New Items

I made a bunch of handmade greeting cards today. I got a book on how to make them from the library and it's something I've always wanted to try, so I decided to make a bunch. I had a lot of fun making them. I kind of feel like greeting cards are underpriced on etsy (it takes a lot of work for each one), but I'll probably put some in my shop sometime soon. I'll post pictures when I get more space on flickr. :)

I got a lot of new decorative paper lately. It's kind of addicting to buy them, but they're so nice and there's a ton of great designs. Here's two items I posted recently (both using new paper I got):

Blue and Gold Marbled Journal
This paper was made in Thailand. I think the colors with the design look kind of like the Earth.






I Read the News Newspaper Journal





In my previous entry, I posted about a craft challenge I'm in. If you don't mind doing me a favor, please vote for me here! (I think you have to be registered to vote).

Craftster Challenge: Playing Cards

I'm participating in a craft challenge on craftster.org. The theme was playing cards. It just happened about a week before I read about the challenge, I picked up a set of blank playing cards from Paper Source. I decided to make my own set of playing cards - hand drawing and watercoloring all the cards. I used scrap decorative paper on the back of each one. I always have a bunch of scrap paper laying around from journals so this was a perfect use for my leftover paper. Here's some pictures:



The box is handmade out of glossy photo paper and decorative paper. I love this whale paper. :)



Playing solitaire... as some people pointed out on my craftster post, you can't really play with them because you (or somebody playing with you) could memorize the back of the cards because they use different decorative paper on each one. I played solitaire with them and I think it works out (it's more based on luck than guessing other people's cards anyway).



Close up of some of the face cards.

You can see a bunch more pictures in my flickr gallery. I uploaded 65 photos and used up all my flickr space from this month, haha (that's never happened to me before). I had a lot of fun making them, but it's definitely not something I'd do again right away since it takes a while to get all the details in. The hardest part for me was doing the face cards because it has to be pretty much identical upside down. I was thinking of selling them, but I don't know if I want to give them away and I'm not sure how much I would sell them for.

You can do me a favor if you vote for me in the challenge. The winner gets featured on paper crafts section on the site, which would get some more exposure to my shop. :) I don't really care if I win, but I might actually have a chance since there's only 3 other people that entered (which also did some awesome projects).

Besides the challenge, I've been working on Excel Spreadsheets a lot. I also sell stuff on EBay, so I worked on a spreadsheet for that, which turned out to be pretty difficult with all the fees they have. I also made a spreadsheet to keep track of my sales. I feel so organized.

First Sale!

I made my first sale! :) I'm so happy. It feels so good to finally get that first sale in. I sold a recycled "I Am a Little Polar Bear" journal (here). The buyer said it was going to be a gift for someone.

Here's how I packaged it.

I made a bunch of envelopes to write little notes to my customers in. They were a lot of fun to make and pretty easy. I tore an envelope apart and used it as a pattern. I made the envelopes out of decorative paper I had. I always have scraps of left over decorative paper that are left over for my journals so it was good to find something to do with it (it's also nice because I can sometimes use the same decorative paper as I used in the journal so it matches). I'm also thinking for the larger journals, I'm going to include a list of journaling ideas inside the envelope.



In my envelope for my first sale, I included a little note and a couple business cards.



And my packaging came out like this:

Boxes

Recently, I've been working on some boxes. The process of making a box is actually sort of similar to making journals, but without the paper/stitching. These are two I made a while ago, but just recently listed:

Postcards from Italy

(listing here.)

Roses are Red (On Sale)

(listing here.)

Then there's the one in the last entry I made for my crafting stuff (with a matching pincushion).

Last night, I made a love letter box, from this tutorial. I've seen a couple of these on craftster so I thought I'd try one myself. I don't think I can sell it because it came from a tutorial, but it was fun to make. It's not perfect, but I think it came out nice (picture might get cut off, but you can see more photos at my flickr).

