Christmas rush?

Well my sales didn't exactly flourish for the Christmas season. I plan on adding a bunch of new items to my shop. I'm also working on a new promotional plan for the up coming year. I know I haven't exactly had the greatest luck with etsy, but it is way too much fun to give up already.

Tracking views

I like to keep track of my views. Until recently I did this by simply trying to remember what my views were for the previous day. Then I had this idea to create a spreadsheet to keep track of them. I have each item listed and the views. Everyday I enter in the new amount of views. Some days they go up some days they don't. I usually try and jot down if I was in a treasury or if I posted some form of advertising. That way I can kinda see where my views come from. I can track how many views I get from re listing an item. It isn't very technical but I mainly do it out of curiosity.

It is also fun to create charts from the spreadsheet.

Jacob's ladder toy

I remember when I was a kid my dad made us a Jacob's ladder toy. I always remember it being a pretty cool toy to play with. The other day as I was flipping through my daughter's board book with her I got an idea. I wanted to make the toy with her book. One problem, I had no idea how to do it. I asked my dad but he couldn't remember either. Neither of us new what the toy was really called. We always just called it a flipflop toy. After doing a little research my parents found what I was looking for, a Jacob's ladder wooden toy. Well I cut my daughter's book apart and starting putting it together.



Here is K playing with it. He had a lot of fun with it. This was just practice I need to use something stronger than ribbon and find a way to reinforce the straps better.

Showcase results

Was it worth it? perhaps... Not really... I would have had better results relisting 35 times in one day. The first painting I had up got 2 new views.



The second item, my recycled magazine paper wall hanging got 11 views


and the third item, small recycled magazine paper wall hanging got 5 new views.


No new hearts on the items but I got two new hearts on my whole shop. I rotated these three items throughout the day. Relisting would probably get me better results. Atleast now I know for next time.

My first showcase

I bought a showcase a few days ago. Today is the day. The showcase is in the art category. I plan on switching between my art items so they all get some exposure. Right now I have this one up there.

I'll be keeping track of my views to see if it is worth my $7. So far... no new views. It has only been 26 mins though.

New news

A few days ago I was featured in a treasury. I keep meaning to post when that happens but I always forget. At least I remembered this time.



This morning I checked my flickr account and I had an email from someone wanting to use my photo for an article on Nowpublic. Here is THE ARTICLE. The picture was of one of my cloth totes. The article was about the environmental impact of plastic bags.

Just listed

I have just listed a new button bracelet. Actually I've listed a few new things over the past couple of days. A few paper bead items. I have this awesome bracelet that I've been working on. It will probably take a few days to finish. I'll post pictures when it is done.

My first craft show

I haven't posted on here in awhile because I was busy getting ready for my first show! Well that is all done now. I had a lot of fun. I really didn't expect to sell much. It was just a tiny show at my son's school. I sold about 10 things. YaY! My friend des helped me run my booth. I hope to actually have some kind of display for the next one. All of our neighbors were really nice. I'm sure it is not always like that. Ah, Now I shall get ready for the next.

oops

I haven't been keeping up with my 30 days to a better shop project. I've participated in some days I just haven't found the time to blog about it.

I am pretty excited I have sold two more items in the past week. YaY! Go me!

30 Days to a better shop day 2

Today's challenge was to rewrite our store announcements. I wanted to shorten mine up so you could see my featured items right away. I'm not really sure its my final choice but here is the before and after.
Before:
Welcome, Thanks for stopping by my shop. Have a look around I'm sure you'll find something you'll love or the perfect gift for someone else. Remember to check back often.

**SHIPPING** If I charge you over a dollar extra for shipping I will refund your money back to you. Shipping cost includes the actual cost of shipping and the packaging.**

***My profile contains all of our store policies***
Proud member of Wisconsin street team(WIST,) Ecoetsy, and EtsyU.

Read my blog at
http://www.glitterstardesigns.blogspot.com/

After:
Welcome to my shop. I’m sure you’ll find something you’ll love or the perfect gift. I am always adding something new so check back often. I am convo friendly. Contact me whenever you want for whatever reason.

