getting ready for my first 2012 event

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, one of the biggest things going in this month is an open house in the Chicago area.  It's this coming weekend.  I swore that I wasn't going to do a lot of display or product upgrades for this event, but of course now that I have all of these new ideas floating around, I had to make some of them real.  I shared my new thumb tack and magnet packaging earlier this week, which I will have at the open house.  Here are just a few of the other things that I've been working on for it the past couple weeks.

New Display Banner

Edi very generously did the graphic design work for a new banner.  We coordinated to make the layout, font, and color choices, but she put it all together.  This would have taken me hours, so I'm very grateful for her help.  When she had the final design done, I uploaded it to VistaPrint and ordered a banner.

The blank spaces are for 8 x 10 photos.  I cropped 8 of my photos to 8 x 10 size and had them printed through Target (which was a cheaper option than ordering and shipping with Shutterfly).  We decided that this would be a better option than printing the photos right on the banner because this will allow me to switch them out as my product lines change.

I feel like I've mentioned this 100 times here, but I'll say it again because I know I'll get questions otherwise.  I ordered contact paper and Velcro dots in bulk when I was teaching and still have lots of leftover materials.  That's what I used for my banner.  I covered all of the photos in contact paper and attached them to the banner with Velcro.

Jake is the only one who's seen it in person so far, and he was very impressed.  It will look even more amazing when I have it mounted on the front of my display.  I will definitely get pictures of this at the open house.

New Free Shipping Cards

I send or give out a discount or free shipping card with all of my orders, both online and at shows.  My old free shipping cards were business card sized and very plain.  I just ran through the last set that I'd printed, and it was time for an upgrade.  One thing that I'm really working on this year is building return customers, especially from shows.  I hope that these will help.  (Yep, that code does work all the time.  You can steal it any time you like.)

New Price Signs

Most of these signs are simply for new products or for products with slightly adjusted pricing.  They match many of the signs that I already use, except that these all use the new font that I have on my new banner and free shipping cards.  Here they are matted before I covered them with contact paper.

New Small Button Items

I pushed really hard to get enough of these items ready for my final 2011 shows.  I am going to pace this better for 2012 and just made a handful for this show.  I'll work on making more slowly for spring shows throughout the next couple months.  We were blessed with some sun this week so I was able to take a number of these photos with natural light.

 

New Glass Magnets

I am still in the beginning stages of my glass charms and magnets, but I've found a couple designs that I really like so far so I've been working on a few more sets of those designs.

That's a mean tease, right?  These all have music or flower designs.  I'll get some pictures of them sometime before or at the open house.

Greeting Card Packaging and Display

The biggest investment, both for money and time, for greeting cards has been the packaging and display.  I went ahead and made a full set of tabs for my display box.  As you can see, they are not tall enough to be seen over the card sleeves.  They will be alphabetized so people can find what they need easily enough.  I may adjust them at some point but not for the open house.  At this point, I only have cards for about 5 tabs so it won't be a big issue.

I packaged all of my cards in sleeves with price/description labels.  I bought most of my card packaging materials like these sleeves in bulk through ULINE, and I use address labels for almost all of my shop labels (like the ones on my jewelry boxes).  Eventually I'll have cards in different numbered sets and lots of mix and match price options, but as my inventory is not large enough to do that yet, I'm simply offering discounts for multiple card purchases.  I'll have signs with all of those numbers on my display.

What's Left to Do?

-I'm going to have a basket of $5 or less freebies.  Everyone who attends will get to pick one.  Most of these are ready to go, but I still have a few magnets to finish.
-I got a custom order within hours of creating the open house event on Facebook.  I completed the order (which was for 2 bracelets) and sent her pictures a couple days ago.  She loved them, and yesterday, she ordered 4 pairs of earrings to coordinate with the bracelets.  Those earrings will be one of my main priorities today.  I'll get pictures of all of those pieces up after the open house.
-Then I need to get everything packed up and ready to go!

What have you been working on this week?

Newest Article:

Yep, I got another Valentine's Day article together!

