behind the scenes: all wrapped up + etsy seller tips

I really do love selling on Etsy.

The whole process taps into many of my creative loves:

• Crafts :: I play with felt + paper!
• Photography :: I photograph my items for Etsy and my blog. And sometimes I have my fave models help me out.
• Graphic Design :: I design Etsy banners, blog banners, blog buttons etc. to market my brand.
• Writing :: I write item descriptions, blog posts, DIY tutorials etc.
• Packaging :: I  carefully and prettily wrap my hand-made items and send them off to their new homes.

Today, I want to share a few behind-the-scenes peeks of how I package my handmade crafts and ship them off and how all these creatives loves of mine are put to work. I will use my latest custom order as an example.

As a long-time Etsy buyer, I've always appreciated the extra care that some Etsy sellers give to their packaging. And I knew when I became a seller, I wanted to do the same. This is a process that has evolved from my first customer to my most recent customer. I've tweaked it along the way and tried to streamline where I can. There are definitely things that I could do to make it even faster (which I'll share at the end of post).

Some of my packaging + shipping supplies.

Being an avid scrapbooker/paper-crafter, I have lots of tools that the average Etsy seller may not have. These come in handy when I create packaging, business cards or tags for my shop. Other items like cardboard boxes and tissue paper, I purchase from shipping companies like Uline or PaperMart.  Here's a quick run-down of my supplies and how I use each item.

SUPPLIES:

• Yarn. I love using yarn to wrap my items and use to hang my tags off my hoops. Because I sell yarn-wrapped wreaths in my shop, it ties in nicely to my shop! I usually pick up yarn when it's on sale at Joann's or Michaels or other craft store.

I love chunky yarn to tie my kraft tags onto my hoops. I design the tags in Photoshop, print on kraft paper then use a paper punch to cut them out.

• Kraft paper. I always have kraft paper on hand. I use it to print my own product tags, backing for my flowers, notecards and even business cards. It's a must-have.

A typical goodie bag include a felt flower, a note from me (I used to write a quick note on a printed invoice, but I think the note card is more personal.), a coupon code card for a future purchase, and a business card or two. (I am in the process of ordering Moo Cards to use as business cards. For now, I make my own ticket/tags listing my shop URL).

• Kraft tissue paper. I used to use white tissue paper (which I got on sale at one of the big box crafts stores). But when I started running out, I decided to switch to kraft. Just love the natural, rustic look of it, and it goes with everything!

• Paper punches. I have dozens of paper punches that I have collected over the years to feed my scrapbooking obsession. Border punches to give a scalloped edge. Corner rounders to give a finished look to a card. Shaped punches to make hearts, butterflies, doilies etc. But one of my most favorite and most used punch is the one pictured in the very first photo above. It's called "Photo Labels" but it reminds me of tickets. Three different sizes in one punch. So versatile. And perfect for making item tags.

• Hole punch. Unless you're scrapbooker, you may not be familiar with this tool. It's called the Cropadile. It's a pretty substantial tool (pink color notwithstanding). It can punch holes (in two sizes) through pretty much anything - from paper to chipboard to leather! Another one of my most used tools. A must-have.

• Glassine bags. I have two sizes. One to package my hand-made felt flowers and leaves. And a smaller size for the little goody bags I give to each customer. I love the look of them!

• Washi tape. This Japanese decorative tape come in various colors and patterns. I love to use it in place of transparent tape. After I wrap my item in tissue paper like a present, I tape it shut with washi. Washi tape is so popular right now. It's a big trend in scrapbooking as well.

• Stapler. I picked up this kelly green stapler (made in Japan) at Goodwill a few weeks ago. I love it! Of course, the customer doesn't know that I'm using a cool vintage stapler, but if it makes my job a bit more fun, why not? I staple my glassine bags closed with a tag or coupon on top.

• Shipping boxes.  At first, I recycled my shipping boxes from my own mail-order purchases. But I eventually ran out. So I now order them from Uline in just the right size for my products: 8 x 8 x 3.

• Shipping tape. I pick up rolls when they're on sale or with a coupon. I like the transparent kind, but I still have the opaque (brown) rolls from when we moved to new house a few years ago.

• Butcher paper, crumpled up tissue paper, bubble wrap, etc.  I use butcher paper, crumpled up tissue paper, bubble wrap or whatever I have on hand to cushion the  items during shipping. I tend to hang onto all the packaging material I get from my own mail-order purchases just for this purpose.

• Vintage postal scale. Before I got this baby, I used my kitchen scale to weigh my packages. But when I spotted this gorgeous blue scale at my local church thrift store, I knew I had to have it. Not only is it eye candy on my desk, but it's functional too!

I love this scale! It's functional and pretty.

And this is what it looks like all- wrapped up.

And here it is ready to be sealed up and weighed for postage.

*******

Now that you  have seen a little behind-the-scenes action, I'd love to share some tips that will will make the shipping process even easier.

