New Treasury

It has been a while since I made an Etsy treasury. I almost forgot how fun they can be. So thinking about, editing for, and listing of my new additions to the shop...I decided to peek around at other's embroidery pieces. These were some that really caught my eye.

Enjoy!

BEST Feature: Danizabeth

Today's BEST shop is Danizabeth.

"With a passion for the look of all things retro and nostalgic... This is my little collection of the images of yesteryear frozen in present day. I hope my photos can take you back to a beloved memory and escape the hustle and bustle of life."

She has a career in graphic design, but as you will see, she has a definite flair with the camera. She shows us the beauty in the old and the rundown. Here are a

couple of my favorites:

One Headlight

Packin' Up

Don't forget to check out her blog. You can also follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

[This blog post is a "BESTeam Feature" for the Boosting Etsy Shops Team. The BESTeam is dedicated to helping its members promote their shops and assisting each other in marketing, advertising and sharing the tips and tricks of running an online business. If you are a seller on Etsy and are interested in becoming a member of the BESTeam, the team is accepting new members and you can find more information about the team as well as apply to become a member HERE.]

BEST Feature: Ms Formaldehyde

Where to start?!?! Cute science stuff? Day of the Dead? Fun Hawaiian flowers?

The fun flower hair accessories would have looked great on my longer hair. Although, my hubby does like to remind me that when we first met I still managed to wear "things" in my hair...all 3 inches of it :P Something like this pink rose would have worked for me:

Or how about something more Day of the Dead to adorn your ears...

And don't forget the glam...

You can keep up to date with what she is up to on her blog HERE

Note on the BESTeam...

The Boosting Etsy Shops Team's goal is to provide marketing support for each others' Etsy shops by writing WEEKLY features on our blogs. We are a very dynamic, active group and we are now accepting new members!

If you are an Etsian and a blogger who is looking for a great team to join, check us out HERE

Happy Pi Day

Pi (sometimes written π) is a mathematical constant whose value is the ratio Euclidean plane's circumference to its diameter; this is the same value as the ratio of a circle's area to the square of its radius. It is approximately equal to

3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510...

The current record for the decimal expansion, if verified, stands at 5 trillion digits. Um yeah, I usually remember about 8.

It can be defined as the ratio of a circle's area A to the area of a square whose side is equal to the radius r of the circle:

There is a ton more on Wikipedia (isn't there always?). The other day I was watching a Stargate SG-1 episode and π was the key to the ancient writing. There are lots of sci-fi books and movies that use pi as the universal key to the language or code. Kinda cool.

Even cooler is all the goodies you can find online to celebrate. Think Geek (one of my all time fave geek shops) has a bunch of pi stuff just waiting to be bought. And don't forget the handmade goodies over on Etsy.

For me, I plan to make this embroidery piece from Urban Threads. Hurry on over - it's free right now :)

Spring Etsyblogger Treasury

Big thanks to Creative Lily for this lovely treasury.

I was unable to capture the entire collection, so just click here to see it :)

Year in Review

I am not good at goal making. I know you are supposed to do such things for business, but I don't see how you can set a number for how many items you'll sell. How many to make, sure. To list, yup. To market, okay. But to sell...maybe a wish list :)

So, last year...

Blogs:

Crafts, kids, home & life had 4,964 visitors, 131 posts, currently 147 followers

Tilt's Creations had 5,757 visitors, 115 posts, currently 93 followers

Tilt Treasures had 15,620 visitors, 65 posts, currently 96 followers

Shops:

Tilt Etsy had 9,378 visitors, 31 sales, 46 new listings

The new listing this year included some non-bag items like stuffies, table runners & pillows.

And a bunch of banner changes. I can't help it, they are fun. I like to change it up seasonally and for sales. But as a customer - what do you prefer? The same banner that "marks" the shop or changing it up from time to time?

