Relisted Christmas Cards, Ten Percent for Peace and Free Shipping

Happy Cyber Monday! I'm offering free shipping in my shop through the rest of November and December. The free shipping is already applied to all items so there's nothing special you have to do.

I am also participating in the "Ten Percent for Peace" event for EtsyVeg team. From 11/29 - 12/6 (this week), 10% of all my sales will go to Food Not Bombs charity. It's a charity that shares free vegan and vegetarian meals in different cities to help protest war, poverty and the destruction of the environment.



I changed my RT post a little for my Twitter giveaway context. The 50th retweet still gets a free greeting card. Just copy and paste this in to your twitter and you'll be entered.

RT! Free shipping in @movetheneedle this holiday season. The 50th RT gets a free greeting card of their choice. http://tinyurl.com/yzk8svz

I was talking to a guy that works in marketing/business on Twitter and he said a mailing list is a good idea and something a lot of artists don't do. I never had a mailing list before because I thought this blog was a good way to keep people updated, but I decided to start one and see how it goes.

If you're interested in signing up, just use the "E-Mail Subscription" box in the right hand side of this blog or click here. I'd only have monthly updates (unless you'd think weekly/something else would be better) so it wouldn't be too much. It'd basically going to be a recap of stuff I post in my blog (new items, updates on my shop, any events I'm doing, things I'm featured in), but I would also include special discounts or giveaways for subscribers.

I just noticed there were some christmas cards I never listed this year:

Love and Give Christmas Card



Glitter Snowflakes Holiday Greeting Card



Vintage Christmas Trees Holiday Card



Silver Music Notes Holiday Greeting Card



Swirl Green Christmas Tree Card



I'm also going to take photos of Hanukkah cards and put them up.

I also sent out this music card to an online friend (who I know because of a music related site so it was perfect for her):



I'm back at school now, but I just have to take finals and finish up classes. Then I'll be on winter break for about a month. :)

Holiday Items & Sale

I just listed this Christmas card. It is covered with a green, glitter paper on the inside and says "Merry Christmas!". I hope some of my holiday cards sell. You can see all my winter holiday items here.

Christmas Penquins Greeting Card



I'm taking back some items I have at home and I'm going to take photos of them next week. So look out for new listings in the future.

As part of Black Friday/Cyber Monday, all my items are 20% off all weekend. Just enter the code "HOLIDAY" at checkout. I added a new/edited logo and avatar to help promote my sale. I hope it will be effective in Etsy forums and will make people more aware of the sale. You can see them at my shop.





In a previous entry, I posted which items sold at the craft show my mom did. There was a mistake though and actually this journal didn't sell at the craft show. There was a little rip in one of the pages, but I fixed it (but taking out the signature of paper where the rip was). So it's up for sale again:

Music Principles Journal.



This was the one that sold:



All Thanksgiving cards are now on sale for half off. All Halloween cards are on sale too. I'm just leaving both there until they expire.

Black Friday!

Happy Black Friday! You can get 20% off all items in my shop through Monday if you enter the code "HOLIDAY" at checkout. My twitter contest to promote the sale hasn't had a lot of success. I got 4 retweets, but I need to get 50 for it to work. I might cancel it or extend it.

I listed this new journal. I've been meaning to list it for a while. I made it this summer. I love the paper I used:

Postcards from Europe Coptic Stitch Journal





You might have noticed I added a new feature to my blog. In every entry, you'll see 3 recommended older entries that relate to the new post. I thought it seemed like an interesting feature. Tell me what you think – if you like it, if you use it, if you think it looks nice or too distracting, etc. I kind of like how it looks and I think it will be helpful to get people to look at other entries. I wish there was a way to set it up so I get an email when people comment on an entry though (so I know if somebody comments on an older entry). I'm sure there's some way to do this, but I haven't figured it out. I've also noticed I've gotten a lot of spam comments lately (like one entry I have 20+ comments of spam). I'm not sure how to stop these. :(

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. I got to see my brother and it was nice to see him again. We celebrated his birthday and Thanksgiving together. I also watched the movie Julie & Julia. It's about a woman who attempts to cook every recipe in Julia Child's cookbook written in the 1960s and write a blog about it. I love food/cooking and blogging so it was fun to watch (I thought of this blog when they showed the blogging parts). I thought the movie was good. You can see the real blog she wrote here It's interesting how nowadays, people can become famous through their blogs. I'm actually inspired to start a cooking type project (not related to this blog though). I'll post about it if I decide to do it.

