Featured Etsy Seller of the Day

Although Carol Beck's membership makes it seem as if she's an Etsy sophomore, don't let the date fool you. She's as new as a baby's bottom and began posting and selling just under a month ago. Carol's clever shop, Chim Chim, specializes in crocheted and needlepoint goods. Where did a name like Chim Chim come from? Her pet monkey? A nickname leftover from childhood? Try her beloved cat tha helps her crochet. It begs the question...Does her cat get a cut of the profits. Read about this Lawrence, Kansas etsyian and about what keeps her motivated to succeed.

So tell me a little about your shop and what you sell...

I love to crochet and needlepoint. Right now I'm on a crochet kick. I have a milliion ideas for patterns in my head - I can't crochet fast enough!

Why did you start selling on Esty?
Craft shows, although I love to do them, are limiting. There are only so many in my area. With Etsy, I can reach more people - even when I'm out doing something else or sleeping.


Is Etsy a full-time job or is it something you dabble in?

I'm dabbling but would loooove to make this my full time job. Of course when you work for yourself it is always more than full-time. But, if it is somethin I love to do then it isn't really "Work"

How do you keep yourself motivated to keep on selling even if times are slow?

I need to put these items someplace or give them away! Ups and downs in business are normal. I don't dwell on "lack" but what fun someone will have when they receive my hand-made item.


What medium to you use on Etsy? Mostly crochet. I do have my needlepoint patterns there too - and those are just pattern charts. I'm sure I'll be adding other mediums eventually. I've got all these ideas swimming in my head.

What are your biggest goals for 2010?

The biggest is to have Etsy as a full time job. I do really like the job I have, but selling everything I make on Etsy would be a dream come true.

What advice can you give to those who sign up for Etsy today?

EXPOSURE!! You've got to socialize, network, advertise and visualize success. I realize that can be hard at times, but that is what it takes.


What is your favorite item you sell in your store? Hmm... That is a tough one. Usually it's the one I'm working on at the moment.



What is your most popular (either by most views or most sales)? My mittens with the criss-cross design. I'm offering them now in team colors. Great for college students also.



What is your favorite shop on Etsy? Wow. That changes everyday I think. There are sooo many creative artists on Etsy. Right now it's either "The Whimsical Art World of Renie Britenbucher" or "Trinity Designer Jewellery"




To see more of what Carol has to offer, here's her info!

 www.etsy.com/shop/chimchim


email: carolaudreybeck@yahoo.com


www.carolbeck.com

A few more creations...

This weekend while I was feeling froggy, not only did I make that pillow for my daughter, but I made a white pillow for my son. I also made a diaper pouch and multipurpose folder. Aren't they cute. Tell me what you think!

xoxo Tiff xoxo

Getting to know your sewing machine

B is for Briley, that's good enough for me! Over the past couple of days, i've been feeling a little defeated and sorta bewildered at my diminishing relationship with my sewing machine. When my husband bought it for me this past christmas, I was beaming with hope at all the stuff I'd be creating like sewing a Louis V dress from scratch! Ya right! Little did I know how hard sewing could be at first. I wasn't completely new to the concept of sewing. I had attempted it in 10th grade and made  rather lopsided pillow case (in homec).But, I did get an A for my deformed pillowcase. I'd tried over the years.The problem is with sewing is that it takes a great deal of patience to hone such a craft. it also takes reading an instruction manual too! On top of that you might have to watch a youtube video or two before you get the technique down.

     After days of neglecting my instruction manual and trying to take shortcuts through machine operation, I gave up when my thread kept on breaking, my bobbin kept on tangling and my top thread kept on becoming a royal mess. I gave myself a few days to cool down and decided it was time to work things out with my sewing machine. I started watching videos on youtube.I also read through my instruction manual and found that every single problem i was having wasn't because i had gotten a defective machine. Each and every problem I had encontered was not only fixable, but avoidable for the most part if i took the time and patience to fix the problem at the beginning. You know that saying "a stictch in time saves nine?" It's so true. For the first time in my life, I understood what it meant. And as a result, me and my sewing machine were able to reconcile our differences...especially after I admitted "it's me, not you." Follow our make up, I was able to construct the first real thing I could be proud of

A mongram pillow for my daughter.

It was simple too.

