Treasury Thanks

Welcome to another edition of my Treasury Thanks! Each week I like to thank my treasury curators from the past week by featuring their treasuries as well as an item from their shop. Please help me in thanking them by clicking on their treasuries and checking out their shops :)

Deb of storybeader featured my Custom Double Name Album in her Unforgettable Treasury! Deb took an unforgettable trip to Italy this year and made these awesome Multicolored Paper Beads from paper she brought back with her!

 Jamie of PoppyHillCreations featured my Woodland Baby Shower Guest Book in her Finally Fall Treasury! Jamie has some beautiful fall item in her shop like this Printable Fall Foliage Clip Art Set!

CouthClothing featured my Large Peacock Guest Book in their No Kindle Allowed Treasury! I just love this Screen Print Flower Dress from their shop!

julishland featured my Destination Wedding Invitation in their Rustic finds Treasury! I love this rustic looking Leather and Burlap Personalized Bracelet from their shop!

Heather of iHartFelt featured my Friends Word Album in her Fall into Pastel Treasury! Heather's Bunny Rabbit Plushie would look great in this treasury :)

Grace of SimpleHandmadeDreams featured my Tree of Love Guest Book in her From the Trees Treasury! Grace's Beautiful Flower Journal caught me eye the minute I entered her shop!

Linda of PruittCreations featured my Grandma Word Album in her Personal Favorites from BBArtisans Treasury!  This Reversible Coffee Sleeve is my favorite from Linda's shop!

Yelena of LenaMer featured my Custom Name Album in her Autumn trends Treasury! This Boho Necklace from Yelena's shop is perfect for autumn!

Sarah of MagnoliaSurprise featured my Woodland Baby Shower Guest Book in her Falling Leaves Treasury! Sarah is ready for fall with her adorable Hand-crocheted Candy Corn!

Sharla of BeadedTail featured my Starburst Design Notebook in her Pumpkins, a Kitty and a Dog named Leela Treasury! Almost everything in Sharla's shop has either a kitty or a dog...like her newest necklace that I just love...her Blue Tiger Eye Kitty Cat and Swarovski Necklace!

Kimuka featured my Carved Tree Wedding Invitation in her Woodword Treasury! I just love this Bunny Bookmark from Kimuka's shop!

Friday Features - Fall Sweaters

The weather has been amazing here the last week or two. The temperatures are great and I've dug out my jeans and sweaters since fall is here! I think that's my favorite all time outfit...jeans and a comfy sweater! I'm sure it's time to restock my wardrobe with great handmade sweaters and you know Etsy can hook me up! I found a great mix of comfy, cool and classic sweaters. Which one is your favorite?

Hand Knit Woman Sweater - Eco Cotton Oversized sweater in Charcoal Grey

by MaxMelody 

Vest Top Sweater Hand Knit Ruffled Sleeveless Purple - ORCHID, PRICE REDUCED

 by JacBeNimble

Women Gray Cardigan / Women Gray Jacket / with big pockets light green Fall Fashion Women Sweater

 by idea2wear 

Blue Pixie Upcycled Sweater-Small-Ready for Ship

 by LunaBruja

Learning to Photograph Jewelry

I've gotten some great feedback on my wood jewelry and I've decided to list some of them in my shop. So far I've photographed about 10 pair of earrings and I'm finding that jewelry is a whole new ballgame for me when it comes to product photography.

I'm used to photographing larger objects and most of which stand on their own. Jewelry is small, but you still need to show its size and how it hangs. And since Jesse (my boyfriend) doesn't have pierced ears, I'm attempting to photograph myself wearing the jewelry...lol!

I know there are several jewelry artists that read my blog and many jewelry buyers, so I'm looking for input! Above are the two photos I'm debating using for my feature photo. Are either of them eye catching? Which should I use and why?

Here are the other photos I plan to use in my listing. What are your thoughts? Are there better angles I should be using?

Next I hope to photograph some of my pendants. I suppose I better get all my earring photos edited first!

 Thanks in advance for your input and advice :)

Wordless Wednesday - Can You Say Spoiled?