***My profile contains all of my store policies***

Proud member of Wisconsin street team(WIST,) Ecoetsy, EtsyU, and DSM.
Blog- http://www.glitterstardesigns.blogspot.com

30 Days to a better shop

I've decided to follow along with http://www.christinaperdue.com/blog/ on her quest for a better shop. I'll take all the help I can get.
Day 1. Set goals.

October goals:

• Sell at least 2 items this month
  
• list or re-list at least 3 times a week
  
• Blog every other day
  
• Post at least one myspace bulletin a week
• Add more pictures to flickr
• Make enough product to be able to do a craftfair
  

Long term goals:

• Continue to be able to stay home with my children by selling my own crafts
• Start participating in craft fairs
• Wholesale/consignment
  
• Open a geek/craft/coffee shop with my husband

That's it for now. YaY for goals!!

My jewelry video

I created this fun video after watching the video Chickadeebeads posted on her blog.

Matchbook notepad tutorial

My first tutorial. :)

Matchbook notepad

I like to make my matchbook notepads out of old book pages. Be creative though you can use anything you like.

Materials:

• Old book- that you found in the trash that does not interest you or perhaps you have read it a thousand times and can recite it word for word.
  
• Scissors
• Stapler
  
• Mod Podge- or other type glue
• Paint brush
• Newspaper- to protect your work surface
  
• Matchbook- If you don’t have a pack of matches laying around that is fine. You can either cut the paper a size looks good to you or my match book measures 1.5 in/3.8 cm X 4.5 in/11.43 cm
• Paper- for the inside pages. I’m using some old notebook paper (I forgot to put this in the picture.)

Step One

Cut or rip out one page from your book. Lay your match book down or use the measurements above. (1.5 in/3.8 cm X 4.5 in/11.43 cm)

If you use your own match book remember to include some extra for the little flap at the bottom. I like to use a double layer of paper so the final product is more sturdy. To do this just double the width of the match book. Cut this piece out. (feel free to add more layers depending on the thickness of your paper.)

Step Two

Fold in half the long way.

Make sure the edges line up. If you can’t get them to line up either refold and try again or cut a little off. Now you have two layers. Fold down the top roughly 1.5 in/3.8 cm. This will be your front fold at the top. Fold again roughly .25 in/ 6.35mm this is your back fold at the top. Fold the bottom up roughly .5 in/1.27 cm. If these measurements don’t work for you just eyeball it until it looks good. The top flap and bottom flap should over lap a little.


Step Three

It’s glue time!!! Open your paper back up and apply your glue to the center. I like to use a paint brush. Carefully fold in half again. Lay on one side and apply glue. Flip over and apply glue to the other side. Carefully peel the paper from your newspaper. It should have a slight curl to it.. Lay on its edge to dry. Let it dry for a few minutes. It doesn’t take long. Go get yourself a snack chill out for a bit. Check to make sure your glue is dry. You don’t want to leave it over night because they tend to crack when you fold them if you wait too long. Now fold like you had it before. Your fold maybe have disappeared from the gluing just measure again and fold. Once you make one you can pretty much just eye ball it.



Step Four

Lay your matchbook onto your inside paper and cut a piece slightly smaller than it.
Place inside your matchbook cover. If its too big re-cut it. Cut out as many of these pieces as you want in your final product. My stapler can only handle about 12 pieces of paper.

Step Five

Place all pages inside. Staple in the center.


That’s it! Now decorate anyway you want. I like to use a stamp on mine. You can also paint on it or just leave it as is. Be creative! Make them different size, give them away, Toss one in your purse so you always have a piece of paper handy. Put you business information on them and hand give away as promos.

More magnets

I just listed another set of magnets. These are flowers as you can see. I love to color and I'm hoping someone else out there loves to color as well.

Halloween magnets

I just listed some halloween magnets on etsy. I've been working on these for a few days now. I designed each picture in illustrator and printed them out. I then attached them to some sticky magnets and cut out the pictures. The idea is to color them yourself or have your child do it. I've already made a few flower designs that I will be listing soon.

My newest hobby

So I was searching through the 365 days flickr group today and I came across a thread of scan yourself pictures. After looking at some I had to try for myself.

Its here!!

My new camera came today! YaY! I'm so excited. I've been playing with it all day. Now I can post all those items that I couldn't before. I didn't have a macro setting. I've been retaking pictures all day. Now I need to switch them all out in my etsy shop. That should be fun, but it needs to be done.

