Week 4 - back on the horse!

Phew - a busy last few weeks (more about that in a future post!) has got in the way of me updating the blog but catching up now and to make it up I've decided to do some double weeks i.e. at least two posts for the next few weeks till I'm back on track!

This week I decided to get on top of updating my Folksy shop. This meant working my way through all my stock checking what I have and re-listing items that I had previously sold so they were available again. I've still got a few listings to put back up but currently the shop is now up to 76 items! This also means I now have a list of all the stock I need to photograph to then make up new listings for. this list currently sits at 92 items so busy times ahead again, just hope the sun holds out for a wee while to help me get some clear pictures.

I need to do the same with my Etsy store, my aim is to maintain both at over 100 items as this will increase my visability to people searching the sites. And I also want to get started on listing some of my t-shirt designs on both sites within the next few weeks and work on some new products. Some of the items I've updated listings for are shown below:

The last few weeks too have seen a big increase in the number of custom order requests I've had in, a lot of them for weddings. I love working on custom items, I'll show some of the recent ones in a future post too.

Personalised scribbling

So December was a busy month with a lots of people buying items for Christmas, I ended up spending most of it getting items made for custom orders and to replace sold stock, so much so that I didn't get my own Christmas shopping done till the 23rd! For quite a bit of the month my workspace resembled a crayon factory as my packs of personalised crayons were popular gifts and just about my biggest seller of the month. I'm actually quite glad for the end of the Christmas rush so I can stop dreaming about coloured wax letters!

So we're a little of the way into January and I'm excited about getting new stock photographed and up online, also about a few new lines I'm working on so stay tuned!

Folksy Friday - Martial Arts

Straight after listing my martial arts magnet set on Folksy I saw a great ninja note book (fiona t's below) that had just been listed too so I was inspired to make Martial Arts my theme for this week's Folksy Friday. Fiona does a number of different notebook designs, and they're on my wish list now!

Three Folksy finds!

Since setting up my shop on the uk based handmade marketplace Folksy last month I've discovered a whole collection of talented crafty peole and developed quite a long wishlist of things I'd like to buy! So far I've restricted myself to three things that I saw and fell in love with...

My first purchase was this wee soap set from Bits N Bobs, they're so realistic! I had to justify this to myself as something I could buy and give as a gift to someone so I'm waiting for some birthdays to come round (hopefully not of anyone who reads my blog!). This seller also makes a really cute haribo style soap set and sent me a wee sample soap with my order which smells amazing!

The second thing I bought was this lovely necklace from Crafty Little Mia who makes a variety of things including button based jewellery, illustrations, fine silver jewellery as well as her own fabric designs. The necklace I bought has a wee button pendant on it made from fine silver clay which is a material you can mould and once fired, finished and polished has a higher silver content than sterling (around 99%). I love this necklace and it's going to get lots of wear!

Lastly, just today I bought this postcard set, it's from an illustrator called Elli Moody who I discovered though the Folksy forum. There was a thread on the forum with people recommending shops that they loved, I clicked and found this one and the chicken postcards just jumped out at me. I love the style of illustration used throughout the items in this shop and almost wish I was moving house so I could use her new address cards!


I think this is the one downside of setting my shop up - just finding so many things I want to buy and having to rein myself in constantly!

Personalised pendants

I've been meaning to list these for a while now (since I had my giveaway) as there seemed to be a good response them. The basic idea is you can have a picture that means something to you made into a keepsake pendant. It is something that is quite popular in North America but I haven't seem much over in the UK, in fact I had to buy my supplies from the States so I hope they prove popular!

The pendants are approx an inch square and I finish the backs with fabric and a thick resin coat to proect the picture itself, make the bail secure and to give a water resistant glass-like finish to the back to match the glass tile front.

I'll need to see how the choice of necklace types goes down, it's hard when listing items to know how much information to include and whether to just do a standard item or give people choices. With this item because it is customised I'm hoping people appreciate the option of chain/necklace types and colours, so it is more personal to them. But it means that it requires a bit more interaction between me and the customer after their purchase so I'm sure I'll have to iron out how this works best.


Leave me a comment to let me know what you think and what you could see peole doing with these. Of my giveaway winners, one was on holiday so is looking out their photo for me now, the other I'm in the process of making her necklace, I'll post up a photo when it's done!
Anyway you can find my personalised necklaces in my shop (click here)

Personalised pendant giveaway!

My facebook fan page reached a milestone of 200 fans this weekend so to mark the occasion (if it can be called that!) I'm running a wee giveaway for two of my personalised photo pendants.

The winners just send me a digital copy of the picture they'd like on the pendant (it could be a photo, a drawing done by your child, anything that you like really) and I will produce a customised glass tile pendant with their choice of chain, ribbon, velvet or coloured silk necklace. You can see an example of the pendants below, these ones were made with fabric but the same process is used for pictures, they are about an inch square and made from crystal clear rounded glass tiles.

How to enter - to enter all you have to do is visit my shop (here), and then add your comment below telling me which item in the shop is your favourite.

There's a few ways you can comment here, beneath the comment box there's a drop down box entitled "comment as". If you have a google mail account you can select that, else you can select 'name & url' or 'anonymous'.

IMPORTANT - However you comment do it be sure to leave me your email address, or other form of contact so I can get in touch if you win!

Deadline - Comment before 12 noon on Sat 6th of March to enter, then I will select two winners using a random number generator site. Remember to leave me your details so I can get in touch if you win, and good luck!

I'm also planning to have some offers and discounts soon that are available exclusively to my facebook fans so visit my page here if you want to get involved.

First week on folksy and fabric

So my shop's been open a week and in that time I've made one online sale and six offline sales from people who'd seen the items on it, two of which were custom items (and one 'almost' sale to the US but the buyer disapeared and didn't complete payment!). So I'm happy with the start I've had! I'm still working hard to catch up with listing items, taking photos, updating facebook and twitter, trying out other online venues to sell and eventually I'll maybe get the time to make some more items. My first online sale was to a fellow folksy shop owner pussy galore who makes beautiful sock cats, check her out!

In the meantime I've discovered Spoonflower, a service that lets you get designs made into fabric, it's US based but looks great, hopefully in the future I'll be able to use it for a project. The way it works you upload your designs and then they'll print them for you but you can also sell your new fabrics to the public through the site, there is some really nice stuff on there, a wee showcase of some of my favourites is below:

This includes fabrics available from: craftylittlemia , renule , maile , petunias , bronhoffer , royal forest , cabinpressstudio , troismiettes and hlozik

Online shop is open!

I've only uploaded some items and will update it over the next few days but my Folksy shop is open. I've started out with some jewellery and accesories and will expand as I get stuff photographed and made.

Check it out and leave me a comment to let me know what you think! Online shop