9 Apr
Sooooo pretty!
I received my fabulous buttons from Heather Future today! For those of you who missed the news I won second place in a contest she hosted on her blog!
Here are the fantabulous buttons I won!
Be sure to check out her Etsy shop for other lovely buttons and beautiful artwork!
16 Mar
I’ve decided to branch out and create a new blog dedicated to my jewelry designs!
The Blue Sky Design Blog will feature my own creations and eventually will include features on other artisans from here to there and back again! I will also be posting other items related to my jewelry on that blog including craft shows I plan to attend and contests or sales for my shop on Etsy.
I truly believe in supporting artisans locally and internationally. These people work hard at their crafts and deserve recognition for it. I hope I can accomplish that with my new blogging efforts.
Although I love my WordPress blog there are some policies here that limit my ability to promote my work so the new blog will be hosted on Blogger. I will continue to post here on Ranting & Raving since it has become a great place to spread rumours and generally blather on about stuff I like.
Please continue to visit and comment here and at my new blog. I always love to hear what you’re thinking!
13 Mar
It has been just under 3 weeks (although I swear it has felt much longer!) and my Moo cards have finally arrived!
Each card is printed in a matte finish with a cropped photo of the blue sky and fluffy white clouds! The images are all from various pictures I have taken. The text on the back is in blue in keeping with the whole “blue sky” theme. The cards are 28 x 70 mm so they are nice and small.
They will be perfect to add into the box for each piece of jewelry that I ship out! I’ve got 100 of them so if you’re a friend of mine you are definitely getting one… or a few if you promise to hand them out to potential customers! <wink wink nudge nudge!>
11 Mar
25 Feb
I need a catchy phrase!!
As you may already know my Etsy site is called Blue Sky Design and I’m looking for a catchy phrase that I can add to my shop banner and my next batch of business cards.
Just as an example a cute shop called Pillowhead has the phrase “Life not squishy enough? You need Pillowhead!”.
I’m not looking to copy them by any means but I would love to have something interesting to say other than “hand crafted jewelry”… yawn.
I would love it to be related to blue skies or fluffy white clouds. Something unique, not just a quote from someone else. I’m looking for something whimsical but still professional.
If you have any suggestions please leave them in the Comments section of this post or convo me on Etsy.
You have your mission! There will be a small prize for the winner!
Update: I have decided on a prize… the winner of this contest will receive a discount of $5 on any item in my shop as well as free shipping for that item anywhere within North America.
24 Feb
I’ve been wanting business cards to help me promote my new Etsy shop. I want some thing professional yet unique but I’m not a graphic designer and I don’t really have extra time and money to go back to school to learn all that good stuff.
After a little online window shopping I found a site called Moo.com. They have created the mini-card which is a 28x70mm version of the business card. All I needed to do was upload some of my favourite photos, use their tool to crop them and add text to the back of it. They make it very simple and it is reasonably priced ($19.99 for a pack of 100).
So I’ve decided to try it out! Since my shop is called Blue Sky Design I uploaded some of my favourite photos with bright blue skies and fluffy white clouds (it’s amazing how many I take like this!). I set them up so my favourite part of the photos would be used and I added my shop details in blue on the back of the card.
Before long I had an email from them indicating that my order would likely be ready for shipping by Wednesday and that they would contact me once it had shipped.
I can’t wait to see the results! Once I get them I will definitely post to let everyone know how long it took to receive the cards and how they turned out.
In the meantime check out my Etsy shop! While you’re there have a look at all the other great stuff on Etsy too!
17 Feb
11 Feb
I finally did it! I set up my Etsy page!
For those of you who are not familiar with Etsy it is a craft geek’s paradise! It is the craft equivalent to Ebay.
I have been making beaded jewelry for about 12 years and it went from an occasional occurrence to an addiction. I have primarily sold pieces to friends, family, and coworkers. Finally I am branching out and hope to be successful in obtaining some online sales. I would love to dedicate more of my time to my jewelry in the future and I’m hoping this will be the start of it.
My shop is called Blue Sky Designs. I currently have one multi-strand necklace available for sale and will post more items once I have batteries for my camera.
I will definitely post here any time I add more jewelry to my shop so please keep an eye out for new items!
As a side note I created the lovely banner above in a program called Skitch using a photo I took in southern Ontario!
Ranting and Raving 