See! They're not blurry.

Tomorrows the big day.

That's right. Kaden's off to school tomorrow. We went there today to meet his teacher and everyone else that will be around him during the day. He is nervous and excited all at the same time. He's afraid he won't make friends. I told him to just be a nice boy and he'll have no problem making friends. He's also worried about riding the bus. I told him he'd be fine and that'd I'd wait outside with him the first couple of days. I'm pretty excited for him. Not to mention the fact that he'll be eating breakfast and lunch at school. He leaves at 8:30 and comes home around 4:00. I don't know what I'm going to do with my day. Its a good thing I have Lia to entertain me throughout the day.

The perfect photo... missed.

This past Friday I was sitting outside with the fam. My husband was grilling and the kids were just hanging out. When we see an hot air balloon off in the distance. It starts coming closer and closer until its right over head. Now I've seen this same balloon several times, but never right over my house. Here is where the perfect picture comes in. Just as the balloon is overhead a bald eagle flies by. Now what are the odds? Complete blue skies, hot air balloon, and a bald eagle. That's the first thing that came to mind as I watched this bird fly across the sky. "Wow! That would have been an awesome photo." The second thing was, "Man, I hope that thing doesn't poop in my eye."

365 days err 366

So I joined a couple flickr groups today that involve taking a picture once a day for 365 days. There is a leap year coming up so its actually going to be 366 days. So for the next 365 days I have to take a picture of myself. It should be interesting. I'm never good at remembering things like this but hopefully I will this time. I also have to take a picture of an object of my choice once a day. I mean the same object everyday but its my choice what the object is. Did that make sense? I decided on a light bulb. I have a lot of idea's for it. I'm pretty excited. If you would like to follow along with my progress you can check out the pictures here:

366 pictures of me and my lightbulb.

I cut her hair

I broke down and cut L's hair today. She was born with a full head of hair and I vowed to not cut it. I wanted it to grow out so I could just tuck the front behind her ears. I was plagued with the mom bang cut for years of my life and I told myself I wouldn't put my daughter through the same thing. Lately though she refuses to keep any kind of hair clip or hair pony in her hair.. she rips them out and tries to eat them. Her hair usually tucks behind her ear a little but it stays for only a few minutes. She ends up walking around with her hair hanging across her eyes. Then I get to hear comments from my husband like "when are you going to let me cut that", "she looks like a shaggy dog" "She can't see.. no wonder she runs into things" etc... So anywho, today I cut her bangs. I'm just done with fighting her and keeping her hair out of her eyes and now... she has the classic mom cut.

before

After

I'm hoping I can let it grow now and she'll be old enough to keep her hair clips in by the time she'll need them.

Like mother like son...

Ever take your kids to the fabric store? It's quite the adventure. I wanted to pick some fabric up today so I packed up the kids and headed out. I probably should have forgotten about it when I realized it was raining for the 6th day in a row. Anywho we get to the fabric store, put L in the cart while K insists on pushing her. Now these are the tiniest carts I have ever see so I'm nervous he's going to tip her over. I told him to be careful and go slow. As I'm standing there looking for the right fabric I see Lia being pushed past me. They're both giggling and waving. Then K spots some superman fabric and asks if we can get it. I told him we could get some and make pillows.

We headed out and ran over to the dreaded wal-mart. Had to pick some things up there. Of course by the time we were done its down pouring and I'm parked 3 miles away from the door. Weeee.... We decided to get some fazolli's for supper. I had one last stop before heading home. I had to pick up a copy of volumeone. I was interviewed a few weeks ago for an article about local etsy artists and it came out today. I can't say anything bad about free advertising. Now its raining pretty hard but I really wanted to get a copy. I drove to the one place I knew would have some. The grocery store. I ran through the rain to get a copy or two. This trip that was suppose to take an hour (fit it in before L's nap) turned into 3.5 hours. L didn't get a nap today and went to bed early. Got home and ate our Fazolli's. K wanted to make his pillows.
Cutting

Sewing

Stuffing

Finished!


He made two of them. He plans on keeping one (which he's sleeping with right now) and giving the other one to his older brother. (whom he sees on the weekends) He even wrapped it up in newspaper all by himself and had me make a bow to tape on. I think he did pretty good for being his first sewing project and being 5. :)

I've created new things. :)

I decided to make something new last night. I had this old sheet laying around so I made a little baby dress out of it.

