Custom Listing

Finally, FINALLY, I've finished the little boy's card - delays and premature aging caused primarily by a breakdown in communication between me and the printer, sigh...But it's done now, and thats...that!

Talk is cheap...

It's an odd thing, that the more immersed I become in the bells and whistles of having the Etsy shop and hoping to make something of it ( = 'talk') the less crafting I'm actually doing. Shame, and more fool me...

Today I cracked the Google Analytics nut: I was trying to do it all myself, and managed to find my tracking code and copy it, and thought I understood where it was meant to go, and yet no matter how often I pasted and saved, it was never there when I went to double check on it!

And inevitably I finally realised that Etsy has your back, and thanks to a little button, typing my number in once, and pressing Save or whatnot - done. Now I know for a fact how inconsequential I am in the great Etsy scheme of things :-p!

I have however managed to do a little doodling for my sister (above) - her friend has recently had a baby, and as the family have Irish roots (they are American) I guess she figured it'd be like shooting fish in a barrel for me, you can't fail with the Irish-Americans and the cupla focal! If it turns out at all nice I may list it on Etsy as a custom order, just to show that I'm not all dry-stone walls and rudely named sailing boats!

Improved?

Well, I officially consider that I have 'tried': I retook some pictures of the wrapped-paper-package-tied-with-a-red-ribbon-bow card, in a light with HOPEFULLY less of a bluish glow!

On my map: Oklahoma!

Oh yes, I am so grateful and happy - a wonderful lady in Oklahoma has seen the light and bought the red/gold Claddagh Ring card! Phew! 'Cos I was starting to wonder if I was the only one who kinda liked it...if I do say so myself *blush!*

And I'm also happy that it gave me the shove I needed to make an effort with finding a consistent package for single cards at least: I always knew I wanted it to have a board backing, and to be something that needed to be 'opened' - that anticipation is what it's all about, isn't it? And it had to be something that I could put together quickly and efficiently (I don't want the packaging to cost more in time or material than the card itself!). And I'm pretty happy with how this one combined all of the above...

So there's a board, glued onto an A4 sheet of nice textured card with my etsy avatar and contact details printed on the back; I scored along the board and cut out the 4 corners, so I'm left with 2 small and 2 big flaps. The small ones are folded first, and the big next, and then it is tied closed with a little red ribbon. Yes, in a bow. I can't help myself!

Completely unrelated to anything previous...

This was for personal use...and looks better in the use to which it has been assigned, 'cos I was able to tidy it up a little and change the colour and things...anyway, trust me, it took an absolute age and came out better than this.

Thass-all-ahm-sayin'.

It's a salmon you know!

Upcycled Card!

So back in the day, when I first started making a whole bunch of cards, my inspiration was the idea that cards are basically, drumroll, Thought Presents! Really, you are giving someone the gift of knowing that you were thinking of them, y'see? I know, it's a little Oprah-Tastic, but I was young :p
Anyway, two of that original batch of starry-eyed prototypes were salvagable, woo-hoo, and just needed to be 'Irished', to fit in with the rest of my Irish Language brand for Etsy...Voila, the little tag, hand-written by my own good Mother (yes, really, she has the best hand-writing I know!), with the Irish word "Bláthanna", referencing the 3 little cut-out flowers on the inside...
I like it!
Pity the photos are all kindsa crap, boo...

Silver and Blue Claddagh Ring Valentine's Day Card

It just so happens that the red and gold of the other Claddagh Ring card - below - and the silver and blue of this one go so well together - nothing to do with gender stereotypes whatsoever!

Etsy Upsets

Ooooh, miao! I've been spending a lot of time in the Etsy forums lately; there's a lot going on in 'Life', (as I like to call it), so I convinced myself that I had no time to do crafty-etsian things per say, and instead should spend my cupla spare minutes seeing what the rest of the Etsy world was up to...5 hours later and it's half past midnight, sucker! It's an education certainly, but not in quite the way I was expecting...
Actually, quite a few people seem to be getting their handcrafted knickers in a twist about one thing or another - I gather that things are usually pretty slow in January, and it seems to be getting to people; it seems to be an Etsy madness akin to Cabin Fever: Forum Fever!!! They even have a phrase for when it all starts to degenerate - a "train wreck" thread - I can't tell you my bemusement when I first saw people begin to post "choo choo" randomly! All in good fun though :)

Celtic Heart Valentine's Card

Agh, but this is a bugger to emboss! The finished product seen above is the last of a long line of Attempts, all previous of which were rejected...and, sshhh, this one would be too if I had ANY patience left - maybe you heard the shriek of disbelief and despair when I finally finished the embossing and folded it over and realised the image had been printed OFF CENTRE!!!! Nooooooo-oooooo! But I couldn't start again. Again. So I chopped off the edge of the card, artistically leaving a strip of the vibrant red inner paper to set off the bright white outer card :)

Scribbling...