1. Keep your supplies in one place.

I struggle with this one because I am constantly moving around - i.e. sometimes I work in the living room, but my computer and printer is in my office. And because I use some of these tools for things other than shipping orders, it gets mixed up with other crafting supplies. I've toyed with the idea of having a large basket of shipping supplies so I can tote it around from room to room as needed.


2. Keep your supplies in stock so you don't have to run around buying or making things last minute.

For me, I like to keep a stock of my tags, coupon cards, note cards and flower backings on hand. As well as the essentials: tape, boxes, tissue paper. For mailing internationally, I also like to have extra customs forms so I can have them filled out before I go to the post office. Being able to grab these items as needed is a good thing. When I have some downtime or between orders, I like to re-stock my essentials.

3. Use Paypal.com to purchase postage online and print your postage at home.

I do this all the time. You even get a small discount if you do it online. Not to mention saving time at the post office. Then simply request a carrier pick-up if you are mailing via Priority Mail or drop in the closest mailbox. The only time I have to go to the post office is when I have to ship an item via International First Class.



4. Make it pretty.  When I first started Catshy Crafts, "make it pretty" was on the back of my hand-made business cards and on the little freebies I gave away. And I think it applies to packaging and shipping as well.  With a little extra effort, you can make your hand-made items stand out even more when they arrive in the hands of your customers. Make the experience enjoyable for the customer when she receives your hand-made item. Use materials that tie in with her shop's aesthetic. For me, it's kraft paper and yarn, all the way!

Whether you are a Catshy Crafts customer or have an Etsy shop of your own,  I hope you liked this behind-the-scenes look of Catshy Crafts. If you enjoyed the post or found it informative, I'd love to hear from you!

As always, thanks for stopping by today!

DIY: Grab a Button!

Do you have a blog?
Do you want others to know about it?
Do you love to support other blogs that you love?
Have you ever seen "Grab a Button" on one of your favorite blogs or websites?

If you answered Yes to any or all of the above, this post might interest you.

I recently made a little blog button. Essentially a blog ad. It's 150 x 150 pixels. That's pretty small, but it needs to be small enough to fit on a sidebar of a blog. I used a couple photos showing my products (embroidery hoop art) and a couple lines of text. Very simple thing to do in Photoshop or PSE. I also added a stroke (black outline) to make it stand out against the white background. I'm not a graphic designer by any means, but I do like to fiddle around with Photoshop.

Now, I'd love to share it with you! If you look on the sidebar on the right you'll see "Grab a Catshy Crafts Button" with my little ad and a bunch of HTML code below that.

All you need to do is copy all the code. (Click and drag from the very beginning of the code until the end. Once it's all highlighted (every last bit), Hit CTRL-C to copy,). Then, if you're using Blogger, log in and go to the Layout page. Click on "Add a Gadget" and select HTML/JavaScript.  Now paste the code (hit CTRL-V) into the text area. The code that you copied should now be there. You can leave the "Title" area blank or add one if you like. Hit Save and you're done!

Now you'll have a cute little ad on your blog. Plus, when you click on the ad it will take you back to my shop ;) Yup, the ad is clickable and linkable!

If you'd like to make your "Grab A Button" for your own blog or website, check out this tutorial or this one.

Hope this was helpful!

on the horizon

I have a few exciting things planned for Catshy Crafts!

It's amazing how friendly and supportive the DIY/indie craft/Etsy/scrapbooking world is and I'm excited to be collaborating with a few talented ladies I've met on this wonderful journey.

A swap, a collaboration, a blog giveaway (and more) are all on the horizon. I can't wait to share more details with you in the coming weeks.

Until then, I'll share a few new things I created recently.

A new Etsy banner for my shop and a new blog ad. I still consider myself a beginner at Photoshop, but I whipped these up today using fonts from Fontsquirrel: Quicksand and Sail.

new Etsy banner for my shop

This ad is 150 x 150 pixels. Feel free to add to your blog if you like!

Thanks for stopping by!

one of the most shared tutorials of 2011

If you subscribe to the Stitch (Papernstitch's newsletter) you probably read the news already! My felt flower tutorial is one of the top 2 shared tutorials on the Papernstitch blog for 2011 with more than 2,000 tweets.

Thanks for sharing my tutorial! I love making felt flowers and glad that some of you do too!

In other news, I'm hard at work writing my Catshy newsletter. What? You didn't know I had a newsletter? Well I do! :) If you want to subscribe, you can do so on the right-hand side of this blog. And if you do, I'll send you a 10% off coupon.

DIY: heart-shaped bokeh (my very 1st tutorial on the blog!)

I've always loved bokeh.
Even before I knew what bokeh was.

There is a photograph of me when I was a kid. I am in sharp focus and the background is blurred. I always thought it was a "good picture," but never knew why. There was something about it that made me take a second look. It was the only photo like that in our family albums.

It wasn't until decades later, that I found out what bokeh is.

