Project Wonderful

I have added a Project Wonderful Ad Space to my blog. I wasn't going to.. but I figured this would be a good way to advertise for other Etsy Sellers too. Right now she is free, so I wanted to post to give anyone a chance that might follow my blog or stop in from time to time. I will most likely go out to the Etsy Forums later on and give away some first come first server type spots.

Get in there while they are free! (Not to mention help add some color to that eyesore on my page!)

I will update later on today with some pics of my painting for the art show, as well as a new line of necklaces that I am working on.

Shop Revamp

I updated my banner! I am trying once again to make my two shops a bit more alike, to ease the eventual transition into one store. Check out the new digs! I also took a slew of new photos the other day and finally got most of them edited and into my items. I also listed 3 new necklaces. I have to expand my jewelry items a bit more. My shop doesn't have a lot of variety in sizes and colors, and I feel that this could hurt my sales. I will work to add more items this weekend too.

I have been practicing the rings, but don't want to go too Wrapped Ring crazy until I get an official Ring Mandrel. It looks a tad unprofessional when my descriptions say, "It fits my pinkie finger nicely" haha. Also, I made an unrelated trip to a few craft stores on Wednesday and ended up spending $40 on new pendants, beads and buttons YIKES! Ah well, it will all be used some day.

I am entering a juried Art show in my area. (Hence the unrelated craft store trips) I need an 8x8 canvas...inches, not feet, and cannot find one anywhere. I usually make my own canvases but as I don't have any tools with me on the road and nowhere to store lumber and gesso, I must buy pre-stretched. I am making the journey to the museum today to buy one of the canvases that they offer for the show, and maybe pay my registration. - Of course I will update with progress reports once I get to start the painting!!

Here are some before and after pics from my shop redo.

Etsy ROADTRIP - Los Angeles Part 1

For my first Los Angeles Etsy seller, I would like to introduce franticmeerkat! I used to be sickly addicted to old books. I loved the pictures, the style of speaking and yes, the smell... and this shop simply reminds me of those wonderful books. The images created are not only super cool, but they are assembled with such a sense of humor that I cannot deny the giggles arising in my tummy. Franticmeerkat also has an Etsy store showcasing some of her super talented artwork so be sure to stop in there and check that out too!

There are just so many cards, magnets and prints available in The Frantic Meerkat that I could spend all day clicking each individual image and exploring franticmeerkats art. There truly is something for everyone in this shop. Check out what caught my eye from the start.

In case all of you (any of you) out there were wanting a fun and fantastic story about why I love these two images in particular, here you are: I, myself have partaken in the drunk waffles outing many a times. Of course that was in KY where Waffle House if king (2 years in Iowa without Waffle House was like being in Hell without water). I actually ate there one time and a friend offered to buy my whole dinner (after I had eaten it) if I chug the Tabasco. You know how that one ends. As for the Vespa image...well, I think that bicycles are neato and I always dreamt of someday moving to the Canary Islands and opening a Vespa rental shop. *sigh*

Go to franticmeerkats shop and buy all of her cards and magnets!

Etsy ROADTRIP - Tucson Part 3

For my final installment in Tucson, I have selected vella, proprietor of a fantastic Etsy shop that makes backpacks. These packs are created from some of the most dreamy, wonderful fabrics that I have ever seen. I am a fabric nut myself, although I am too cheap to collect it and too untalented to create things out of it. Vella's profile states that she is connected to each fabric that she uses to make her fantastic bags. (Connected in a Drawn to it, must have it, sparks fuzzy memories and thoughts sort of way, not a "the fabric told me to" sort of way)

I also must comment, before getting to the favorites, on the excellent, capturing manner of photography that is used to sell these awesome bags. The pictures of the bags could be sold as artwork in themselves. --jealous of photography skillz--

Anywho, here were my favs from vella's shop!

See what I mean? They are beautiful! Stop on in to see what fantastic piece might interest you!

Etsy ROADTRIP - San Antonio Final Installment

Etsy Creative CeramicaBotanica:

Ok, For our third and final seller of the evening, I came across CeramicaBotanica, a wonderul Etsy shop full of handmade ceramic pieces. CeramicaBotanica uses only food safe glazes to decorate her work, so all of that fashion is also chock full of function. Susan, proprieter of CeramicaBotanica has been creating with clay for 20 years, and most all of her work is a one of a kind piece of totally use-able art! I was attracted to the color and patterns, as she mentions that these are what inspire her awesome pieces.