Tilt Too had 3,743 visitors, 47 sales, 51 new listings...all destash patterns and fabric

Tilt ArtFire had 2,091 visitors, 0 sales (so sad), new listings

Craft Shows & other had about 25 sales (I say about because I am missing something somewhere....still need to finish up some paperwork)

So...what does this mean? Aside from the fact that this is what "successful" shops do on a monthly basis :P

It means I want to do more. Sew more, list more and of course sell more. But to work I need actual numbers to focus on.

My "numbers":

Sew: minimum 3 days a week.

Photo: once a week for listings.

Listings: about 3 per week.

This should be doable. But I do give myself leeway for life - sick kids and such.

What will the sewing be? Not just bags. Between each batch of bags I will do some pillows, coasters, baskets, stuffies, etc. I know I've said this before and not always with the best results...but I have not yet hung up my machine.

Embroidery & other hand sewing: 2-3 nights per week. Note the nights. Read...as I watch tv :P

Non-sewing crafts and art: at least one day a week.

Whether or not this will be for me or for the shops is yet to be determined. I have already started on cleaning up the basement to make space for painting. I should have an area cleared for a February start.

Blogs: no change. I averaged 2-3 per week, I think this is fine. But I will try to have more focused day themes. Friday food, Thursday carnivals, keeping the Wordless Wednesdays. I'll do the kids and home and me posts more regularly. My life is kind of boring after all, there is only so much to write :P

What are your top 3 goals this year?

Saturday Shop: The Taffy Box

*** What is the name of your shop

The Taffy Box. I use to work in a school where I would bring my handcrafted jewelry items bagged and ready to sell to fellow teachers. I carried them around in an actual old cardboard taffy box from a beach vacation in north Carolina. They would often say "When are you going to bring in The Taffy Box again?" That is how I named my shop.

You can also find her here:
Twitter: Facebook:

*** What do you create?

Hand stamped and personalized jewelry and accessories for the whole family from Grandparents, Mommy, Dad, kids, even pets!





*** What are your favorite materials to work with?

Sterling Silver, Copper, Gold filled

*** What are you working on now?

I am making a lot of cuff links & money clips these days for wedding party gifts as well as graduation gifts such as tie-tacs and necklaces for teens.

*** How long ago did you open up shop?

2007, but I really threw my heart and soul into it last year when I was fighting cancer. It is what kept me sane and focused on something I find enjoyable. In turn, I was able to really grow the business beyond my wildest dreams and quit my teaching job!

***Do you have another job aside from your shop?

I am a part time counselor with Network Of Strength's breast cancer hotline on an IP phone from my home, as well as a patient rep. for a chemotherapy drug company.

*** How to you advertise? Any tips in this area?

I do several giveaways per year at mommy blog type sites as well as advertising buttons on blogs of friends. I give my business card to everyone I see or talk about my business with. You never know when they might end up needing a gift for someone, and remembering me! I have brochures printed up and use those at craft fairs and shows along with photographs of my work.


*** What 2 things have you learned since starting to sell your items?

You can make most of the people happy most of the time but you can't make all of the people happy all of the time. For that occasional unhappy person, I try to not take it personally, and to learn from the experience. Then I move on. I do not dwell in the negative. I have also learned that it takes time to grow a business. I chose not to go into debt to grow my business but rather to let the business pay for itself and grow as I could afford to.

*** Show off your craft/work space

You don't want to see my craft work space! You would be shocked how messy it is. I am one of those people who can find anything I am looking for in my own mess. It consists of a small utility room in my basement, a table and several organizing drawer units and a covered pool table. I have yet to master the organizing part! My goal is to someday list and sell all of my stashed beads and supplies I will never end up using.

*** Do you have any method for pricing you would like to share?

I see what other items are selling for on line and try to be in the "range". Maybe a bit lower to stay competitive but I have also found that raising prices sometimes makes the buyers believe they are more valuable and they are willing to pay the higher price! Online sales work that way, since the buyer can't physically touch and feel the item, so subconsciously they base their idea of how valuable it is on the price. It's a combination of eyeing the competition plus my own cost and profit ratio too.

