Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Useful Christmas Presents


When mailing my parcels I like to put my shop URL on the outside of the package. It's kind of like free advertising as it goes through the post office. Until now I was using individual letter stamps which ended up taking almost 10 minutes each parcel! So this Christmas my lovely mom got me a stamp with my logo on it and shop URL. I love it! It makes thing so much easier. What presents did you get this Christmas?

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Winter Photography

Monday, December 28, 2009

Defining My Mission




It's the time of year to assess past goals, celebrate successes and establish new goals. With that in mind, I've decided that this year I will be trying some new things with my blog. I'm really excited to share what you can expect from the Sleepy Moon blog in the future:
It's been a goal of mine to build this blog into a busy and bustling place where you can find helpful information, ask questions, read inspiring posts and be part of a community. I'll be sharing posts about my creative process along with my achievements and (hopefully not too many) failures. I will also share tons of up-and-coming artist's work. I love to show off how inspired the artisans in the Etsy community are.

I know that I like to read blogs that have tutorials and help me with my business, but I also like to read about the artist behind the blog and behind the art. What type of blogs do you like to read? I would love to hear some feedback.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Boxing Day Special Treasury

Click the picture to view this beautifully correlated treasury made by editionbw.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

My Ideas On Paper

Sometimes when designing jewellery I run out of important materials like wire and I have to wait a very long week for the mail to come. During that time I find myself feeling very frustrated at not being able to make anything. The ideas never stop coming though, and usually build up in my head, which makes me even more anxious because I'm afraid that during my busy day I will forget something. Recently I came up with a solution to the problem. I decided to sketch those ideas out so that I will remember them when my wire does come.
This may seem like an obvious thing to do. I mean people have been sketching out their idea since caveman days, but I had honestly never thought to work that way. I bought myself a nice hard cover sketch book and some mechanical pencils and now I spend my evenings sketching out the days ideas. I find sketching very relaxing, mainly because I no longer fear that I will forget a moment of design brilliance in the down time.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

List of Etsy Business Tool Links


Here is a list of links that I have correlated over time. All of these links I use on pretty much a daily basis. They help me look at stats on my Etsy shop or come up with tags... ect. This list will permanently be at the right hand side of my blog for you to come back to if you forget what that certain site was.... I know I forget all the time so this list helps me too!

Colour Match
Craft Weasel
Eseller Ads
Etsy by Numbers
Etsy Fee Calculator
Etsy Hacks
Heartomatic
One Poke
Page Ranker
Poster Sketch
Statsy
Tag Fractal
Treasury Clock
Yaami Etsy Tools

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Cereal Box to Gift Box


I got my newsletter from Instuctables today and came across this creative way of turning a cereal box into a gift box. Since a lot of people will be wrapping their Christmas gifts this weekend I thought I would share... Check out this tutorial on turning a cereal box into a gift box.

Friday, December 18, 2009

New This Week

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Customer experience Survey

If you have been a Sleepy Moon customer in the past, please take a few minutes to take this quick survey on your customer experience. I am always striving to make the experience with my customers as best it can be. This survey will help me find out what I can do to make that experience better.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

First Snow

Today was the first snow this year in Vancouver. So we went to the closet to get out the winter coats and mittins. To my surprise I had bought nice new things for my son, but was not ready for winter my self. Ahhh
Here is a collection of wish I had's for this winter...

Jacket by larimeloom
Scarf by larimeloom
Shirt by tangente
Pants by larimeloom
Leg warmers by meroww


Saturday, December 12, 2009

First Christmas on Etsy

This is my first Christmas on Etsy. I started on Etsy last February so I just missed last year's hustle and bustle. This year has been great, but being a first year seller I sometimes have the thought in the back of my head that the shoppers are going to "disappear" in the coming months. Eeek! I am enjoying the reaction that my jewellery is getting and I hope that this continues on through January, February and the rest of the year.

One of my favourite things about selling jewellery is finding out why the person has bought that piece. Whether it is for a future sister-in-law, a special gift for mom or maybe just because they could not resist. I love to know that my jewellery will be a part of a fond memory for that person.

