A Surprise Parcel from DaWanda

I got a surprise parcel in the post last week... a whole bundle of goodies from DaWanda (where I've had a shop since 2008).

There's bag for me to keep...

... and a big stash of branded bits and pieces (postcards, stickers, badges and paper bags) for me to use when sending out my DaWanda orders.

Nice, huh?

Gifts for Stationery Lovers

The lovely folks over at DaWanda kindly invited me to put together a list of gift ideas... and I chose gifts for stationery lovers.

Honestly, I could spend all my pennies on pretty cards, tape and other paper-y bits and bobs... and there are lots of super stationery treats to be found on DaWanda! You can check out my selection HERE.

A Mention I forgot to Mention

Last year I was really pleased to have some of my products included in DaWanda's Winter "Lovebook" - a mini catalogue they send out to the press as a sampler of some of the handmade goodness available on the site.

Then this year I was delighted that they chose to feature me & my shop in one of the mini interviews that are dotted throughout Summer Lovebook's pages. Especially as they said such nice things about my work :)

It's been a busy year though, and I completely forgot to blog about it! Oops.

 

If you fancy a look through the whole of the summer Lookbook, you can download it as a PDF here.

Loving the DaWanda Lovebook

I got a lovely bit of post last month - a copy of DaWanda's winter 2011 Lovebook.


The Lovebook is a mini catalogue DaWanda puts together to send out to the press, featuring a small sample of products as a taster of all the great things available on the site and mini interviews with some of the shop owners. Such a great idea!

Like the website itself, there's three different versions of the Lovebook - a German, a French and an English version. I'm delighted to have my oak leaf headband included in the "nature lovers" section in the German version...

... and three designs from my shop have made it into the English version, which the postie will hopefully be bringing me sometime soon :)

If you fancy a flick through the Lovebook you can download a PDF copy of the English version here, and the German version here.

Q & A

There's an interview with me over on the DaWanda blog today - all about my creative process and running my DaWanda shop. You can read the interview here.

I often get emails from people asking questions about felt crafting and my crafty business, so I wondered if you guys have any questions you want to ask me :)

If you'd like to ask me a question just leave a comment on this post and I'll write up the answers over the next few weeks.

Discover some bargains...

I've been pretty busy recently, getting lots of my usual sewing done but also working on a top secret project... (shhh!)

This has been lots of fun but also extra work & extra deadlines, and after finishing it I need a bit of a rest! So I've gone away for a bit to stay with my parents and swap piles of work and trips to the Post Office for home cooking and lazing around in the sunshine.

All orders from my shops will (of course) be posted as soon as possible after I get back ... and I'll still be blogging. Though I have rather foolishly forgotten to pack my camera (oops).

Even though I'm away, I'm having a sale over in my DaWanda shop this week! There's a site-wide "discovery sale" going on in loads of DaWanda shops until Sunday where you can get a fantastic 15% off if you've never made a purchase from that shop before. You can find my shop HERE.

First Impressions

Yesterday I was flattered to find my items included in these two stunning treasury selections on Etsy's front page ...
(Double click on each image if you want to see it larger).

I've read a lot of divided opinion about the Etsy front page and the items chosen for it, but it's rare that I see a front page I don't find interesting and well put-together and super selections like these make for a fantastic first impression that has much more impact (I think) than the more random selections on other crafty sales sites.

DaWanda has recently changed its front page set-up and it's much improved, and though I think it's a bit busy and still lacks that POW that Etsy's often has the navigation guides are much clearer. Similarly, the navigation bits on the Folksy front page are fab, lovely and simple tabbed sections and a nice big clear search bar... but that wow factor is currently still lacking. It will be interesting to see what changes are made as the site develops!

Changes...

I've recently been wrapping my head around lots of new features and other changes happening on the websites where I have my little shops... so I thought I'd write about that today and a few other business-related things (no craftiness today, sorry!).

Folksy changes almost every day or so, with great little tweaks and improvements happening to make it more user-friendly and preparing the site for launch. The Folksy guys were kind enough to waive our listing fees for July as a thankyou for all our "beta tester" feedback (ie all the nagging) and they have a fantastic status page where they let us know what's been changed and what's coming soon, and give us more updates in their forums. It's taking me a while to get the hang of the site & to get my stock listed (though the listing process is very speedy now they've added a "list similar" function) but I'm definitely pleased with it so far and I'm so, so happy to have somewhere that's in my own currency!

