Earrings Give Away

This month our monthly GIVE AWAY is being hosted on another sight called girl get strong. You can enter to win there. It is very easy just post a comment and tell them which beach is your favorite beach to go to. You can also enter to win more than once. Yay! Good luck!

Enter to win HERE

Future fashion prodictions from the 1930's

Jewellery Recap

This is a video of all of the jewellery I have made in the past two months or so.
Enjoy you can find my jewellery online to purchase at Sleepy moon design.etsy

Custom Letter Cuff Bracelet

This is a bracelet with my initial "Z", but I can make it with any initial just for you or a as a gift for someone else. Stop by my Etsy shop by clicking on the picture to learn more.

A Handmade Moment Video- For Etsy

This is the video that I made for the Etsy contest. It would be so great if you could give me your vote! Handmade Moment Video

Working With Wire

I have been working with various wire techniques for the past few days for an upcoming craft show. Here is a piece that I did...

Cup Cake Contest

My mom's work decided to have a cup cake contest. Here are all of the entries.
This is the root beer flavoured cup cakes... yes there is a pickle on top! Not sure why.
These cup cakes won the contest because one of them is a portrait of the judges dog. (suck up!)
This is our lovely entry! The circuit board cup cakes. We got second prize! My mom works at a computer soft ware company so we thought the theme would be suitable.

Update on Monthly Earrings

This is my workspace aka my dining room table.
Hey everyone as you know I am working on the monthly earrings. I have already finished some of them and have put together the colours and the beads to make other ones. You can see a little sneak peek in the picture above.

I am also having a SURPRISE give away for anyone who helps me pick a name for this new earring line. If you leave a comment below with a suggestion you will be entered to win the surprise gift worth over $20!

I am open for any suggestions, because "Monthly Earrings" just doesn't ring in my ear!

If you are not familiar with what the earring line will include you can read about it here...
Get posting!

Website SEO

This site will grade your website on its SEO compatibility. www.websitegrader.com
I got 68 out of 100.

A Handmade Moment

A really great and fun opportunity has come for all the crafters of the world so I thought i would take a crack at it.
Etsy tv is having a contest where you have to create a 15 or 30 second long video showing a handmade moment. The grand prize is $3000!!!! So I put my brain to work and did it last night after my son went to bed. You can see the video here!

The process...
First I gathered all of the crafty tools I had in my house and thought up a way to spell Etsy.com with them. Then I took pictures of myself in five different frames, edited them in photo shop and cut them out. After I had everything ready for the set it was time to bring out the camera and tripod. This is where we ran into a bit of a problem... I had my camera and I had my tripod but I didn't have the piece to attach the camera to my tripod. So after 10ft of packing tape and some nifty taping skills I was ready to shoot my video.

Please Vote

I have entered this photo in Timathy adams etsy worthy photo contest and I need some votes from every one. Vote HERE.
Thank you so much for your help!

Brightening your photos in Photoshop: a quick and dirty tutorial.

Take your gray, discoloured pictures and turn them into bright beautiful photographs. It's this easy! (click on images to enlarge them)


Open your picture in Photoshop and click "images". You will then see a dropbox where you click "auto colour". This will usually correct your colouring.


This image shows what the "auto colour" did to my picture.


Now you will have to brighten your photo a bit. Go to "images" and then "adjustments" and then "levels".


Now you have opened a new box and this is where you can adjust the brightness. Adjust the tabs that the green and red arrows are pointing to until the image is to your liking. The middle tab controls the midtones of the image and the right tab controls the highlights. You can see the final version of my edited photo in this screenshot.

Cute Picture

This is a picture I took of a cute little rabbit showing the benefits of accessorizing with Sleepy Moon Design's jewellery.

I took this cute picture with the intention of using it as my avatar on Etsy. Now I have decided to just keep the one I had before because I started a thread in the critique forum asking people what they thought I sold before looking at my shop. Everyone thought I sold toys! lol with bling. So although it is very cute and enticing I am back to my old avatar... the red ring.

My First Interview

I have an interview with me posted on missmalaprop's blog. Check it out!

Necklace Cards

Here is a look at what I did last night, necklace cards!!! I am just so happy with them! I used the 4x6 photo paper, my home printer and my mom, the designer. Find her work at (Racket creative).

These are very simple and look great. I put a very simple design on the front so that it would not draw peoples attention away from the actual piece of jewellery. My logo is on the back and I printed it up side down so that when you fold it over it is right side up. I cut slots on each side where the fold is for the necklaces to hang on. You can also poke holes when you need them for earrings.