***Do you have any plans for your shop in the coming year/season?

I recently started using more gold fill and combination of metals such as mixing silver and copper, and I also bought a texturizing mallet which I would like to use to create some pieces that have more depth and contrast to them.


***Any funny crafty mishap stories?

Well, the mishaps happen from time to time, like a misspelled name and I always manage to catch it before shipping the item, but some of the funnier things that have happened are when in one day there seems to be a hot ticket selling item. I just can't hardly list them fast enough like the day when over 13 people ordered collar stays and they were 13 different customers from 13 different addresses - "Where are they finding me?" I would ask myself! That happened once with guitar picks too. I have no idea how it happens.

***Tell us one random thing about yourself that is not craft related.

I had four children born in less that 5 years. Oh yeah, and they were all c-sections. They are now ages 16 - 21

Sniff Sniff

That title is me after I read my newest feedback. I love reading my feedback. Not only is it super important biz wise, I feel so much better knowing everything arrived and was well liked.

I just never know how to word the "please leave feedback" part of the sale's thank you. I have received some wonderfully worded requests from things I have bought. And I suppose I could have asked them about using their wording myself. But I really want to come up with something myself. I don't want to sound pushy. I have sent messages on larger orders, if for no other reason than to make sure it arrived okay. But asking out & out to please leave feedback on the order you placed a month ago is just wrong. Although, Amazon send reminders...it would be kinda nice if Etsy had something similar...only friendly & more craft people oriented.
This order was one I was itching to send a message, but then after a while it seemed like too much time had gone by. So SURPRISE! In my feedback today I found this:

Thus the *sniff sniff*. Just when I was feeling down about anything creative. Perfect timing :) I am so happy to hear that the latest Grr Argh was so well received. Thank you AllNeon and you are super welcome!

Etsybloggers: 2010 is here - what's the plan?

This Etsybloggers blog carnival is hosted by Beadedtail. These were our choices:

1) Now that 2009 has come to a close, what will you remember most about last year? 2) Now that 2010 is here, what do you have planned/look forward to/hope
to accomplish this year?

I know I have done a post on what is to come in 2010, but I have some things to add/alter. Yes, it's only a couple weeks in & I am already rethinking a few things...not too much though.

I still plan to get to sewing projects other than bags & purses. And I still want to play with clay & paint again. Don't forget the embroidery. I think I will learn to frame them in hoops. It can be a very long process if I make each piece into a bag. Maybe some will transform into pillows since I want to add those to the list too. I have a few that still need something done with them...

Digital scrapbooking/digital illustration/blog backgrounds...etc. If it is doable on a photoshop, GIMP, Paint Net, Digital Scrapbook Artist Inkscape type program...I want to learn it - at least somewhat. I found sites for html and css tutorials and some sites for vector illustration - next up - schedule my own "lesson plans". I want to be able to make my own digital kits/embellishments/whatnot...takes away any wonder on how I can use the images. plus, it'd be fun.

Shop decisions. While I will be adding other items...eventually...they may only be to Etsy. I am thinking about downgrading my Artfire. Nothing against them. But I just don't sell much over there. I want to try some more push that way first though since I have the $7 account & not the $12. If it doesn't show much life in the next month, I will downgrade. the shop would still be there, just with fewer items.

The Etsy shops...the Tilt Too is destash now, and may stay that way. I originally thought it could be where I list non-bag items. But I think anything sewn will remain in the Tilt Creations. Perhaps if the clay & painting move along, they can go into the Too.

So - are you making any shop/job/creative changes this year?

CalKat...late, but still great

I have been a bad Etsyblogger these past couple months. Late submissions for carnivals, late for Blogger of the Month and sparse visitation to the threads. I hope to get back into the grove now that the holidays are over. And since the newest Blogger of the Month has not yet been announced...I will show off December's now...CalKat...with not one, but FOUR shops!!!!