Etsy is having a few growing pains at the moment (staff changes and a few problems with the search function), but they've been rolling out lots of useful new features over the past few months - a "vacation mode" for shops, a way of leaving batch feedback and an auto-reply to stop people replying to Etsy conversations via email by accident - and they feel like a promising beginning. I love Etsy already but anything that makes my life easier and my selling process simpler is a bonus: I am keeping my fingers crossed for more.

DaWanda meanwhile has been having a total overhaul of their categories and search systems, which has meant a bit of extra work in the short term as I've had to reassign categories and pick what they call "characteristics" for all my items (style, main material, etc and then colours which I've blogged about before) ... but it makes searching for things so much easier! The main search reminds me of Ebay, as you get a category breakdown for your search results. For example, if you type in "squirrel" you now get this:
... all the results pictured and then on the left a breakdown of the numbers of items labelled squirrel in all the available categories (click on the image to view it larger). Seriously useful, even if you're not specifically interested in squirrels!

I've also made a few changes myself. I dipped my toes in lots of online-selling ponds this year as part of my new year's resolution to expand my business and try out different markets, including setting up properly on DaWanda and (more recently) trying out Folksy. Those two are making me happy thus far, but a few others haven't worked out.

I tried Mintd but found it just too buggy and hard to list things and it didn't seem worth investing in one of their seller packages just to sit cussing when things didn't load properly! Then I was really pleased earlier in the year at the arrival of PinkDoodle, which promised to be an English Etsy... but it was so dead quiet that the moment Folksy showed up I jumped ship and headed over there instead.

I'd also been working on a shop at iCraft, a Canadian site which I really do like the look of... but I've been so busy recently that I've neglected it badly, and now just don't have the time this year to set it up properly. So, to avoid stretching myself too thin I've closed up shop there for the moment but hope to lavish some attention upon it in the spring. I felt terribly guilty about this decision for a while, but I think I'd much rather concentrate on doing some things (Etsy, Dawanda, Folksy) well than run myself into the ground just for the sake of "having another outlet".

That's enough waffle for today, I think!

In My Absence...

Lots of photos to catch up from the past week!

When I had to break off from my daily blogging last weekend I kept myself entertained whilst ill by doing nice relaxing crafty things like cutting and sticking (making thankyou notes to send out with my orders) and doing a bit of knitting...
... then I went to visit my mum for a few days to get looked after & took lots of sewing projects with me. I made a start on finishing these ...
... and then I got scratched on my sewing hand by my mother's giant cat Ollie and was stuck unable to sew for a few days. This is the beast wot dunnit (normally very sweet tempered!)
Now I'm back and (almost) fully healed and getting stuck into some sewing again. On Sunday I made a batch of specially ordered poppies (including one little poppy in "orchid", which turned out rather nicely) ...... and then yesterday (Crafting 365, day 353) I finished some bluetit and badger brooches that had been sitting in my wip box for just ages awaiting their eyes and little noses: all the fiddly final touches.In other news: you can now send an e-card featuring one of my photos over on DaWanda, in English, French or German. I didn't know in advance that my product would be featured, so it was a very nice surprise when I went to check out their new e-cards!
Plus a big shout out and congratulations are due to fellow UK crafter Bombus who was Etsy's Featured Seller at the weekend and (drumroll please) to Memake who is I think the first Crafting 365 member to actually complete their 365 project! She managed to stick very strictly to the task and completed it within a calendar year (unlike me!) and took some fab pics along the way. You can check out her amazing crafting photos HERE.

More Tea Love

Yesterday (day 344) the tea-themed craftiness continued: I finished the pink tea badges and made a small batch of embroidered "tea addict" pins. Here are both batches all neatly packed away in their storage bags:
I love those little bags: they help me feel very organised! With tea on the brain, I did some DaWanda window shopping yesterday evening and found some delicious tea-themed treats... lovely greetings cards from I Like Pens: birds + tea = heaven!
... and one of the most charming necklaces I've seen in a very long time, a sweet and simple silver teacup from Tollsten:
How darling is that?? Definitely on my wish list. I'm starting to get the hang of Pinboards over on DaWanda and am enjoying keeping little lists of things I might like to buy in future or just plain think are awesome. So far I've started a Teatime pinboard, a selection of Lovely Birdies and an all-purpose list of Pretty Things (because you can never have too many pretty things), they're quite addictive really. More DaWanda finds no doubt coming soon!

