Etsy for Everyone

When there is a lull...

If your shop is quiet - take the time to branch out. Learn a new skill, come up with a new design, think up new products.

A) It is tremendous fun, B) more skills are always a plus, C) you might attract customers that you didn't "catch" before.

I have mentioned before that eventually, DIY kits and greeting cards will enter my store. Everything is here and prepared, but... I am still swamped with custom orders, and I got a new toy. :)

I broke the bank on a new sewing/ embroidery machine, a Singer Futura CE 150. It is gorgeous. Please note that I have never really worked on a machine... I basically only sew by hand. Embroidery machine? Have only ever seen the end result and been impressed.

So not only do I spend 800 Euros on a new machine, purely based on forum reviews, I also don't waste time embroidering bought patterns but immediately start stitching my own designs, made in Embird. And I am loving it!

Plan for tomorrow: photo session. I gotta add all those critters that haven't been listed yet, plus addition glass stuff, plus possibly some first embroidered keychains and stuff.

Silence...

I am busy... wholesale and custom orders, possibly finding a new job for July, trying to decide what else to do, and spending money. Not the smartest thing to do... but I fell in love with a combined sewing and embroidery machine.

So as of tomorrow, I will be even busier - playing with my new toy.

Expanding your product line

When I look at my shops, I see fused glass and sock critters. Yes, I have also done SockPods (iPod covers), nursery art, glass art. But let's be honest here, it is all a higher price point. I think the cheapest would be my SockPods (at $18) and my magnets.

During that fair last weekend, I noticed one thing - I need to offer lower price points. Impulse buys, something people can take without having to think about it. Especially for the sock critters, since those are "occasion" products - you need to have a reason to buy them, as a gift, communion, birthday.

So what's next?

Next fair, I will also have buttons, greeting cards, and DIY kits. The greeting cards should be easy enough - blank cards, photos of my Etsy images, spray glue. Buttons as well - same images, and I happen to have an unused button machine. Could make those into magnets as well, considering that I also have glue and, well, magnets.

DIY kits will be the biggest challenge. How to package? What to include, how to get the instructions done correctly, how much content needs to be prepared? That will be a project for next month, when I actually have the time.

Right now, I am swamped with dayjob (my last week before vacation and then unemployment, though), wholesale orders and custom nursery art.

So go take a look at your products. Do you have impulse buy items? Where do your prices start? Are there logical extensions of your current products?

"Craft" fair disaster

I will post pictures of my table as soon as I find my card reader...

But what a disastrous day! :) I actually sold... nothing. Well, nothing and a necklace 5 minutes before the end.

Lessons learned:

• my stuff is for big cities, not the countryside where handmade still means "stuff that grandma used to make"
• the real money is in overpriced pyramid-system franchises with 600% markup - Tupper, cleaning solutions, crappt "designer" jewelry, tea
• my critters need an "occasion" - so it helps handing out cards, because maybe next time they have a communion, they'll think of me.
• I would have sold cards and DIY kits like mad... but I didn't have them.

Not all is lost, though. I made great friends with a booth next to me, who was pure brilliance - combination of handmade and retail, has her own shop in a similar set-up as my planning, been doing it for a while... a wealth of information.

I already have an order for two websites, two custom nursery art pieces, know of 3 other orders that will arrive eventually, will possibly do a craft/ art fair in central Hamburg in June, will possibly sell on commision in a great shop in Hamburg, and I have hundreds of new ideas.

So my Etsy shop will be quiet for a while, because this is the perfect time to professionalize what I make, and think about the direction I want to take. And as much as I love Etsy, the real money is to be made locally.

I also got confirmation that I am actually good at craft fairs. I can get the people interested, telling them about the process is a great help, and they did like what I made... just the missing occasion was the problem.

Last post before the craft fair

I figured where else could I stress about my upcoming craft fair, if not on my blog? :) My shops are already on vacation, since I really needed a day to get my stuff packed and ready.

The Aanraku bails didn't make it in time. Teaches me to order from China instead of the US, idiot that I am. So I have less pendants than I wanted to take along... but still enough. The glass art turned out well enough, happy with that - all wrapped and ready to go.