I found out that I have this insane love for the zizag stitch. That is what I used in this patchwork pillow. I think seeing the stictchs gives it that kind of boho look. I took an old pillow that had been washed too many times and rid it of it's stuffing. I think sewed the scrap patches together. I used an old rice cloth for the backing.  I sewed them together and voila! My cute little monogram pillow was born for little briley.

enjoy

xoxo tiff xoxo

Happy Birthday Man!

Last Tuesday was my husband's birthday. It was the first quiet birthday in a long time. Instead of doing it big, I did it simple by making him this single layer cake that i cut into two pieces and made into a small double layer cake. He really liked the fact that his birthday cake fit on one plate. It made him feel extra special. This is my double chocolate delight (considering that Chris is a chocoholic, it worked well for him).

that cake looks good even after it's already gone. I hope that you are all choosing to live vicariously through me at this moment.

xoxo tiff xoxo

Catching Up

These posts will span a couple of days. I'm making up for lost time. My committment was to blog every single day come hell or high water. Well, hell or highwater came this last week so I'm forced to make up for all the lost time so I can still feel as if i've kept my end of the bargain. Don't worry.  i haven't forgotten about my featured Etsy seller of the day. More of that to come. PROMISE.

xoxo tiff xoxo

Network Issues

As many of you know (who follow my blog), I promised that I would try and feature at least 5 etsy sellers a week. No sooner had a said that did I begin to experience network issues...right after I changed my blog layout...and couldn't fix it. But I just want to say that that promise still stands and I STILL will be featuring an etsy seller 5 times a week. Please stay tuned while I clean up the mess I made. For all of you that craft, it was like  starting sewing or painting and my child cried and I couldn't clean up the mess for a few days. Thank you for your patience.

xoxo Tiff xoxo

I had the wonderful opportunity to get to know Amber Kane of Fabricated Trends, an etsy shopped based out of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. This art teacher doesn't just spend all of her time teaching the misspent youth. She divides her time between the classroom and her beloved studio, Village Artisan's Gallery in Boiling Springs, PA. When she's not in the classroom, she spends her time making unique scarves, with her signature style being the "flair" scarf.

So tell me a little about your shop and what you sell...

I sell all handwoven scarves. I am hoping to expand and include tablerunners, but have not yet had the time to make them.

Why did you start selling on Esty? I first began just making scarves for myself, but soon had more then enough and people at work were always asking me to make them scarves, so I decided to begin making them and selling.

Is Etsy a full-time job or is it something you dabble in? Etsy is something that I dabble in. I am a full time art teacher and in grad school. I greatly wish that I had more time to dedicate to etsy. Over the summer when I have off from teaching, I try to put a lot of time into creating inventor for my etsy shop.

How do you keep yourself motivated to keep on selling even if times are slow?
Motivation for making isn't a problem for me. Getting to spend time in my studio is rewarding, and something that I just love doing.

What medium to you use on Etsy?
All textiles.

What are your biggest goals for 2010?
I would like to greatly increase my sales on etsy this year. I sell a lot to people that I know, but have yet to have many sales on etsy. I also have a goal of participating in at least two shows this year, which I recently lined up, and now must create the work.


What advice can you give to those who sign up for Etsy today? You must be patient and not get frustrated. I also like to take time to look at the shops that are doing well, and see what they have in their shop that I don't. I have worked hard at improving my photo quailty.


What is your favorite item you sell in your store? My flair scarves. I love wearing these, and never fail to get a compliment. They dress up an outfit and just make me feel pretty and feminine.


What is your most popular (either by most views or most sales)? My flair scarves.


What is your favorite shop on Etsy?

http://www.etsy.com/shop/dbabcock


etsy shop:
http://amberkane.etsy.com/
blog: http://fabricatedends.blogspot.com


Thank you

Pottery was my first love, and this shop has some really wonderful unique pieces.

Featured Etsy Sellers

Starting tomorrow, I will be featuring at least one etsy seller a day where I ask them Coco's top 10. 10 questions....same questions. I am really excited about this. I've recieved pretty good feedback and excitement about the features to come. But, I'm still seeking more interviews (and waiting on some to come in). It's really interesting to learn about Etsy sellers and why they chose Etsy. Maybe one of these days, I'll feature myself. Stay tuned for these Etsy sellers and if you have anyone you would like to see, please let me know.

Tomorrow, I will be featuring Amber Kane...an art teacher with a mean love for nice scarves...

xoxo betty xoxo

You can Now Leave Comments

If you've been trying to leave comments and haven't been able to????.....that's my bad. I forgot to enable comments. so now, comment away!