...from the shop bio:
"Carrie & Kathy have a passion for creating things with polymer and precious metal clays and have discovered MANY people have that same passion! So, we opened a shop just for them!"

Here are some of my faves:

Namaste Yoga Fairy Tin from the Yoga Fairies shop

Tree of Life Artistic Apothecary Bottle from the Ametista shop

Playful Fairy Mold for Polymer Clay and PMC from The Clay Shoppe

The Huntress from the CalKat shop

And don't forget their blog, Ametista's - Artistic Offerings...

S & T Creations

I love promoting other artisans and "paying it forward", and this lady is all about that too.
S & T Creations is part of my Creative Bloggers ring and the eSmarts Etsy team - both of which do just that. The eSmarts team believes in Paying It Forward and their intent is to utilize their shop to do just that and support those in need. So hop on over to their shop & check it out, you could help someone out just buying buying some awesome handmade goodies.

She also has a blog with some great reads. I know everyone suffers from creative blocks from time to time, but not everyone shares. She has. Her way of unblocking is very similar to what I do sometimes - create something for yourself. Being selfish can be a good thing. It can loosen up your imagination because you take away the stress of "but is this what they really want". And her resulting creation turned out awesome...wanna see? click here.

And of course there are her own creations. You can find her work over on Etsy and Art Fire. These are a couple of my faves:

Do you blog? Do you like to feature other bloggers? Then join us over at Creative Bloggers...

Liv'nGood Goodies

Ok - another awesome blog for you...Living Good at Liv'nGood Jewelry. I just read a fab blog post on, well, blog posting. She has some great tips on the the best way to use your blog - especially for those of us who use them for marketing & business support. You should really give it a read (here).

I know "business support" sounds all stuffy...but she's an artisan, so you know it'll be on the creative side. Just take a peek at what she makes:




You can find here goodies here:

• Etsy
• 1000 Markets
• Artfire

for some bloggy goodness...hop on over to Creative Bloggers & join in the fun :)

Mademoiselle M - International Blog of Jewelry Beauties

This is the first bilingual blog I have run across...and what a beautiful blog. The beauty is due to her fabulous jewelry. There are so many places you can go to see her artistry...start off here at her blog, which has such a great tagline: "Chronicles of a mission: to embellish women"

Here are a few of her works to tease you :) Pop over to her Flickr for more.





and now you can go here to get some for yourself...

• * Mademoiselle M *
• Art Garage Sale
• Artfire
• Etsy
• iCraft
• Mademoiselle M Gems
• Shop Handmade

If you are a jewelry artisan...be sure to stop by her Gems shop for some wonderful supplies.

Time to Reorganize

Okay - I got the kinks worked out of my "change the shop around" plan. I am going into more detail on my Too blog since that is the one with more of a "my craft" focus. But here's the short of it...

I will be sticking to a handful of styles and sizes. They will still be done in a wide variety of fabrics & no one will be exactly like the other...unless custom ordered otherwise. There will be a casual and more "dressed up" line, each with a small, medium & large size...but not one style in different sizes. There will be lots of embroidery, some button fun and some hand painting. It will take some time to load up the shop.

Soooo....

In the meantime - BIG SALE! I am taking everything that does not fit with the new redo and pricing them to go go go! Yes, I just want them cleared out to make room ...not so much for in the shop as for my storage area :) I will be repricing everything over the next couple days...it takes a long time with a 4 year old around. I'll let you know when the clearance sections are up & ready to be shopped!