Nursery art will be limited to 4 pieces, since I just couldn't paint enough on time. Happy with those four, though. They are drying till tomorrow and will be wrapped then.

I have app. 100 Artfusing and 150 Strumpfkunst business cards. Still need to either find or buy a stamp pad, just in case I run out of cards. 2000-3000 visitors... but they aren't explicitly coming for a craft fair. It is actually an open day, so there will be loads of other local businesses and not that many artists, as far as I know - and people are mainly there to stock up on plants for their garden on a Sunday, have a piece of cake, mingle...

Additional pins to switch pendants: Check.
Tape: Check.
Table Cloth: Check.

Still need to prepare a basic info sheet, send that to my mom to print it. Bring along a frame. Still need to pack the canvas holders. Brought 50 Euros in small coins along, since many of my prices end on a 9. Prepared price tags, have enough along to rewrite. Have red stickers to indicate that item is sold (if people want to pick it up before leaving instead of immediately.) Found the pretty boxes that I want to use to add some height/ depth to the table. Made the thank-you present for the hostess, so to speak - the table only "costs" me a cake, so I figured I'd make her a tiny nursery art with a felt donkey - she has a donkey herself. Still gotta check if my second battery is loaded, otherwise need to find station - no camera, no fun. I want to dazzle you with my improvised craft table, don't I?!

Does it sound like I am stressed, by the way? :)

Moo discount

You know I am always raving about my Moo business cards. I use the ones that are half the size of a regular card, can be printed with 100 different images on one side, and look just great. Hear me rave here, and here.

Want to try them out?

If you haven't used Moo before, you can use the discount code 6TAG8U on your first order, valid till May 29th, giving you 20% off any 1 Moo product. Don't need business cards? Check out their postcards or sticker books, both great as well.

Always carry business cards

On Monday, I went to the post office to mail stuff out. Took a cab because I was running late. And I always talk to cab drivers. So we started talking about what I was mailing out, he told me his wife was thinking of starting an online ebay and shop baby boutique, I gave him my Moo card.

Two days later, I had a first wholesale order from her for 10 sock bunnies.

Talk about what you do. Have cards ready, showing what you make. WHich is why I love Moo cards - the display more than one example, are pretty, don't get thrown out that easily.

And I am one step closer to selling more locally... and wholesale. Which is essential if I ever want to start doing this full-time.

Craft fair stress

• Mini canvas holders - ordered and arrived
• Glass canvasses - working out well
• Table cloth - ordered
• Aanraku bails - STRESS! Ordered 2 weeks ago, need to be here before Thursday
• Jewelry holders - ordered

Still need to

• Paint nursery art (critters are all done and ready)
• Prepare info sheet (print, laminate)
• Find cheap plastic bags (grocers?)
• Make a list of everything that I have forgotten so far

Am I stressing? Slightly. Especially since I could have done so much preparing if I had known this was coming up DURING my vacation, and not right after it. Back to my (real, paid) job now.

Craft fairs, anyone?

Every year, my dad has an art show in a local garden supplies shop. Gorgeous greenhouse, upmarket visitors. So he came up with the great idea to have me there the week before his show, when they are having an open day with crafters and artists.

My dad's idea, but my mom went off and pimped me - taking a prepared fact sheet along so they could see what I make.

Bottom line: I will be doing my first craft fair. In one week. Can you tell I am stressing right now?

Luckily, I attended the Virtual Labs speech from the Summit of Awesome last week, talking about craft shows.

There is no way I can get a professional stand done in time, but here is what I will do:

• Get the table measurements from my dad.
• Prepare a sheet to cover table.
• Get white wicker baskets or something for my smaller critters.
• Prepare cork board with pins for the pendants.
• Prepare magnet board for magnets.
• Bring along some boxes that can be covered and create height on table.
• Prepare board with basic info - name and website, to stand in the back.
• Bring along business cards.
• Update websites for German customers.

I can't practice beforehand, since the table is at my parents. I have no clue if any of this will work out - this will be the first time for me. And even worse, I only heard now, on the last day of my vacation... so I will actually be working all of next week.