Hopes for a new Valentine's card...

Sad Etsy Weekend!

Ha, I'm a fool, Etsy has began ruling my life to the extent that I spend so much time on it that I have no time to make anything new!! Yeesh!

Having found Craftcult.com, I now know that my views over the past couple of days have been abysmal...abysmal in this context reads non-existent :p

But luckily I am kinda getting over that, and thinking of thinking of ways of making stuff to sell physically, in shops and maybe on a market stall...!

Meanwhile, I retook some of my more cringeworthy pics, and I think I HAVE improved somewhat (above)...

Sad Etsy Day

Aw, I was away all day yesterday, with no access to the internet between 9am and 11pm, and INEVITABLY couldn't help but think that somehow Fate was watching and waiting for just this opportunity to rock my Etsy world....

....it didn't.

Nobody loves paperpennies. Not yesterday anyway. Or the dozen times I've already checked today! Sad face!

And I had a new Avatar with the name on all professional and everything!

New Etsy Banner

I read a quick Etsy forum post, and ta-de - whipped this up in a quick second :)

It may not be much to most, but it's a lot to auld tech-inept me! The idea in essence is that you should have your name and something relating to what you sell in the banner, as the only opportunity Etsy gives you to 'brand'...apparently.

Etsy Heart Validation

Giggle - some fantastic person has seen the Red and Gold Claddagh Ring card and Hearted it!!! It's the nicest thing in the world EVER...bar if she'd also bought it! I was looking through the forums etc last night, in desperation really because it was literally as if my little shop had fallen off the face of the Internet, and it was a cold lonely feeling! Anyway I know people keep saying you should comment on forums etc to get attention, but that feels kind of a little itty bit like oh-um-ah prostitution?! Well, I did it last night!!!!!! Actually it was a relevent post - the forum was about people underselling, and technically I'm as guilty as sin (remember my free-giveaways-in-exchange-for-feedback scheme?!), and so I owned up...Got a couple of views out of it though so I still feel a little dirty. Happy, but dirty. Confusing!

Here's a little filler: silver thank you card.

Pack of Cards for Latest Sale

Shame - only a single view of my Claddagh Ring card since putting it up on Etsy, and I liked that one :(

Meanwhile here is the packaging I did for the 3 cards Lovely-Lady-#-2 ordered...It's still not RIGHT, and takes me way too long to put it together. Sigh.

Still, it's always such a relief to finally send them off and tick the little "Shipped" box on Etsy, woot!

Valentine's Day - Claddagh Ring

My latest efforts...Bottom shows how the card would look laid flat, which means that when folded closed the 'ring' extends around the card.

The inner sheet is a nice crimson red, but it's a much lighter paper and reacts kinda funnily to the embossing.

More embossing woes is the 'ring' itself: it is much more detailed than anything I've done before - and the pic above was the only decent one of FOUR! Soul destroying!

Another Sale!!!

Lovely Lady number 2 has been in touch, and asked for 3 cards, and they are not even what I'd consider the nicest one of the Thank You cards, which makes it all the sweeter for me! Alas I don't have any blinkin' PAPER to make the cards, as we are suffering from the 'unprecedented' cold weather here on the edge of Nowhere, and I haven't seen civilisation in days...which includes a retailer of purty papers.
Never mind - there's always tomorrow :)

Final touches

The finished product...

SALE!

Yup, another sale! And this after my prices are...existent! So in theory I may have made a wee cupla cents of profit, but actually I realise that my ignorence over the exchange rate between the euro and the dollar means it isn't as much as you'd think, oops!
Anyway, as it was just for one card here's what I came up with as a package...
I can't line up the pics with remarks, so here's what happened: I was covering a board in green paper with a pale image of one of my trees, with the intention of slipping the lower flap up under the...belt?!...to hold the card up...but it looked crap so I cut off the flap and decided I'd have to 'wrap' it in some paper or something.