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Hi Everyone!
I know I haven't been on the boards as often as I'd like.... and last weekend we went to Bristol, TN for the NASCAR night races 
Just thought I'd remind everyone to always have business cards with you... and if possible have a photo of one of your bears on it!
During the Busch race Friday night we had a rain delay.... I was sitting on a bench and started talking to a sweet lady (from New Orleans) next to me. She mentioned she collected teddy bears... so naturally I gave her a card!
On the somber side... as I mentioned she is from New Orleans.... so at least SHE was out of the storm since she was in Bristol for the races. Her husband was with too... and their 2 adorable poodles. But her 4 cockatoos were back at home... I sure hope their home was safe....
Posts: 1,153Laura the old idea of having a calling card is a great idea too.
Thru the years I have met some very sweet people and many times was asked to give my phone number so theycould keep in touch with me.
So, I got tired of writing my phone number down on any scrap paper handy...and decided to bring back the old 'calling card'.
It is great, and just last week, I met a lady in Hobby Lobby who approached me because of my purse and started a conversation.
Well, we hit it right off and she said, lets get together someday for lunch and she wanted my phone number...lo and behold, she got her 'calling card' out of her purse and handed it to me and we laughed as we swapped cards. What a delightful lady she was.
Cards ARE good and I think now I will make some different ones and put a picture of one of my little creations on it just to add some interest.
How nice to have met someone sitting right next to you who collected teddy bears...that was a stroke of luck that doesn't happen too often. :lol:
Good tip that you just suggested for everyone!
Nanc......
Hey, and talk about a good way to "spread the word" about our teddy bear hobby...
If you hand out a business card whenever someone needs your phone number or address, and that business card "happens" to have your company name and some pictorial reference to your bears -- maybe even your website address -- you've just exposed one more person to our passionate obsession!
I find that when I do this people inevitably say, "Oh, what's this all about...?"
Posts: 1,153Oh Shelli, you are right. It didn't cross my mind that this would be a good way to spread the 'bear word'...great idea.
I will definitely re-vamp my cards.
Shelli, could I put my avatar on them? Is it too big or too small? Am I allowed to do that?
nanc..
It's yours to do as you please... but thanks for asking. I will not be sending my army of lawyers after you, in hot pursuit of copyright violation. That's because I'm not that. And because I don't HAVE an army of lawyers.
JOKE: What do you call a thousand lawyers at the bottom of Lake Tahoe?
PUNCHLINE: A good start.
Posts: 1,153Oh that is so funny Shelli!! :lol:
I personally do not care for lawyers. When David ( my husband) was in a bad automobile accident (not his fault), the lawyers were all over him...'you can sue for this and that' ( he almost died from his head injuries, that is why)
but being the man that I have loved all these years, his answer was "No, I just want what I was going down the road with, replaced" The reason was, it was a young woman with two small children that hit him broadside and he was going 65. His went flying down the road sideways and hit a concrete stop, which sent his vehicle flying thru the air and flipped 3 times. To make a very long story short, he survived and told the lawyers, that she made a mistake, he was alive and he didn't want her to start her young family life out, having to pay for the rest of her life.
I wish more people would have that attitude...he is a wonderful man.
These lawyers today are really something and I pray we will never have a need for one.
Thanks Shelli, I will certainly try to incorporate that beautiful avatar in my card...it is soooooo classy!
You are a dear!
Nanc.......
Past Time BearsNancy . . . so glad your husband is still here and that he is such a sensitive person . . . good on him!! I sooooo agree about being prepared to "show and tell" about your bear business!! I have business cards with me always in the pocket of a small photo album that I composed with several of my bears/friends. I carry the album in my purse, and if I change purses, that's one of the first items that gets switched over. I can't tell you how many times I've had the opportunity to drag out my album (with the bus. cards) to show people in various social settings. It's totally fun!