First, I colored the envelopes with tea and decorated them. I didn't have any fancy stamps or anything that would work well for a "love letter", but I used what I had. I also looked online for real love letters and copied some quotes on the envelopes. I also used red watercolor to make hearts. Then I did the actual process in the tutorial. I don't think I even did it completely right because I didn't have everything I needed, but it came out pretty nice. I don't know if it's finished, I might decorate the top a little more with fake flowers (which I just remembered I had). It's such a creative idea for a box though.

I have more stuff to share... :) Maybe my next entry though? I don't want to make this too long.

Vinyl Treasury

I've been working on a bunch of projects. There's a few recycled children book journals I made (one I might list tonight) and I got new fabric so I have a bunch of ideas for more journals. I tried making my own decorative watercolor paper the other day and it sort of worked (I'll have to try again though with darker dyes). I also made a pincushion yesterday (because I really needed one to hold my needles/pins), using some left over fabric and this tutorial.



I also have a matching box for it so I can keep all my supplies organized now.

I think I'm also going to make a yoga mat bag for myself. I have this cute fabric of monkeys doing yoga and it's perfect for it. :)

Getting Etsy on Other Sites

There's this site called The-N that I go on (it's also a TV network for teens that I've been watching since I was 13). I read their (sort of) blog on their site everyday and they have this feature called "Thing Du Jour" where a user submits a unique or fun item. I didn't see anything from Etsy so I submitted a bunch of stuff and they chose peroxidepixie's polaroid pendant. It feels good to promote someone else and get some exposure for etsy. You can see the entry here. And this was her necklace:

New Camera

My new camera finally came in the mail. It's the Kodak EasyShare M753 and I love it! It's a lot of fun to take pictures with. Here's some new items I posted:

Recycled Journals:
I started making recycled journals out of old books. I have a bunch of more children's books I'm going to use to make journals. It's fun to find decorative paper to match with them.


(listing here.)

Multicolored Heart Journal:
This is a journal I've had for a while, but never finished the inside until I recently ordered more heart paper. I think it's really cute. It's not perfect, so it's on sale in my shop.


(listing here.)

Autism Awareness:
This is one of my favorite journals I've made. My brother has autism so I'm in this team on Etsy called Etsy for Autism. They have a featured charity (right now it's KindTree.org, which supports artists with autism) and I'm donating half of the money from purchase to the featured charity if it sells.




(listing here.)

Dog Treats
I'm not selling these, but as part of another team I'm on that donates to charity, Etsy for Animals, I made dog treats as a donation for Dogs for the Deaf. I don't usually get to cook with my shop, so I thought dog treats would be something different.



I'm also thinking of making some journals with animal/dog/pawprint fabric that I can donate half to charity (like with the autism journal).

I'm adding and making lots of new stuff. I'm doing a craft challenge on another site that I might post photos of later. There's also some boxes and picture frames I made that I can't wait to post. I'm trying to add one item at a time though. :)

Esperanza Summerfest

I got back from my first craft show at Esperanza, a school in Chicago. It was a lot of fun. There weren't a lot of people there because there was a bigger festival competing with us. I sold a couple items though. Here are some photos of the event:

My display was pretty simple, but I loved having all my items on display instead of just stored in drawers. It actually made me notice how colorful all my items are together. I didn't make the sign myself, but I'm glad the school made signs for people.

I displayed my journals in a basket. The rest were displayed out of the box. I kind of wish all the journals could be displayed better (so you can see the front without flipping through them). I didn't sell any journals. I think I almost sold two though which is at least showing people were interested. This little boy looked at the autism journal and seemed to really want it (even though his mother told him she wasn't going to buy it).

I got these baskets to put my cards in. The left box has off season items (like for Christmas, Halloween, etc.) for sale and the right box was for regular priced cards. I sold only greeting cards and I think I sold about 10.

