Polymer Clay Pens Soccer Team ($1000) Fundraiser

IN THIS POST: — polymer clay pens — fundraisers — chrissy white — girls soccer — faux wood — sports teams — (Topics marked with an asterisk* are discussed in the Comments Section below).

           Resource Links:

• Related Video: Faux Burl Wood Pens Polymer Clay Tutorials Vol-060
• Amazon: Pen Blanks **

Photo & Story by Chrissy White

Good afternoon Cindy

This will be a rather lengthy email/story, but I wanted to thank you particularly for the Burlwood Pen tutorial. That single tutorial has helped me raise over a thousand dollars for a fundraiser.

Back story: I fell in love with the look of the Burlwood cane and loved the idea of the pen using that cane. I decided to make one for my husband for his birthday. He LOVED it. As it was my first one, it wasn’t really the best, but he seriously LOVED it. It took him a while to convince me that it wasn’t just husbandly-duty speaking, but that he actually really loved that pen. He carries it everywhere and uses it constantly. He even left it in his car one day when he went to work and after trying to make due with a regular pen during a meeting, threw it across the room (literally apparently) and went out right then to get his pen.

Shortly after, he wanted me to make one for his best friend in the colors of his favorite sports team (the Sounders). I tried to work out how to do it in a way that would look nice and after several failed attempts, decided to use the same cane method as the Burlwood, but in the team colors. It turned out fantastic! (of course, I didn’t get a picture of that one, or the one I made my husband). His friend called me directly and thanked me profusely, telling me how much he loved that pen and so on.

When we found out that our daughter’s soccer team would be attending an international soccer tournament in England this upcoming summer, we brainstormed on how to help raise money for the trip since it is going to cost a TON! The team tried to several different plans, but very little was raised. My husband suggested that I make and sell these pens, offering a choice of clay colors and a variety of hardware finishes. I was a little leery since it would mean that there was a high potential for me spending the next several months calling in sick so I could spend all day making pens. But we went ahead and did it.

I made a handful as samples, produced a brochure, and my husband took it from there. He immediately sold a handful to some guys at his work and I sold some at my work, and my mom at hers. In an effort to cut this story a little shorter, let’s just say that since it started, we have sold quite a few pens and made over $1000 for this fundraiser!

We are still going at it and plan to continue until April/May. Hopefully we can get closer to the total amount due, but I am happy with what we have done so far even if nothing more comes of it.

I wanted to share some pictures with you (attached, and apologies for the quality of some of the photos) of some of the pens I have made. As I mentioned, we let the customers select the clay colors (though I might add a highlight color here and there, if something else was needed), so please don’t judge me by some of the color combinations! :)

Most people wanted colors to match their favorite sports teams (Spurs: Black/Silver, Cowboys: Blue/Silver, Lakers: Yellow/Purple) or their child’s University or High School (Texas A&M: Maroon/White, University of Texas-Austin: Burnt Orange/White, San Marcos High School: Purple/White). And the most popular pattern was the swirl (which is what I simplified the burlwood pattern name to on the order forms), though I have sold a ton of light and dark burlwood as well as some of my own patterns (the flowers, we needed more “girly” pens). Besides the burlwood pattern, I also used your leopard pattern (that was a very big hit with my daughter). The scrap clay pen was my mother’s idea. She saw my trash bowl and asked what I was going to do with it. I told her that I usually use that for the base layer of the pens (under the patterned pieces). She thought that I had much more than I needed for that (which I do, I work by the trial and error methodology, with obviously more errors than one would like!) and asked me to make a pen out of it. She actually sold that one… I personally thought it was hideous (the picture makes it look better than it really did, in my mind at least)… we called it Kaleidoscope.

Anyway, as I said, I just wanted to share what I have done with your tutorial with you. Thanks again for the tutorials that allowed this to happen.