Gathering Dust

Jewelry On Etsy and Favorite How-tos

I've listed a bunch of vintage jewelry in my Etsy shop SugarPinkMoon.

Some is ready to wear, some is bits and pieces to use for crafts or remaking.

And I've added some fun and/or attractive books to Gathering Dust.

I hate to do a post where I just ask you to buy things- but I don't have any new crafts to show you---I mean I've been busy sorting and listing all this stuff!

So I'll leave you with links to what appear to be my two most popular how to posts.

Christmas Gift Tags

Making tags with those little pieces of paper you can't stand to throw away

Sorry for the repeat posts, but if you talked to me in real life, you'd notice I repeat myself, too.

Car Crafts

Last weekend we made the 576 mile road trip to visit my parents in North Dakota. I always bring along some "car crafts"- sewing, knitting, or stitching that I can do in my lap.  I'm lucky that my husband doesn't mind doing all the driving and the trip goes a lot faster for me if I can keep my hands busy.

If I don't keep my hands busy with crafting, they'll be busy with Twizzlers, dill pickle potato chips and Krispy Kremes- all that junk food from truck stops that it's easy to eat mindlessly when you're in the car.  I don't know why, but I act like food purchased in Iowa doesn't have any calories.

...So, this trip I brought stitching projects.

I have two compartments in the car arm rest- one for pins,needles and thread, the other for my scissors- scraps go in the pocket on the bottom of the door.

Of course, no matter how organized I am, or how many supplies I bring along, it's never quite enough to actually finish a project completely.  All of these pieces need something else-a back to make a wallhanging, or I'll sew them onto a tote bag or an apron.

We had a good travel companion- Buddy.  It was his first road trip, and we were a little bit worried about him- at home, he can be ....energetic.  But he was a perfect gentleman on our trip and the worst thing he did was bark at my Dad when he was wearing a hat.  (My Dad was wearing the hat, not Buddy).

I think that's ok- if there's a man in your yard wearing a hat, it's good to have a dog let you know about it.

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New in Etsy- SugarPinkMoon

New in Gathering Dust

That Girl in Blue

A couple of months ago I showed you this little collection of pretties that I planned to make into a book.

And here it is...finished.  I started with a tulle trimmed satin hankie holder as the cover.

Added pages made from tatted trimmed hankies and damask napkins.

A piece of a tattered lawn skirt embellished with a bird and some stitching, and a piece of French General fabric with a bird.

I didn't stitch this little piece of Hardanger, but the color and pattern fit in so nicely with the calm feel of the book- and it's such an intricate piece that I thought this was a good way to show it off.

For the most part the book is all hand sewn, but I did have to resort to glue to attach doilies to the inside covers to hid the stitching on the other side.

But using glue didn't really hurt, it is mixed media after all....

Available in my Etsy Shop Gathering Dust

 

Can I Get A High Five?

Just redid my booth at the antique mall and I moved everything (except furniture) in my antique booth.  Every single thing, that must be uh...a hundred things, two hundred things, a thousand things- I don't know but it was a LOT.

And I also brought in three big tubs of stuff- and some of those tubs were full of little tubs that were full of little things like jewelry- so I probably hauled in uh...a hundred things, two hundred things, a thousand things- I don't know but it was a LOT.

Yeah, my arm is a little sore from patting myself on the back for finishing such a huge undertaking.

But seriously, if you were to ask me for one piece of advice about having a booth an antique mall, it would "keep the merchandise moving".  That means regularly rearrange, bring in new stuff for sale, and if something isn't moving- get rid of it. (or, be like me and hid it on a low shelf or under a table).

It worked today- this little cutie (and his Mom) stopped by just as I was finishing up- it never hurts to have an attractive young man in your booth, either.

Puppy Talk and Party Pretties

Last weekend at Karla's Romantic Gothic Ghosts Workshop, I took a lot of pictures but considering it was a crafting event, I really don't have many pictures of our projects. I was more caught in up in getting pictures of some of Karla's clever little decorating touches, and of course taking pictures of puppies.

The picture on top is the set up table for my class.  The wings in the middle of the picture are from Dawn's Angel Wing Tutorial.

The wings didn't have anything to do with my class, but I had so much fun making the wings, and was so happy with the way they turned out that I wanted to show them off.

