Blog — "etsy shop"

It's been a while since I've updated my shop with new card designs. I've had a lot of these cards waiting to be listed for quite some time. I get so lazy and don't want to have to edit photos and write up the listings for my shop. It always seems like such a chore compared to the rest of the things I get to do as part of owning this business. Anyway, here are a look at the new designs. Click through the photos and you'll land at the listing for the card if it's one that you've just got to snag up!

For when you're super duper sorry...


For your secret (or not so secret) crush...

For that awesometastic friend of yours...

An anniversary card...

And the Valentine's Day version too...

This birthday card was originally designed for Andrew's birthday a year ago. I like it enough that I decided to modify it and list it...

And for the long distance relationship or that person you really miss...

Now THAT is a lot of cards! Seven! I clearly felt like being a super productive person. And by felt like, I mean a bee tried to attack me while I was suntanning on my roof deck so I could not longer be lazy and needed something to do indoors. So I decided to take productive to a whole new level and start shooting new photos for some old cards. Here are a couple old, but new listings if that makes any sense. Old cards, new photos-- so they kind of feel new, you know?



I like. You like?

By the way, if you need some cards or stationery, you probably want to order soon. I'm going to be on vacay for a ridiculously long time in the near future. Ridiculously long = 16 days. I'll be putting my shop on vacation mode while I'm gone since I'll also be in the complete sticks at times with no way to communicate. (If I don't return by mid August, someone send help. A bear may have attacked me in the middle of the mountains). Freaking out a little about going on vacation mode since I've heard some bad things about doing that-- like that your shop pretty much falls off the radar and you have to start back from square one. I don't like the sounds of that. Anyone else had to do this before? Did you have problems or were you good to go upon your return?

I've got to be real with you people. I need a little bit of advice. During the school year I was so busy that at times I literally didn't have time to eat. To compound the insanity of school, my shop became super busy as well. Woohoo! I was so excited! I thought it would be great to finally have the summer off so that I could work on my shop. No more stressing out about whether or not I'd have enough time to get my orders finished in time.

Then Father's Day came and went.

Then I stopped selling anything in my shop.

Ouch.

The truth about this summer so far is that instead of having the extra time to work on orders, I have too much extra time with no work to be done. And to be honest, this has been rough. Really rough. The good news is that I have all the time in the world to experiment with new designs, so I'm trying to look on the bright side and keep my head up. I know that I can't be the only one that has experienced this sort of thing before. I mean, demand for certain items come and go with the seasons, but I just have never experienced a lull this bad before. I don't want to sit around twiddling my thumbs-- I want to do something about it.

via NiftySwank

So, I'm curious to know from any of you that are handmade business owners-- what do you do to stay positive when you're stuck in a rut like this? What are some ways to help boost business during low points in the year?

How was your weekend? Mine was pretty busy. But lazy too, if you know what I mean. In other words, I didn't do anything super strenuous or feel rushed around here and there. Sunday was perhaps one of the most productive days I've had in quite a while, so I just had to share with you all of my hard work from the weekend.


And this is only half of what I worked on. I also have a fabulous new line of recipe cards (but I thought I'd save that for a different day) and a hilarious graduation card that I didn't share. Turns out that I made a typo. Yup, even English teachers make mistakes.

Anyone as productive as I was this weekend? Have a fabulous week, and don't forget-- only two more days to enter this giveaway, so be sure to do so if you haven't yet!

I spent a large majority of last weekend working on some designs for my shop. I was incredibly productive in one day and came up with some stuff that I absolutely love! With Mother's Day approaching sooner than later, I've listed some new cards for such occasion.



I came up with a few paper cut note card sets.



I worked on a set of thank you notes based on a hand drawn image.


And finally, some save the dates, that are super simple and fun.


The save the dates have already been popular with one order in the works. You may have seen me tweet about progress with this order since the color scheme is just slightly different. I love the new colors just as much!

How do you like all of the new designs? What sorts of projects have you been working on lately?

At the beginning of the new year, I made ten goals that I wanted to accomplish by the end of this year or throughout the year. Seeing that we're almost halfway through March, I thought I'd check to see how I was doing. I know that there are some I'm not doing so well with, so I revisited my list to find out if I'm at least making headway with some of them.


1. Have 200 designs in my shop.

This has proven to be a bit more difficult that I had thought. Since a lot of my note card sets are one of a kind sets, if I sell one I'm not making progress forward in this department. Rather, I take one step back and have to replenish the one that was sold. In addition, a lot of my sale items sold during my February Sale Event, so that didn't help me out with my goal of 200 either. I'll soon be adding some more made to order designs which hopefully will help me out!


2. Double my sales for the year with 400 sales.

I'm making good progress here thanks to this Valentine's Day card. I sold about 100 of them and since the beginning of the year have had about a total of 150 sales. So that means I'm about a third of the way to reaching my goal.

3. Complete my first craft show.

This hasn't happened yet, but I probably won't be able to work on this goal until summer vacation comes around.

4. Design a website other than Etsy to sell my cards.

Nope. Still haven't looked any further into this. And still wondering what others use for their websites if they have one.

5. Design at least one new design per week.

This is a bit spotty. On average, I probably design one thing per week. Some weeks I just don't have time, other weeks (like this one) I design five or six things in one day. Either way, I feel as though I'm staying on track with this one.

6. Finish setting up my studio.

I haven't given a studio update on my blog for a while because there hasn't been much going on in that department lately. Last weekend, I emptied out the closet in that room in order to provide space for my paper, crafting supplies, and shipping supplies. I'm hoping to continue working on this today and tomorrow. There is progress happening and I'll be updating you soon!

7. Complete at least three blog posts per week. (I'm trying not to let this blog fall between the cracks).

I did a great job with this in January, blogging almost every day. Then February came around and it was an extremely busy month, socially. One week I even realized that I had spent 6 of the previous 10 days with other people. People overload. This month I've been able to balance the social life with personal time and have gotten a little back on track with the blog this week. I'm finding that making lists of blog ideas in a notebook helps me stay on track.

8. In that same grain, I want to work on gaining more followers-- maybe up to 300!

Right now I'm at 91 GFC followers and 98 subscribers. However, I'm realizing more and more that this doesn't matter a whole lot to me. I'm going to blog no matter how many people are reading (I've done it for the past year or so haven't I?) so if I end up at 300 by the end of the year then it's just a bonus! :)

9. Create a new packaging concept for my cards and stationery-- something that looks more professional than just a cellophane sleeve.

Progress is being made here. I have some clear boxes that I've been using as trials for larger sets of stationery and so far, I like the look. I want to work on making some labels for the boxes next.

10. Create one treasury per week to amp up exposure.

I think I'm going to scratch this one. In the new year, I've made 2 treasuries and that's it. I've realized that I'd rather put my energy into something else that feels a little more worthwhile. Thinking of something to replace this goal... hmmmmm.

Did you make goals for this year? Are you making progress with them? Also, and I'm open to any suggestions you may have to help me improve on some of my goals. Sometimes all we need is a good swift kick in the butt! :)