Season's greetings everyone!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

What Do You Use for SEO Help

For my next review I will be reviewing SEO help sites. I would like to get your help with picking which sites to review. What I need you to do is let me know what sites you...have used, have not used and have never heard of before from the list below.

Here is a short list of sites that I know about;
www.hubspot.com
www.powermapper.com
www.measuring-up.com
www.top-dog.org

All of these sites help you to optimize your website, etsy shop, or blog for search engines, which is key when running an online business. Is there any websites like these that you know about that are not on this list. Please share them below!

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Two Similar Necklaces



Two new necklaces that are very similar, each one has a beautiful faceted amethyst stone delicately wire wrapped in shiny sterling silver wire. The second necklace has a wire wrapped loop that the amethyst briolette hangs off of. The loop almost looks like it is a continuation of the chain.

New Bead Storage

As I was doing a grocery shop this past weekend I came across this combo pack of a bunch of spices in these spice jars. I had been on the hunt for something more practicale to store my beads in and I thought "hey that would be perfect". Though I think I need another one because I am organizing them by gemstone type and there are only 16 jars. I think having two or three of them at the back of my desk would be perfect!

It is really cool because it spins around and I can easily see all the different types of stones that I have. I can also take each jar off as I need them, which makes for a more clean and organized desk top.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Etsy Sales 12/07/09

KhoKreative- Handmade cards, photos & custom designs
Special Holiday sales just for Facebook fans. Become a fan here.
Peculiar Parchment - Cards For All Occasions-
Buy 1 Get 1 Free! Lots of Christmas cards and tags.
Penny Paperworks- Pretty, Fun, and Functional Paper Goodies
Fun n Fab Little Music Journals JUST $3.50 NOW!!

Friday, December 4, 2009

My Treasury


I made a treasury come check it out! It is my first time getting in on time! So come support the lovely artists with beautiful cobalt blue items!

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Flickr Review

Is flickr for you?

Flickr is a place to share and store you photos, but it can also be handy when networking and marketing your online business. The basic service is free, but for $25/year you get a huge amount of storage.

I started using flickr 2 years ago for my photography. Though it has slowly evolved into pictures of my jewellery.

I find that the photography community is much more active on flickr than the handmade community.

The following is my review on the in's and out's of flickring.
(10 is the best and 1 is the worst.)

Time Management
--I give flickr 5 out of 10
While it is fun to browse through and look at all the pretty pictures on flickr it can be very time consuming! It is also very tedious work tagging and uploading all of your images and making sure they have fun, attractive titles and descriptions! Flickr is not for the person who is already in a time crunch. Though if you do have time it is worth trying out. Just set up a routine and stick with it.



-Clock by withhugsandkisses


Connecting With People

-- I give flickr 7 out of 10
With flickr you can leave comments on other peoples photos and people leave photos on yours, which is great for getting feedback about your work. You can also become friends with other Etsians and you will see all the new stuff they have uploaded on your homepage or your contacts page. I do find that the comments on flickr photos can be to different extremes, either a lot of constructive criticism or just a random "nice" or a "that's pretty".




- Earrings by AntigoneK
Visibility and Traffic
--I give flickr 8 out of 10
If tagged correctly, your photos have a great chance of showing up in google or yahoo searches. Your photos also show up in flickr searches and on the front page of flickr when they are first uploaded. You can add you photos to thousands of different groups that have themes like 'Etsy' or 'handmade'. The only problem with bringing traffic to your Etsy site is that you can only put your shop link in your profile. So someone really has to be interested to look at your profile and then carry on to your shop. Though, if used properly, it can bring quite a bit of visibility to your shop.


- Pendant by melissajlee

User Friendly

-- I give flickr 10 out of 10
I find flickr very user friendly. It is very hard to get lost and there are instructions all over the site that tell you what to do next... for example, after you upload your photos it says "Finished! Next: add a description, perhaps?"