Valentine's Day Desserts: Recipe Ideas

I included this post in Erika's It's a Wrap Link Party - 2/6/2012.

more upgrades/improvements

Thank you to everyone who replied about my new banner and avatar!  I really appreciate your honesty.  I put together another new banner and avatar earlier tonight.  Taking some advice, I included full shots of my pieces on the banner.  The avatar is a partial shot like my old avatar was, but it has better detail than the one I made yesterday.  I also incorporated sheet music more prominently.  Hopefully all of this will help!  You can check them out here.  The new avatar is also on other sites like Blogger and Facebook so you may have already seen it tonight.

I got a postal scale today.  Thank you to those who gave me advice in that area as well!  From here on out, I will provide tracking information for all orders that ship in the USA and are paid for through PayPal.  While I was thinking about packaging/shipping today, I decided to take pictures of my packaging (while I got my raffle winner earrings ready to ship) and put together a packaging image for Etsy listings and whatnot.

I updated a couple more listings with new pictures tonight.  The first one is my Winding Road with checked border peyote cuff.  This is one of the first peyote cuffs I ever wove with delicas.

The second is one my black and silver right angle bangle.

I did get both of my raffle winner packages in the mail today (as well as a couple more used book Amazon packages, woohoo!).  I worked on Father's Day cards tonight instead of my Art Beads piece.  I may still sit down with it for a little while before I head to bed.

continued upgrades/improvements, looking for some advice/feedback, this week's progress

I made a new banner and avatar for my Etsy shop tonight.  Please check it out and let me know what you think! The old ones were all right, but as I started redoing my blog design and considering other changes that I should make to my Etsy shop, I decided that they needed an upgrade, too.  My work does continue to change, and I think that my shop and blog should reflect my more recent work.

As I've been going through all of my listings that I did not complete before the Arts Festival, I've been uploading new pictures to my Flickr photostream.  You can check out a handful of items that aren't up on Etsy yet as well as work in progress and craft fair pictures that you may have missed on here.  I will continue to edit and upload all of my button stud pictures on Flickr.  I'm debating listing some of my button studs as grouped listings: i.e. three button stud earrings for one price.  It doesn't seem worth it to list them all individually, but I think that they could sell on Etsy.  If anyone has any thoughts on this, please let me know!

In another effort to boost my Etsy sales, I think that it is way past time to get a postal scale and start offering delivery confirmation through PayPal.  Many many Etsy sellers offer it, and it's one thing that I could do to make my shop more competitive.  I would be able to use it for some of my used book sales on Amazon as well.  I don't need a scale that's equipped to weigh textbooks, but I could use it for the smaller hardbacks and all of the paperbacks.  For all of you out there who do use postal scales, let me know if you have any preferred brands or if you were able to find good deals at any specific stores.  The general advice on the Etsy forums seems to be that most smaller models are more than adequate, but it's always worth getting a second opinion before purchasing.

I've been working on the earrings for my Arts Festival raffle winners this week, which are green designs that I've made before.  I'm making additional pairs that will be for sale in my Etsy shop at some point in the near future since green does continue to be a very popular choice for earrings.  After I get those done, I really need to work on my Art Beads summer piece.

new banner/layout, trade, rainbows

Thank you so much to Talina of ripperarts who designed my new banner and avatar for me! She had designed my previous banner and avatar as well. I liked them so much that I decided to ask her to make these newer ones that reflect my current work, and she was so kind to do so. I changed my layout on this blog to match the colors and have gotten a couple compliments on it already. I created a new Entrecard to match as well. Anyone who approves one of my ads tonight or later will see the new card.

I completed a trade with Stationarycreations this week. She sent me a dozen of her Holy Night Christmas cards in exchange for one of my bracelets. I got the cards today, and they are beautiful. I am already looking forward to sending them this year (not that I need much to get me excited about sending Christmas cards!). She is interested in another one of my bracelets as well. She may make me a set of thank you cards to match my business cards for it.

I have been working on a couple different rainbow designs this week, one new and one remake. Here is the bowl of seed beads that I put together for my rainbow work.