Saturday, October 30, 2010

Looking for Sales

It can be very discouraging when sales get slow. You take new pictures, reword the items in your shop, take a good look at your announcement, twitter new items, but nothing seems to work. You just can't seem to find that sale.
Maybe the reason is we are not looking at our shops the way others do. Maybe if we each look at each others shops and give an honest opinion we can find some of those missing sales we are looking for.
Here are mine
http://www.etsy.com/shop/blackberrybarn and
http://www.etsy.com/shop/straycatfarm
Any ideas for me.
Leave your links and others can look at yours and give some helpful advice also.
thanks

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Blackberrybarn


How many of you have way too much craft supplies and you know you are not going to use them?
I am one of those crafters also so I have opened a supplies store on etsy to try to sell some of the extra craft supplies like fabric, buttons and jewelry making supplies.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/blackberrybarn
The painting was done by my sister in laws Dad, who is no longer with us.
There was a also a local craft shop closing and the deals were just too good I had to stock up in case I needed that item later. Well, it is now later and I still have not used it so off to the supplies shop.
What do you do with all of your extra stock?
Stop by, take a look, and give me some feedback about my new shop.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Creating New Items

While I really enjoy making my memo boards and crochet top towels, I think it is fun to explore new options and ideas.
Love looking through magazines for inspiration and just looking at what you have on hand to see what clever idea crosses your mind.
I walk every day and look for ideas in nature in the colorful fall leaves or the bare winter branches of the trees.
Sometimes I go into a fabric store and a piece of fabric just reaches out and grabs me and says take me home and you will find a use for me later. Can't resist those pieces.
Batting ideas back and forth between my sister and me also inspires me sometimes.
Note her blog from last night
http://quiltedsquirrel.blogspot.com/
She has great ideas for quilting in her blogs.
What do you do for inspiration for new projects?

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Craft Show Displays


I really enjoy making and selling my memo boards and crochet top towels but I am not good at display and it looks like putting pictures in blogs either.
I was so lucky to be able to have http://www.etsy.com/shop/treasurefarie come to a couple of shows and try to teach me some good display ideas.
Note the country looking fabric she used for tablecloths. Those really caught the attention of the shoppers, more then my boring dark blue.
She showed me how to use wooden crates to add height and interest to my displays. We could drape the towels over the top of the craft and fill the inside with inventory.
She spread out a few of the memo boards on a table and some were leaning against other crates for more visability.
We have had some great craft shows this year so does that mean that the displays helped? I can't say for sure but something worked.
Any ideas you would like to share with others about tricks for display?
Looking forward to the next show and some more new ideas.
Don't forget to stop by my sisters blog and say hi also. She talkes about her quilts and cats.