-Image by fosterbk

Overall I give flickr a rating of 8 out of 10. It's easy to use and not cluttered with things I don't need. I just have to make sure that I don't get sucked into browsing for hours, which I have succumbed to in the past... believe me. With flickr, you'll get out what you put into it, like anything I guess.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Perfect Little Treat

Getting your holiday sweet tooth? This is the perfect little sampler to sooth that craving. Look at the rest of this shop for more mouth watering treats! Bliss Candies I a spent hours wishing the shipping was less to Canada! My favourite treat to have at Christmas is Lindor truffles and Ferrero Roche!

What is your favourite treat at Christmas time?

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Etsy's Great Deals


No Stone Turned Photography- Buy more, save more- 15% off one print, 20% off two, 30% off three- 40% off four, 50% off 5 or more!
Shop now!

MiShelli Designs Jewelry- Mix & Match ~ Compliment with Color ~ Be Bold ~ Be Delicate ~ Be You! All items 25% off.
Shop now!

Bella Fresca- 15% discount on all lip balms, lip gloss, holiday gift tags and selected soaps, lotions and creams starting now through Monday, Nov 30!
Plus free gift wrapping on purchases over 5$.
Shop now!

Little Bit Wired- Fun puppets, art dolls, bags and accessories!
Most items half off from now until the Christmas holidays.
Shop now!


Corr Nucopia - Vintage treasures!
All select items on sale for all of this week.
Shop now!


Deep Blue Sea Necklace

I think this picture of my Deep Blue Sea necklace turned out really well! I like the nice warm vibe the picture gives, with the light coming from the background! It is always nice to get these really good pictures once in a while they are very inspiring!

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Advertising Reviews # 2

Here are some more reviews on advertising for your Etsy shop!


#1
Cafe Handmade
I get my self a 4 week slot in the Cafe Handmade show and I have to say it was good at first, but now I am lost in the pile of new people joining the craft show. So while it is a really good price for the 4 week slot I think buying the one week slot is more worth your money!


#2
Carousel ad on Craft Cult
The people who run craft cult are really friendly and very helpful! I would have to say that I liked the carousel ad. I am torn between weather I like the carousel or the side bar better. I think they were both beneficial to my traffic and views. The carousel ad is definitely easier if you do not have the time or skills to make a side bar as. All you have to do is send them some links and they do the work for you.

Friday, November 27, 2009

BLACK FRIDAY SALE


***************************************
BLACK FRIDAY:
November 27th
50% off for the first 5 items sold
30% off for the second 5 items sold
20% off for the next 5 items sold
Sale ends at 11:59pm CST
***************************************
+
Zero charge for shipping everywhere in the world!
Go to my etsy shop here.

Also search:
etsyfreeshipping
or
etsyholidaysale
to find even more shops offering sales!

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Find Inspiration

A great place to find inspiration and learn new things is at the library! Everyone has one and every one has hopefully been there at some point in time. So next time you are there check out the art and craft section! Below is some scanned pages of a book that I found called "Adorn New Jewelry" by Amanda Mansell
I liked this book because it is filled with things like this CRAZY big earring! Things like this inspire me to think outside the box and be unique! I love it!


I think these long earrings are really cool.. I wonder if people would wear them?
The necklace on the left is so fun! I like the detail with the beads on the chain. I will definitely have to work something like that into a design of mine! :)

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Slide Show


Find more photos like this on Etsy Canada

Monday, November 23, 2009

Art For Lunch


Designing in Style!

I am now rocking my new work space with my newly purchased Ikea headboard as a table! Check it out!...
I bought the headboard from the as-is department for 10 bucks and the legs were each 5. The table is way bigger than my old one! Ok exactly 6ft instead of 4ft!

I am excited to get working on some new designs. I think that my head and my table will be clearer and I will be more able to concentrate! I also want to decorate the room with all the cool things I can find at craft fairs and on Etsy! I love to have art and creativity all around me. It helps with inspiration too!

So...What are your studios like?
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