Shopping for supplies

Today's post is by guest writer Sammi from Chavaneth

I am an avid handmade shopper. I have so many amazing things I have purchased online. This is my most recent treasure. A birthstone necklace from KneadtoPaint that includes birthstones for my kids and me.

I wanted to point out there is a whole other side of online shopping

that a lot of us don’t talk about. Supplies! I’m the first to admit Michael’s and Goodwill both know me on a first name basis. But I get at least 3 packages a week delivered right to my door.

Here are perfect examples. My greeting cards.

The fabrics are from the destash section of DREAMSSUPPLYSHOP and the vintage picture I got from an old children’s book purchased at BOOKISHKIND. We are one big happy handmade family!

There is not enough room to list all of my button purchases on this blog. But on this greeting card I used buttons from The Vintage Pineapple who also had them listed as destash.

Don’t be shy – it’s a great way to support other artisans and get the most original supplies for your work.

Sammi

You can visit Sammi's etsy shop here.

And you can follow Sammi on twitter.

Photography Props

We over at 2kute have decided to expand our kreations.
Now 2kute offers photography props.
Beautiful hats, crocheted by me, 2kute, for that newborn photo shoot.
I use hand spun, hand dyed merino wool.
This is the first one I made using this yarn.

It features a flower made using 100% cotton and some boa feathers. I added some beads to the center of it. Wouldn't your baby girl look stunning in her baby pictures?




Then I made a more plain one with a big advantage: it's reversible. Turn it inside out and voila, you have new textures and new mixture of colors.




Today I added a third one to the collection. Again, it's crochet, I made using merino wool, cotton and fancy fur.

I hope you have a minute or two to stop by for a visit at 2kutekreations.

Because not every princess wears a crown!

This week's guest writer is BOWquet. Let's show her some great support. Thanks!


My name is "E", or rather, that's what I prefer to go by. I've always been a bit of a tomboy, with part girly on the side. lol Black has always been my favorite color, until 2008, when I got pregnant with my daughter. When we found out we were having a girl, I went nuts with the pink. Dresses, dolls, pink, bows, shoes... took over our house! And I did not mind one bit! I knew I wanted a girly girl and I LOVED all the cute girly things. Her room is pink/white and anyone that sees it comments on how "pink" it is. I love it :) And the best part, she loves pink! I'm super excited to be expecting another baby girl, bows will take over our house!




Once my daughter was born, I decided that I wanted to make her own bows. Ideas started flowing and I'd make tons of bows daily. Being that I became a stay at home mom once she was born, I had tons of time to "work" on my bows. When my daughter was about 4-5 months old, BOWquet was born! :) My daughter then became my inspiration for bows. I would never sell anything that I wouldn't put on my daughter. If I end up making something and it does not pass my inspection, I don't sell it. As I've said, if I wouldn't put it on my daughter, then I don't sell it.


I have a "slight" obsession with ribbons. In fact, it's kinda taking over my house. My husband doesn't mind, he loves it when I make new bows. In fact, he is an artist, so we our nights often are spent w/ both of us on the couch, watching our favorite tv shows and creating our art. :) I'm so thankful to have my husband's support. I also have the support of my daughter. Anytime we are getting ready to go out, she asks for a bow. I love that she's my little model. Anytime we go out, she gets compliments on her bows. I love it!

As I've said, my daughter is my true inspiration for BOWquet. I love making bows, more than that, I love seeing my bows on girls. It always makes me happy to have little girls proudly display bows.

Thank you all for your support!

You can find Bowquet shop here.

You can find Bowquet facebook page here.

Crash Course on Twitter

This is an article written by Anna Pereira with great tips on how to use twitter to promote your shop.


Many of us are on Twitter either for our business, personal or both! (Personally I have a little of everything going on when I tweet)

For all Etsy sellers who are on twitter, you may or may not realize the value of it. It is a great tool to get your shop lots of exposure and lots of views to your items. It is like a big networking party where you shake lots of hand say hello to many people, but at the end of the day may or may not become more 'intimate' friends with other tweeters. I have been very lucky to have become 'real friends' on twitter through Etsy and twitter. What I mean by this is the same relationship you develop in the forums or on the teams - a sense of promoting each other and personal attachment to individuals through getting to know them - CAN happen on twitter :)

Ok let me start out for those who know nothing about it... Basically it's like text messaging for the world to see. However, you need to get people to follow you for you to get exposure or with hashtags or keywords you can be seen.

What's a hashtag? On twitter, commonly searched terms that are used like this #Etsy can be searched boy the globe of twitter users. So your tweet can be seen if you use hashtags. A typical tweet for me to send would be something like:
http://etsy.me/hHGwBv Received lots of views and featured in many treasuries. Would love to see it sold :) #LACWE #Etsynj #fashion #moms
I used #LACWE as it's our team and we can search and RT each other this way, #EtsyNJ my other team #fashion as it's a commonly searched word and #moms as it's commonly searched as well

What is that short link above? Once you set up your twitter and get into it - poke around you can't break it - you will see twitter links are short because best tweets are quick and short (My bad habit is long tweets) But that link leads right to the item I promoted. Tweetdeck automatically shortens my tweets or there are services you can use to shorten your tweet (Search google for these link shortening sites)

Once you have an account, make your profile as human as possible. If you are part of the handmade community, follow other handmade community members. A nice way to start building relationships on twitter is to follow someone, comment on one of their tweets (composed of by them, not a RT or ReTweet) and also RT their tweet. You will almost guarantee a 'follow back' from those Tweeters that have good twitter etiquette.

