Ready to Start the Week

I'm not usually a "Monday person", but today I'm ready to start the week! I have so many projects I'm working on that have me so excited :) I had a great, productive weekend and I'm hoping this week is much of the same!

I currently have 38 Custom Name Albums on order...WHOA! They consist of *20 Sorority Albums (my first wholesale order)

*12 Girl Scout Albums

*And 6 separate albums that will be given as Christmas gifts

Over the weekend I got an order for 39 Wine Glasses and 8 Coaster Sets from one person! The wine glasses will go in sets of two along with a bottle of wine as a company gift. I'm etching the company's logo on the glasses for them :) And the owners sister ordered the coasters to give as wedding and Christmas gifts! I'll be sure to blog about this more as I get it completed!

And I got a sample Etched Pint Glass done to send to my mom's employer. They give pint glasses in sets of 4 for service award gifts with their company logo on them. If they like the sample, they'll be ordering 100 Glasses in February!!!

I've also been getting quite a few orders at work as well. I've sold 11 glasses in varying designs and 5 Engraved Wood Photos. I'm also going to make a box for a coworker that he'll give his dad with his brothers picture on it. His brother passed away a few years ago and he wanted something special to keep his ashes. I was so honored when he asked me to make the box for him :) I'll definitely be blogging more about this as well!

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How did your weekend go? Are you ready for the new week?

Treasury Time

Yay...It's Treasury Time again! I loving getting to do these posts!!! It means there were more treasuries this week :)

As always...all images are clickable, so stop by the treasury, the listings and the curators shops :)

Friday Features - Think Pink

My Survivor Album that I featured on Monday was quite a hit! It sold on Tuesday...WooHoo! So today I want to show you some other awesome Think Pink finds with proceeds being donated to breast cancer research and other wonderful causes.

Custom Caterpillar Beadwoven Bracelet - Pretty in Pink Bracelet Made Just for You

by BeadedTail

Pink Hope Earrings

by lindab142

Tie Dye T shirt, Charity Pink, short sleeve, hand dyed, cotton, adult

by SplendidLittleStars

THINK PINK Beaded Cuff Bracelet - Skinny Fringed - Black and Pink

by randomcreative

Thanks on Thursday

In the last couple weeks, I've been featured 3 times! So today I'd like to give thanks to the wonderful blogs that featured me and my work :)

Last Friday I was featured on my team blog Blogging Business Artisans. This is a fun feature we do on all our team members where we answer 7 questions about ourselves and our work. Please check it out HERE and see the other features there as well :)

I was also a guest blogger on our team blog on Monday. I blogged about Preparing for a Craft Show. This will be a two part series with lots of craft show tips!

And yesterday the lovely Amy of LovebugDesigns featured me on her blog. I loved the fun questions she asked :) Thanks Amy!

Have you been featured lately? Leave me a link in the comments so I can check it out :)

Wordless Wednesday - Enjoying My Latest Creation :)

Survivor-Think Pink

Gosh, is it already the last part of October! I had hoped to have this album listed at the beginning of October in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. But better late than never, right.

This album has lots of fun embellishments perfect for documenting the journey of beating cancer! Think Pink, Fight Like a Girl, Courage, Hope...and many more :)

I've taken this album to a few craft shows and got a custom order from it. A little girl had just gotten her final check up after her cancer scare and loved this album :) She decided on pink and black with survivor and butterfly embellishments. They released butterflies the day she got her clean bill of health...what a cool idea :) And what a special scrapbook for to remember how lucky she is and how much life she has to live :) I really enjoyed making her album!

And these can be made in any theme. Just let me know what colors and what type of embellishments you would like and I can make a special album for you as well :)

RogueRiver Album

I finished a really fun album over the weekend and got it delivered yesterday! The customer was so excited about the album and loved how it turned out! Here is my latest Double Name/Word Album:

I love the idea they came up with to make the R a full 11.5" tall and the rest of the letters stacked...so fun!

I'll be adding this option to my shop this week. I have one Double Name/Word Album already listed, but I thought I'd add a second one to show more options. I still hope to add a guest book option with these double albums as well. I have one about 1/2 way done, but haven't gotten a chance to finish it. I'll be sure to blog about it when I get it done :)

Treasury Fun

With having a show last weekend, I forgot to do a treasury post! Over the past two weeks I've been featured in 15 treasuries! That is by far a record for me! Thank you to each and every curator who featured my work...every one of you put a smile on my face! Without further ado...here are the beautiful treasuries!