Tinkering

I'm still taking a "minibreak" from crafting, though as discussed yesterday I'm still ending up doing crafty things with my day... Today, for example, I have been doing some knitting and also tinkering with my DaWanda and Folksy shops.

Following a suggestion from two of my lovely blog readers (thankyou ladies!) I've added my mini felt squares packs to my Folksy shop so you can now buy felt in good old British pounds if you want to :)

DaWanda meanwhile have announced that "the search for colours will play a bigger role on DaWanda in the future" so I've been playing around selecting the two main colours for each of my listings. Their automated colour picker is pretty cool - and very accurate for many of my listings, though obviously I needed to change some of them like this:Psst: I'm taking part in DaWanda's Olymics-themed "Shopathon", so there will be 11% off in my shop (and any other shops taking part) in the final event this Sunday (24th August) from 12am-3pm (CET) and 8pm-11pm (CET).

Tiny Trees and Crafty Cakes

Last night was one of those evenings when I was hugely tempted to stay up past my bedtime to finish my sewing because almost finishing things is just not the same as actually having a row of finished lovelies in front of you. However, I was very good and went to bed at a sensible hour leaving all this work in progress:I almost finished my prototype battenburg pincushions (they just need stuffing) and also a little batch (a small forest, if you like) of tree brooches. Cutting out all those tiny leaves is rather fiddly, but the end result is totally worth it I think. I am very pleased with how the battenburg is turning out - they have a real satisfyingly chunky feel to them already and they've not even been stuffed yet.

Lots of fun news today... My blond moustache disguise (modelled by superstar Louie) got a mention over on ConversationPieces and has also been popping up at the bottom of the Etsy front page linking to an article on the Etsy blog as part of their Handmade Kids series:
Also I was delighted to spot my little teacup brooches on one of my favourite blogs, Modish, yesterday and even more chuffed today when I saw they'd been included in the "Modish's top DaWanda picks" feature that's just gone live on the DaWanda homepage. Jena from Modish is running a competition - vote for your favourite item from her list by leaving a comment HERE before August 10th to take part. I have my fingers crossed that at least one person will vote for my little teacups but will be trying very hard not to check the comments obsessively just in case!

Photo Shoots and Fathers Day

I totally forgot to send my dad a card for Fathers' Day. What a terrible daughter I am!
However, three of my pins got featured over in the Dawanda Fathers' Day "My Father the Hero" gift guide so it's not all bad news, hehe...
My camera is still dead (no camera zombie as yet but it may happen) so still no crafty photos.

I can however show off some of the shots from Friday's photo shoot (my camera's final blaze of glory) ... Lots of masks:
Some hairbands:
And my newest ventures, floral bracelets and necklaces:Hurrah! Look out for these pics and more popping up in my Etsy listings over the next few weeks. (PS many many thanks to my lovely models: nothing beats seeing these things actually being worn)

Nice Things

Last night's craftiness? Sewing more layered flowers: It's so relaxing cutting out lots of petals, layering them and seeing what they turn into...

In other news:

I am really behind in shout-outs to the sweet people who have mentioned my work on their blogs etc... I will try to do a proper post about this sometime soon (even the smallest mention really makes me smile), but for the moment I must mention that my pansy brooch was a "Sunday Indie Find" over at BlommaFinds and my moth brooch got a mention today on Cuteable in a selection of fun "Dawanda Finds". Yay.

Lovely though it is to have people mention my work, nothing (and I mean nothing) beats the thrill of seeing people actually wearing it! My most recent customer appreciation photo comes from Clothcat, who has kindly agreed to be an official moustache disguise model for my Etsy listings... how great is this picture?

365 / 212 - 320 Pieces of Felt

As I was feeling a bit under the weather last night (better now, hurrah), I decided to sit and watch some Poirot dvds and cut out some felt for new projects...
... rather a lot of felt, in fact! 160 pieces for one mobile, another 160 for another mobile, and a few more pieces ready for other projects. Every single piece was cut out freehand, no patterns and no fancy cutting machines, just me and my eyes and a pair of scissors. I had meant to only cut out 96 pieces for the second mobile (making it one-sided only) but I was rather half-asleep and kept accidentally cutting out two of all the pieces so I just went with it :)

