Winner uppercase magazine

Thank you all for adding a comment to the Uppercase give-away. All good reasons to get a copy of the magazine and I wish I had enough to send you all one but too bad there is only one lucky winner.
Random.org picked a random number and the lucky winner is Wilma.
Please send me your address so that I can send you the copy!

Hello Etsy 2012 recap

Quickly wanted to drop by to tell you about how amazing 'Hello Etsy' was yesterday!
I did take my camera but found it hard to take images and hold baby Julie at the same time so I have no images on my card at all! That's a first but please go look at Janine's blog from  Uppercase Magazine (and see baby Julie in her blog). Not only does she make a truly magnificent magazine, she's a supersweet and kind person too. She started out the event with her story and her presentation was truly inspiring.
You can find all the presentations in de on line labs of Etsy as the entire event was livestreamed. Don't forget to watch Satish Kumar's presentation. Together with Janine's, it was one of the highligths of the day!

At the end of the day, I took part in a panel about selling on Etsy. This was lead by Simone Weimans, a news anchor and Etsy shop owner. Together with Kim, Nelliana & Kenneth we answered some questions that Simone had. Previous to this presentation, we Skyped to prepare things a bit. After that Skype conversation, I put some lines on paper as I knew I would be nervous to speak in public and I didn't want to have a black out. Haha!
Of course I forgot to say a few things here and there but I thought that it would be nice to put my notes in my blog for you all to see. Nothing spectacular but perhaps there are a few tips and tricks in there that can help you...

What did you learn since opening your shop?

• Make better images
• Realistic price setting: first low priced items, lots of sales, lots of stress to produce.
  Then I increased my prices so that I would have to make less but earn the same.
• Branding is important!
  Have your name on your products if possible with a label, a stamp or a sticker.
  Be consistent in use of avatar, banner, photo’s  
• Be passionate about what you do and let that reflect in your communication to your customer.
  
• Give people something to talk about: packaging, product, name…
• Word of mouth is the best advertisement! 
• Stand out from the crowd: pictures, products, descriptions

Tips for other sellers

• Be part of the community by joining a team
• Treat your customers the way you want to be treated and have great customer service. Ex. Quick reply to convo’s, respond to special requests, add a handwritten thank you note,…  It generates repeat sales… 
• Connect &  Collaborate with other 
•  Make new products & do some one of a kind stuff or limited editions.
•  Make people curious about your work: show work in progress in your blog, sneak previews on Flickr or Facebook, let ‘em know when a new line will be launched 
•  Dare to find media exposure: write to appropriate blogs to let ‘em know there will be a new product launched and that they are the first to know. Blogs love to feature new products that haven’t been seen before.
• Share knowledge – don’t frantically keep everything you do secret because you are afraid of copycats, people who want to copy you will find a way. Instead, share your knowledge, make tutorials and show people how clever you are. It will bring them joy and creativity too and they’ll be grateful for good advise and will talk about you and your site/blog/shop.
• Be positive - don’t get discouraged & negative when things don’t take off right away. It takes time to built a solid base.
• Use social media: Flickr, Twitter, Pinterest, Blog, Facebook,…
• Have dialogues with future customers on social media – ask advice, feedback,…
• Write a newsletter to connect with your community

Next Hello Etsy will be in NY city in March 2013! Mark your kalender on 22/23 of March!

Part of something bigger - volume 2

Remember that I told you about lots of surprises for Julie in the mail and that is was part of something bigger?
Well, the mailbox got more of those and I'd love to share 'em with you. I still have not put together the entire poem as some words are still missing but I'm getting there. All of the gifts have a hanging tag and it will look so pretty when I will assemble the mobile. As soon as it's ready I will show you!
Anyway, here are some more words that came in the mail...

 Judit from Vadjutka (Hungary) send two times the word 'een' (means: a).

Anna from 'the house of mouse' (the Netherlands) send Julie the cutest sleep mouse. The mouse is holding the word 'slaap' (means: sleep).

Annemiek from TwoTreesWorld (the Netherlands) delivered her gifts in person. So nice to catch up with her. She made the words 'slaap' in the form of a flying porcelain sheep - cute! (means: sleep) and 'van' (means: of)

Anna Denise from The yellow umbrella (Belgium) drew something mighty cute - I love her drawings! Her word says 'reuzeke' (means: small giant)

Caro from Honoriginal (the Netherlands) made a supertiny & pretty book and a paper cloud with the word 'doe' (means: do)

Stephanie from PetitPlat (France) proves here that she can not only make tiny things, haha, she made a giant pea pod with the word 'reus' (means: giant)

Elles from Misusu (United States) send two intricately made patchwork pieces (amazing) with the words 'een' (means: a) and 'doos' (means: box)

Marijke from Sweet and simple stuff (the Netherlands) send a very soft and cute crocheted babushka with the word 'dicht' (means: closed)

And Kim from Viltalakim (the Netherlands) came to deliver her gift in person too. A cute felted heart with the word 'roos' (means: rose) and she also gave me a few tips regarding the poem.
Like that I was still missing about 8 words and that the poem consisted out of 8 lines.
Thanks Kim for clearing a few things up for me. I suppose that I'll be keeping an eye on my mailbox a bit more and hope that the mystery will be revealed soon.
Thanks so much everyone! You can't imagine how curious I am to see the end result! :)

Oh, and for those wanting to see how much Julie has grown, you can subscribe to my newsletter because I add images from her in there. We are a bit hesitant to post images of her on the world wide web...