That album is a great idea. Is it one of those little soft-fronted ones, or do you carry a mondo huge purse, Sue Ann, into which you can fit the 12x12 scrapbook standard...???
Teasin ya about that. But I am curious about the kind of purse-scrapbook you use...
???
Upstate New YorkLaura,
You went to the Bristol night race?!? I am SOOOOOOO jealous. Was a great TV race though. Do you have a favorite driver? Of course you do! Come on .... tell! I have several I like to cheer for (Biffle, Sadler, Johnson, Gordon, Wallace, Martin, Waltrip, Jarrett), and just a couple I don't care for (Harvick, Stewart).
Oh, business cards ... good idea!
Deb
Business cards are such a great idea and I always carry mine with me in my handbag whenever
I go out. Often at a function or a soiree people ask what I do for a living and they get excited
if they are interested in Bears and is neat that they can look at your web-site and be able to see them
and hopefully might buy one!.
Hugs
Carolyn
Past Time BearsHa, Shelli . . . I do have a nice-sized purse, but my little photo album is 4 3/4" x 6 1/4" - just the right size for 4 x 6 prints. It has soft covers and the whole thing is enclosed in plastic. I have personalized and "decorated" the covers so that it's obviously a portable "Past Time Bears" portfolio. I pull it out whenever people are showing off pictures of their grandkids!!! 
Mutz's Tootsz Bears & Buds
Hi All,
I always carry my cards and my photo album EVERYWHERE. The album is a small "Brag Book" type. My husband always carries cards with him too. He will hand out 1-2 a month.
I also designed my card to be folded in half to use as my hang tag. I add a paper inside with the name & details of the bear.
TTFN
Amy
Amy I do a similar thing with the cards. On the right side of my card (or front of my handtag) is a pic of one of my bears. I fold the card in half to put on the bear and hand out cards to anyone I tell I make bears.
I also have a photo book that I "leave" out during parties or such. Just this weekend I had a baby shower for my nephew and left the book on a side table. People picked it up thinking it was baby pictures and then asked who made the cute bears and then we talked!
Back Road BearsSo, I guess I need to get over my shyness when it comes to talking about the bears I make.
I've yet to learn the 'right delivery speech' when someone asks what I do. I get all stuttery and self-conscious. It's the self-confidence thing rearing it's ugly head. Only time I get it!!! (Danni - no comments 
!!)
A photo album would be a great tension breaker for me. The majority of folks think of Russ or Gund bears... not 'designer, architectural, artist' bears! Being such a visiual person, I'm surprised I DON'T carry an album with me.
OK, time to go buy a bigger purse!!!! :rolleyes:
Daphne
ontario, canadagreat card Amy - thanx for sharing!
will everybody post their cards, please??!!
Amy, those cards are great!
Wild Thyme OriginalsHey, girls... not too much bad mouthin' of the lawyers, please? As I former lawyer, I can attest that we're not ALL terrible ambulance chasers! I did mostly domestic relations work and was a children's lawyer (GAL) for most of my brief legal career, along with representing (pro bono) several local charities, so I can say that I was one of the good guys! I do LOVE lawyer jokes to this day though... my husband still is a lawyer and I just love to dig him from time to time! Hey, just think, without those hard working lawyers, there wouldn't be that nice little reminder on your take-out coffee cup reminding you that your latte is HOT! 
Oh... I never leave home without a stack of business cards in my wallet, both mine and hubby's!
Kim Basta
Wild Thyme Originals
http://www.picturetrail.com/bastadolls
Here's mine. I blurred out my personal info for security reasons.
The hangtag doesn't actually have a white dotted line; that's just where I fold. Also, the insides are handwritten (OOAK, date, bear name, signature), but I just typed something in using PhotoShop in this example, because I don't have one currently made up with photo and ready to scan.
I laminate the entire hangtag after creating it, before attaching to bear.
