Treasuries, Features and Advertisements

Here are some treasuries I've been featured in recently:

I forgot to post that my Silver Leaves Holiday Card was featured in this blog:



Also, my advertisement is on a blog, Rachel B. Blog, this month. Go check out the blog and tell me what you think of the ad. I'm still working on different advertisement designs so I want to see what people like and what works.

New Valentine's Day Items

I made some new Valentine's Day themed items this year:

Pink Rose Journal



Vintage Valentine Greeting Card



Heart Shaped Vintage Valentine Mini Greeting Card



You can see all Valentine's Day items in the Valentine's Day section.

I start school tomorrow. I'm a little nervous because it's a new school, but I think it will be a lot of fun and I can't wait to start new art projects.

Valentine's Day Items

Valentine's Day is coming up. Now is the perfect time to buy handmade greeting cards and gifts. I made a section in my shop with Valentine's Day and love themed items.

Red and Gold Marbled Heart Shaped Journal



Tan Heart Ribbon Journal



Multicolored Hearts Sweetheart Card



Rounded Heart Valentine's Day Greeting Card



I will have a couple new Valentine's Day themed cards up in the next few days. Do you usually give out cards/gifts for Valentine's Day?

Newsletter and Blog Award

I sent my monthly newsletter out. You can read it online here. If you want to subscribe to my newsletter, you can use the form on the right side of this blog.

I got two blog awards from Roseberry Style. I have to:

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded me these awards
2. Share 7 things about myself
3. Award 15 recently discovered great bloggers
4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award!

I did 7 facts about myself for one of the same awards here. I wanted to post this award though because I've been checking out new blogs lately. I don't have 15 recently discovered blogs because I'm trying not to read so many blogs (so I can focus on ones I really like). These are a few recently discovered blogs I've found:

XSparkage - This is a makeup and fashion themed blog. The girl that runs the blog, Leesha, makes videos on YouTube about makeup that are popular. She also makes handmade bows on Etsy (I don't think her shop is active right now though).

Cinnamon and Coffee - I've read this blog for a while, but I don't think I've ever mentioned it on here before. It's a personal blog and she has a lot of nice photos on there.

Like a Bird - This blog has a lot of inspiring ideas and nice photography on it. I'm also pen pals with the blog owner, Kendra.

By the way, if anybody wants a pen pal, I'd be willing to have a few more. I love reading and writing handwritten letters. I also think writing letters can be more intimate and personal than using technology to connect to people.

Have you been reading any good blogs lately? Feel free to recommend me some.

Animal Themed Greeting Cards and EtsyVeg Poll

I listed these two animal related greeting cards recently:

Rounded Elephant Collage Mini Greeting Card



Rounded Zebra Greeting Card



My Snowflake Shaped Journal is in EtsyVeg team's "Winter Wonderland" Creative Challenge this month.



You can vote for me by clicking here and scrolling down to the poll. I appreciate any votes!

New Greeting Cards

I got some new greeting cards listed that can be used for any occassion. These two greeting cards both use a similar tan decorative paper:

Tan Bicycle Lover's Greeting Card



Tan Fashionista Greeting Card



I also got this card listed that uses a pretty silver cranes decorative paper:

Silver Cranes Greeting Card



I'm trying to list something new every day so look out for new greeting cards and other items.

Some of My Favorite Items

I thought I'd share some of my current favorite items on Etsy. You can see more items and other things that inspire me on my craft tumblr.

Pond Life Baby Mobile



I love this shop that has baby mobiles in different themes. This particular mobile shows pond life.

Avocado Necklace



I saw this item on the front page and thought this necklace was really fun and creative.

Sterling Key to My Heart Necklace



This is another necklace I like. I love "key to my heart" type themes.

Lapicitos Ring



This shop has a bunch of jewelry using colored pencils in creative ways. I love how unique this ring is and that it's functional.

Cassette Laptop Deal



I'm thinking of getting a decal for my laptop. It's a nice way to decorate your laptop and it's removable so you can change it any time you want.

Also, I got accepted to the School of Art Institute in Chicago! If you haven't heard of it, it's an art school/museum in Chicago. I'm not sure what classes I'm going to take yet, but I'm really excited to go to school there.