Each treasury is clickable...so be sure to click on the items and visit the curators' shops as well!

Friday Features - Fall by the Blogging Business Artisans

I recently helped start a super fun new team on Etsy. We are the Blogging Business Artisans :) Our team is all about support, promotions, blogging and business! Throw in a healthy dose of friendship and we're the perfect team! I'm having so much fun being a part of this wonderful group and I want to show you some great fall items from some of our newest members!

Moody Blue and Mossy Green Lace Agate Earrings By HoneyFromTheBee

Halloween Korker Bow Black and Orange

by ForLoveofCupcakes

Contained Series- Mini (Green)

by nfall2rt

Forest Floor: Olive Green Wood and Brown Glass Beads Earrings REDUCED PRICE

by greenbead

What's in a Name

Many sellers have been awaiting the time when they could change their shop name on Etsy! Many sellers signed up with a "user name" not realizing that it would also be their "shop name". Now Etsy is allowing sellers to change their shop names!

I for one and super excited about this! I wish I would have known from the start that I could use capital letters in my shop name. I like shops that have capitals because it makes their name easier to read.

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I would also like to change my shop name since I have expanded my shop so much this last year. My original name was Memories for Life Scrapbooks, which was too long for an Etsy user name. So I went with memoriesforlifesb. I used the "sb" to be short for scrapbooks. I don't really think it ever caught on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The only problem is...both names I wanted to use...are TAKEN! Shoot! So I'm looking for suggestions :)

I wanted to change it to either MemoriesForLife or Memories4Life.

Do you have any ideas for me? I want to stick with something similar to what I already have, but drop the "sb" from the end. Any suggestions you have would be awesome!

Wordless Wednesday - Why I Shouldn't Be Allowed to Paint

Cards for Children

I love finding ways to donate to charities or give back to the community. And I love it even more when I can do this through my crafting!

Erika of Artful Rising recently posted that she would be donating to Cards for Children for the Ronald McDonald House. She asked her fellow readers to help as well and I knew this was perfect for me!

I used to sell greeting cards at craft shows, but have gotten away from them and have been doing other projects lately. But I still had so many cards that needed a good home...the Cards for Children project was perfect! Here are a few of the cards I sent to Erika to pass along to the Ronald McDonald House.

Thank you Erika for organizing this! What a great project! And I'm so happy I could contribute!

If you too would like to contribute to the Cards for Children or any of Erika's other Project Embrace activites, check out her blog!

I'm also linking this to Erika's Weekly It's a Wrap Linky Party! Come join the fun on her Artful Rising blog!

3rd Fall Craft Show Review

On Saturday, I had my third fall craft show. This is a show that I've done for many years now. I had to miss last year, but it was sure great to be back! I was at a different location and was unsure if I was going to like that. There are 4 or 5 locations for this craft fair and this location was the furthest away from all the others. But it turned out to be a great show!

One thing that makes this a great show each year is the fact that it has been going on for over 50 years. It is a huge show and people plan all year for it. It can be snowing and icy or 90 degrees out and there is always a great crowd :) It is also a well-organized and well-advertised show as well.

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I like that this is a more local show than the others I've done so far this year. That means I know more people that are shopping and more people stop to talk. That always draws more people into your booth :) And many people didn't realize I had added my laser engraved items and stopped to talk and saw all my new products!

I am always surprised by what sells and what doesn't at different shows. My engraved photos always get a lot of attention, so I made sure to put my sample in the middle of my table and higher than the other items. It got a lot of attention at this show as well! And hopefully lots of orders will follow :)

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This was the first show that I brought my etched glass candle votives to. And I didn't sell a single one! I was really surprised by this because they are an item that got a lot of interest from friends and family and from my blog when I posted them a while back. But I'll be sure to take them to the next show and I hope to get them listed in my Etsy Shop soon.

