Productivity Day, Not So Much Crafting Day

Last night I spent a couple of hours in the Studio room and this is the result:

Still a mess, but getting better...

I got a lot of things on the floor picked up and (finally) unpacked most of the boxes from the shows.

Today I started out by doing a bit of cross-stitching.  Here is my current in progress pad as it looks now:

All of the details of the pattern are done, now all that remains is a bunch of black stitching in the middle.  I think it looks good and I'm eager to get it finished - and start on another one!

After some stitching, I moved on to taking pictures of a bunch of finished items, to get them listed for sale.  I desperately wanted to craft away today and had originally planned to spend the whole day making things.  I sometimes wish I could hire someone to take pictures, format them, and write up all of the listings to sell them, while I do what I like best - making more things!  Alas, it is only me running this operation, so instead of making things today, I took a bunch of pictures of things I already have.

I took pictures of a lot of bookmarks...




Also dreamcatchers....

And I did my first ever photo shoot for some of my Stablemate-sized saddle pads!

I still have a lot more finished work that needs to be photographed and I might do another round tomorrow.  Then of course comes the arduous task of formatting all of the pictures and actually getting everything listed for sale.  No fun, or at least not as much fun as crafting, but it needs to be done!

Catchy Title Here

I'm tired.  It's been a week or so since I've blogged.  A lot has gone on in that time.  I started a new job, and I am... still trying to cope with that.  My creativity has suffered, as I was pretty sure that it would.  It's always seemed that working a J-O-B really puts a damper on the creative juices for me.  I was on a roll, creating new work and getting items posted all over the internet.  I was going full speed ahead with getting serious about getting the Studio off the ground as a real business attempt.  Since I started working, I haven't accomplished much of anything else and that's depressing. 

I've also had quite a bit of difficulty with my schoolwork over the past week and that's been a downer. 

Yeah, things are kinda rough right now.  It's just been bad timing I guess for a job to start, school to suck, and all the momentum I had to come to a grinding halt at the same time. 

On an up note, before I did start the job, I was in a flurry of creativity.  I created several new bookmarks and I'm very, very happy with how they turned out.  I've been questioning the intelligence of continuing to create paper goods.  Quite frankly, I haven't sold any of them since I started getting into making them a couple of years ago.  This is the first time I've really advertised them, so things will pick up eventually.  I sure do like making my cards and bookmarks, but if they don't start selling I guess maybe I should hold off on making any more.  My necklaces, dreamcatchers, and horses have sold well over the years, but not the paper goods - I'm not sure why.  I've read how people sometimes question if they should make what they want or make what sells.  For me, my cards and bookmarks are the things that I classify as wanting to make - even though they aren't selling.

Tomorrow is Monday and many people don't like that day.  I guess I'm strange because I generally like Mondays.  For me it's a fresh start to a new week.  I really hope next week will be better, because this one was pretty crummy.

Playing Around

Well I really liked the looks of the Facebook "Like Box" that I had up here, but it doesn't seem to be working anymore, so I've removed it.  Maybe I'll try it again later and see if they've fixed whatever the problem is...  In the meantime, while exploring ArtFire, I found that they offer a Mini thing like Etsy - only it comes complete with its own shopping cart!  So, if I'm understanding it correctly, someone could buy an item from me right here in the sidebar.  That's an interesting idea. 

The wind is STILL blowing, so I'm still holed up inside, listing items and doing more and more research on the whole online marketing game.  I've got some supplies laid out to make a few bookmarks.  I've decided I want to make multiples of some of my favorite designs.  That way I can have more than just the one in stock.  When I make bookmarks, I tend to make every single one of them different.  I've never made the same one over and over.  Although now I'm thinking it might be worth it to build a small inventory of certain designs.

That's about it for today.  Not too much going on, except in my head, where creative ideas still flow at a mile a minute!

Harvest Theme Bookmarks

Well, I finally had a chance to do the Harvest themed bookmarks that I'd had in mine for the Harvest Creative Challenge since it started. Trouble is, I didn't get them posted up last night so they weren't in time to be included. Ah well, they were fun to make anyway!

Here they are (with a link to each Etsy listing below the picture):

Autumn Fun on Etsy

Autumn Leaves on Etsy

Colorful Autumn Leaves on Etsy

Autumn Harvest on Etsy

I really, really like how the first one turned out - the puppy playing in the leaves.  That one took the longest to plan out and to actually create.  When I finished it, I thought it was so cool and so cute that I almost didn't want to sell it!  But I did list it at Etsy this morning (with a little higher price than the others) so we'll see!  I think it is really cute and it's probably the most involved bookmark I've done - as far as planning and incorporating several different elements. 

My husband has had the idea for me to do high resolution color copies of some of my bookmark designs.  He says that I could then print out as many as I wanted, over and over.  I kind of like the idea, but I'm not sure.  I do like making handmade, one-of-a-kind designs.  Although in the case of some, like the Autumn Fun puppy design above, I'm tempted.  The supplies I used to make that one are things that I bought a long, long time ago.  I don't have the supplies left to make another one.  It is truly a one-of-a-kind.  I think that makes it special, but I also like it enough to consider making copies of it.  I'm just not sure...  I may consider doing prints of certain designs in the future, just to see how they turn out.

My First Items for the Creative Challenge

I completed my first two items for the Harvest Creative Challenge at Etsy. They are both the cross necklaces that I make - one in orange metallic, the other in brown metallic.

Here they are!:







I plan to make a few other things for the Challenge. I was very happy when digging through supplies yesterday to find my stash of designer papers - with autumn themes! I also found my laminator in storage (which I hadn't seen in a while) so I'm feeling some harvest-themed bookmarks coming on!

While photographing the new crosses I also took a hundred or so new pictures of other finished pieces, so we know what that means... Another photo formatting party, yaaay! (haha)

Wow, time flies! Many Updates!

I have been so busy that I didn't realize it's been over a month since I updated this blog! Jeez...

Anyway! I finally came up with a banner for the Studio and an overall theme for the site. All that's left now is to continue taking pictures (furiously) and get them formatted and uploaded. The photo cube is working out... fairly well. I think I kinda messed up in getting a HUGE one, because I've having trouble lighting it well enough from the outside. Jeff loaned me a couple of crazy bright halogen work lights and I'm going to try them next. My little clamp on office lamps aren't quite cutting it! I have quite literally HUNDREDS of items to photograph and it's been slow going so far, trying to figure out what lighting and camera settings work best. I'm hoping once I get the details worked out, I can just start cranking out pics. It's a little touch and go right now.

The big news is that I now have TWO online stores. The first, specifically for my cross necklaces, was set up several months ago and has just been kinda sitting. The second will be my overall store linked to the Studio site and will be the location where orders can be placed from the Studio site. I'm very excited about this development as one thing that had been stalling the progress was how to set up the Studio for online sales. My html skills are still pretty basic and I'm a long way off from being able to write up a fancy sales page/shopping cart from scratch. Jeff had used a free shoopping cart software to created the cross necklace site last fall, and he just showed me how to use the software to create another store - for the Studio.

I've now actually created Facebook fan pages for both the Studio itself, and the cross site individually. Those pages aren't public quite yet as I'm still waiting on having a sufficent number of good pictures for the "Grand Opening" of the Studio site AND the Facebook pages.

For now, here is the banner!:




And a couple of the pictures I have taken, of a greeting card and a bookmark with the same designs: