I could have told you that in person!

I managed to not be able to meet anybody from the board at this show, I barely ever got more than 20' from my table and wound up in a lot of lengthy conversations over there.  Very nice people at this show, collectors and artists alike.  Wish I had been able to meet Laure and Janet in person, guess we should have tried to arrange something in advance! 

I know there were a lot of people in the bear world waiting to see how attendance and sales were at this year's TBAI, given the slump a lot of other shows have been seeing.  This was my first year at this show, so personally I wouldn't know what it was usually like, but the talk was that attendance was down.  There were some VERY quiet stretches of time on public sales day.  Of the collectors that stopped and chatted with us, almost every one of them mentioned on their own how tight their budget was.  I sat next to a collector at the banquet that had 2,000 bears at home (can you imagine that many? I can't!).  She said she really had no budget to spend on bears this year.  We were on the back row of sales tables, and had several people really admire something on our table and then say something along the lines of 'too bad I don't have any money left!'.  I think overall most people did OK.  We did fine, we cleared our costs to get there (always a top priority), but overall our sales were about 1/3 what we did at the spring Schaumburg show.  I only saw about 3 tables out of 50+ artists that looked like they'd really sold a lot of bears by the end of the show, and I think they all did smaller or mini bears.  But I don't want to sound pessimistic, because it really was an amazing show!  Everyone was upbeat and wonderful to deal with, we had just an amazing time and felt very privileged to be involved.  I certainly hope we will be lucky enough to be able to return next year, we'll just have to cross our fingers and work hard to get there. 

I also wanted to mention that from a networking perspective, I think this show may be second to none, we really had the opportunity to meet world class artists and dedicated collectors alike.  This was also the first time my mother and I saw a level of name recognition for our business.  We got a lot of 'I saw your bear in the Golden Teddies!' and 'Didn't you do the Sleepy Hollow gallery piece?' comments.  That was a very big deal to us, as newer artists it can be such a struggle to get people to the point where they say 'OK, I know who you are!'.   Anyway, I could go on forever, it really was an exciting event.  "And a good time was had by all."

Bear hugs,
Kelly

Don't worry, folks.  Parts of that have been circulating the Internet for a few years, and have been disproved as a hoax.  I imagine the rest of it should be as well   If you ever have any questions about rumors heard on the web, this is a good place to figure out what is a real and what is not... http://www.snopes.com/

Here is a direct link to where they talk about the 'roach egg in the tongue' and some other parts of this:
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/food/tacobell.asp

Still lickin' envelopes,
Kelly

Hi Danni,

The images are not visible, but have no fear, the solution is painless!  Looking at your source code, your images are all linking back to the C: drive on your computer.  While you can see the images just fine (you're on your computer, after all), none of the rest of us can see what's on your hard drive.  You need to upload the images themselves to your web space, then make sure your img src= tags link to the WEB location of your images.  Then we'll all be in on it together  

Hope this helps!
Kelly

Hey Laura, I can't wait to get the new TBR and see your bunny!  How exciting for you to be published for the first time!  This is working up to be a great year for you, aren't you doing your first show this fall, too?  Now if we can just egg you on enough to enter a contest bear this winter, you'll have done it all  :D

To anyone thinking about catching up with the magazine entry deadlines, go for it!  You do not need to be a household name, you just need to meet the deadlines, submit appropriate materials (holiday bears when they want holiday submissions, for example), follow their rules (if they say they don't accept images in a certain format, don't send them that format) and take decent photos.  They don't even have to be great, professional photos.  On a related note, TBR is accepting holiday submissions until August 10th...

Best of luck!
Kelly

Hi Shelli,

It took a while to figure out what I needed to do for alignment front and back, but once I figured it out it was kind of a 'duh' moment   The trick is in letting the computer do all of the alignment work for you by using one of its built-in templates.  For anyone else who wants to try this (printing your own 2-sided folded over hangtags on your computer), here's what I do:

Step 1.  Buy a nice package of business card paper for your printer.  I am currently using Avery Matte Ivory Business Cards, #8376.  There are 10 business cards on every sheet.  They separate very nicely along the edges when you pull them apart, which is also a good thing.  You need to buy the paper before you start your template, so you know what dimensions you are working with.

2. To originally create the template that I now use, I went into Word and did the following:

    a. Select 'Tools' on the upper menu.  On the dropdown list that appears, select 'Letters and Mailings'.  On the next list that appears, select 'Envelopes and Labels'.

    b.  The Envelopes and Labels window will now open.  Select the 'Options' button on the right side of this new window.  A new window 'Label Options' will appear.  Where is says 'Label Products', you should be able to select the brand of the business cards you just bought.  In my case, I choose the option for 'Avery Standard'.  The product numbers directly below this now fills in automatically with all of the available Avery product numbers.  By selecting one of these product numbers, the computer knows exactly how large my business cards are, how much space is in between each, how many are on the page, and so forth.   Scroll down the list of product numbers and select whatever number your cards are, for mine I selected '8376 - Business Cards'.  All of the good standard brands of paper should tell you what code to use.  My package tells me I can also use template 8371 and get the same result.  Click the 'OK' button to select your template and return to the 'Envelopes and Labels' window.

    c.  Here's the trick that makes it all work.  Don't just type your information into this window.  Instead, click the 'New Document' button on the right side of the 'Envelopes and Labels' window.  Joy!  A brand new Word document opens, preformatted to be an exact match to my very own business cards.  Each little rectangle on the screen is the exact size of one business card.  However, if I'm not just printing business cards but I want folded over hangtags, I need to continue on.