The moment you have all been waiting for:

I am drooling over the green bowl. I decided (pre Rachel Ray) that I would do my kitchen in all green shades a little over 2 years ago. Of course at this time there were no green cookwares out there. I gave up and since I have been on the road the last year, now that Green is everywhere, I cant justify buying pots and pans when all I have is a very full car to lug them around in. I am so "hearting" this green bowl, and will have to check out this shop when I am stationary.

Etsy ROADTRIP - San Antonio part 2

San Antonio Seller cbtscloset:

For my second Featured Seller, I would like to introduce you to cbtscloset. CBT lives in San Antonio, and operates through Etsy as well as her own personal website. CBT creates funky and awesome works of wearable art using laser cut acrylic. I couldnt resist this seller when I saw the Rib Caged Heart Necklace. I am a fool for anatomy. You will also find pages and pages of retro (is 80's retro now... felling old) casette tape and keytar charms, unicorns, brass knuckles and too much more to list! Anyway, I am dying to show you my favorites so here goes:

cbtscloset also gives a shout out to her BF's shop in her Etsy profile, and I, being all about promotion, will take this opportunity to link up to that shop as well. (I must admit, in my search for Featured Seller, I also came across his shop by mistake and noticed that they were BF / GF Etsians! I must just have good taste! So go here too for cool stuff: nbscloset!!!

Etsy ROADTRIP - San Antonio

For the first installment of my Etsy Roadtrip I am going to start with where I am... San Antonio, Texas! I have found some great Etsy sellers from San Antonio that I am excited to feature. Take a moment to browse their amazing shops!

Etsy artisan - ElSol

My first featured seller is ElSol. ElSol is a husband and wife team that owns an Art Gallery in San Antonio. Their Etsy shop is filled with jewelry, ornaments, masks, and many other items that reflect a very cool Latino Folk Art feel. I fell in love instantly with the Dia de los Muertos masks and ornaments, and couldnt help but search through the rest of the store.

Here are a few of my favorites from ElSol:

Keeping it a family affair, ElSol not only is a husband and wife team, but they have Mom and Sister involved in our Etsy community too! Take a gander at these other shops too!!

Mom: manosmias.etsy.com and Sis: yemayadesigns.etsy.com

New Paintings

I have a couple of my old school style portraits done. I have painted them on wooden beveled plaques. I painted the wood black, then accented the bevel divots in brown, and flecked them in black. I then painted my characters onto a setting - style background and viola! I plan to varnish them and crackle the finish a bit to give it that old tin-type look, but being in a hotel I haven't found the opportunity to get to Lowe's and find a secret spot to apply the varnish coat. Once I put a clear coat on in Walnut or Honey... these puppies will look awesome. (They are a bit bright now, but will dull down just fine.)

Etsy Featured Sellers ROADTRIP!!

So as many thoughts and ideas of mine do, I had a brain buster in the shower this morning. Since I am traveling across the country, and dont know when I will stop or how long I will be gone, or when I will be able to retreive my belongings... why not make it all Etsy related?

So, I have decided to feature fellow Etsy sellers by location, as I pass through their lovely towns. Of course I will start with San Antonio, as that is where this leg of the journey begins. I have a few convos out there, making sure that I have permission before just throwing awesome items and amazing pictures up on my blog...but once I have the good go - ahead, your eyes will sparkle and your wallets will open for sure!

I want to feature at least 3 sellers from each locale, if possible. So here goes! Enjoy, and feel free to visit their awesome Etsy shops and spread the love whenever it moves you to do so. PS: My car is not yellow. This will be my E- Car.

Item Sold!

Well, I have to admit that the changes I have made seem to have paid off. Within 48 hours of said tweaks, I made a sale! I sold my lovely Tree Branch necklace. Sigh of relief. I am waiting on combining my shops as of now...due to the visual differences in the two shops. My NovembersMelon shop is just so fun and colorful and I cant see how to mesh that in with my jewelry unless I can get a whole lot of new product pictures and I just dont have any nice, colorful props for the jewlery, nor do I want to disctract from the necklaces themselves. Tough, I know.

Also, I might add some bracelets and earrings in the mix soon. It just depends on how long it takes me to get to California from Texas. YAY Sale!!! I was just so tickled I took forever decorating the envelope with tiny birds and colorful words.

Well, off to the post office for some speedy shipping. Always have to have that follow through!

