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This is a fundraiser for a fundraising company (got that? LOL) with a best-selling idea, Pawtographed Bones (c) by Gizmo & Co., Christmas ornaments for dogs. These are personalized, breed ornaments that can be used by breed rescue groups and puppy mill rescues.
We will start out with a donation to referring rescues of a straight 10% of the full sales price of the bone ornaments, to keep it simple. Particiating rescues will receive generous donations of product for online auctions. We have some new things: angel ornaments, Biskit Jars, Gotcha! Day Bones, Birthday Bones, and even a blinged-out Christmas wreath full of bones, from which 25% of the profits will go into a special project of our own to work against puppy mills in upstate South Carolina.
Gizmo & Co. History
From 1994 until 2005, Gizmo & Co. (tm) sold bones at Christmas craft shows in the Southeast. We were one of the most popular booths at The Southern Christmas Show and Christmas Made in the South, and we made the cut for the juried, highly competitive Yellow Daisy Festival in Atlanta.
There will probably be old customers reading this who remember this face and met him pawsonally at craft shows. Gizmo had to leave me in 2005, but his spirit and what he taught me about puppy mills will never leave.
Gizmo & Co. was known for quality, and these were high-end, $12.00 dog bones back in the day. The original Pawtographed Bone style shown here now qualifies as vintage on Etsy. (I can still see to paint them with magnifying glasses and a lot of light. I'm not vintage yet, am I???)
Sales grew each year, and without really trying, just going to eight or nine shows each fall, we sold 7,000 ornaments our last year and ran out of stock, and this is when rescues were just starting to network online, so we always contributed to fundraising auctions and did well, and rescues were starting to ask if they could sell our ornaments themselves. This was pre-Facebook, or at least me before knowing about Facebook, but the referral potential with all the rescues online and on Facebook now is tremendous, and if I don't have to cart my bones all over the country and set up a show booth every weekend I can produce a lot more. I don't think my own old bones can take to the road again!
I'm going to do this, because my heart is in rescue, especially puppy mill rescue, and this is a way to make a living and help them too. But I'm trying to do it on a shoestring budget and already starting out behind while keeping my normal job (legal transcription) to pay the bills. I need at least two weeks to work on nothing but bones without pressure, so that I can create, and I need enough money to buy up supplies in bulk without running to Hobby Lobby three times a week, like 600 pounds of hydrostone delivered by a big truck and some new buckets to mix it in; $400 worth of green silicone rubber for new molds; expensive refillable Copic art pens for personalizaton; packaging; labels; shipping boxes, ink, etc. I have about 3,000 dog heads but I need 1,000 more at $2.50 each to be able to meet orders. I'm out of some of the most popular breeds (black labs, Yorkies, Maltese, Boston Terriers), but if you need a Bedlington Terrier or an Irish Wolfhound, I can fix you up today. And ribbon; I need bolts, not rolls. Lots of colors to play with, because the new style bone is Blinged-up and Blinged-Out in any color combination the customer wants.
Why This Will Work
The wonderful thing about Pawtographed Bones is you don't have to sell them. They do it themselves, because they're dogs, and dogs are loved by people from all corners of life. (I figured that out one day in Savannah, Georgia, when I looked up from my Pawtography station and saw a motorcycle dude and a blue-haired society lady crying in each other's arms. They met on common ground in their hearts, in front of the Chihuahuas, and her Chanel buttons got caught in his motorcycle jacket zippers, and it was just a big dog love fest while I tried to untangle them. Hilarious!)
So there it is. It's probably too long and too "real" and not polished enough, but that's from my heart, and I have the heart and determination to make it happen again. I'm not one to be egotistical about anything about myself, but I have a gift for this, and I know what appeals to dog lovers and rescue people because I am one. I can paint these little dog heads about the size of your thumb to look just like a picture, and I can think of hilarious things to write on them. "I Believe in Santa Paws!" "But Santa, I can explain!! "Santa, About that Cat . . . " I can do family bones with more than one breed on them or generic bones for that dog who just doesn't fit any mold. The ideas are endless, and my customers give me the funniest ideas, like "Ginger Bite Us!" a dentist's dog.
Here are a couple of new ideas, including the new Blinged-up, Blinged-out bone above inspired by Ms. Hannahbee, the current chief executive dog. How my Gizmo would have loved her. (She's a rescue, too, from the side of the road in Georgia.)