I had started making some pj pants out of the rest of the fabric but I cut them wrong. I was pretty frustrated so I broke out my paints and created this baby.


Its a 16 X 20 inch stretched canvas.

*Sigh*

Here's something funny so everyone can laugh at me. We have a walnut tree in our yard (ok I think its a walnut tree I'm not an expert) It drops green nut balls every once in awhile. Ok the point of the story. I walked underneath it today and one fell on my head. This tree is probably 100 feet tall. It HURT! Jason was right there so he checked to see if I was bleeding and I wasn't. I thought I was going to pass out. I still have a headache and the spot that it hit is throbbing. Maybe I have a concussion.

K's brilliant idea

Last night K found my star punch and asked if he could play with it. I showed him how to use it and off he went. After making about 10 stars he yells over to me and says, " Hey mom! I'm going to sell these." I told him he'd have to make a lot more before we could sell them.

Punching out stars like he's a ninja or something. :)

His stars

I asked him how much we should charge for them and he told me $20,000. Wouldn't that be nice.

pink pillows!

I've had this fabric for a long time and I finally did something with it. I made pillows. Its a very soft faux fur.


How fun! YaY for stuffing!

And we're done. :)
I made two of these and will be listing them on etsy very shortly.

Its done!

I finally finished the project I was working on. After many hours of work it is complete. I started blogging about it over here
http://theblogdiggitydogblog.blogspot.com/2007/07/what-ive-been-working-on.html

I added a hook to hang it today and tested it out. It works great. I listed it on etsy earlier today and its already been hearted once. Ok once isn't a lot, but its something. I really hope this sells because I think it is a beautiful piece of art. :)

Grow a pet day 10!

Well, I've lost count of the days. I'm sure its been 10 days by now though. My little froggie started out at about 1.5 inches tall and now he is about 5 inches tall. I dumped all of the water out so now I get to watch him shrink. Wee!! The first picture is his last days in water and the second is his first time without water... Time to shrink!

Grow a pet

I just wanted to post days 6 and 7 of my grow a pet.

I'm not sure how much growing he is actually doing anymore.

Another long day

Yesterday I had a long, yet enjoyable day. I got up at 7:30 am. Woke the kids up a few mins later and we headed down to my parents house. We picked my mom and headed off to meet up with some fellow members of WIST-etsy. I met oddstuffbyXanthe and ZenithJade. They were both very sweet. We had a wonderful time. :) Kaden had a lot of fun playing with the kids. We got there a 10 am and left around 2:30 pm. After we were done stuffing promo bags and making post cards and such, we headed over to my grandparent's house. My great aunt Nancy was there too. She has been visiting the past week from Missouri. It was nice seeing her. I think it has probably been atleast 10 years since I had seen her last. She brought her grandkids with as well. Kaden had a lot of fun playing with them as well. Lia had fun too. Poor thing got sunburnt though. I think it was the ride down there because I kept her out of the sun for the most part. We were at my grandparents from about 3:00- 7:00. After all that fun we headed back towards my parents. My dad was home from work by then. He was playing his bass. (that he made himself) and let kaden sing into a microphone. It was pretty cute. Kaden had a lot of fun. Lia thought it was funny as well. We left there around 9:00 and headed for home. The drive took just about an hour. The kids slept the whole way home, which was nice. I cranked up the radio and had my own personal concert of myself singing.. haha.. I was pretty tired so I wanted to keep myself awake. Well that is all.. Had a fun day. We'll have to do it again sometime.

Busy day

Today was kaden's last day of t-ball and soccer. Of course he got popsicles at both. haha.. I'm kind of glad they are over. It'll be nice not having to go anywhere for a few weeks before school starts. Tomorrow is his last day of gymnastics as well. I'm going to keep this short today. I should be doing something else.

Grow a pet.

My sister bought me this thing called a Grow a Pet. Its suppose to grow 600% and take 10 days. I told her I would take a picture everday and blog about it. Mainly for shits and giggles... enjoy. ( I started this on my other blog) I had to move him into a different container because he was getting too big.

I forgot to take a picture for day 4. So here is day 5