Joscelyne’s flair for simple + elegant has been on my radar ever since we first bumped into each other through the papercrafting and scrapbooking world online. I followed her journey through her husband’s retirement from the navy and their relocation to the mainland from Hawaii. What a fun and interesting person, on top of being creative! I love seeing her updates on her current pursuits homesteading and crafting.
I’ve shared a bit about Joscie and her handmade business with you before, but today I’m excited to share more about the lady behind the Bossy Joscie brand.
Joscelyne Cutchens has dabbled in many different crafts over the years but her true passions are photography, computers, and paper crafts. In her shop, Bossy Joscie, she sells flair and personalized rubber stamps and sentiment stamps for use in hybrid crafting. Joscie and her husband Troy have moved with the Navy through Hawaii, Alabama, Maine and back to where they currently live with their sons in Slapout, Alabama.
How long have you owned your own business?
I started out in my crafty business with a flair shop in July of 2012 and later started offering personalized rubber stamps.
What made you decide to pursue your dreams of owning a business?
I have always loved flair. Buttons, Badges, Pins. Whatever you want to call them, I have loved them for a long time. When I was in middle school, I can remember buying funny, silly, sassy buttons down at the mall to pin onto my jacket and backpack.
Fast Forward to a few years ago when flair started to make a comeback. Facebook had flair boards. Craft Companies added them to their lines. I was smitten. I wished I could make my own. Finally one day I decided to search for button makers. I looked at many options and figured out the set up I wanted was expensive. Like, really expensive. Too expensive to be a hobby, make for my own personal use expensive. But maybe, just maybe, if I invested in it, some other people might want to buy my flair and I could make up the money I’d have to sink into the set up. In the summer of 2012, during the Gallery Idol Contest I finally took the plunge and ordered the set up. I was so giddy I could not believe it. I made my first flair and sent out packages to my Gallery Idol girlfriends. I let it sit for a while and then I embraced it and started designing flair. I design in illustrator and photoshop. I print, cut, press, package and post. I market. It is my heart in little itty bitty affordable pieces of flair.
I also love personalized stamps. As a person with an unusual name, I have never been one to find souvenir items with my name on it. What better than custom stamps that you can personalize to suit your needs?
How would say your business has changed over the years?
I originally started my business simply to cover the cost of the flair making materials. I opened up shop with a digital kit and a few sets of 7/8″ flair. I could make buttons with pin backs, hollow backs or with magnet backs. I sold a bunch of flair and it was awesome.
One day I got an email from the awesome Kelly Purkey asking me if I could produce flair for her December Daily kit. um, heck yeah!?! It was at this point I started investigating the plastic backs on other flair from big companies and I realized that if I opted for a 1″ size flair, I could produce flat backed flair, in much less time. I was so excited, I invested in a second cutter and machine set up. I love both sizes and can still produce both, but the default size in my shop is 1″. I later added digital versions of my flair and digital sentiment stamps.
I also started creating happy mail labels for my packages and ordered a custom stamp for my happy mail. I always got so many comments on my happy mail packages I continued to share and then someone asked if they could buy a happy mail stamp. I told her that I was swamped in whatever I was doing at the time but as soon as I investigated it, I could probably set it up. This became the beginning of my rubber stamp section.
What kind of camera(s) do you own and what role do they play in your life?
I have a Canon 5D Mark ii and I absolutely love it. I use it to document our daily life and special events. I use it to help track our bees, chickens, and plants. I document and share our kids events with friends and family. It is a part of me.
Joscelyne is the proud owner of bees, and so the orange beehive chevron scarf camera strap was a natural fit.
What do you love most about your bluebird chic strap?
It was a really difficult choice because I just love so many of the styles offered by Bluebird Chic. When it came down to push and shove, those beehives won me over. We are new beekeepers and those hives and the orange background really caught my eye.
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Thanks for sharing with us today Joscelyne and thanks for supporting the bluebird chic brand!
Now I’d like to invite all of you over to Joscelyne’s blog where she is hosting a giveaway. yay! One of you could win your own bluebird chic camera strap – PLUS she’s also got a special discount for you as well!
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