Halloween Sale & Items

Happy (early) Halloween! What are you being for Halloween? Remember, there is a sale in my shop from October 30th (tomorrow) until November 1st. The event is part of the EtsyVeg team and you get 20% off any item from my Autumn and Halloween Section and/or a free greeting card on Halloween day! More details in my shop announcement. I hope this will help get me a sale (or two).

I thought I'd post some etsy inspired Halloween ideas. I guess it's too late to buy them, but they're fun to look at (or use for non Halloween events).

Bear Mask



I love this bear mask. It's cute and creative. It'd also be really easy to make a costume out of if you just wore a brown outfit or brown sweatpants and a t-shirt.

Mouse Ears with Pink or Red Bow



This shop offers a full costume, but if you need something more afforable, I love these Minnie Mouse ears. They're simple, but work as a costume.

I also thought I'd share this painting/print by Willowing:



I don't know what I'm going to be. I have a mask from Venice so I might do something with that. I might just wear a dress and the mask and be sort of dressed up. Tell me if you have any ideas!



In other news, I'm working on making some calendars right now. I figured out a design, but I'm just having trouble thinking of how to put it all together. I want to have a hook on it so people are able to hang it. I also found out at least one of items sold at the Market House. It's good that something is selling there because last time I went, nothing sold and I was worried it wouldn't do well.

New Holiday Card and Updates

I got this new winter holiday greeting card listed:

Snowflakes Holiday Greeting Card



It has watercolor painted snowflakes and says "Happy Holidays!" on it. It's perfect to use for any winter holiday.

I made a mini journal for my housemate because it was her birthday a few days ago. It came out really cute. I still can't find my camera (I called the hotel and they haven't been able to find it yet) so I wasn't able to take a high quality photo. I did get a phone quality photo though which I'll post later.

I made a bunch of new Hanukkah cards and sent them to my mom to use in a craft show (I think it's next week). I'm excited to see if any of my items sell. The only bad thing is I didn't get photos of the cards so I won't be able to list them on Etsy (unless they don't sell).

My recipe that I posted on here for World Vegetarian Day is part of EtsyVeg's eBook. You can buy it for $3.50 and you get 26 vegetarian/vegan recipes. The money from purchase goes to the Farm Sanctuary, a organization that takes in abused animals on their farm.

Remember, there is a sale in my shop during Halloween weekend. See my shop announcement for details. I'll have a Halloween entry in my next post.

My Cousin's Wedding

I went to my cousin's wedding last weekend. It was my first wedding and a lot of fun. The decorations were so pretty. I took a bunch of photos, though I didn't get a lot of good ones of the ceremony because I was so far away. You can see more at my flickr.


Here was the pamphlet for the ceremony. It was really simply bound with a ribbon. They could have hired me to do it. :)


It came out blurry, but this was the flower girl.


Coming down the aisle after the ceremony.




The band that played. They were a lot of fun.


I took this on the dance floor. I like how the lights look like little hearts. I've tried to get this effect before in photos, but this was on accident. :)

New Holiday Cards and Gift Certificates

I've been working on a lot of new greeting cards lately. I got some new paper and Hanukkah stamps in the mail. I worked on new greeting cards. I made a bunch of Hanukkah themed ones the other day because my mom's doing a Hanukkah themed craft show for me and I wanted to make new items for it. I'm also working on doing some mini calendars (my first time making them), planners and mini journals.

I'm not sure where my digital camera is so I can't take photos of the new items I made yet. I took it to my cousin's wedding and got photos there on my computer (I'll post an entry with those soon), but I can't seem to find my camera. I hope I didn't leave it in the hotel, but hopefully I'll be able to find it or the hotel found it.

I got these new holiday cards listed. I'm trying to list something almost every day.

Winter Cardinals Holiday Greeting Card



I made a very similar card to this last year that sold. I love the red cardinals decorative paper.

Holiday Reindeer Greeting Card



I love this reindeer decorative paper I found. The inside has another reindeer facing the other way and says "Happy Holidays!"

I have 114 items in my shop right now. I think that's the most I've ever had. I've also been trying to keep the items in my shop rearranged (with the new re-arrange feature). It's hard to keep organized though if I add new items a lot.

I now offer gift certificates and gift wrapping services in my shop. The holiday season is the perfect time to use these. :) To get a gift certificate, you just need to do a custom order and let me know how much you want your gift certificate made out for. I'll then send the person the gift certificate is for a personalized certificate. More details are at my Policies page.

I'm featured on the EtsyVeg blog today. The team always had an interview you could fill out for their blog, but I didn't do it when I first joined the team because I was still kind of new to etsy and wanted to wait until my shop had been around longer. I forgot about it until recently so I decided to submit it. Feel free to leave a comment there. :)

New Holiday Cards and Halloween

I listed some new greeting cards. They're all for upcoming holidays.

Pumpkin and Vines Thanksgiving Greeting Card



I think this is the last Thanksgiving card I'm going to list. I made it a few weeks ago because I had this paper I wanted to use. It says "Happy Thanksgiving!" on the inside.