Hello Etsy

Oh oh oh, it's been a while since I popped by here. Can't believe how fast time flies!
Two weeks ago I have taken images of new gifts that came in the mail for Julie, but haven't gotten around to blog 'em yet. Will try to do that soon. I still miss a few words to complete the poem so I can't connect the dots yet...

Another thing I wanted to let you know that I will be attending 'Hello Etsy' in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The summit will be part of the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven. I'm so much looking forward to meeting 'old' friends and making new ones again.
I'll also take part in a panel about selling on Etsy which will be lead by super sweet Simone from mooivintage. I met Simone for the first time at Hello Etsy in Berlin last year and see her frequently as she's a news anchor on Dutch television. :)

There are still tickets available for those who haven't decided to go yet. And if you go, don't forget to order your free MOO cards so that you can connect with all those cool people attending

Hope to see you there!
Please say 'hello' when you see me as I would love to meet you!
(I'll have 2 small pigtails and most likely, a little baby on my arms! )

Part of something bigger - volume 1

Last Friday, I received a package from Ama from Miss Minoes. I was very surprised and thought it was very sweet of her to send wishes and a gift for Julie. It was a text balloon that was made with wire and yarn. There was a word in the middle & I didn't really know what it meant but she wrote that the word 'als' meant dreams and fantasy but also that it was part of something bigger...

A bit mysterious to me and I actually searched the net to find if there was a meaning of the word 'als' but couldn't find anything really. So I let it go and reckoned that what Ama said would be true and I was happy with the pretty text balloon.

Today, the postman rang and delivered many packages from all over Europe. All from people that I know via Etsy. Hmm, I was very surprised and started with opening the envelopes from Austria. Baa from Baahar and Renate from Kreativlink send me the following: (the words mean 'a')

Then I opened a package from Belgium from Sandra from Zsazsazsu. The word on the hanger is 'small rose' accompagnied with rose petals and a beautiful, tiny, crocheted rose.

 

There was also a package from Germany from Ella from P8buttonart. It was a hanger made with buttons and the word says 'door'

Swee from Swiedebie (Netherlands) send two beautiful hearts and the words on there are 'as' and 'the'...

 

Inger from Ingermaaike send a mobile with a felted tree all the way from  Norway and the word 'as' was embroidered onto it.

Up until now I don't have a clue what all these words are trying to say but I suspect that there are more words on the way to complete it. After all, they seem to be part of something bigger...
I can't wait for the postman tommorrow. Thank you all for the sweet & very unexpected surprise for Julie!!

Art journaling

For years and years I've been frustrated that I can't draw properly. At least, that's what I tell myself. Of course I can draw but I don't think it looks really good. It doesn't look like all the artists that I admire in their drawings. But then, each has his/her own talent, right?
When I have an idea, I do see images in my head on how it should look but to transfer 'em onto paper is another thing.

I remember when I was in art school, the teacher insisted that I would draw my idea onto paper even though she already understood my idea while I was explaining what I was going to do/make. She said: 'if you can put it on paper, you can make it'  Hard work for me but it somehow forced me to pick up a pencil and draw...

I love seeing people's sketchbooks and art journals and I wish I had one of my own.
I must say that I often attempted to draw something and I have sketchbooks laying around with only one drawing in them. I always give up somehow.

I started another one, and I have a feeling that I will keep up with it as I want to do this for our daughter Julie. I plan to write & draw stuff about her and her little adventures that she will most definitely have. It's a challenge for me and I will have to learn to be satisfied by the fact that my drawings are not quite as they are in my head... but I still want to capture all these precious moments so I think it's worth it!

Do you keep a journal or have you attempted art journaling?

Visitor's gifts

It's been a month since my last post and I really don't feel bad about it. I'm taking all the time of the world to spend with our newborn, Julie. She's already five weeks and growing really well.
I'm a nursing mommy so I really have to steal moments here and there in between feeding so I'm not back to claying yet. I did reopen my shop on Etsy since I have stock already made beforehand.

I wanted to share our baby announcement cards and gifts with you. The card is made by my good friend, Anna from LilaRubyKing. Not her usual style but that's because I asked her to do something with the red gingham fabric. I love 'm, they are really pretty.

And as I mentioned in an earlier post, in Belgium it's a tradition to give a little gift to people who come to visit the baby. Both my partner and I made something. We decided to use jars that are used for conserving goods. My partner grew strawberries and rhubarb in the vegetable garden and made jam from it and I made a mould of the jars and casted little porcelain jars and filled them with chocolate coated beans and they can be used as tealight holders afterwards.

 

Here's how it's displayed in our home. The little glasine bags are filled with sweet candy for the little ones. The big jars in the back are filled with candy too, just for eating while visiting. :)

  

Remember I made name labels to attach to the baby gifts but couldn't show 'em yet since the name and gender was still a surprise? Here you can see them on the jars.

 

Thankfully, the visitors really love the gifts so it's nice to know all the work is not wasted! :)