GIVEAWAY!

Why not? As I said previously in a post, I would like to further structure this humble blog. I would like to do at least a monthly giveaway, and at least one tutorial per month to get the ball rolling. I need to boost my view power a bit too though. That is why I think that I am going to do my first giveaway as a referral format. (shameless self promotion...yes.)


The winner will receive their pick of any of my brooches or keychains from my Etsy Shop. Once I get a larger fan base, of course, I can afford to give away jewelry and art... I'm working up to it folks! Anyway, here are some of the brooches available if you are click - hesitant.

How to win: Refer friends to follow my blog! That easy. As I would like to get the most benefit from this idea of mine, I will allow several winners. For every TWO followers you refer, You can take your pick of my brooches or keychains and I will send em on out to you! This will go on from Today until Friday, March 6th. To collect your referral points (so I can keep track of them) just send me an email with the name of the newbie you sent my way.

Of course, if you are like myself, you might not be a huge fan of spamming your friends. If you just don't have any online friends that would be interested in my daily rambles, hang in there! I will run another giveaway in March!

My Plan to Boost Etsy sales

So I was looking at the old Etsy shop last night, wondering what else I could do to turn those few clicks I get daily into sales. I am a bit frustrated lately, but still trying new things. I know that I need to revamp the pictures a bot, and get in closer and add some better focal images and all that...but it is very hard to stage a good picture when all I have to work with is this hotel room. Not a lot to set up a picture with in a hotel room.

I have tried a few spots outside the room, in the walkways and such but still cant get it right. I have some cool props that I can use in storage, but 1000 miles away is a challenge. I will just have to let that part of my store rework wait.

So... in the past week I have completed the following:

• I have offered free US Shipping on everything in my shop (with the cookie sets as exceptions).


• I took the advice listed in one forum where the seller had sold 400 items in 9 months, and changed my even prices down 1 penny to the .99 cent mark.


• I renewed all jewelry items so they are grouped together in my store.


• I updated my banner and avatar to be more eye catching.


• I shortened my welcome message, and cleaned up my policies.


• I opened my Facebook Ad account, and have run that for almost a week... (not worth it in my opinion)


• I have been using Project Wonderful, and managing my bids to the best of my ability.


• I have my Blog linked up in a few places, with my Etsy button, Etsy Mini, etc. (as well as updating daily and trying to increase traffic the best way that I know how)


• I maintain a Facebook Business page, Myspace page, etc. featuring my Etsy items


• I contribute my items once a week to IndieSpotting.com

I just don't know what I am missing. I have a plan for next week though. I will begin to distribute my business cards. I will add photos of my shipping materials and packaging. I will plan out which photos need redone, and what I will use in them. I will redo the Welcome message and profile info to include a little more about me and my personality, rather than the more professional matter in there now. I will use MySpace and Facebook networking tools to broaden my friends base, and set up a schedule for updates using those tools. I will better structure my postings here in the old blog, including tutorials and giveaways. I have a lot to offer, but don't think that I am capitalizing on that as much as I should.

I am a bit handicapped this week, as I am preparing for the drive to KY, but once there, I will be on a farm in the woods, 10 miles from the city, and with nothing better to do than to improve my business.

Finished Tryptich

Aha. Complete. Problem I have now, is getting accurate pictures onto Etsy that show the piece, with minimal cropping. I am quite proud of how it turned out. I decided to go with $40, which is $5 cheaper than if I listed each canvas at $15. I still think this is under selling from a fine art point of view.. but as my crafty things cant really be considered fine art be any stretch of the word, I am comfortable with underselling for now. When I get my paintings out of storage, I will have a much beefier NovembersMelon site.

The close - up shots are of the binary code that I inked on there, to help fill up dead space. Dork, much? Yes, I concede.

Day 3 Facebook Ad..Facebook in general

So, in keeping with my schedule, today was Facebook day. I am now paying about 84 cents per click... Isnt it weird that 3 days in a row I have received only 9 clicks, (according to updated Facebook data) but I am not paying per click... I am paying per 1,000 images.


If anyone else wants to give it a go, here is the link.


I read about this from Alloverart's blog...and if you would like to check that out and read her experience, here is her blog: http://alloverart-nc.blogspot.com/ Thanks again to her for sharing the Facebook info.


Other Facebook stuff for you:
If you have an account, check this out. This young lady is taking turns interviewing, featuring, and displaying Etsy Shop owners work!