Black Friday and Christmas Items

Get free shipping on all items in my shop this weekend - just enter the code "BLACKFRIDAY" in the message to seller box at checkout.

I was watching a video on Indie 5 on youtube.com about how you can sell on other sites besides etsy. I don't plan on putting a bunch of items on other sites, but I signed up for artfire.com. You can list 10 items with a free account so I posted some items I had more than 1 of or could replicate easily. I also put these handmade playing cards I made for a craft challenge up for sale. You can see/buy from my shop here.

I put some new holiday cards up in time for holiday shopping. Here are some I posted in my Christmas section:

Marbled Christmas Tree Holiday Card



Glitter Christmas Tree Holiday Card



Glitter Winter Cardinal Card



Music Lover's Christmas Card



Tell me which Christmas card/s you like the best. I also have some new items and mini journals to be posted soon (I'm trying to add them gradually).

Birthday Gifts and New Listings

Happy Thanksgiving! What are you thankful for this year?

I mentioned I made a circular box with marbled paper. I ended up giving it to my mom for her birthday. I might make some more to list. They're a lot of fun to make, but it's kind of tricky to get the measurements right.

My brother's birthday was also this week. I bought these crayons from this shop a while ago and I thought were perfect for him:



I got some new listings up. I made this Little Gold Crinkled Address Book using a pre-bought text block, instead of sewing the text block by hand like I usually do. I don't usually use text blocks, but I thought I would for the address book because I don't know how I'd make all the little tabs myself and I really liked the cream colored pages of this one. This is a mini address book so it's good for a stocking stuffer.



I also made a new Christmas section for holiday cards (I will post photos of the cards in another entry). Id you're looking for a handmade greeting card this winter, consider buying one of mine. :) I'll also be taking custom orders during the holiday season and if you want an item in time for Christmas or another winter holiday, you should probably put your order in in November.

Thanksgiving Cards

Ahh, I just wrote an entry and somehow it didn't post or save. Anyway, I just wrote that I ended up making some Thanksgiving cards. Here they are:

Slice of Life Pumpkin Pie Greeting Card



This card shows my love of pumpkin pie. The front has a full watercolor picture of a pumpkin pie and the inside is a slice of pie (above). I used a little gold embossing powder on the inside too. Instead of typing the caption, I tried something new and hand wrote it.

Autumn Leaves Thanksgiving Card



This card has two handpainted watercolor autumn leaves. I really like how the colors came out, which is a blend of orange and yellow watercolor and marker.

Pumpkin Harvest Thanksgiving Card



This card is similar to the autumn leaves one, but I did a pumpkin instead to show the harvest and food of Thanksgiving.

I also listed this watercolor sympathy card I originally made for a friend and this snowflake card. Also, if you become a fan of my facebook fan page, you can get a discount off all my items during holiday season. :) I can't wait to go home for Thanksgiving on Tuesday. What are you doing anything for Thanksgiving? Anything you're particularly thankful for this year?

Butterfly Card and Studio Photos

I just listed a new card made out of decorative paper of butterflies. You can view it here. It's blank on the inside so you can use it for whatever occasion (or not an occasion) you want:



I'm also working on a bunch of new projects and I'm going to try to list some items a couple times a week or more. Here's some studio photos to give you a preview of what I'm working on.



This is a "Thank You" card used with some left over decorative music paper I had from
the music journal I made. The "Thank You" part was from a stamp I found when I went grocery shopping at the local market. You can also see my new glue brush in the photo.





I also made a circular shape box I found a tutorial for in one of my books. It came out really cute and it's a small jewelry box. I don't know if I'm going to list it though because the the top fits on really tight and though you can move it on and off, it's hard to get off once it's on. :\ I might re-do the top or try to make a new one. I love the idea of a circular box. Before trying it, I didn't even know you can get binder's board in to a round shape (you basically wet it and wrap it around a circular form overnight and it will hold the shape).