These are my mini books. A lot of people looked at them even though none sold.
These are my boxes. They vary in prices in my shop, but I just set the price for $26. I made the autism box (not listed in my etsy yet) specifically for this craft fair.

I made shopping bags to put the items in. They are blank bags I bought at a craft store, but I added a sticker of my logo for each of them. I bought a bunch of different sizes. I thought that would be easier than wrapping the items in tissue paper.

I had to donate 25% to the Esperanza school as part of the charity. It was pretty much what I expected and I learned some things:

*I should have brought a water bottle and sunscreen. I forgot sunscreen and got a little burnt because I was sitting in direct sun for hours.
*I also didn't think of bringing a tent to cover my table. The craft show was really low key so I didn't think people's tables would be that fancy, but a couple people did have their tables covered and it's a good idea. I think I'd also probably make my own sign next time so I could put my logo on it.
*It's helpful to make a list of all the things you need the day before. I also forgot envelopes for the cards, which wasn't a big deal, but it would have been nice if I gad them because that's what I sold the most of.
*I kept track of all the items that sold and for what price. That was helpful for keeping track of money and also to know which items to take off my etsy shop online.
*Even if people didn't buy items, I still got a lot of people taking my business card which is good to know to leave my business cards out (and not just put them in the bag when people buy, which I also do).

Tell me about your craft fair experience(s). How did they go? What tips do you have?



7/14/09

Shop Updates

This weekend, I decided I'd take a little break from making journals because sometimes I tend to overwork myself. And last night, my awl broke (which is a tool used to poke holes) so I don't think I'll make journals until my new awl comes.

The good thing is I got to order a new awl and shopping is always fun. I ended up buying from Paper Source, which is a really good place to get decorative paper. I couldn't help myself and picked up some new paper. I can't wait to try my ideas for new designs. :) Some of the papers I got:

My Faces in Crowd journal is featured in a treasury for my Etsy for Autism team. This is the second time I've been featured in a treasury. It's so exciting to be featured!

Speaking of teams, I'm thinking of donating two items to charities (as part of teams I'm in). For the Etsy for Autism team, I made this cute autism journal made with the official puzzle piece autism awareness fabric. It came out really nice, I wish I could show photos, but I don't have a camera (see previous post). I think it's one of the nicest journals I've made. I'm thinking of donating half (or a percentage) of the money to KindTree.org (the featured charity in Etsy for Autism).

Also, I got an email today from another team I'm in, Etsy for Animals, that donates to various animal groups. The organization Dogs for the Deaf needs blankets and other items for their animals. I think I might make a blanket for dogs. I was also thinking of making dog treats, since I love the cook and it's not something I usually get to do in my shop.

There's also some other stuff I'm working for on my shop including tote bags and iPod cases. I haven't put anything but journals up yet, so I'm excited to be able to experiment with other crafts too.

Fourth of July

Happy Fourth of July!

I see a lot of people starting blogs about their Etsy.com shops and I thought I'd try starting a blog myself for my shop Move the Needle, which sells handmade books right now. I've had my shop open for a few weeks, so it's still a newbie and I'm waiting for my first sale.

So recent updates?
*I just joined a new team called Etsy for Animals. I'm already in EtsyVeg, but I thought this team would be nice because you get to donate to animal charities.

*My camera broke. The good thing is that it's really old (I've had it for about 7 years and I had to put duct tape over it just to keep the batteries from falling out) so it's nice to get a brand new one. I bought a dark blue Kodak EasyShare M753 7.0 Megapixel . It seems like a really good camera and I can't wait for it to come in the mail. :) It was pretty cheap too.

*I made my first treasury last week. It was really exciting! The theme for it was keyboard/piano. It's not up anymore, but I took pictures so I thought I'd post:

You can see more pictures of my treasury and photos of some of my journals on my flickr page.

That's all for now. I'm sort of new to this site and I can't figure out - can you add other people as "friends" or how do you subscribe to other people's blogs? Also, how do you add HTML or the Etsy minibox to your blog?