Altered Moleskines

I sold two Custom Altered 2011 Moleskine Planners this week. Moleskines are a popular brand of journals/planners. They are usually black on the outside, but my custom Moleskines have decorative paper or fabric on the cover and inside. I think it's fun to make custom items because they're more personal and you get to work with someone. When I finished them, I'll post photos of how they turn out.



Since Moleskines seem to be popular, I also made a listing for altered Moleskine journals. Even though people can request custom items at any time, I think it helps to put some custom orders as listings.

I also listed these Moleskines which I've been meaning to list for a while:

Map of Paris Altered Moleskine Journal



Venice Postcards Altered Moleskine Journal



Have you ever used Moleskine journals?

Reflection on 2010 (Part 2)

I thought I'd write an entry on some of the non statistical things that happened to me in 2010 that are Etsy/art related (you can see the last entry for statistics for my shop in 2010).

*I made a large travel travel for a school project. You can learn more about it in this entry and this entry and see more photos im my Artwork set on my Flickr.

*I lived in New York City this summer so I went to a few Etsy Lab events and a fashion show that was hosted by Etsy. You can read more about the fashion show here and the Etsy lab events here, here and here.




*I opened a Storeenvy. Storeenvy is like Etsy, but it's not as well known. I don't know if I'll get any sales there, but I figured it couldn't hurt.

*Move the Needle was featured youtube video. I thought it was neat because I love watching video blogs and it was a different way to promote my shop.

*I did two craft shows this year. One was at a college in Pennsylvania on Earth Day. You can read about it here. The other was the Daystar Craft Fair in Chicago at a local school. I wrote an entry about it here. I sold greeting cards at both events.

*I made mini cards that were featured on Vegan Craft Sample Bags. You can read more about it and see my cards here.

*I started a 365 project this year. I had heard about 365 projects for a while, but I never actually tried it. My theme was food and you can see my photos here. I haven't completed the 365 yet, but I've learned it's a good way to get myself to take more photos. I also think it's interesting to see how my photography has developed throughout the year.



*I had two giveaways on this blog. You can see them here and here.

What did you accomplish or do in 2010?

Statistics for my Shop in 2010

I made a post on statistics for my shop for 2009 last year and I thought I'd do it again for 2010. It helps me reflect on the past year on Etsy.

New Items

Here are some of my favorite new items I listed this year:

Green Iridescent Star Shaped Journal



Rounded Winter Cardinals Greeting Card



Pumpkin Coptic Stitch Journal



Visitors

Looking at my Google Analytics, my Etsy shop got 8800 visits and 17000 page views in 2010. 25% of viewers were new visitors. These statistics are pretty much the same as last year. Most people visited 2 pages (which is the same as last year) and spent about 7 minutes on the site (which is a higher compared to staying 2 minutes on average last year). Most visitors only visit once, but 17% are loyal visitors that have been on my shop more than 200 times. Most people visited from the United States with Canada, United Kingdom and Australia following. The most visited day of the year was January 17th.

Sales

I sold 9 items on Etsy and a couple more in craft shows. Here are some of the items I sold this year:







Top Referrers

My top traffic sources for my shop this year were Twitter, Facebook, this blog, LinkReferral.com, Google and the Bookbinding Team blog. Social networking seems to help bring traffic so I'm glad that helps. I was surprised to see the Bookbinding Team blog as a top source. I think being in teams definitely helps my shop get more visitors and also lets me connect to people with similar interest.

Blog

I had 3900 visits to this blog and 2000 absolute unique visitors. Overall, I had 12,600 page views on my blog and people spend about 2 minutes on this site. I got the most referrals from Blogger, Google, Etsy and my Tumblr. This blog also has a really low bounce rate (meaning most people that come to my blog don't leave right away). The most visited day of the year was on July 8th.

Most Viewed Items

My most items were these 2010 moleskine planners (which I relisted here as a customized 2011 planner):



It's interesting to see statistics for my shop and blog. I haven't been looking at my statistics lately so this post reminded me to keep track of statistics for my Etsy and see what is working/what brings traffic. If you have a shop, let me know your statistics for this year. :)