Twitter Giveaway, Craft Show and Thanksgiving

I just learned what items sold at the Emanuel Congregation Chanukah Market craft show my mom did. 3 journals sold, but no cards or books. I unlisted them from my shop, but I can always do custom orders of them again:







I'm home for a few days for Thanksgiving break. I'm actually celebrating Thanksgiving though with my brother at his house (which is a couple hours away from my home). It's nice have a break from all the work and stress of school.

I re-added the email subscription feature to my blog on the right. This way you can get email updates every time I blog if you prefer getting updates that way. I tested it out with my email address and it works well. I got some envelope templates and worked on a bunch of enveloeps with nice paper today. I think I'm going to start selling envelopes in my shop. I use to just use one of the nice envelopes when I made a sale, but I think it'll be good to sell them seperately too. I'm not sure how to organize them yet - I might do it in different sets. Like I might do a set of one size (such as A6) or one color (like one type of decorative paper, but have different sizes). Tell me how you'd like to see it.

Remember, I have a Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale in my shop this weekend. More info is in my shop announcement. I'm also having a little Twitter giveaway where I'm giving away two greeting cards of your choice. All you have to do is post this message:

RT! #etsyholidaysale in @movetheneedle this weekend. The 50th RT gets a free greeting card of their choice. http://tinyurl.com/yzk8svz

The 50th person who retweets get a free greeting card from my shop. I don't know if it will help me get any sales, but I tagged all my items with the "EtsyHolidaySale" tag too so hopefully it will at least bring some exposure or hearts to my shop.

I also got rid of some items that are really old. I might relist them again at some point though. If you ever want to see all the items I've made, you can always go to my flickr and look at the Journals, Greeting Cards, etc. albums.

Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale and Thanksgiving

I was reading in The Storque on Etsy about Black Friday and Cyber Monday and the sales people are having. I got inspired and decided I would participate. My sale's going to be Black Friday through Cyber Monday (this weekend). You can 20% off any item if you enter the code "HOLIDAY" at in the "message to seller" box at checkout. You'll get a revised invoice with your discount. I was going to do free shipping, but I think you actually save more money this way.

I have Thanksgiving items in my shop if you're still looking. After Thanksgiving, all the Thanksgiving cards will be on sale too in the Sale section.

I just realized I have photos of this Thanksgiving card I never posted. I made it recently. It's taken with my camera phone because I don't have my good camera so that's why I never listed it. It uses this cute tomato decorative paper I like.





It's my mom and brother's birthday this week. I haven't figured out what I'm getting my mom yet, but I have this poster for my brother. I painted his wall this summer and I was originally going to do a storybook type theme where we had different story characters on the wall. I have this poster I bought for my room of "The Rainbow Fish" book by Marcus Pfister, but I didn't really like how it looked on my walls so I think that will be his present. I also still have to work on my gift exchange for Etsy.

I used some left over scrap decorative paper I had from books in a painting project for my Painting class. I'm making a collaged painting of a nature scene with a deer. I've already had a lot of fun with it - like gluing wax paper on it to make the hills textured and using an old watch to make the nose of the deer.

I still can't find my bone folder. It's really hard to work without one so I ordered a new one today and some new decorative paper. I got some cute baby themed paper and I think I'm going to make some baby themed journals.

50 Fans on Facebook and Gift Certificates

I made a goal for myself to get 50 fans on my Facebook page and I did it! I'm really happy about it. I'm getting more in to using Facebook to promote my shop. Feel free to add Move the Needle as a fan if you're not already. You'll get updated on new products and sales. I also set it up so my Facebook updates automatically repost to my Twitter.

