LET'S RECAP.

My April goals were 50 items sold and 1800 hearts plus:
1. no more renewing
2. spend more time crafting and less time on the computer
3. must find gift boxes that are under 2cm in height!!!

I surpassed my sales and hearts goals for the month which is awesome! I'm 6 sales away from 300!! I'll be aiming for even higher sales next month. I didn't renew anything in my store for an entire month and it worked out great but my shop items are in dire need of a rotation!!! I thought that I would end up with a smaller etsy bill but nope it's about the same considering how much I sold and that I kept listing new things plus what I have in stock. I don't really think that I hit the second goal of spending less time on the computer. I probably ended up spending more time.. I'm actually kind of sick of the computer now so maybe I'll get my butt in gear and finish my new collection of charms. Oh and yes I love my new boxes!

So goals for May:
65 items sold plus 2000 total hearts.
1. spend some time redo'ing some photos
2. spend a little $$ rotating my store
3. finish up my new collection
4. spend some more time networking

I JUMPED ON THE GOCCO BANDWAGON

I don't know if I mentioned this before but last week I bought a Print Gocco for Arts on Ebay. It's the B5 model for cloth and it's really huge!!! The package weighs about 25 pounds. In previous months I have been filling my head with all these ideas of what I could do with it but ever since I got it I've been kind of hesitant to try it out. I kind of wish I bought the kit for paper instead. Mostly because the kit for cloth doesn't come with the reflector partition to burn smaller screens and it doesn't come with a registration plate :( And when I think about it that way I kind of wish I bought a smaller sized Gocco because it's more cost efficient to burn screens with the smaller model and there's a local place that sells supplies for the B6 model but not the B5... I don't know.. I'm excited and confused at the same time because I don't know what I want to do anymore. I thought that it would be a good purchase but now I'm not so sure. Maybe screen printing isn't for me after all?

SMOOTH SAILING.

It's been busy for me this month and since packaging can be very time consuming I thought I'd share the things I do to make it go more smoothly.

1. Prewrite or stamp your address on all your envelopes unless of course you use online shipping labels.

2. Keep a stack of customs labels ready to go I usually have them peeled and stuck on the envelopes. Again this doesn't apply if you use online shipping labels.

3. Put one or two of your business cards into each envelope and a coupon, thank you or extra freebies if you do that. (I do this because I always forget to put my cards in afterwards)

4. If you use gift boxes put a sticker label with your shop name, logo and website on it. If you use bubble wrap or tissue paper instead then tape it shut with the sticker label. It's a good way to get people to recognize you and if it's being given as a gift the receiver now has your website so they can check out your stuff. DO NOT put fancy or cute or pretty stickers or things on the outside of your package. I've heard stories about people getting their packages stolen from the post office or off their doorsteps!

5. Care instructions. I always forget to include these with my orders so what I've come up with is to tape them inside the lid of my gift boxes. If you don't have gift boxes slip them into your envelopes along with your business cards.

6. Pack ONE order at a time in order to avoid confusion and mistake. There have been a few times when I have had multiple orders and think okay.. I'll find everything, put them in boxes and pack them up. Well, that would work great except all my boxes are the same.. So just imagine how paranoid I am and how many times I open the boxes to double check that the right box is going in the right envelope!!! Save yourself a headache and do one at a time.

Doing these little things has saved me SO much time. If you've got ways to make the shipping process easier please share them in my comments section :)

I MUST BE DREAMING...

I'm still pinching myself. This morning I woke up all dizzy and disoriented because I've got a bit of a head cold. I opened up my browser which I've got set to my etsy page and my jaw just dropped to the floor. I blinked a few times and I think I refreshed like 4 0r 5 times to make sure it was real haha I sold 11 items while I was sleeping!!! I still don't believe it! I have surpased my goal for April to selling 50 items and the big 300 total items sold is only a few sales away! *jumps for joy* I hope that things keep moving in this upward direction!

So as you can imagine my day was pretty busy. I am fresh out of business cards so the first thing I did today was go get ink for my printer I've been out for about a week now. After that, I came home and set up a template to print my new box labels and some business cards. Up until now I've been using the vertical design for my cards but for temporary use and to see what they look like printed out I printed up the horizontal design ones. Gotta say, I really like them. Mostly because they are designed to match my box labels. Anyways, I finally finished cutting them all.. my arm is super tired now!

PS. I forgot to remind you guys that my sale ends tomorrow whenever I wake up and start editing prices!

