New Guest Books

Tandem Bike Guest Book

As I mentioned in my last post, after making guest books, I always have paper left over. I've been trying to come up with ways to use this paper for new designs in my shop.

Peacock Guest Book

One new design I've come up with is a smaller guest book. Sometimes couples just want something small and simple to remember the day. These books measure about 5" x 5.5".

Floral Butterfly Guest Book

Another great thing about these books is that they are ready-to-ship. I don't know how many times I've had to rush a guest book because the couple simply forgot to buy one. After all the planning that goes into a wedding, sometimes things like this get put to the last minute. These can ship the same or next day they are purchased.

Love Birds Guest Book

 And they make a great option for the couple on a budget. At just $20.00, these won't break the bank and the couple still gets a beautiful and unique guest book :)

How do you use left over supplies from other projects?

New Guest Book Designs

I've been on quite a listing spree lately with new items in the shop! One area where I've had several custom requests is for guest books. I love making a wedding even more special with a custom book! Something the couple can keep long after the wedding day festivities.

My favorite new design is this Eiffel Tower Book. I love the hand drawn look of the tower paired with the solid silhouette of the couple. I know not everyone is lucky enough to get engaged or married in Paris, but Paris-themed weddings are a fun idea as well :)

This Mountain Design is simple and elegant and will remind the couple of their beautiful wedding every time they see the cover. Can you imagine the beautiful photos of a wedding with the mountains in the background!

This Quote Book could be used for a guest book, journal, photo album, travel journal, etc. I can engrave any quote in several different font choices. I've already made one for a retiring teacher and another for a father's birthday gift. The possibilities are endless!

And I've made two more small book designs this week that I need to get finished and photographed as well!

Friday Features - Jungle Baby

Today's features are inspired by a recent custom order I had for an adorable Jungle Baby Shower Guest Book. The jungle theme is so cute and it can be done up for boys or girls depending on the color scheme you choose. The nice thing about wood...it's gender neutral :)

In the Jungle Baby Nursery Kids Bedroom DOOR SIGN Wall Art

by ToadAndLily

Baby Wall Decals - Nursery Wall Decals - Jungle Wall Decals - 072

 by StickEmUpWallArt

 Tiger handmade baby's bib

by ABabyNotion

 Hand-Painted Nursery Letters LARGE (Lambs & Ivy "Peek a Boo Jungle")

by RachelRaeDesigns

Expanding My Wedding Line - New Guest Book Designs

My wedding line got two more additions this week! I love custom requests because they always turn into a product I can offer other customers! Both are very different from what I currently offer in my wedding line so it opens up the possibilities to even more brides and grooms.

The first is this fun Woodland Themed Guest Book. I offer a similar book in my baby section and had a request to make one for a wedding theme. I added the love birds to the tree and carved their initials in the trunk as well. It turned out so great!

The next book is a more Formal Design. The scroll designs add just enough detail while keeping it simple and elegant. I like that this is something completely new for my shop.

 I also have a couple more wedding invitation designs and another small guest book that still need photographed and listed. I'm hoping to have them in the shop soon. So keep an eye out for even more new wedding items!

Customer Appreciation Inspires New Listings

A while back I posted about a wedding invitation replication that I had done. I really liked the design I came up with too :) Recently I had a request for a fall invitation. I showed the replicated invitation to the bride-to-be and she loved it!

I was so excited when she emailed me these lovely photos she had taken of her invitation! The fall leaves are just beautiful with the invitation! This actually has me rethinking some of my photography as well!

 

And since the invitation turned out so well, I decided to add a matching guest book to my shop as well! I just love this new design and I'm glad I had the opportunity to create the replication as it stretched my design ideas and gave me new inspiration!

Guest Books Keep Growing

I've slowly been adding more Larger Guest Books to my shop lately. I've gotten quite a few requests for the larger books in different designs. Each time I make a new style, I make sure to photograph it to get it added to my shop.

 My most recent additions are below

Large Peacock Design

Double Heart Design

Engraved Photo Design

I still have a couple more to get added and as always will take requests for new designs :)

Baby Shower Guest Book

I've been making Wedding Guest Books for a while now and love coming up with new cover designs and I love taking requests for special pages on the inside. My mind hadn't even considered to offer other styles of guest books!

Thanks to my customers (again!) I have another new listing in my shop! It's a Woodland Baby Shower Guest Book! I had this design offered as a photo album and got the request to make it into a guest book.

Now my brain is busy thinking of other designs for baby showers as well as other events guest books can be used for!

Have I mentioned how much I love my customers :)

Extra Special

I love when customers have special requests for their items that will make the finished product extra special :) As most of you already know, I love custom requests and when the request adds something to the item that will make it truly one-of-a-kind, it makes me giddy :)

I recently made 11 custom photo albums for a bride and groom to give their wedding party. They requested that I add Bridesmaid, Maid of Honor, Best Man and Groomsman to the outside of the albums along with the info that I normally add of the couple's names and wedding date.

But that wasn't the most special part about the books. The special part came when the bride asked if I could add her father's handwriting to the inside of her sisters' books. Their father had passed away a few years ago and she had a card that he had signed and wanted it added to the books.

 I was happy to oblige and I love how the books turned out. These books just became ten times more special with the addition of their father's writing added to their books. It is the first thing they will see each time they open the books :)

New Etsy Wedding Categories

 Recently Etsy introduced some changes to the Wedding Category. I love the look of the first page, but have some mixed feelings about the rest. Here are my thoughts on the new category and I'd love to hear yours in the comments.

 

First Page:
I love the modern, chic look of the first page! It's so inviting and more appealing than the old standard page. I like that there is a lot to look at, yet it's not overwhelming.