Etsy added a new official "My Etsy" application where you can see items in your Etsy shop right on your Facebook fan page or profile. If you go to my Facebook page, you can click the "My Etsy" tab on top and it will take you there. I think it's a great feature and I've been wanting to see a feature like this for a while. You can also see links to my most recent blog posts there on there.

I decided to add gift certificates to my shop, listed as items instead of just saying I offer them. I asked on Twitter if people thought gift certificates work in individual shops and I got some mixed answers. Somebody said it wouldn't hurt to try though and I thought it'd be fun to include them. These are great for the holiday season if you don't know what to pick out for someone. You can get them for $10, $20, $30 or $50 here. If you look at each certificate, I listed a different photo of a type of item in each one. I tried to make it so each number can correspond to a type of item in my shop - like $10 you can buy greeting cards, $20 you can get a mini journal, etc. Here's what they look like:



The light blue part (besides the web address) is filled out to correspond with each certificate. Let me know what you think of gift certificates. Would you buy one from Move the Needle or another Etsy shop? I'm not sure if I'd buy them personally because I like the process of picking out a certain item for someone, but I like having them as an option. It'd be nice if Etsy offered gift certificates for the whole site.

If you're still looking for Thanksgiving items, you can see my Thanksgiving items here. I don't think any of them will sell before Thanksgiving, but you never know. I also have Christmas cards in my shop. I just noticed I don't have any New Year's cards. I might make a couple and post them before December. I have a 2010 Calendar though which is good to give as a gift for the holiday season.

Rounded Cards and Hanukkah Cards

I listed a couple new cards. These both have rounded edges. I like how they look and the rounded edges give them a more unique look I think. One's a card for babies (my first type of this card) and the other is a Thank You card.

Baby Clothes Rounded Greeting Card



Yellow Flower Thank You Card



Unfortunately, I still don't have my camera (I borrowed one from the school library for a while, but I had to return it). I'm not sure what to do if I don't find it. I might just ask for a new one for Christmas, but I'm not sure if I'd want to get the same brand I had (which I really liked) or try something else (since losing something is a good opportunity to try another brand). I like my old camera because the photos came out high definition, but I enjoyed using the Canon brand they had the library and there were some things I liked about it better.

I got these cell phone quality photos of some Hanukkah cards I made. I wanted to post them in case somebody was interested in buying them or wanted a custom order with a similar look. I'm not sure if any of these sold at the craft show my mom went to for me, but I could always make another.











I started writing my resume to use for internships and jobs in the future. I put my Etsy shop on my resume. Do you guys list Etsy on my resume? If so, do you write your shop name or "Etsy" or both? It's kind of fun to see all the things I've done over the years (like clubs I've joined at college, experiences I've done) and put them altogether.

I have two papers to write before next week, but then I get to be on Thanksgiving break. For Thanksgiving, I'll have the Thanksgiving holiday and two family birthdays so it should be fun to go home for the first time this year and eat lots of Thanksgiving food and cake. :)

10 Things I'm Liking and New Card

I started working on some new items. I got a tip from someone at a craft show to make collaged items with different papers instead of just doing one type of paper like I usually do. I always have a ton of scrap paper so I thought it was a good idea. I started on a journal using lots of scrap blue paper I had. I like how it looks sofar, we'll have to see how it turns out. I also listed this collaged heart card I made:

Collaged Multicolored Hearts Greeting Card



I have lots of items I've taken photos of, but I haven't listed yet. It takes a while to get all the photos edited and descriptions. It's nice to always have some items I haven't listed though so I can list an item anytime I want to. Look out for those. :)

I saw this idea on another blog of listing 10 things you're liking right now. I thought I'd do a list of things that inspire me, sites I'm checking out, etc. They're kind of relevant for my shop because it things that inspire me, but it's also just for fun.