PS This entire design, courtesy of my constantly-mentioned graphic designer/brand strategist best girlfriend, Andrea O'Neill of andreaoneill.com and transparency.com. Well... actually... I had the general concept in mind and created the line art of the bear, but she made it all happen and put it all together in ways I still don't understand!
ontario, canadagreat! thanx Shelli. i wish i could draw better - i like the idea of a silhousette - just have to find a capabler (hmm?, zat a word?) artist. :lol:
next one? please.
*nosey*
Kim-Bee BearsOther Kim, this is strange, you are another Kim who makes bears, from my general area of the map, and you are in the law field! (I am a legal assistant) Strange!
Hey, girls... not too much bad mouthin' of the lawyers, please?
Hi Kim :)
I hear ya... I mean after all.... those types of lawyers (stereotypical "bad" ones) would not be in practice if there were not people out there who say "yes" to their type of practice! Unfortunately the bad ones make all the good ones try to beat that bad stereotype!
Thank goodness for my GREAT lawyer who is trying to unravel a huge legal mess my ex made!
Posts: 8,574
:PI just finished my business cards, I think, but I am open to any ideas for improvement.
I was OK with 'artist gollywogs' but not with artist teddies, yet. So that's why I wrote it this way.
Now that I got it done I look at it and think it might be a little deceiving, and that isn't my intention.
Ahhh...moral dillemas
What would life be without them, they would try the patience of a saint, and since i'm no saint they send me over the edge.
I have ordered those clean cut cards. I wanted to try them out before I actually pay big bucks to have them professionally printed.
So give yur best, ladies, what should I change?
Dilu
ontario, canadai see a typo Dilu!
in your url.
should be "creationS" ....?
Here are my tag and card....
Outside of hang tag
Inside of hang tag (I hand write the right side... but used computer for this sample)
Biz card - on photo paper
Edited to add....
Great looking cards and tags everyone! I've been meaning to "get around" to fixing my tags.... this may get me off my tush and do it
Laura wrote:
Thank goodness for my GREAT lawyer who is trying to unravel a huge legal mess my ex made!
... your ex, who will likely have a "bad" lawyer at the ready to ARGUE AGAINST whatever your "good" lawyer is trying to achieve.
I didn't mean any disrespect to attorneys -- obviously, highly educated and intelligent folk, as a lot, with serious schooling under their belts -- with my joke, which seems to have carried forward with unanticipated momentum and life of its own. <sigh>
And of course, stereotypes are just little bits of shorthand, meant to describe entire concepts -- with which we have little or no intimate familiarity -- in ten words or less. They're sometimes useful, often judgemental, and always incomplete, presenting only partial truths, from one perspective at most.
Having said all that, I've worked with no less than twelve attorneys over the course of my pre-kid life, and have one in my immediate family, and from those experiences I've seen for myself that being an attorney is not about doing what's right or good or virtuous, but rather, is about doing whatever it takes to ARGUE AGAINST whatever is put on the table, opposite your client. In other words, the job of the lawyer is to TAKE SIDES. And whether the side chosen is one of upstanding moral character, or slimy back alley misdeeds, if a lawyer is taking his side with passionate force, he's doing his/her job, and doing it well.
The problem I get into, where I find myself posting passive/aggressive jokes about lawyers -- and probably why everyone else does, too, I'd imagine -- is that, personally, I've found that these argumentative, side-taking qualities -- obviously, absolutely requisite for success as a lawyer -- transfer over into everyday life and either become -- or always were (perhaps lawyers are a self-selected group?) -- a part of that person's inherent character. And, ya know... it just gets tiring, to always be armed for inevitable debate to the death.
Anyway, no disrespect whatsoever intended to lawyers here, there, or everywhere. I have a lot of admiration and respect for their education and training and am selfishly very grateful for the things they do for me and for those I love, like keeping my human/female/American rights protected, and giving innocent and wrongly accused people a capable and competant voice, and providing order in an otherwise sometimes disorderly world.
HUGS TO LAWYERS EVERYWHERE!!!:D:D
