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| Sock Monkey Greetings |
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| Sock Monkey Greetings |
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| Monkey Moments on Etsy |
| Oct 28, 2008 |
I stumbled upon a shop on Etsy a few weeks ago that I fell in love with right off. The store is called Monkey Moments and they sell these adorable greeting cards featuring my favorite monkey - the Sock Monkey!
I asked Claudia of Monkey Moments to tell me a few things about herself and her shop.
Monkey Moments came to life when I, Claudia, wanted to make a Christmas gift for my sister Carollee. What started as a picture album of the woods we frequently hiked together turned into pictures of sock monkeys playing in the woods. I secretly spent one year making sock monkeys and their clothes and then taking their picture in the woods. The first images were compiled into a calendar for Carollee and with the laughter that resulted, Monkey Moments was born.
We decided to combine whimsy and nostalgia to bring laughter to the world, one sock monkey at a time. Creating monkey images was the perfect outlet for our shared sense of humor, creativity and our desire, as they say, "to escape from real life." We had a childhood full of freedom and beach adventures (we spent all of every summer of our childhood from sunup to sundown, playing on the beaches at Bethany Beach, DL - coming inside only for the barest of necessities!)
For the past six years, Carollee and I learned about the business of greeting cards from the basement up. (Literally, we started out in my basement.) Armed with only 27 images in the beginning, we nervously bumbled our way through a sort-of-sales pitch at A Pleasant Present, a store in Squirrel Hill, PA. Michael Ferraro, the owner, said he would order some of the cards. We didn't even have a pencil or paper with us on which to write an order.
As our number of images grew and with additional stores selling our cards, we gained more confidence. We attended the National Stationary Show in New York City. We constructed our own booth, made 36 sock monkeys to use as promotional items and set off to the Big Apple.
At the National Stationary Show, we made some sales, but most importantly, we got many leads that helped us decide what direction to go in next. In fact, we acquired our first card rep through an unknown woman who stopped by our booth and told us to contact The David and Lisa Showroom in Los Angeles. David and Lisa were among the first to showcase Nick and Nora sock monkeys that are printed on all types of clothing and they picked up Monkey Moments for their showroom as a way of drawing people in. Six years later, David and Lisa are still representing Monkey Moments.
These days, sounds of uncontrollable laughter still break the silence of the otherwise calm woods where we can be found inside a quaint cottage at the end of a lane. We still spend each day the way we started out: making and dressing sock monkeys and designing the props and backgrounds for each Monkey Moments vignette.
We recently discoverd Etsy through my daughters. The website is great and has provided us another outlet in which to show our cards and gift items. I love the uniqueness of Etsy and how well thought out it is.
Our inspiration comes from the distinctly recognizable and memorable moments of life, as well as the daily humdrum that we all can identify with, but photographed through a sock monkey's perspective. We believe that Monkey Moments' appeal lies in how the sock monkeys take on a life of their own and highlight the humorous complexities in everyday situations, from mundane daily chores to the celebrations of life.Labels: etsy |
posted by Sock Monkey Greetings @ 8:42 PM  |
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| 3 Comments: |
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Teen girls love these monkeys!
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Maybe you could send me a sockmonkey in March and I could pose it around the evaporator while we are making MAPLE SYRUP! That would be a neat one! I love your sock monkeys! Neat idea!
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Hello :)
I just wanted to drop by and say thankyou for entering my giveaway on the Indie Craft Corner blog. I'm glad you liked my polar bear.
-Em
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Teen girls love these monkeys!