Personalized Name Signs

I'm very excited about my newest product! It's one I've been wanting to add to my shop for quite some time now and I'm so glad I finally got it listed!

NOW AVAILABLE: CUSTOM NAME SIGNS!!!

Our theme for the Blogging Business Artisans team challenge this month was to use a new medium or try a new technique. Nancy of N. Fallon Design Studio is our host and I love her theme (inspired by Deb of Story Beader)! My new signs use both a new medium and new technique!

The signs are made of MDF board, which is a new material for me. I use red alder wood in most of my work with a little bamboo and maple, but the MDF is completely new to me! And the technique of using two colors is also new! I love how striking the black and white look together! I'm inspired to try signs with more than 2 colors now as well! How cool would a pop of pink look on here!!!

I got these signs listed in my shop last night! I hope they'll do well with the upcoming holiday season! I sold one at my show last weekend, so I'm off to a good start :)

Grape Stomp - Show Review

Saturday I did my second outdoor show ever. I'm always a little leery with outdoor shows since there are so many factors with the weather (wind, rain) and bugs and dirt. It can be scary putting your handmade items out there in the elements! I decided to only take along my lasered items and left my scrapbooks at home (safe and sound). But the weather was gorgeous! The sun was shining and there was little to no wind...it really was a perfect fall day!

Grape Stomp is an event set up at a local winery called Sugar Clay Winery. It was a very family-friendly get together and everyone had an awesome time :) They had a band set up that played two full sets as well as in between events.

Jesse's brother and family even showed up and it was so fun to see the kids! It was my sister-in-laws birthday, so this was the perfect event for the family :) I got a cute picture of them on the hay rack ride (they're on the left with the 3 kiddos between them).

I didn't get any photos of the Grape Olympics, but they had events like a hula hoop contest and a cork toss. I did make sure to get photos of the Grape Stomp. They had categories for the kids as well as the adults. Everyone was laughing and having so much fun with this! And everyone came away with purple feet!

As for sales, this show was great. There were only two vendors set up with crafts, so that was a big help. I sold a good mix of all my items. The guys loved the beer mugs and the ladies loved my jewelry. I even sold one of my new signs (that I need to get listed in my shop)!

 I also sell on consignment at this winery and got a call on Sunday that a customer wanted to buy 4 beer mugs and to ask if there was a discount for that quantity. And then Sunday night Jesse's aunt and uncle sent a text saying they saw a lady walking around with one of my necklaces on! I'm so happy this location is doing well!

Treasury Thanks

Welcome to another edition of my Treasury Thanks! Each week I like to thank my treasury curators from the past week by featuring their treasuries as well as an item from their shop. Please help me in thanking them by clicking on their treasuries and checking out their shops :)

 SaffyreCreations from NerdCred featured my Carved Tree Guest Book in her Words on a page Treasury! I'm not much of a gamer, but this Pink Sparkle D20 Necklace in this shop sure caught my eye!

Eugenie from MulberryWhisper featured my Destination Wedding Invitation in her The Last Butterflies Treasury! This treasury looks just like fall...and so does Eugenie's Autumn Harvest Pillow Cover.

Kris of KRSBNTN featured my Travel Notebook in her Hot Cocoa Treasury!

   Thanks again to each of my curators! You've made my week :)

Friday Features - Grape Stomp

This weekend I have been asked by a local winery to set up a table at their Annual Grape Stomp event. I hadn't planned on doing any extra shows this year, but this sounds like too much fun to pass up! I sell on consignment at this winery and I love all the events they have each year. I'm glad I'll get to take part in this one.

There will be hay rack rides, live music and a grape stomp competition. And new this year are the Grape Olympics! I'm so excited to see all the activity. I'll be set up outside under a tent, so I'll get to see all the action (and hopefully get fun photos)!