1. Painting - I'm taking a Painting class in college right now and it's really fun. I always watercolor painted in my journal or on my greeting cards, but it's fun to use acrylic and oil paint, make your own canvas and things like that. I also like the assignments I've gotten in my class. I think my favorite painting I've done is a portrait of another member of the class (I don't have any photos of it now, but I'll probably post it here or on my Flickr eventually). This was my first project which involved following a list of instructions that involved experimenting with acrylic paint and collage:



2. Tumblr - I recently became addicted to Tumblr. It is a blog site where people post photos or short posts (like quotes, short lines of text). It's mostly photography related so it's like Flickr, but it's usually people blogging other people's photos instead of their own. You can find a lot of weird/funny/unique photos on there.

3. Bokeh Photos - I love the effect of bokeh in photos and how it looks like a dream. I used to try to get this effect in my photography class last year, but for some reason, a lot of photos I've taken more recently have had the effect on accident. Here's one I took of a street in Pittsburgh last weekend:



4. Collecting DVDS - I use this site called Swap Tree where you can get free items such as books, DVDs and CDs for trading your old stuff. It's a lot of fun. I always had books and CDs, but one thing I like is that I've been able to build my DVD collection without spending any money. For years, I've had like 5 DVDs of my favorite movies, but now I've gotten maybe about 15-20. I like that I can see behind the scenes footage/bonus material for my favorite movies that you can't always find online. It's interesting to see how a movie was made. Some of DVDs are music related things like concerts and behind the scenes stuff instead of just movies.

5. My Life is Average - Most people have probably heard of the FML.com where people write about bad things that happened to their day. I prefer reading My Life is Average though which are "average" stories that happen to people (even though a lot of them are more like random things that happen and not really average). You can tell some of them are made up, but it's fun to look at and makes you notice random things that happen in your life.

6. Get Crafty - I was looking at this website called Get Crafty the other day. It's kind of like Craftster because it's a forum where you can share craft ideas, but I don't think it's active anymore. I'm pretty sure it was started by the same people who started Etsy which is interesting. I was going through some old posts though and they're fun to read. One had advice from people that they wish they knew 10 years ago and it was really interesting to read.

8. Cooking - I always like cooking, but I've been experimenting a little more since I bought the cookbook from the EtsyVeg team. I love looking at it and deciding what to cook. I was also checking out the Cooking with Rockstars podcast last night where this girl interviews people in bands and sees what they like to cook (it's fun too because not all of them are good cooks and just sort of say what they like to eat on the road). I made this marinara sauce a guy from a band I listen and it came out so good. I didn't think it'd taste that different from my own, but he used olives (which I don't usually use) and a pinch of cinnamon sugar in the sauce which gave it a good flavor (try it).

9. Stop Motion Film - I was planning on making a short film/music video before I lost my camera using the stop motion technique. It's basically an animation technique where you take photos of an object in small increments and move it a little each time. When you put it together, it looks like it's moving. It's a neat technique because you can make something move without a video camera. YouTube "stop motion" to see examples.

10. The Holiday Season
I love the holiday season. Even though it can be kind of stressful, it means a break from school and time to make gifts, cook and relax. I'm also excited to do my gift exchange on Etsy this year. I love the process of making or finding a gift for someone and of course, receiving gifts. :)

I tag everyone who reads this so feel free to use it in your blog or in the comments. Let me know if you do it on your blog so I can check it out.

Updates, EtsyVeg Secret Santa and Treasury

My mom ended not making it to the craft show for Esperanza last week. There was a little family emergency, but everything's okay now. I was kind of upset Move the Needle wasn't able to do the Esperanza show because I've been looking forward to it for a while, but I'm happy we've done at least a couple shows. I'm definitely going to be looking for more craft shows to do in the future. Hopefully, I can find a couple near my college town.

Here's some new photos I took of my journals for sale in the Market House. I posted photos of these before, but I added a white sheet underneath (made from a pillow case I had that I cut up) and changed the set up a little. There's two cards - a Hanukkah card and Christmas card - there that I didn't list online. Sofar, I sold one journal for $18. I'm hoping people will buy some more items for the holiday season or at least picking up my business card.