April 16th - 23rd. All prices have been marked down up to 20%

VOTE: BUSINESS CARD DESIGN

Okay, I know I said that I was ordering business cards weeks and weeks ago but I've been procrastinating... Mostly because I wanted to buy my domain and put it on the card. I've done that and now I have another dilema because I came up with a new design. So... help me pick one! I set up a poll on the right side there so you can vote and if you have any comments on them leave them here.

PS. they are a bit bigger because it's got a bleed area.

Vertical design:


Horizontal design:

EKKkkk!

I had the best weekend ever on Etsy! On the weekend I sold 15 items!

Recently, when I let my customer's know that I've shipped their order I included a short survey mostly just asking a bit about who they are buying for and how they found my shop. One of the most popular ways that people find my shop is by using the search function (and everyone says the search doesn't work. what lies!). So, make sure that you are making use of all your tags!!

I'M HAVING THE WORST...

cramps EVER. I can't even function properly.. I'm curled up in my bed with my laptop and a heat pack over my tummy. I really wanted to get some of my charms finished too. I made some fruit charms for dangly earrings and some super yummy cake charms.

Yesterday, I made these chocolate peanut butter cookies from the free quarterly Kraft cooking magazine. They are sooo easy to make and they taste so good. You've gotta try it for yourself.. It's so simple I can remember the recipe. But here it is http://www.kraftcanada.com/EN/Recipes/RecipeTemplate?recipe_id=109621

SINCE WHEN...

Does it snow in April? Since now I guess... It was snowing really hard last night and when I woke up this morning there was about 2 inches of snow on top of everything. Now, it's all melted and the sun has come out making it so hot I have to open all the windows! CRAZY!!!

So, I wanted to make some rings with my shrink plastic charms but I got the ring blanks yesterday and I realized that if I glue the charms on them they wont fit into my boxes and Canada Post has that stupid 2cm height requirement. Meaning it will probably cost me $6 or $7 to ship it out... I don't know what to do now :(

Oh yeah, I finally got around to buying my domain :D http://thetinyfig.com/ I forwarded it to my Etsy shop but I'm wondering if maybe it's better I forward it here?

IT DANGLES!

Here's my attempt at dangly earrings because I've had so many requests for longer dangly earrings. There will be more to come in the next few days.

P.S. I know the earrings are cute but I am sill discontinuing them. :P Time to move onto newer and cuter things.

I AM DISCONTINUING...

My cube animal earrings and a few others. They've been around for a long time now and I'm tired of making them. I've marked them "LAST PAIR" and they are on sale along with the rest of my earrings so be sure to get your favs before they are gone for good!

I'M HAVING A SALE!

April 16th - 23rd. All prices have been marked down!

A NEW MILESTONE

250 ITEMS SOLD! yay! So lately, I've noticed that the weekends are being good to my shop. I've yet to figure out why but there's definately no complaining here.

The weather is finally looking better. We had a pretty gloomy week here in Vancouver. I'm looking forward to spending more time outside! I'm getting my new mattress delivered today I got a new MALM bed frame from Ikea in a nice brown color which matches my desk. It was a nightmare to put together!!! I think I might have to get a smaller desk :( because my new bed is too big for my room and I literally have to crawl over it to get to my desk. Time to see if I can reorganize my room AGAIN.

P.S. I can't wait to watch Desperate Housewives later :D I'm so excited all my favorite shows are coming back!!

FOR THE LOVE OF FRUIT!

I love the smooching pear :D

ETSY SECRETS!

It's a blog where you can find coupons for other Etsy shops! If you've got a coupon for your shop you want to post then you should contact dragoninknots.etsy.com to join!

http://etsysecrets.blogspot.com

Anyways, This weekend has been great! I spent the weekend bed hunting I'm upgrading from a twin to a queen size. I'm going to have to crawl over my bed to get to my desk but I don't care haha I love big comfy beds with lots of pillows.

I wish the weather was better so I could go outside and spray sealant on my new batch of charms without the wind blowing them all away lol.. I guess I'll just have to wait.

WHO KNEW!

It was so hard to NOT renew anything in your shop... especially when you don't really have anything new to list! I guess now I'm more motivated to create haha.. I've got some stuff in the works!

So I've been working on some new packaging I finally found some boxes after months of searching! I thought I would design a sticker label for the top of the boxes and here's what I came up with. I still have to purchase my domain.. ack.. I have so much to do!!! The design is super simple but I like it. I was actually think that maybe since I put off getting my business cards printed for so long now that I should print them up with this design. What do you think?