I also like that they create a little stand to show off your jewellery at stores or at craft sales! I put the price tag on the back so that the price is marked, but people still have to interact with me to know how much they are.

These earrings are so cool. I found them as I was searching the recently listed section. They were made by Fleathers on Etsy. She says... "Hoops are so plain, but when you add hand made fleathers something magical happens. A smile appears, because you know you stepping out as one of a kind. So smile on and show of the colors that make your ear shine."

New Material

I just ordered the materials that I will be using for the "12 months of earrings" line that I will be working on this summer. (read more here). I am debating when I should release this line. I could release them in January at the beginning of the year, but they will be done way before then. I would also like to be able to take advantage of the Christmas rush. So we will see when I am finished.
I couldn't fit all the pictures in the post but here are some of them. I am still waiting for them to come in the mail.

10 Ways to Get Your Etsy Shop Noticed

1. Facebook
Facebook is a great place to market to your friends, your friend's friends and your friend's friend's friends. This is called viral marketing. The thing to do with Facebook is create a business fan page. This way anybody can become your fan without being your friend on facebook and being able to see your private information. You can update you photo albums with pictures of your latest creations, start discussions and host giveaways. www.facebook.com

2. Twitter
This is another viral marketing tool. Your goal on twitter should be to follow as many people as possible. Most people you follow will follow you back. It is good to have a mass following because then when you tweet about your shop more people will see it. www.twitter.com

3. Blog
You do not have to be a writer to have a blog. Some good things to do on a blog if you are not a writer are: post some of you favorite items from other peoples shops, host a giveaway, every time you post a new item on Etsy you could write a bit about what inspired that piece, or just copy and paste the description that you wrote on Etsy. You can also put your Etsy mini in your blog.

4. Etsy Showcase
The Etsy Showcase only costs $7 to $15. If it doesn't get you a sale it will at least get you a bunch of views and 'hearts' that might turn into future sales.

5. BNS or BNR
BNS stands for Buy and Stay. BNR stand for Buy and Replace. You will find these on the forums in the promotional section. What this is, is basically a list of shops that have bought from each other. If you buy from one of the shops on the list you are put on the list. Just don't buy anything that you don't really need. Be patient.

6.Start a 'Thread Killer'
Killing a thread is when you are the last person to post your comment. A thread killer is a forum post where the person who posts the thread is giving away an item to the person who kills the thread for a specified amount of time.

7. Host a Giveaway
You can host a randomized giveaway on your blog or on your Facebook fan page. Many other sites also host giveaways. One example is www.girlgetstrong.com.

8. Start a Mailing List
A mailing list can start with just your friends and family at first, then you can get other people to sign up later. Don't send mail to people who do not sign up though. You can send special sales codes to your list that are only for them. Or you can just send exciting news about your store.

9. Word of Mouth
Get your friends in on what you do. Talk to them and get them to talk to others. Word of mouth can be very effective, you've just got to start talking.

10. Renew Your Items
Remember to renew your items and list more every day in order to stay at the top of the categories list.

11. Get Whacky!
Remember you could always stand out side in an animal costume with a sign that has your shop address on it. Just kidding.

Feature Shop On Sunday

These kids dresses are so cute! They are made by sugarsandwich on etsy.com.

I stumbled upon this amazing new etsy shop today called lauracaswelstudios. She sells beautiful digital prints. I love the colour and the uniqueness of all of her work!

New Earrings

I came across this website (Kuler) It will come up with a colour pallet for any word that you type in. I started typing in my birthday and thought, hey I should make some earrings that represent September. Then I though well maybe other people would like earrings for their birth months. So I picked some amazing colour scemes for every month of the year and I am ging to make 12 pairs of earrings, one for each month. These are the colours I will use.

Getting Stores to Buy From You

I am interested in taking my jewellery to the next level. So I think what I need to do is get my designs in some local shops. Now when I first thought about doing this I had no idea where to start. So i did some research and found some great advice on doing this.

First thing, go to the store to see if you think your designs would fit in there. If so, then give them a call and set up an appointment to show them your work. You will need to have a carrying case for your work to show it off properly.

One thing that I learned was not to consign, but to sell your merchandise. If stores can buy from other people they can buy from you! Don't settle for consigning because it can be messy work. Unless that is all the store does. Do not consign!

To find stores that will take your work you can try looking at the websites for your local stores. Some times they will advertise when they are looking for new designers to buy from.

If you are selling jewellery or something that you can wear make sure you are wearing it so they can see how it looks on.

These are just a few points that stood out in my mind. You can read more about selling your designs here and here.