The only problem is every time I go there, the display is a little messed up from people picking up stuff and moving it around. I guess that's good because it means people are looking, but I have to fix it every week I go. Any ideas for how I could keep this from happening?

I got featured in this treasury. I forget to check if I've been featured in treasuries unless someone convos me about it. My journal is in the bottom middle of this pretty starry night one:



I'm doing a holiday gift exchange event in my EtsyVeg team. I got my match today and I get to make a craft for her (and get a handmade item from someone else). I don't want to give too much away in case she reads this, but my person likes sketching and paper items so it's a perfect match for me. I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to make yet, but I just got a bunch of nice sketch paper in the mail.

I'm currently editing photos for some new item I made which I'll probably be listing soon. Look out for those. :) Have you done any holiday shopping yet? I know I'll probably be making all my gifts or buying from Etsy.

Esperanza Craft Show & Calendar

My mom's doing another craft show for me tonight. It's part of the Esperanza community. I did a craft show for them this school this summer and it was a lot of fun. I heard they usually get a bigger turn out for the holiday event so hopefully I'll make some more sales. :)

My Pawprint Greeting Card got featured in this flickr gallery. I've never used the gallery feature before so it was nice to see one of my items features. My Pumpkin and Vines Thanksgiving Card is also in this EtsyVeg blog treasury.

I got one of my 2010 calendars listed tonight. I made two, but one I sent to be used in the craft show. They're the same inside, but different fabric on the inside (the one I listed has hearts and the other has roses). Here's an in the process photo of it (the quality's a little different because I used a disposable camera to this photo):



The whole calendar was sort of an experimentation for me. I didn't see any tutorials on making them so I basically made it like a journal turned the other way around. I put holes in each of the pages so you can hang them up, but I just realized the way I did the holes didn't work because I can't figure out how to make holes in the cover. So it's listed at a reduced price, but I don't think it's a big deal that there's a small hole at the top of each page (it just doesn't have a use). It seems like something always goes wrong the first time I try a new type of craft item.

I bought a bunch of calendar hooks in bulk from this company that I think sells bulk parts to business companies. They just sent them before I paid for them (and billed me), but I ended up not using them. So I might put those up for sale as a supply item on my etsy or figure out how to use them in my next calendar.

I think the calendar was actually harder to make than my journals because I had to do all the inside pages too and not just bind it together. It helped me use up a lot of scrap decorative paper though. I really like how it turned out:



Here's some photos of the inside. I tried to use decorative paper to match with each month (for example, for December I have reindeers and for April I have flowers).





The listing is here if you want to buy it. I wanted to have it up by this month so people can buy it in time for the new year. Tell me what you think or post any suggestion for the next time I doit.

Sold Items at Craft Fair, Calendar and New Card

My mom did a craft fair for me, the Emanuel Congregation Chanukah Market, this weekend and I just learned 3 of my journals sold. Yay, I'm really excited things are actually selling in my shop (it seemed like nothing was selling online lately). I'm not sure which items sold, but I know this journal with a Chicago map on it sold:



I also got lots of suggestions from people which were helpful - like to try using vintage paper for journals and to have more blank cards that people can customize (I try to have cards for lots of occasions, but I only have a couple general ones). I can't wait to try some of the ideas and it's good to get advice.

I ordered some sketch paper to use to make new journals which I haven't bought for a while. I actually originally bought some because I don't have a journal right now and wanted to make a sketchbook for myself, but I ended up buying a bunch since I think it's nicer when journals have thicker paper. What do you think - do you prefer thick sketch paper or thinner computer paper in a journal (or something else)? I might make a poll on this blog to put on the side.

I got this listed too:
Yellow Photo Frame Greeting Card



I made it a while ago with decorative paper I picked up in Italy. The paper is handmade and textured. This is my first photo frame greeting card - you can put any photo you want in the front.