Which reminds me...this is an area that the shops could use some changes in. It would be so helpful to be able to change listings while in vacation mode so when you can come back, everything is changed at once. Poof! Magic. Ok, so you can put all items as "inactive" with a vacation mode sounding shop welcome...but it'd be easier my way :)

Angel's Hair

I just love finding new blogs and artisans...and I've got another one for you.
She is french-malian artist Living in Brooklyn. She had a company,"Le monde de namate", which was a gallery, and an artist management company. Plus, she worked as a freelance personal coach in Paris. Her blog reflects on her life's journey - philosphical, artistic, spiritual, cultural & scientific. You can read her blog, Angel's Hair, here.

And don't forget about her artistic side. You can find her profile on Trunkt and her works for sale on Dawanda and Etsy. Here are just a couple of my faves:

visit Creative Bloggers and join in the bloggy fun!

Selling Venues Series: Advanced Search on Etsy

Etsy has a new advanced search feature (finally). I gave it a quick spin tonight and was rather pleased with the results. Although there is still a bit of back & forth that I had to do.

I started with the basic search on the front page for "puppet", handmade. This gave me 2,258 results (108 pages).



I then went to advanced search options and narrowed it down to handmade: toys: search in title, tag & description. There is a sort by feature where you can chose most or least recently listed, or priced high to low or low to high...I went with priced low to high (nice feature). You can limit a price range as well, which I did not.



This resulted in 562 results (27 pages).



I then narrowed the search, from the same result page, by adding NOT finger. This gave way too many results, 465 results (23 pages). I think it reverts to the basic search since I did not go back to the advanced search page.



So then I went to the advanced search page using the NOT finger. This gave me 323 results (16 pages) - much more doable.



It was a decent advanced search, but it would be nice if when the results were shown, the advanced search options were still available without clicking back to that page. And were they all hand puppets? No. But that is not so much the fault of the search, but that of the seller...and fault is too strong. There were quite a few I saw that having hand puppet in the description made perfect sense...not in the tags or title though, of which there were some.

Wanna see the goodies I found? Click here to go to the treasury post I compiled.

Etsybloggers Blog Carnival: Why Oh Why?

1) Etsy. What made you open a shop on Etsy? What do you like about being a seller on Etsy? What don't you like?

I am not sure I that I can say exactly what made me open shop on Etsy. It was a bit of a domino effect. It started when I made a bunch of handbags for Christmas gifts. They were quite well received and soon my family suggested I try selling them. The initial thought was craft shows...but I am not extremely outgoing when I am at the center of attention in a crowd of unknowns. So I did some research.

I decided that I would at least get the ball rolling legit wise. I filed all the necessary paperwork to make myself a sole proprietor of Tilt Creations. One of the books I had read mentioned online selling. I peeked at Etsy and was a tad overwhelmed. I wound up playing around on Craftster...which I still love to do.

I ran across a few sellers on Craftster and decided to take the plunge. I liked the appeal of online anonymity. I took some pictures. Researched pricing how-tos and compared to others in the market. Then I set up shop.

I have been open since September and sold 14 items. My first sale was to my aunt. She wanted one of my bags and wanted to "do it the right way". The next two were to Australia...I was astounded at the price of shipping. Then there was a trade, a Saturday Night Special giveaway and 6 were part of a custom order. All in all, not bad...but still can be discouraging when you see people selling similar things left and right.

I have plans to change things around somewhat. Partly because of what I don't like about Etsy - the gigantic number of sellers makes it hard to stand out...if not impossible. I have noticed that the more successful handbag sellers stick to one or three designs only. As much as I prefer to have my bags be all different from each other, I do see the necessity to scale back on the variety. I will be clearing out the bags I will not be making anymore, taking 2 or 3 designs to "mass produce" and only bring in OOAK designs bit by bit. Hopefully this balance will work better.

What do I LIKE about Etsy? The people...my teams. The overall layout and "slickness" of the Etsy set up is nice and appealing visually...but it is the friends that I have made that keep me there. Every time I am ready to throw in the towel they are there to encourage me back in...and they probably don't even know it...until now.