Some fun and happy news:
I hit my 700th item sold over on Etsy last night - such a huge number. I keep thinking about it and grinning... and then thinking about the amount of hours I must have spent in the post office over the past year, and grinning slightly less! My little poppy was apparently on the Etsy front page yesterday morning - thanks so much to Saysie for letting me know, and also for this sweet mention of my Felt Fancy pincushions. My bluetit is proving popular over on the French version of Dawanda, even showing up on their little front page widget for most popular items...
... and a couple of my flower brooches were picked for Dawanda's (English) spring accessories feature. I was also dead chuffed this morning to see that my ribbon brooch get a mention over on the Craft blog. A few other sweet people have mentioned my work recently, but I have temporarily misplaced the list I wrote! It's probably buried under pile of felt. Oh well, I'm sure it'll turn up. All these nice features and it's sunny today. Wonderful stuff.

365 / 209 - Bits and Pieces

Oops, almost forgot to blog today. Tsk tsk. I have been busy doing lots of things, which is almost a good excuse but really I just forgot!

Lots of sewing yesterday:
Finished a batch of battenburg brooches (two slightly wonky ones, being listed at a reduced price cos they turned out a bit "homebaked" looking!) and another stripey ribbon brooch... and then got started on a few more batches of things. Lots of designs in need of restocking at the moment, and my wip box is full of pieces I've cut out and not yet sewn together. So: made a start on sewing some acorns, some tree stumps and some cute little red umbrellas. Fingers crossed that I get them finished soon and they don't just end up back in my wip box!

In non-crafty news today I've been doing some housework (quite out of character) and tending to my Dawanda shop. I'm gradually filling up my shop, and making a start on properly translating my listings into German. You can list in English, French and German on Dawanda and at the moment my French & German listings are a bit of a cheat - simple English with a couple of translated phrases like "Felt brooch" - which will not do at all in the long term. The German listings are getting a makeover first, and then I'll turn my attention to the French (definitely my weaker language!). I'm rather excitedly planning a couple of "Dawanda vocab" sheets full of categoriesed words and phrases for use in my future listings, because I am a NERD and I like that sort of thing :)

365 / 206 - Ribbons and Rollercoasters

Yesterday I started picking ribbons for a new series of one of a kind designs...
It is still miserable weather here, too dark for taking mobile photos (so annoying!). I have been slightly distracted anyway with a rollercoaster of a day... When I got up, my inbox was filled with loveliness. Sweet blog comments to moderate (thankyou!), friendly convos, and a couple of Etsy sales accompanied by charming messages from the buyers (always so nice). Then I sold my violets brooch because it was on the Etsy front page - shame to miss the FP but lovely Kala got a screenshot of it for me:
Unfortunately, it turned out to be some kind of prank purchase as the buyers address was gibberish letters like kdfjyjh3ohhfw, seemingly some malicious person trying to bump me off the front page! Not a nice thing to do at all, it left me with a very sour taste in my mouth. I'm only glad that I've been on Etsy a while and know how nice Etsy people normally are, and how smoothly transactions normally go or I could have been very put off!

Having been put in a grumpy mood because of that, I was then totally delighted to check my email at lunchtime and discover that I'd made my very first sale on Dawanda! Yay! It is so nice to no longer have that zero staring at me, and very interesting to see how their payment process works. The boyfriend says "interesting" is the wrong word to use, but it's interesting to me at any rate, haha. My Dawanda shop still needs a lot of work (and a lot of items adding to it) but it's getting there slowly... off to add another item now, in fact...

365 / 193 - Setting up Shop

I have been doing some sewing, but mostly I have been going a bit goggle-eyed staring at the computer whilst organising all my photos (so very many unorganised, unlabelled photos!) and listing lots of things... I'm in the process of properly setting up shop on Dawanda, and am also attempting to get my head around Mintd and Pink Doodle. I've added a link to My Dawanda over on the right, and I am totally falling in love with the site! I love the look of the site, especially the shop layouts, they are so clear and fresh-looking. Here's mine:
I am also loving the simplicity of the listing process - photos upload like a dream, you can select any one of them to be your main image, and they allow you to use previously listed items as a template - and it is so friendly! You can leave comments on other peoples items or profiles when you spot something awesome, which is just so nice. The site is in three languages - an English part, a French part and a German part. I have forgotten most of my GCSE French & German but my German-speaking sister is going to be helping me out with German translations (she is a star).

Not the craftiest post ever, but if I never sell anything I'll never have the money to buy supplies to make more stuff so I think it counts :P