So today's features are in honor of the Grape Stomp..enjoy :)

Hand-Painted Wine Glasses with Grape Design Set of 4

by diceydesigns 

Grape Hat

 by RachelsCloset 

Wine Corks and Grapes Tablecloth Weights Set of 4

 by SprinkleandSparkle 

Vintage Swag Purple Grape Cluster Lamp c 1970s

 by JaybirdFinds 

 I hope to have photos for you on Monday :) 

Customer Inspiration

This past week I received an order for a wedding invitation replication. The customer wanted to give a wood invitation as a gift to the bride and groom. I used all my own fonts and graphics and created an invitation that looks very similar to the original. Now the happy couple has a special memento of their big day :)

Here is the finished product (I'm kicking myself for not taking a photo of the original!).

 

I love the style of this invitation and the typography! The small, plain all caps mixed with the larger, cursive all lowercase lettering...what fun! It's a different style than I've designed before and I really like it! It got my brain looking at designing in different ways. I might just have to add something similar to my shop!

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday - Seeing Spots

*I wanted to note that he looks like he's in a cage, but this little guy was actually out in our pasture where the cows are. Seems a little late for babies!

New Recipe Books

I've been working on several new items lately and one of them is new designs for my Recipe Books. My original design has done well, in fact it just sold yesterday! I wanted to have a wider selection to take to shows with me as they make great gifts and I've started getting them added to my Etsy Shop as well.

I have two new designs so far and hope to add at least two more as well. The first is a basic design with a fun wooden spoon design.

The second is special for the holidays and I hope it does well this holiday season.

The other ideas I have in mind are a "Recipes for the New Bride" book and some sort of "Generations" book or "Family Recipes Through the Years" book. Something that families can pass on from one generation to the next.

Show Review and New Displays

I had my first fall show this weekend and it went pretty well. We had awesome traffic all day Saturday. Which says a lot for a show that runs from 9am-8pm....long day! The general consensus from the vendors was that we had a lot of lookers, but not as many buyers. I'm pretty used to this since a lot of what I sell is custom. I did hand out tons of business cards, so now I just have to wait and see if the sales come in :)

September is a hard month for shows because it's too far away from Christmas, but it's also close enough people are thinking about saving their money for the holidays. That's the nice thing about having a website, they can find me any time of year when they're ready to buy :)

 

I did get a chance to try out a few of my new display items. I found out that my jewelry tree looks great, but isn't as functional as I hoped for. The branches are kind of all stacked on top of each other, so the pieces tend to bunch up. I put a few pieces on it, but laid out most of my new jewelry on the table instead.

My new wine bottle stopper holder that I talked about here worked great. I ended up painting it pink (seen in the right side of this photo). I think this helped them stand out and these sold pretty well.

The other displays are key chains and ornaments. They're a little hard to see in the photo, but these hangers worked out great for both items.

 Here's a shot of my whole booth. I have two 5' tables as well as the wooden display at the end. This set up seems to work well for me when I'm able to be placed on an end section. My next show is only 3 weeks away...time to stock back up!

Treasury Thanks

Welcome to another edition of my Treasury Thanks! Each week I like to thank my treasury curators from the past week by featuring their treasuries as well as an item from their shop. Please help me in thanking them by clicking on their treasuries and checking out their shops :)

Eugenie of MulberryWhisper featured my Woodland Baby Shower Guest Book in her On Dragons and People Treasury! I love featuring Eugenie's shop and today I'd like to share her Silk Wrap Dress in Fall Colors!

Janet of HoneyFromTheBee featured my Personalized Pilsner Glasses in her Bootastic Halloween Party! Treasury! Fall is just around the corner and Janet's Crocheted Fine Silver Necklace will have you looking your best!

Kaili of clockworkghOst featured my Colored Wedding Invitation in her Blue, Pink...Treasury! Pink is my favorite color, which is why I have to feature Kaili's Flamingo Bookmark today :)

Kathy of tapestry316 featured my Friends Word Album in her Fall is in the air! Treasury! Kathy's Freedom Print reminds me of fall with his hair blowing in the wind :)

 Mada of MADEbyMADA featured my Leafy Design Guest Book in her Leaves Treasury! I was immediately drawn to these Guitar Earrings in Mada's shop as they remind me of the cake topper I made this week...how cool!

Thanks again to each of my curators! You've made my week :)