If you have any ideas for journals, cards, etc. you want to see (for example, a card for a certain holiday or a journal with a certain theme), please suggest them. I'll be taking custom orders, so if you want a customized item or have an idea for an item you want as a gift for the holidays, now would be a good time to start thinking and ordering. I haven't had a sale in over a month, I hope a holiday rush comes for me soon. :)

New Cards + Facebook

I made a Facebook Fan Page to help promote my shop. If you're on facebook, please feel free to become a fan. :) I might post updates there from time to time. Don't forget I'm in the Little Black Box this month, so if you order one, tell me if you got my matchbook notebook and coupon.

I got a lot of new listings up. It still doesn't work when I upload photos from my computer to etsy so I've had to upload photos from the library (I don't know why it works there since the internet connection should be the same). I got this Blue and Purple sketch book/journal up:



I also got the Music Composer's Journal up I posted photos of in the last entry. I found some blank spiral books with music note paper inside and I'm going to make some spiral notebooks (my first time making them) with more decorative music paper on the front.

There's new cards up in my greeting card section in my shop. A couple of the anniversary ones I showed in some earlier entries when I was showing in progress photos. I have a lot of cards I made a while ago and had pictures saved, but didn't list them until now. I also put up this new christmas one with a quote inside for the holiday season (I'll have some Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and other holiday cards soon!).



I also put a bunch of Halloween and Election Day items for half off in my sale section. Some new blank cards and decorative paper came in the mail today so I worked on a bunch of new projects. I have recipe books, journals, and cards in the making... I'm stocking up for the holiday season. :)

Music Journal

I've been working on some new projects lately. I made a journal with music decorative paper on the cover and some blank music sheets and regular paper on the inside. I used a stab bound stitch on the side (which I haven't used in a while) and I really like it how it turned out. Right after I made it, I was looking at "custom"/the alchemy just for fun and the first one I saw was somebody wanting a music journal with music pages. I was so excited, it was like it was meant to be. I put in a bid and showed the person some pictures. They haven't decided for sure if they are going to buy it yet, but I think I might have a custom sale. :) Here's a couple photos:





Also, my card was featured in a EtsyVeg fall team treasury here. There's a challenge going on in that team for Thanksgiving/harvest items, so I'm going to be working on some new Thanksgiving and hopefully holiday stuff. I have some ideas for cards and bought a stamp maker that I can use with my cards. I'm also thinking of making some cookbooks (similar to this one on sale) to fit with the Thanksgiving theme.

My business card is in the Handmade Sampler promo. There's some reviews of the sampler with photos of my card here. I'm also going to be in the November Little Black Box promo. I sent in some matchbook notebooks (you can see a photo here when you scroll down). If you buy a box, you might get one of my matchbooks with a coupon inside, though I didn't have time to make enough to go in every box. I'm excited to hopefully get some exposure for my shop for the holiday season.

Obama

I'm so happy Obama won the presidency! :) If you want any of my election/voting items in my shop (or listed here in the giveaway entry) just let me know and I can give them to you with a really big discount. I don't know what to do with all my election items now, but I guess I could save them for future elections.

I was also excited to see my pumpkin carriage card is featured on the etsyveg blog today with other October Challenge entries.

I started using advertisement on Facebook. It's a click per pay advertisement. I've used Project Wonderful a little bit, but this feels like my first time really advertising on a well known site. I really like that you can target your audience on facebook, right now I am targeting "You are targeting people age 18 and older in the United States who like Crafting, Crafts, Journaling, or Writing." Let me know if you can think of any more interests I could put. I've got 40 clicks sofar and some new hearts (I'm not sure if those are from the clicks though). It's kind of expensive though, I've already spent $20 so I think I might need to decrease my price or stop after a certain point.

I have new items to put up and I got a new listing up today for a mini book:



It's based on the bigger version of the journal here that I recently posted about. I'm thinking of making some new mini books or a section for them because they make good gifts and it would be good to put all the stocking stuffers for the holiday season in one place.