Up Bright and Early: Popovers anyone?

For this recipe go to: http://redvelvetgirls.typepad.com/emma/2009/11/my-grandmothers-favorite.html#comments
For Red Velvet Art go to: http://www.redvelvetart.com/


This morning, at 5am I awoke to the blaring of my husband's phone alarm and telecast of Haiti updates. Usually, I roll over and go back to sleep with my 2 month old infant. But this morning, she woke up a bit ahead of schedule. I fed her and laid back down and to my astonishment, could not fall back asleep. After staring at the wall for another 30 minutes, I went in the kitchen to concoct some sort of quick breakfast for myself and the fam. My husband was lazily lounging on the couch cackling to Joe Dirt while my daughter hung off his arm as if she were riding a thrill ride. 

While searching the internet for a quiche recipe, I remembered Emma's recipe from her blog for Popovers and thought, "why not take a shot."  And, boy did I take a shot!

It turned out great. Thanks Emma for that wonderful post. They were delicious.

According to other commenters on her blog, it's usually eaten with a roast dish of some kind. I chose to eat it with breakfast. It has a very simiplistic but complimentary flavor that I think could go with breakfast, lunch, or dinner. The recipe is really simple. Go HERE to get the recipe.

I might also include that Emma is very much so a puzzle piece of my guilty crafter pleasure, Red Velvet Art. You should check out their site here. I guess you could say I'm a crafter stalker...hehe

Got the Goods together.

which happily included some bacon! I eat meat and

I'm proud of it.

watched the popovers bake in the oven! DUDE, i wanted to open

it so bad.

cooked the eggs...

This is the final delicious product....

And the satisfied customer!! Kids are the best

critics sometimes.

xoxo betty xoxo

Got Scraps?

If you've got fabric scraps and don't know what to do with them, this blog post is perfect for you because it will teach you how presentation will separate your scrap listing from the rest.

                                                       

Featured Shops in this blog are:

southern belle designs

starlit nest

Many of you, like myself, frequent Etsy on a daily basis; if not to monetize, solely to be a shopper. I double as both. I buy scraps for my crafts and turn around and sell my creations furthermore supporting the true nature of Etsy. What I have found is that Etsy is probably the best spot to find quality designer scraps. But what I've noticed is that some sell while others stay listed for a good while without one sale (to my knowledge). Over the past couple months, I have examined the scraps that I have picked as my favorites and the ones that I choose to just leave alone. The main thing that separates scraps that I buy from scraps that will stay listed are presentation.

So, lets start from the beginning. You've been sewing for a few weeks and have accumulated scraps that your probably not going to ever use. What to do now? You've got a few options. You can throw them away. However, that's not really the best option because that would be plain wasteful. You could also give them away. That would be generous. But, not all of us want to be THAT generous. So you decide, "hey, why not sell them!"

GREAT...

So you decide to sell your scraps. Whether their designer or not, you've got to make your presentation perfect so that it can attract some buyers. If you follow these steps, your presentation will be spot on. My example photos are going to come from a Etsy seller who, just today, I recieved fabric scraps (or she described them LEFTOVERS).  Southern Belle Designs is a store that specializes quilts and totes. Use her layout as a guideline.

1. Have a photo shoot.

Have a photo shoot. Take lots of pictures at different angles that you can use. Don't just settle for one picture and call it a day. plan on having at least 5 good pictures that you can post on Etsy (try to use all 5 photos allowed per post). take pictures of how much fabric the buyer is going to get. Pre-bag the fabric if you have to. But make sure your able to show how much the buyer is going to get so they have an idea. A lot of times, the sellers just show pictures of the fabric itself thrown in one big scrap pile. DO NOT DO THIS. it doesn't look organized. Put it in a bag. But make sure that if it's bagged, you leave a note at the bottom of the post saying "ACTUAL FABRIC MAY VARY FROM PHOTO ABOVE."

Star Lit Nest is another Etsy seller who does a great job of presenting her fabric.  She almost ALWAYS includes:
Fabric Designer
Fabric Amount
Type of Cut
Delivery Container etc...

2.  Give an ACCURATE description of what the buyer is going to get. 

As stated above, this is paramount to get a sale of scraps. Starlit Nest Always includes the following (again as stated above):
1. Fabric Designer: "The fabric scrap pack includes Amy Butler, Micheal Miller, etc."
2. Fabric Amount: "You will recieve approximately 8 oz of fabric the equivalent of 1 yards of fabric."
3. Type of Cut: "The fabric will be cut in 5'' squares" or "Most of the fabric is irregular shaped."
4. Delivery  Container: "The fabric will be packaged in celophane" or "The fabric is packaged as seen above."