I could put up samples of all 200 breeds, but if I did that, it would use up the little stockpile of bones I have. I will be adding breeds and custom paintings here as I make them, though, and the breed list is below.
Here is the "good dog" and a Pawstographed Biskit Jar. All the new products and the new Blinged-Out bone will be done in customer's choice of colors.
This Biskit Jar is made like an old-fashioned penny candy jar so that the top is slanted and you can see it on the counter.
If there is any doubt that I'll put the money where I say I will, my donations will be documented; or my ex-husband would probably vouch for me. His favorite thing was accusing me of "giving money you don't have to dogs you don't know." I haven't done as much of it lately as I used to, but I give all I have, $10 or $25 to every sad case that goes by on my Facebook scroll (lately $5), but I can do more. I figure if every dog I've ever helped sends me a dollar or two and every struggling Bluesman whose record Kickstarter I've contributed to sends me $5, I'll be halfway there. ;-)
I thank you, and the dogs I can and will help thank you.
And this is the reason this idea was reborn. HIs name is Henry, and this picture was taken when he was taken in a puppy mill rescue in my hometown, Anderson, SC, in August of 2013, the third puppy mill bust in this area last summer, all 150-plus dogs.
And here is Henry today, and the whole reason for this is to help more like him. God's creatures so pure and innocent shouldn't have to worry like his eyes show above. He's still got a long, long way to go, but his eyes sparkle sometimes, and I want to do this for others, and I want to assist my friends in puppy mill rescue and breed rescues to make changes like this.
This is a breed list of the rescues we can help. We do not sell to pet shops that sell dogs or to AKC breed clubs. There is no way to predict the demand this first year online so that I could buy enough dog faces to fill every potential request, and I know rescue people are the last ones to have money upfront (because I am one!). But if members of a rescue want to chip in together and order in quantity upfront, then your cost will be $8.00 each, minimum 24, and they can be personalized on the spot at adoption fairs, etc. Don't do that here though. Please contact me separately. vickistrickland@bellsouth.net
Some breed face pictures are inserted below, others are posted here: https://www.facebook.com/pawtographedbones
and you can e-mail me to see ones that aren't there yet. Thank you!!
BREEDS:
Afghan Hound
Airedale
Akita
Alaskan Malamute
American Eskimo
American Foxhound
Australian Cattle Dog
Australian Shepherd
Basenji
Basset Hound
Beagle
Bearded Collie
Belgian Turvuren
Bernese Mountain Dog
Bichon Frise
Bloodhound
Border Collie
Border Terrier
Borzoi
Boston Terrier
Bouvier
Boxer
Briard
Brittany Spaniel
Brussels Griffon
Bulldog
Bull Mastiff
Bull Terrier
Cairn Terrier
Cavalier King Charles Spaniel
Chesapeake Bay Retriever
Chihuahua
Chinese Crested
Chow
Clumber Spaniel
Cocker Spaniel
Collie
Coonhound
Dachshund
Dalmatian
Dandie Dinmont Terrier
Doberman
English Setter
Finnish Spitz
Flat-Coated Retriever
Fox Terrier
French Bulldog
German Shepherd
Great Dane
Greyhound
Husky
Irish Setter
Irish Terrier
Irish Wolfhound
Jack Russell
Japanese Chin
Keeshond
Kerry Blue Terrier
Kuvasz
Labrador Retriever (Yellow, Chocolate, and Black)
Landseer
Lhasa Apso
Maltese
Mastiff
Miniature Pinscher
Newfoundland
Norfolk Terrier
Norwich Terrier
Old English Sheepdog
Papillion (Heck, Yeah!)
Pekingese
Pitt Bull
Pointer
Pomeranian
Poodle
Pug
Rat Terrier
Rhodesian Ridgeback
Rottweiler
Saint Bernard
Saluki
Samoyed
Schipperke
Schnauzer
Scottish Terrier
Shar Pei
Sheltie
Shiba Inu
Shih Tzu
Silky Terrier
Skye Terrier
Soft-Coated Wheaten
Springer Spaniel
Staffordshire Bull Terrier
Tibetan Spaniel
Vizsla
Weimaraner
Welsh Corgi
Whippet
Wire Fox Terrier
Yorkshire Terrier
Gizmo & Co., Founded 1994, Giving Puppy Mills Heck Ever Since!
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