3.  OK, now I have my business card template (by the way, now would be an excellent time to design your news business cards!).  For my hangtags though, I want to take my business cards and fold them over EXACTLY in half when they are printed, so I have one more step to do.  Right click inside one of the business card rectangles on the screen.  Click on the option to 'Split Cells'.  Indicate that you want 'Number of columns' to be 2, and 'Number of rows' to be 1.  Click 'OK'.  My business card rectangle splits into two exact halves.  Do this until every rectangle on the screen is split the same way.  Now SAVE the document so you keep the original template, then start designing your new hangtags like a mad woman!

4.  If you do what I do with a front and back to your folded over hangtag, you will ultimately wind up saving two different custom document templates off this original template.  The first template will contain your design for Side 1, the front and back of your folded hangtag.  Remember that because it will be folded along the center of each rectangle, the design you want on the front of the hangtag (I use the bear's picture) needs to be on the RIGHT side of the divided rectangle.  The information you want on the back side of the hangtag needs to be on the LEFT side of the divided rectangle.  Once you have these all worked out, run this through the printer to get an entire sheet of hangtags for those bears.  Side 1 has been completed.

5.  You're not quite done yet.  Your hangtag needs a Side 2.  The second template you will design will include the information you want to show on the INSIDE of your folded hangtag.  Take your divided rectangle template again and work from there, I include information such as the bear's name, materials, space for a signature and date, and whatever else you need to include.  I also have a line of small text on the bottom of one side that mentions that the bear is not for children.  Remember that this is the inside of the hangtag, so the left side of the divided rectangle is still the left side of your hangtag, and the right side of your rectangle will print on the right side of the hangtag (this is the reverse of what Side 1 required).  In other words, left stays left and right stays right, so you don't have to reverse anything like you did before.  Once you get all of your information prepared, take the sheet that you just printed a page of Side 1 hangtag information on and FLIP it over in the printer so you are ready to print out Side 2 (you might want to make sure your ink is dry before doing this, to avoid smears).  Make sure the top side of the sheet is still the top, you're just changing the front side of the paper to the back side.  Print out Side 2.  Fold the business cards along the template lines to remove them from the sheet.  Fold each business card in half to get your folded hangtag.  Hole punch in the corner, run a string through.  Done! 

I probably hopelessly confused everyone with this, but hope it provides a bit of help! 
Kelly

I redid our hang tags design a while back with input from folks on another bear board.  We are very pleased with the result, and did incorporate individual photos of each bear on the front of the tag.  I created a Word template to do this, so each bear's hantag is unique.  We use using very good quality business card printer paper, print out the first side (each card is half the bear's photo and the other half our company information).  Then we flip the paper and put it back through to print on the back side, which has a printed form for entering information like name, height, materials, then a place for us to sign and date it as the artists.  When they're all printed, I fold each business card individually so that the front side is the photo, you open it up to the bear's information, and the back side is our business info.  Punch a little hole on top, put a string through and voila... all done.  The photo images are still high quality even printed at home, we have a nice printer and put through a higher dpi image to maintain good print quality.

Hope this helps!
Kelly

Hi Mark,

I agree with the others that your bank is a good place to start.  That having been said, when we read through the fine print that our bank provided and got some numbers from the card processing place... it was TERRIBLE pricing.  We would never have been able to afford it, a very high monthly fee and either renting or purchasing a machine would have cost an arm and a leg.  We instead joined a local chamber of commerce as a small business, and have received many perks for doing so, including good deals on health insurance and links to local small companies that do credit card processing.  For the record, we even shopped around for which local chamber of commerce to join, and are infinitely glad that we did (they are technically on the other side of the city and in a different town, but are so good they serve a nine county area).  We did sign up with one card company that they recommended and have been very pleased with their service.  We wound up buying a small, basic processing machine outright (would have been cheaper in the long run than the lease option) and our service charges are a whopping $5 a month.  Fees on individual transactions are at essentially the same rate as PayPal's fees (which we also use for online transactions).  At our last show, we had the people that ran the show take credit cards for us for a small fee.  At our next show, we will be bringing our card imprint slider, gathering all necessary information, and will run it through our own machine when we get home.  I know of other people that do this (gather the information at the show, process it when you get home) and they haven't had any problems.

Hope this helps!
Kelly

Sorry for taking a little while to respond, we're getting ready for our next show and it's hectic, of course   The way I do the double joints (fastening the ends inside the head and body) does mean that I leave an opening in the head for stuffing and turning the ends of the cotterpin.  I usually try to leave the opening under the jaw.  However, it occurs to me that there's no reason you couldn't face the cotterpins / bolts any direction that you wanted to, so long as you have enough room in your neck wedge to do so.  I learned to do double jointed necks on the little polar bear pictured above, and there's no way I could have turned cotterpins inside the neck itself, there's just no room.  Now that I'm used to doing things that way, it's just a habit to keep doing it the same way.  But Sue Ann is correct, you certainly could finish the head like you normally would on a regular bear with your cotterpin sticking out the base, then turn the cotterpin inside the neck wedge.  As long as there's room to do it, go with whatever way you are comfortable with!  I know my way of doing things isn't the only way, and it probably isn't the best way either, but it does work for me... so hopefully I've given you some ideas to find what works for you

Bear hugs,
Kelly

We actually just did our first wrist-jointed bear here, and she is a cutie.  I don't know how anyone else does theirs, but we used a pattern with turned down paws to start with.  The joint went right above where the curve of her turned down paws stopped.  As far as cotterpins vs. bolts, the answer is the same as with double-jointed necks, it doesn't really matter... I'd use cotterpins in smaller spaces and bolts in bigger ones though.  And I would absolutely recommend using the fabric discs instead of gathering, it will give you a smoother finish.  Hope this helps unboggle you :)

Kelly