Thanks guys :)

Selling Venues Series: Searches

I have started doing the Search Feature portion of this series. I have highlighted 6 venues today with a coordinating treasury on my other blog. I did not want to go too easy, so I used Morning Coffee Soap for my search. I have noted the number of results of each search and any further searching that was needed to locate an item. Any advanced searching or filtering is also noted.

Etsy:
Search box: w/drop down menu for description, tag, title, seller name, vintage, supply…no “true” advanced search.
When you get your results, there is a filter results tip list on the sidebar
Sidebar search: by Category, Gift Guides, Showcases (at center top), Explore: Color, Treasury, Pounce, Shop Local, Time Machine, Editors Pick & at the bottom Recently Listed...and of course the hand picked Treasury on the Front Page


Input: “morning coffee soap” resulted in 1 page, 9 items
Note: they were all actual soap

Artfire:
Search box: Menu with boxes to check/uncheck for Handmade/Fine Art, Design/Media, Supplies/Vintage & Username plus an advanced search option
Sidebar Search: Browse by Category: handmade/Vintage, Design/Media, Supplies/Vintage – each with their own subcategories listed



Input: “morning coffee soap” in box with handmade checked resulted in 2 items Note: thumbnails here are larger than etsy
Advanced search: Member search; keyword box with “and” & “not; categories: the 1st 3 on simple search; price range min-max



Input: “soap” with and “coffee” not “art”…I was prompted to check a category, I chose handmade
Results: 39 items, 4 pages

Silkfair:
Search Box: shows you the number of items that will be searched…kinda cool
Sidebar Search: By color, Item browser, Categories, Top tags, Location



Input: “Morning coffee soap” in box resulted in Zero items…
Advanced/ Filter Results came up & I checked to research using title, description, tag: soap, coffee and Handmade.
note: you can reach the advanced search by clicking the downward arrow next to the original search enter/magnifying glass icon


Input: “coffee soap” resulted in zero before I realized I had to clear out the search box. Then I got 3 results.

WinkElf:
Search box: Shop by Store drop down, search word box, and drop down for Category
Sidebar Search: Shop by Trends and Shop by Category


Input: morning coffee soap in box resulted in Zero
Advanced search/Filter: Item search: keywords, item type, items listed in market &/or store, view results by, sort by; By location; By item number; By seller; By buyer; Store search (click pic to enlarge)


Input: keywords: “morning coffee soap”, included description, items listed in Market & Store resulted in Zero…until I realized you had to separate each keyword with an “&”…helps if you read the directions
Resulted in 3: one was a conditioner, one was an embroidered pillowcase and a baby blanket…hmmm…no soap, or coffee
The conditioner did technically fit into the category because one of the scents to choose from is “Chocolate Silk Frappuccino”

Crobbies:
Search box: drop down menu with Item, Description, Tag, Material, Colors, Seller. Advanced search link is right there also.
Sidebar Search: Browse by Category, By Tag, By Material, By Color (uses color chart) and By Price



Advanced search: keyword, tag, materials, color, search..along with drop down menu for where in the listing to look


Input (into simple search box): “morning coffee soap” with title, description, and tag resulted in zero
Search filter came up with narrow by category, tag, material, color or option and ability to uncheck search words

Then tried w/o the morning – resulted in zero Then only “coffee” – resulted in zero
Then only “soap” – resulted in 5 items, 2 of which were candles
Search by Bath & Body category gave 5 soaps – 2 were on last search, the other 3 were a gift basket with soaps and scrubs So…the search did work, there just are not many soaps on this venue yet
*Hint* Hint* for those who sell soaps…open market ready & waiting

Shop Handmade:
Search box: quick search for keyword with drop down menu for Everything, Handmade, Vintage or ReSupplies
Shop tab pulls up options for Colors, Craft, Audience, Galleries, New & Sale


Input: “morning coffee soap” with Everything resulted in Zero
Then “coffee soap” resulted in 6 coffee scented soap