Coffee Addict Greeting Card



Coffee Addict Wavy Greeting Card



This card says "I'm addicted" on the inside and is for coffee lovers. I love this paper.

I keep wondering if any of my items have sold yet at the Market House. I'm not going there until Friday. I don't know how well crafts sell there, but I know people look at them. I haven't gotten a lot of sales on Etsy lately (maybe one every couple of months) so I'm hoping my upcoming craft shows and having my crafts in more shops will help out.

There's some upcoming projects and sales I'm doing for the EtsyVeg team. One is a special for Halloween on October 30th - November 1st. All items in my "Autumn and Halloween" section will be 20% off that entire weekend. Also, if you buy on Halloween, you get a free greeting card. I'll post more about it closer to that weekend. I can't believe it's the 20th already.

Also, if you have a minute, please take my survey here if you haven't already. It will be helpful for me to learn about my demographic.

Treasuries and Updates

My bat greeting card was featured in these Halloween treasuries:

I was also featured on the Sacred Muse Featured Artists blog a few weeks back. Have you made or seen

I have a craft show coming up this week. I got invited from an Etsy convo and decided I'd try it out. It's at a school in Chicago. I haven't done a craft show in a while so hopefully it will be a good turn out and I'll be able to sell some items.

Christmas Cards and Updates

I renewed my Christmas/winter holiday items that didn't sell last year. I didn't know if it was too early to list winter holiday items, but a lot of people seem to list early and I figured it couldn't hurt. Here's a couple of them:

Silver Paper Snowflakes Greeting Card



Marbled Christmas Tree Holiday Card



Glitter Christmas Tree Wavy Greeting Card



Green Swirl Holiday Card



I'm also working on new ones to add this year. I'm going to try to make some Hanukkah ones because I'm doing a Hanukkah themed craft fair this year. Tell me if you have any ideas. :) I couldn't find any Hanukkah paper so I'll have to be creative.For autumn, Halloween and Thanksgiving cards, you can check out the section here. I have one more Thanksgiving card I have to list (it should be up this week).

I had fall break last week. It was nice to have a break from classes, but I wish I could have gone off campus (home is too far away to go home for only a couple of days and there's only a few people that stay on campus). I'm going to my cousin's wedding this weekend though and I'm excited about that. I love getting dressed up and I've never been to a wedding before. My mom's also bringing my paper cutter when I see her so I'll be able to work on new journals.

Halloween

I thought I'd showcase some of my Halloween items. Now is the perfect time to buy if you need Halloween cards. You can see more Halloween, Autumn and Thanksgiving items here

Pet Lovers Black Cat Halloween Greeting Card



I have a tutorial on how I made this card (and similar ones) here. If you try making your own card, let me know/show me how it turns out!

Sweet Tooth Candy Greeting Card



I just listed this fun candy greeting card this week. I love the decorative paper and I thought it'd be perfect to list in time for Halloween. You can have it customized to say "You're a sweetheart" or "Happy Halloween!" on the inside.

Bat and Moon Halloween Greeting Card



I used this bat stamp a lot when I made these cards.

Halloween Bat Greeting Card



This one says "Have a bat-astic Halloween!" on the inside. It's sort of fun to come up with cheesy sayings like that.

Witch Hat Costume Halloween Card



I was getting some weird sound advertisements when I went to my blog (I don't know if you guys were hearing that) and I think it was from the Subscribe Feed Burner I added. I took it off for now. If you still hear any ads in the background, let me know so I can see where it's coming from.

EtsyVeg Scholastic Fantastic Challenge & Items in Shop

I went to the Market House when I volunteered today and set up my display. I have a table ready, but I still have to bring a cloth to put down below my items and a sign that says my prices (or price tags). It's nice that my items are available someone else beside etsy. My sales at Etsy have been really low lately so putting my items in other places help. It's also nice to have people be able to see my items in real life. Even I don't look at my items in real life as much as through photos on Etsy and it's nice people are able to touch and look at items before buying them. I think either 10 or 20% of the final sale goes back to the Market House and the monthly fee for having my items in shop is really low. It's also nice to help out a small marketplace like that. Here's some photos:







I'm in the EtsyVeg team blog "Scholastic Fantastic" challenge. I entered my I am a Little Animal Recycled Journal. The good news is it's already winning (last time I checked) so if I can get my blog readers to vote too, I might be able to win and get my ad featured on the EtsyVeg blog for a month. I really appreciate any votes!



Click here to vote. Just scroll down to the poll.

I just went to the Community page on Etsy and noticed they changed it a little bit. What sections do you guys look at in the community/forums? I usually just check the Business page and I'll also advertise my blog in Promotions/etc.

I'm officially on fall break today which is nice. I'm excited to have a break from all my school work and to catch up on sleep.