Include ALL four of those elements.

take another look at starlit nest's description:

3.  Fold the fabric!
I can't tell you how many times I've not clicked on a listing because the fabric looked thrown together. If you fold the fabric or at least take a shot of the fabric folded neatly, this looks a lot better than a whole bunch of scraps thrown on a table.


4.  Show Fabric Samples

Although you may have listed in the description "Fabric may vary from pictures," show pictures of fabric that they will most definitely get in the package. You can put "SOME fabric may vary from photos depending on studio scraps remaining."

5.  Use creative packaging. 

I know that a lot of people bag it in celophane. Why not tie a ribbon around it and include your card. Tie twine. Southern Belle Designs used a ribbon and packaged it in tissue paper when she mailed it to me. That was GREAT! I felt really special when I got this and left her good feedback because it was excellent. Take a look at the fabric as it arrived from Southern Belle Designs.

A Day of Promoting

Today has been a pretty stand up day. In between my duties of being a mother of two and wife to one (since polygomy is illegal), I've been trying to promote my new etsy shop. I'm happy to say that I have 7 sales. That's good considering that I posted less than a month ago. My initial goal was to get one sale for the month. But I forgot that it's alright to sell to your friends which is what I did. I didn't have to do as much convincing as I thought i would. Anyway..back to promoting--

While I was a-promotin' on etsy, I saw that a lot of people were recruiting people to write articles on their blogs about. I got an idea....

Why not make it a point to promote at least one etsy seller a day with one feature article a day. I thought that would be fun and actually give me a chance to get to know the people that I'm selling with. I'm such a huge fan of etsy and what it has and is doing for a lot of people out there. It makes startup costs low and very manageable for small businesses to pick up and go. Promoting is so easy and great. It's so great to hear about etsy shops that started out small and ended up blowing up.

So, stay tuned for my advertisement banner. My goal is to write about 5 articles a week (I need my weekends). If you're a follower and would like to be put on the list for feature articles, let me know and I will be more than happy to  put you on the list.

xxoo Betty xxoo

Etsyians In My Corner: Co-Promotion is Great!

For those of you who are relatively new to etsy, (which includes me), I've found that they do a lot in their closenit community to promote one another. Whether it be through their forums, good sales, or just mutual love of the art of handmade craft, being partners with another etsy seller can be a very advantageous thing. Over the past week, I have made it my goal to begin promoting not only myself but other etsians. While browsing through the endless list of "promotion" forums, I came across this post for "you promote me, i promote you." Now, I'm all about reciprocity. So, even if some of these people don't promote, it's all good. At the very least, these people below will get some hits on their sites. Some of these, I've gotten a chance to take a look at. Some of them, I'm still browsing. Now the one's I've gotten to take a look at, I'm going to leave a small note. All of them are really very good. So, if you can, take a look at all that you have time for.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/lostriverrags

Cute and good enough to eat soap. It's really very nice. You need to check out this site. This is the one who posted the great thread and the first shop that I actually had a chance to look at. I really handmade soap. Not only is it handmade, but she/he offers organically made products which requires a lot more time and patience. Take it from a fellow soap maker.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/CliqueDaCour

Clique Da Cour based out of Tampa, Florida has really beautiful and unique apparel. It's well worth the trip to the facebook site and facebook fan site. Just search by the name. The style is really just as unique as the name.

http://bringyourownbody.etsy.com/

Haha..didn't really get a chance to take a long look. But it's all in the name. lol.  Take a look.

http://straycatfarm.etsy.com/

Oh my gosh...such cute creations. The banner attracted me to Stray Cat Farm for sure. But the knitted goods are fantastic with a bit of stitch work in there...or at least it looks like stictch work to me? :)

http://2muchyarn.etsy.com/

2muchyarn has an array of knitted goods as well. Its sooooooo cute. From hats and assorted colorful headgear, it's great. I'd reccommend if your a lover of knitted goods, check out this lady's site. it's well worth the trip.

http://artboxdesigns.etsy.com/

Just added. Not a real chance to look. Colorful though.

http://famaradesigns.etsy.com/

Not a chance to look. so do me a favor and check it out for me!

xxoo Betty xxoo

I just love promoting!!!