What's Your Face?

I absolutely love these faces in amandamoon's shop they look they are keeping a secret... Amanda does amazing work a must see shop http://amandamoon.etsy.com check her shop out you won't be disappointed with her work or the prices!

Branding Your Image

When you own a small craft business you can sometimes overlook branding your products and image, it's easy to overlook with so many other important factors such as making your product photographing, and all the other million and one things involved with selling your wares. So what is branding well if your a cow run... If not no fear branding is simply making people remember your shop branding your image in their minds. OK so now how do we do this "branding". This is something I think of as a work in progress the first thing you should do is think of a big well known business as an example I am going to use Pepsi close your eyes and think what comes to your mind when you say pepsi is it there colors, lettering, packaging, slogans? This is all part of their branding My son can't read but he knows pepsi when he sees it... that is branding at it's best. I am in the process of branding my shop so I will use my steps as examples I originally started out with a name Wyred on Wire whenever I went to craft shows I always had people saying wow you make this? One day I realized that wow is the initials of my business name so my logo was born! Next I realized I needed a Slogan this was a little harder and didn't come to me right away in fact I'm not really sure when it did but here it is Jewelry to Get You Noticed... I also use another Are You Ready to Get Noticed? I wanted all colors associated with my shop to be cohesive I wanted my shop to be feminine as well as edgy so I chose pink and black not to mention I have always loved the two colors together. OK so now I have my logo my slogan I have my colors so now what in the world do I do with them? The answer everything you can! I had business cards made reflecting my logo and slogan these were made by http://smile4katie.etsy.com/ who does an amazing job. I had a banner, advertisements, earring cards and stickers made with my colors, logo and slogan, I had matching stickers made these were all made by another great designer http://wildmagic.etsy.com/ and I had shipping labels made by http://kjpatino.etsy.com/ . I am going to work on listing a picture of my packaging which uses my colors. These are all some ideas to get you started but you can take branding as far as your imagination and budget will allow. So if you haven't started yet get to it!

When I Need A Good Laugh....

I head over to HotTaTasFaktory for a full days worth of naughty laughs. She has some very unique and hilarious adult cards. This is one of my favorites at the moment

You have to go visit her shop to find out the punch line.... http://hottatasfaktory.etsy.com . I'm sure you will get a good laugh and get a few to give out.

I Love Smidge

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Smidge is a wonderful idie site. It gives indie artist a place to get their name and products out their in a variety of ways and it gives lovers of indie products a place to find some great reviews, contests and some of the latest news. If your an artist looking for some exposure you can submit an item for a contest (which I have done so be on the look out for it next month) or you can write an article to have it submitted. Now for my favorite part Smidge is Canadian just like me! This site is still a baby but growing with the numbers to prove it.

Improving Pics

Today I am trying to improve my pics.This is something I am always working on... other people make it look so easy. Well I have to say I just don't think it is and If I had the money I would definitely hire a professional. When your selling online it really comes down to does that picture sell it. Unfortunately my answer is still no I keep taking and retaking but I always feel I am still lacking there needs to be something more there. I'm starting to feel I spend more time trying to get a decent picture than it took me to make the piece.

Who Knew??

Well I obviously didn't know...

They say it's good to learn something new everyday or umm something like that..

The other day I woke up to a very colorful computer screen, sure it was really pretty looked like a rainbow blew up on my computer...but I knew this could not be a good thing. I know nothing about computers and I did what I usually do in a crisis I head on over to the etsy forums and whine. People started using technical terms and basically telling me that my computer was shot. Before I burst into tears an angel in the forums asked if I had a magnet near my computer. OK I know not something a normal person would have sitting beside their monitor but leave it to me yup I had a huge magnet dish that I use to separate my metals right there. I moved the dish and it actually got much worse not better at all. So I crossed my fingers turned off computer...waited and turned it back on. Boy had I lucked out this time all was fine but it could have been a mini disaster. I know some of you are probably sitting there laughing your butt off and I am happy I could give you that laugh but my real reason for posting this is if I didn't know I'm pretty sure there is at least one other person out there that doesn't know magnets are kryptonite for computers.

BIG BIG SALE!

I made a big big mistake in calculating my finances and now I need money for some much needed supplies so for the first time ever I am having a big big sale! Everything in my shop is 50% OFF! No I'm not crazy I haven't lost my mind I just really need these supplies so for you it's never been a better time to get that perfect gift for yourself or someone else! Sale ends May 3rd so hurry on over to http://wyredonwire.etsy.com!