What is a ReTweet or RT? THIS is the big deal. As you are new to twitter and you are trying to build up your friendships, there is a fine line between shameless self promotion and promoting oneself with taste. Herein lies the golden nugget - You want to make friends on twitter so the established tweeters will ReTweet or RT your tweets giving your tweet exposure to many more people. You will understand better once you are in full twitter mode and start tweeting.

*IMPORTANT* Etiquette : Always thank anyone who has mentioned you or RT'd you. The BEST WAY to thank someone is to RT one of their tweets, their Etsy shop link with a comment or BEST OF ALL a link to a specific item in their store with your little 'Love it!' or something sweet like that. You will gain respect and friends by doing these things.

When people see you are active and have good etiquette, you will gain more followers, views, inclusions in treasuries, and sales. It is a lot of work! But worth it and something you can give as much or as little of your time too.


The numbers go way up for views but sales go up too! You will get many views and more sales but the ratio is skewed for the number of shop visits vs sales via using twitter than if you just let your shop sit on Etsy with no promoting at all. Maybe it takes 400 views to get the sale ... but you got the sale where you may struggle to get 30 views but on the 31st view you sell your item. It's massive exposure, which at the very least will increase sales but not through the numbers alone. Did I make sense there?

How can I make my tweeting life easier? There are services that can help you get organized. I use TweetDeck (Tweetdeck.com to download) You can schedule tweets and make columns to see at a glance important things. For example, I have a column for #LACWE and one for Lacwe team members so if they use the hashtag or not, I will see the members who I have added to my list tweets.

Another great service I use is Twitterfeed.com I have my shop, blog and many friends, who I support and who support me, RSS feed of their Etsy shop on there. ANYTIME they list a new item or relist an item on their shop, the item (usually no more than 2) is sent through that service and tweeted automatically for me!

Do you want to be added to my twitterfeed? Please follow me and I will follow back and DM me on twitter set up TwitterFeed and reciprocate ....

This is just a small taste of twitter. Once you begin, you will see the value. The key things are:
1. Remember, the world sees your tweet! Good OR Bad ... so make sure you say something you wish you could take back later
2. Use twitter to promote yourself as well as build relationships.
3. Thank and reciprocate on twitter will always lead to success
4. Building your account will be slow - FRIDAYS are a great time to pick up lots of followers.
5. Be as real a person as you can!
6. Make it easier by finding new ways to organize and stay social through my suggested links or a number of others.
7. If you shout out to people they will answer you! If you find someone interesting - say Hi! It really is a lot like text messaging on a global scale :)

http://twitter.com/AnnaPereiraEtsy
Follow me I follow back


Anna's shop is here

Meet the Mind Behind The Adventure Shop

My name is Michael Regina (also 2Kute's son in law!) and I love imagination. As a kid I took the daily after school wars against monsters and aliens very seriously! THANK YOU VERY MUCH! Eventually I channeled that energy into creating comics. It was an obsession that came out in 3rd grade, I started making my own books and spent the last however many years pursuing it...





In college I discovered painting and pursued it in the most traditional sense. I studied portraits and landscapes and all of the good things we're supposed to when learning to make art and be a good student. I really enjoyed it! But it seems that lifelong love for imagination... well... it's still an obsession.

I think I get more excited to go to Disney World more than my daughter does. I like going to museums because it reminds me of all of the adventure out there. The Lord of the Rings may as well be true and so help me, show me a starry sky and I spend all of my time pondering the greatness of the universe. I love adventure. I love imagination... because it let's the world be what it's supposed to be before everything got all messed up...




That's where the idea for The Adventure Shop came in. I finally started channeling all of that traditional painting experience into taking people on a great conceptual adventure. My paintings are there to remind us of a world and time we all once loved...And to remember there's still room for it in our lives today. The Adventure Shop is the embodiment of all of my passion and mind. It's just starting, but the journey is underway. And as Bilbo says in Tolkien's great classic: "It's a dangerous business, going out of your door. You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to. "

Thanks for reading. And I hope you enjoy my shop! :-)



Thanks Michael for such a great article!
You can see more of Michael's work here.
Michael has a facebook page and a twitter profile.

Spring Line of Baby Hats

Spring is just around the corner. I felt such a need to work with colors. I had been working with
gray, brown, black since last October.
So I decided to get my bright colors and start to design some pretty hats for wee little ones in colors that will be perfect for Spring/Easter.
I crochet using 100% cotton. What that means is that cotton is a natural fiber and it's not as warm as acrylic, which makes the hats lighter and more appropriate for the warmer weather.
You can wash them in your machine, using cold water and staying away from bleach. They will last longer if you just lay them flat on a bath towel to dry.

I had to start with yellow. Such a vibrant color. I would like to thank Photography by A Dennette
for this way 2kute picture.

Then I had to try some bright pink. I just love pink.

Of course I then decided to flip the colors around.

And I love blue. So I thought this color combo would look rather kute also.

I am still working on more, so just keep an eye out. These hats so far are available in two sizes, newborn to 3 mos and 3 to 6 mos. More sizes will be available soon.