This is Karla's treat cabinet, complete with witch hat cookies.

Karla's Sissy made these candle holders for everyone.  She printed images on vellum and glued them on a clear votive.

Even the bathroom was decorated- with a Witches Ball towel...

...and flowerless roses.  When I first saw the vase and stems, I thought "Oh, that's too bad, I wondered what happened?"; and then I realized that was a clever little bit of Halloween decorating.

Everyone had fun snuggling with puppies.  Look at those faces... I can barely resist bringing one home with me.

Laurie got to hold all NINE puppies at once.

Keeping up with NINE six week old puppies is a lot of work, but Karla has set up a deluxe suite in the garage next to the studio to meet all the puppy's needs.

Even with such spacious accomodations, the puppies spend most of their time snuggled together in their sleeping crate.  That's ok...it makes it easier to pick up one (or two) for a cuddle.

Inspiration Post- I Want to Make Something Like That

Do you ever see a picture in a magazine or a display in a store that draws you in and makes you take a second or third long look?

That was my reaction to these fabric sample collages from the July issue of World of Interiors.

"I want to make something like that."

Do they put you in the mood to play with color and pattern?

Some Thoughts On Etsy

Mitzi from Mitzy's Miscellany asked me to join up with her and couple of other Etsy sellers to write a post called "Three Tips for Etsy Sellers".

I was flattered to be asked, but when I started thinking about it, I can't think of just three tips for success because there are as many paths to success on Etsy as there are things to sell.

So I just thought I'd throw out some random thoughts about my experiences on Etsy.

I opened my first Etsy shop, SugarPinkMoon in Feb 2007.  My plan was to sell things I had made, vintage items and supplies- all in a cottagey, romantic style- lots of roses, pastel colors etc. 

I opened a second shop, Gathering Dust in Dec 2009.  My idea was that I'd use that shop to sell items that didn't fit the soft romantic look of SugarpinkMoon- things like rusty keys, watch gears, mantiques, etc. 

Both shops have worked well for me, I don't know if it really made any difference to have two shops, or if my sales would have been the same if I'd had everything in one store.  Maybe it just made it easier for me to keep track of it.

One thing I know for sure is that if I treat my Etsy store well, it treats me well.  The same is true for my booth at the antique mall.  When I keep the stock rotating, and keep adding new things, I sell. 

When I add 8-10 items to my Etsy stores, I will have 2-3 sales in the next day.  If I blog about it, I usually have more sales.  I don't have any scientific evidence, but I'd guess about half my customers are blog readers, another 40% or so are repeat customers and the remaining 10% just happen to do a search and find my shop.

Repeat customers are great.  I love you guys.  It's still a thrill to get an email that says I've made an Etsy sale, but it really makes me happy when I'm selling to someone who's bought from me before.

As far as the actual mechanics of running a store, I've worked it out to be pretty simple.  For the most part, I only sell items that weigh less than 12 ounces and will fit in a bubble envelope.  I order my bubble envelopes and bubble wrap in bulk via Ebay- and I know my cost per envelope and per foot of bubble wrap and  I figure that into my shipping costs. My packing tape comes from Costco- they have it on sale about once a year and I stock up.

I print my shipping labels via Paypal, tape them to my envelopes and drop off my packages at a drive up post office box on my way to work.  I don't even have to get out of the car!

As far as taking pictures, I have a portable fold up studio that I used a lot when I sold on ebay and sold larger items. I bought it online for about $70 and it was a good investment.

Since I've switched to smaller items, I usually just take my pictures close to a south window on a sunny day.

The Etsy website has an almost overwhelming amount of help boards and selling teams.  I really haven't looked into it, but I'm sure there's a lot of good information there if you have the time to look for it. 

Another place to get behind the scenes Etsy information is Craftcount.com.  They have lists of top sellers in all categories.  One of my theories on finding success in anything is to look at someone who's already there and look at what they're selling and how they do it. 

Cr8tivity.com also has selling information and widgets like the ones I have in my sidebar.

If you're just looking for some laughs, check out Regretsy.

If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment or email me using the link under the "About" in the right column.

For other current posts on Etsy, check out these blogs:

Laurie  from Indulge Your Shelf

Laurie from Magpie Ethel

Mitzi from Mitzy's Miscellany

The pictures in this post are from current listings in my shops.