Want to be featured with your craft fair display? Then send photos to info@strumpfkunst.de, and see yourself on my next craft fair post!
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Creating a website with Typepad

I have always been happy enough to work with Dreamweaver when making websites, but to be honest, I have switched over to TypePad altogether.

Let me be honest - it is neither cheap nor easy, but once it is set up, it is so much easier to maintain than a regular website. If you have no clue what HTML is, probably read no further - it will sound confusing, If you want to learn some coding, this might be a fun project.

As for costs - I needed a Typepad plan to allow for adjusted CSS to get the most out of it, which means I pay 13$ a month for unlimited blogs - and I have most of my sites on Typepad already. I could do it all without external hosting, but since all my domains are with someone else, I do have some hosting there as well.

Maybe some background first. Generally speaking, a website consists of HTML, a fairly simple programming language. There are numerous editing tools out there that pretty much mean that you never need to touch HTML to get a website done.

With Typepad, you cannot actually change the page HTML, but you work with a template, defining up front how certain parts of the site will look. CSS uses so-called tags, saying "text of header is 12pt" for example. CSS means you need to have some skill in reading and adjusting the code.

Here is how my latest project, SeeBetsy.com, was done (based on template "Minimalist White" three columns):

Adjust CSS

• Start a new blog
• Choose a template where you like most aspects, like font, size, colors
• Open blog to view page source
• Find CSS, open that in a new window - copy all template CSS into Word
• Find and rewrite the tags that need to be changed, like banner image, colors, etc.
• Take the adjusted CSS tags (keeping the order) and place into Custom CSS of your weblog.
  
• Play with this till you like the result
  

I always copy the original CSS into Word, then "track changes" while I start rewriting the aspects I do not like. I usually try to keep the width of columns, banners, and modules, because it is a pain to change all of those.

When you want to add your own images, banners, etc, you can always upload them to Typepad first, then refer to them in the code - I upload to my own hosting, though.

Create pages

Typepad won't only let you create posts, but also pages. I always make sure that comments and trackbacks are turned off there. Plus I first enter one single word into the title, then save, then change it - it means that the actual .html will be home.html and not welcome-to-my.html, for example.

Typelists

Almost everything I do on the site will be done in Typelists (Notes). Typelists are your friend! They mean that you can use regular HTML to create your own customized modules. Here's how I did it:

• Keep the blog's column widths in the back of your mind
• Create images in Fireworks (i.e. navigation left)
• Upload to server
• Make a table in Dreamweaver with all images and links
• Copy that table HTML code into Typelist
• Activate content - preview

SeeBetsy.com uses the following Typelists:

• Navigation left: Table with images, linked to pages or external sites (in a new window)
• Top right travel status: That is actually a table with a background image, so I can easily change just the text in the Typelist to allow for updated status. Fiddled around in Dreamweaver to get the spacing right, then copied complete Table HTML.
• Right Twitter & Feeds: Again a simple image with a link, prepared in 
• Betsy's Favorites: Simple Etsy mini javascript into a Typelist, displaying seebetsy.etsy.com's favorite items - all sellers that will host her eventually.
• Statcounter: The counter code is an invisible module that is added to the bottom.

Arrange and re-write content

This is why I love Typepad - I can easily arrange my prepared modules until I like the site's look. Doing this in Dreamweaver would take a while, and whenever you work with tables in a page template, there is a chance of messing up the whole layout.

With Typepad, I only drag the modules to where I want them, add some of TP's modules (like the recent posts or archives), possibly a widget - and I am done.

If I want to change content on a page, I only go to Typepad and make my changes, then publish again - instead of opening Dreamweaver, adding content, uploading through FTP...

Some hints

• Typepad will usually display the name of the module. If you don't want that, just name the module <!-- NAME --> - it then won't display the title.
• Using links in your navigation, link to home.html instead of the complete domain - this will ensure that the original domain name is displayed instead of your Typepad URL.
• When you are stuck, google CSS and HTML help - I can't remember all those tags and rules, either.

Any other questions? Give me a holler. I am anything but a CSS or HTML expert, but I know just enough to get my sites up and running.

Strumpfkunst.de will soon be redesigned as well; right now, both SeeBetsy.com and ArtFusing.com are done as a Typepad blog.