As with my other shows this fall, I handed out a TON of cards! I only had about 3 cards left at the end of the show! And I think I started with almost 150!!! I got lots of custom orders at the show and I hope by handing out cards that I'll get even more :)

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Another thing I found interesting is that I didn't use my Square credit card reader one time! I didn't even have people ask about using a card. I think this has to do with the fact that this show was in a smaller town than my other two shows this fall. People are used to using cash and didn't think about using cards.

I also got the biggest complement at this show :) I'm not used to having other people make similar items to what I make...usually I'm the only one with Name and Word Albums and Engraved Items. This time there was someone at another location making my Word Albums! But I got told on two different occasions that my albums were much nicer! They were much better quality and they could tell the work and detail that I put into mine :) This made me feel awesome!!!

Search Ads - Week Two Review

Last week I did a review about Etsy's new Search Ads. You can read about it HERE.

Today I'll give a review about how the second week went.

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This week was even more discouraging than last week. This week I had a total of 36 Views and only 2 Favorites compared to last week's 42 Views and 5 Favorites. Not really worth $10 if you ask me!

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But here is what I did learn...

My most views came from my scrapbooks. Photo Albums and Albums were my highest viewed keywords. And my Custom Birthday Album and Custom Bare Chipboard Album were my two highest viewed listings.

My Engraved Guestbooks and Wood Greeting Cards weren't far behind, so that makes me happy as well.

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This has made me take another look at my tags and titles. The keywords that didn't get any views will be reviewed and revised.

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In the end, I won't be renewing my ads for another week, but might give the ads another try after the first of the year...who knows. I do think there are better ways to spend advertising money. And this got my mind thinking that if I'm willing to spend $10 on search ads...why not spend it on other forms of advertising. So this was a good learning experience, but not one I'll be doing again soon.

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What did you learn from search ads? Will you continue your ads?

Friday Features - Discovery

On Monday, we celebrated Columbus Day here in the US. Just as Columbus set out on a voyage of discovery, we as artists should do that same with our art :) I love discovering new techniques, discovering new materials to work with and discovering new ideas to try! Today's finds are all dedicated to discovery :)

The JOURNEY Is Everything Fused Glass Quote NIGHT LIGHT by YourImagesInGlass DISCOVER Vintage Dictionary Pendant Charm Bracelet by kraftykash The key to discovery tile pendant by ylfdragon Discovery quote original watercolor painting by DreamofaDream

Latest Custom Albums

I realized recently that I hadn't shown any of my new custom albums I made lately. I always love working with new themes and color combinations! Each one of these is so fun and unique :) BABBEL - Marine Blue and Black with Lime Green accent ribbons decorated for a wedding :)

CLANCY - Pink and Black Zebra to match a little girl's room :)

GRANDPA - Requested in Grandpa's favorite colors :)

AVERY - Pink and Purple for the girly girl :)

AYDEN - Red, Yellow and Blue for Avery's active brother :)

Wells - A new color combo for me...Purple and Orange decorated with birds :) Which one is your favorite?

This is my favorite post from last week, so I'm linking it up over at Artful Rising! Come join the Linky Party :)

Wordless Wednesday - Make Me Wine :)

Making Connections

I recently had the pleasure of working with Joyce and Gary of JGWoodSigns. They contacted me about a consignment deal which turned into a wonderful transaction. JGWoodSigns does a lot of custom work and for their recent show, they wanted more "cash and carry" items. They loved my engraved coasters and thought they would do well with their items.

Here's how we worked the deal...

They told me which coasters they wanted and how many of each. I also sent along custom samples and order forms. I shipped the coasters to them, they had their show and shipped back what didn't sell. We worked a consignment deal, so they paid me for the coasters, minus the consignment fee. Everything went great!

This isn't the type of deal I would do with just anyone. You have to be cautious of such transactions and do your homework. I had never met Joyce or Gary before they contacted me. They live in a different state and I had never done anything like this before without knowing the people first. I did a little research and saw that JGWoodSigns had been on Etsy since 2008, had sold over 400 items and had 100% feedback. This made me feel good about the transaction. And there was a lot of communication between Joyce and I which also helped me get to know her and feel comfortable about everything.

Consignment isn't for everyone, but it is something to consider and can open doors for more opportunities and sales. This transaction was great and I hope to work with Joyce and Gary again soon :)