I also finished two calendars. :) I'll have them listed and a detailed blog entry on them hopefully by tomorrow.

Market House, Craft Show and Updates

I feel like I haven't updated in a while. I've been so busy with schoolwork. I'm doing this project at the local grocery store in my town, the Market House, where I'm trying to create a program for the community. It's part of my Community Psychology class. I made a survey to find out what would make more college students come to the Market House and it's interesting to see why people do/don't come and what programs they would be interested it. Sofar over 30 people have taken it. I wish that many people took my Move the Needle survey. If you haven't already already and have a few minutes, feel free to take my survey here. It's just some question so I can learn about the demographic of people who come to my shop or blog.

Speaking of the Market House, one of my items sold! I went down day to pick up my money from it. I couldn't figure out which item sold at first (because the person working there wasn't sure), but I figured out it was this heart shaped one. I think it's great it sold because this has always been one of my favorite items (I almost didn't want to give it to the shop).



I also recently listed this new travel greeting card. Map of the World Greeting Card. It's made using decorative paper of the map of the world put together using a collage technique



I got offered to do a program with Fearless Radio, an internet radio program in Chicago (I think I mentioned it before on my blog). At first they contacted me about advertising and I thought I'd just be advertising my shop on their site. I've heard of Fearless Radio before though (before they contacted me) so I know it's a fairly popular site. However, the program is more like they're having a section on their site where you can sell your stuff, sort of like a mini Etsy. You have to pay a subscription fee ($25) one time, but then you can post as much as you like. I think it seems like an interesting idea, but I don't think I'll do it right now at least. It doesn't seem very active right now so I don't know how helpful it would be for me. I'm also not sure if I'd be able to link my Etsy shop too it and I kind of like having all my stuff on one place online.

My mom's doing a craft show for me in Chicago tomorrow. I'm excited to see if anything sells and to hear about how it goes. I made some Hanukkah themed cards just for the show that I got some low quality photos of with my phone (I'll probably post those tomorrow). By the way, if you want Hanukkah or any holiday themed cards for the holidays, you can just custom order and I can do those for you.

If you happen to be in the Chicago area this weekend, the craft show is called Emanuel Congregation Chanukah Market and it's November 7th from 7-9pm and 8th from 10:15-2pm on 5959 N. Sheridan Road. I'm pretty sure we're doing the one tomorrow (Saturday) and not both. It's actually only the second official show Move the Needle has done so it will be exciting. I'll update you on how it goes.

EtsyVeg Challenge & Updates

Happy November! Hope everyone had a good Halloween. My card is in the EtsyVeg Team Monthly Challenge. Please vote for my card here in EtsyVeg blog. Mine's the Black Cat Greeting Card (2nd to last one in voting poll). Thanks! The winner gets featured on the EtsyVeg blog for a month and it could help bring a lot of exposure to my shop.



Also my Snowflakes Holiday Greeting Card is currently featured on the EtsyVeg blog. Speaking of EtsyVeg, I didn't get any sales for my Halloween sale. It was supposed to be part of the EtsyVeg team event, but they decided not to have the event as a team because there wasn't enough participation. I still decided to keep my sale though. There will be more sales during the holiday season so look out for those!

The Breast Cancer Awareness event is also over, where all pink items bought would have a percentage donated to a breast cancer charity. I didn't know if that would get any response and it didn't bring me any sales, but hopefully it brought some exposure for my shop. I never find sales too helpful in getting sales (I think if someone really wants an item, they'll buy it anyway), but they're fun to have. What do you think? Do you look for sales/shop events? Would you be more likely to purchase items in a sale?

I'm thinking of getting some wall vinyl decal design to decorate my room. I live in a house, but it's college owned and I don't think I'm allowed to paint it (and if I do, I'd have to paint over it eventually). I think decal would look nice and it's a simple way to change up the way a room looks. I found a lot of cute designs on Etsy and some aren't too expensive. If you know any good shops that sell it, let me know.