YouTube Video & Updates

I made a youtube video to help promote my shop. It's the second one I've made. I wanted to do this one for just new journals I've made. It's all journals I've made in the last year and I used different items from my first video (which I made last year). Tell me what you think:

If you read my entry before, I talked about having my ad up on Craftster. I thought I'd share my results. I got about 70 clicks total (over 5 days) so about 14 clicks a day. The average time somebody stayed on the site was a minute and they visited about 2 pages which shows they looked a little. It's one of my top referrals for sites in the last month so it was effective. I'd probably consider doing it again, but maybe I'd be more aware of when I did it (like maybe doing it closer to holiday season when people are buying).

I also put an ad on Found Handmade. It was kind of an impulse buy, but I'm glad I made the decision. Once I registered, I got a convo saying they were giving me 2 free ads. My clicks have gone up since I did it.

I got a poster board so I could take new photos (the poster board is used as the background). I took photos of a bunch of new cards I made. Some of them are holiday related. I also made some greeting cards for congratulating on a new baby which I've never done before. I love the paper I used with them.

I'm also working on making calendars. I don't have my paper cutter here with me so I have to wait until I get a new one until I work on it. I got a bunch of ideas for them and I'm going to do different themes - like food, animals, travel, etc. It'll be fun to choose a design for each month and it's the first time I've tried selling calendars. I can't wait to post them. :)

Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Month

During the month of October, all pink items in my shop will have a percentage donated to charity in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. 15% of your purchased will be donated to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. You can see the section here. Here's a couple of the items that it applies to:

Red Ribbon Journal



Dressed to Impress Greeting Card



Pink Flowers Box



I also got featured in this pink Autism Team treasury:



It seems like I have so much work this week for school. Only a couple more days until fall break though. :) I'm not going home, but it will be nice to have a break.

Presents!

I got some of my birthday presents from my mom in the mail. Here they are wrapped up:



I got this card:

The presents were some things I asked for on my wishlist. I got this eyeshadow kit from Coastal Scents that has a ton of eye shadows in really pretty colors. I only have eye shadows in a couple neutral colors so I wanted to get something fun and diverse. There's 88 colors altogether.



I also got the High Fidelity DVD because it's one of my favorite movies and a tribute CD to Bob Dylan that I've been looking for for a while.



These aren't presents, but I got these shoes in the mail. I left them at home and haven't worn them yet so it feels like a present to me.

Sorry none of these are handmade, but I thought I'd share anyway. I think I still have one present coming and it might be from etsy. I'll let you know. :)

Birthday

My 21st birthday is today! Etsy wished me a happy birthday: 

I love little things like that sites do. If you look on my Etsy page today, you'll see I featured some birthday item on top.

My mom sent me a cake. She decorated it with autumn leaves. As you can see, I tried a piece. It was really good, but it's so rich because everything's homemade.



I'm featured on Jewelry by Tara's blog here. I think I saw her post something in the forums and she chose me to be featured. It has a little write up I did about my shop. I mentioned in that write up that I want to add calendars to my shop in the future. That's something I'm working on right now. It's something I've never tried before so it's exciting to do a new craft! I'm probably going to decorative them with decorative paper and make them about the size of half a sheet of computer paper (or a full sheet when opened up). I'm going to have a try to have a couple listed by this month so people can buy them before the end of the year.

I added a subscribe feature to this blog if you want to get blog updates directly in your inbox. Just look in the right column for the subscribe box. I think it's a good idea to get updates by email and might look out for that type of feature on other blogs. I actually wish all blogs had that feature.

Survey, New Cards & Stickers

I just made a bunch of new cards. I wasn't planning on using the new decorative paper I got yet, but I got inspired. I made some holiday ones - one for Halloween (even though it's kind of late to list), Christmas, winter holidays and Thanksgiving/autumn. I have to remind myself to make some Hanukkah ones too. I celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah, but I forgot to make Hanukkah cards last year and I have some ideas for some. Here's an in the process photo of some of them:



It's good I'm making new items because I just took a bunch of items off my shop because I'm putting them in a shop, the Market House. If you're ever near Meadville, PA, you should stop in. My display's not set up yet, but I at least decided on a table and will probably set it up next week.

I got my Moo.com business cards and stickers in the mail. The business cards were free to celebrate Moo.com's birthday, but I paid for the stickers. I have photos of my items on each card and sticker(each one is unique, I transferred my photos from flickr). I think I'll give a few out with each order. I especially love the stickers. They're so cute! It's fun to see my items made in to stickers and I think they'll be great to go along with my orders.



My other business cards just have my logo, which is nice, but I decided to put my blog and twitter on the back for these. I think it will direct more traffic to my blog (which I don't really advertise a lot outside of Etsy). I also like that people will see at least one of items before even looking at my shop. I love my logo, but people can't tell what I sell from it or what my items look like. I'll probably alternate which cards I use.

I'm trying to learn more about the audience of my shop and what my demographic is. I figured the easiest way to do this is to take a survey. If you're reading this blog, I'd love if you took my survey. It's only 10 questions and it only take a couple of minutes. It will help me a lot to know where to promote my shop. You also get 10% off any item in my shop (just make sure to enter your e-mail address).

Click here to take the survey!

Since October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, all pink items in my shop will have a percentage donated to charity. I'll go in to more details about it another entry. I also made a youtube video which I'll embed in another entry. So many updates. :)