Behind the Scenes: Boo Bags (a super secret sneak peak)

Hello everyone!! I know that I said that I was going to do more "behind the scenes" stuff, and show y'all what goes into creating some of the things that I make. 

I just received the first pictures of the Boo Bags in all of the new colors, which are currently not released to the public so I thought this was a great chance to show off a little of the bag making process and also give you all a super secret sneak peak at the new colors!! 

Choosing Colors

When I started thinking about my new kickstarter, I wanted to add a few new colors. I contacted my supplier and told her that I wanted swatches of the available colors. 

I'm not going to show all of the options because there were over 180 different colors, but here are the ones that I was considering. 

85, 86, 58, 59, 25 and 27

I ended up narrowing it down to 85 and 86 and even tho I originally had only planned to do blue and pink, the purple (83) was so cute I went ahead with that one also! 

I confirmed the color of the printing on the face to be the same color that was used on the black bags, (white eyes pink cheeks) and they went to sample!

Whats next?

From there it was pretty easy because this company already produced all of my bags. They just had to make the exact same thing in the new colors. She asked if I wanted the samples made in the small bag or the big bag and I went with the smaller one to save on shipping weight and also just because I personally like the small ones better! A perk of making your own merch is that you get to keep all the samples for yourself >;)

Why is Sampling important?

Sampling items is much more expensive than when you order them, for  example each Boo bag is over twice as expensive to have a sample made than when I order them in bulk,  and then I have to pay international air shipping on top of that (which is very expensive). For a  expensive item like a Boo Bag, its worth it to see it in person, especially when approving colors. For cheaper items such as enamel pins, keychains, or stationary spending $50-100 or more on shipping wouldn't make sense for a charm that might sell for $15. So smaller items are just approved with a photo provided by the manufacturer. 

So they're made, now what?

This round of samples was simple because it was literally only changing the colors, but if it was more complicated I would be sending any feedback I had based on the photos back to the manufacturer before they were shipped to me. Here you can see all of the photos that were sent to me: (there were to many to put here but here's a screen shot)

Close ups of the bags inside and out, close ups of the faces for me to approve printing and some other details. I do not like the cheek color that is on the pink bag, and normally I would call that out before I have them shipped to me so it can be fixed but I'm going to hold off on that correction until I receive them in person because pink is notorious for photographing weirdly!

I approved them to be shipped, and they're now on their way to me! 

Hope this all made sense and if you had any questions at all please leave them in the comments below!