Categories:

One thing I'm not thrilled about are the categories. They have several sub-categories lumped under one heading that used to be several separate categories. Take the Paper Goods Category for instance: They have Wedding Invitations and Guest Books lumped under this heading. What about my Wooden Invites and Guest Books? They're not made of paper. And I think this may be confusing for shoppers.

I also don't care for the layout of the listings anymore. They seem like a jumbled mess to me. I like to see items in organized rows that are easy to see and easy to come back to. And there aren't pages anymore. Just a button to push to see more items. And if your item isn't "relevant" it doesn't show up at the bottom of the list...it doesn't show up at all!

 

Kudos to the Support Staff:
Stemming from my comment above about "relevant" items, I contacted Etsy when my Wooden Guest Books weren't showing up anywhere in the New Guest Book Category. I had my items listed in the proper category, so why weren't they showing up! I got a pretty generic response the first go around, but after my second email, I got a very detailed response that was helpful and did help my guest books show up. I knew that the first three words of our titles were the most important, but I didn't realize that they had to have the exact wording in them to show up in the new categories! I changed some titles to including "Wedding Guest Book" in the first 3-4 words and that seemed to do the trick. I added "personalized" "wooden" or "custom" to a few listings just so they wouldn't all be the same and that still seemed to be okay. Thank you to Etsy Support for taking the time to point this out and answer my emails.

I'll be interested to see how the new Wedding Pages do and if they bring me more/less traffic. What are your thoughts on the new categories?

To Have & To Hold

Today's the day!!! The Etsy Wedding Event: To Have & To Hold is taking place today!!!

I can't wait to see what kind of traffic this event brings me! I honestly have no idea what to expect!

If you haven't read my first post about To Have & To Hold...my Carved Tree Guest Book was selected to be featured at this event! Yup, I'm pretty darn excited (to say the least!)!!!

I mailed off one of my guest books along with 1,125 coupons to be placed in gift bags for the attendees. Now I just have to wait and see. I'll be sure to let you know how the event goes and what type of traffic my shop receives from it...Wish Me Luck :)

Etsy Wedding Event in NYC

To Have & To Hold

Etsy is hosting a Wedding Event on April 28th...and I've been asked to be a part of it!!! Talk about an exciting opportunity! Etsy says of the event "To Have & To Hold will showcase items from some of the most unique Etsy weddings vendors." And they chose me!

I was asked to send one of my Carved Tree Guest Books to display at the event. And they said I could also include coupons to go in the goodie bags they hand out at the door. So I spent time this week cutting out 1,125 coupons!

I am beyond excited about this opportunity! Not only does it mean that 1000s of NY brides will potentially see my work...but it also means I'm on Etsy's radar! One of my dreams for this year is to have one of my items featured in The Finds email or featured in one of their blog articles!

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I'll be sure to report back after the event to let you know how it went and if I get any orders from the coupons. Wish me luck :)

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And did you see that little blue banner on the poster...EVENT SOLD OUT...WooHoo!!!

Can I?

YES YOU CAN!

No matter the question...the answer is YES :)

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90% of my business is run on custom orders. I offer a wide range of custom or personalized items in my shop and each one can be customized in so many different ways. I've recently had quite a few requests for variations on some of my current designs.

Can I have a special font? YES YOU CAN :)

I had a recent customer request that I use a certain font that they had been using for all of their wedding items. They told me the font they wanted and I made it happen...no problem :)

Can I have a special graphic? YES YOU CAN :)

I made a super cute Engraved Leather Album with Horton from Horton Hears a Who. The little photo adds so much to the album :)

I also made a set of cuff link blanks with Kermit the Frog on them...another fun idea!

Can I get it in a landscape format instead of portrait? YES YOU CAN :)

I recently started making my guest books in a larger size. I made the larger ones in a vertical format so it would hold horizontal photos. But I had a request for a horizontal one in the larger format. A few quick format changes and it was done...no problem :)

I absolutely love custom orders! Even though a lot of what I make is similar or has the same original format, custom requests keep things fun and fresh! Each piece is always an original :)

GO BIG!

I'm so exited to now offer a BIG Carved Tree Guest Book in my Etsy Shop!

And even better...I've already sold two of these larger style albums!

I got this idea from my Custom Name Albums. I used to only offer these in a 4"x12" size. I then got a request to make a custom album to fit 4x6 photos. Along came my 6.5"x12" albums. And later my 11.5"x12" albums as well. Offering a variety of sizes gives your customers options to fit their needs.

This also reminds us that we don't have to reinvent the wheel. If you're wanting to add new items to your shop and you're stuck on what to add next, look to your current products for inspiration. Do you have an item that sells well...expand on that idea by offering different sizes, colors or other options.

I'll be adding larger style guest books of my other designs down the road as well!

Wordless Wednesday - Pretty as a Peacock

Friday Features - Vintage Style Weddings

As most of you know, I'm all about bright colors and fun designs. But these colors aren't appropriate for every ocassion and they don't fit everyone's style. I recently made a Custom Name Guest Book with a vintage style to it...and I absolutely LOVE it! Who knew whites and creams could look so good!!! I love how elegant and dreamy it looks!

Inspired by my new album, I went searching on Etsy to find other vintage inspired wedding items...and fell in love with these as well!

Vintage Ivory Flowers on Champagne with Ostrich feathers

by BridalShoppe

Wedding Invitation Gold Leaf and Champagne Pocketfold

by NeotericExpressions

Brooch Bouquet Champagne, Cream, Ivory with Brooches, Handmade Flowers, Lace, Satin Pearls and Jewels- Pamela

by SolBijou

Hair Feather Fascinator, Ivory or Diamond White with Champagne Peacock Eye, Bridal Hair Birdcage Fascinator, Rhinestone Center - Justa

by brendasbridalveils