Bokeh is the word for that blur you get in photos. According to photography.com, the word bokeh, derived from the Japanese word “boke” translates to ‘fuzziness’ or blur.

Bokeh is usually in the background, but you could also blur the foreground if you want to call attention to something behind it. It's one of my favorite technique that I use over and over again. I use it when taking portraits of my daughters. I use it when taking photos of my items for my Etsy shop.

In the shot on the left, my focus is on the button on this felt flower. This focuses your eye on this one detail. The shot on the right focuses on the entire wreath with my daughter out of focus (but still recognizable) in the background.

Most recently, I discovered another fun way to use bokeh. The shaped bokeh! There are some great tutorials out there on how to create your own shaped bokeh, namely here and here and here. This tutorial will share my experiences and how you can  turn your "ordinary" bokeh photos like this:

into shots like this:

by making a simple lens hood like this:

The lens hood is not so pretty, but your photos will be!

How-to make the lens hood:

1. Before you make your lens hood, you will need to decide which lens you will be using. Choose your  largest aperture lens. I used a Canon 50 mm F/1.4 lens for my Canon dSLR.

2. To create the lens hood, use your lens cap as a rough guide. Place your lens cap on the black paper and cut around the cap, adding about 1/2 - 3/4 inch to the diameter. You want the hood to fit snugly around your lens, but not too small that it won't fit at all. My hood was about 3 inches in diameter.

3. Now it's time to make the heart.
The size of the heart does matter. For my 50 mm 1.4 lens, a 3/4 inch heart worked great. For more tips on how big to make your heart, you might want to check out this.

The placement of the heart also matters. You want the heart in the center of the hood. One way to do this is to fold the circle in half and cut out half a heart. By folding the circle first, not only will you get a symmetrical heart, but the fold in the paper will tell you where the center of the circle is.

4. Next, cut a strip of black paper long enough to wrap around the diameter of your circle with some overlap. The strip should be about 1 1/2 - 2 inches wide.

5. Tape the strip to the circle, making sure all the gaps are closed. Double-check to see if your hood fits on your lens. It should fit snugly enough so that it doesn't fall off. If it's too loose, try using a rubber band to keep it on your lens.

Setting up the shot:

You'll need:
-Subject - it might be easier to practice on an inanimate object (or a very patient person) when you're starting out.  For the ones of my daughter, she was seated on a comfy chair and watching tv. She wasn't going anywhere!
-Lights - This is what will turn into the hearts. I used my Christmas tree which had several colors of lights on it. You can also use outdoor lights, street lights etc. The more lights you have, the more hearts in your final photo.
-Camera with your large aperture lens attached
-Lens hood that you made

Taking the shot:

1. Place your subject far away from the lights. On my first go, I made the mistake of putting my subject right next to the Christmas tree. Did not work.

2. Set your aperture to its lowest setting (so its wide open).

3. Focus on your subject.

4. Switch to manual focus mode and place your lens hood on the lens. (You should not see the hood or the heart shape in your viewfinder. See my outtake photo below.) Take the shot!

My first successful shot!

If you just want the heart lights alone, remove your subject and shoot (without refocusing). You should get something like this.

Experiment with where you place your hearts in the photo. In the photo of my daughter lying down (4th photo from the top of the post), it looks like the hearts are floating above her. In this photo, the hearts are more of a background element (And you can also tell that it's the Christmas tree in the background.)

You can also experiment with the shape that the lights are making. In my example, the shape is a Christmas tree. But you could hang your lights in any shape you want, like a heart or a circle. (Maybe I'll try that next!)

If you're like me, it might take you a few tries (see below for some of my outtakes) to get the hang of it, but once I got that first heart-shaped bokeh, it was magical!

Learning from my mistakes (my outtakes)

I thought I would share some photos from my first attempts. It will help you see what not to do.

Learning from my mistakes.

1. My first attempt. I was using my 17-50 mm F/2.8 lens so my heart was way too big for my aperture. It gave a heart-shaped vignette instead of a heart-shaped bokeh! My subject was also way too close to the lights. Not enough blur.

2. On my second attempt, I used a much smaller heart and the same lens. The heart ended up being too small. Not the magic I was looking for. 3. In the end, I went back to the hood with the larger heart (as pictured) but changed my lens to my F/1.4 and moved my subject farther away from the lights. Success!

Now I can't stop!

Here's one more shot before I go. And it happens to be one my new felt hoop art that I'll be putting in the Catshy Crafts shop very soon! I think the heart bokeh goes well with this particular hoop ;)

So.....Thanks for reading my very first tutorial on the Catshy Crafts blog! I hope this tutorial will help you make your own magical photos. (And if you do, I'd love to see them. Please link me up in the comments.)

Family DIY: blackboard wall

We are no John and Sherry by any stretch of the imagination, but sometimes Jamie and I like to tackle a DIY project at home. Well, usually it's me that wants it and Jamie who plays along because he loves me ;)  It can be simple as buying and putting together an Expedit bookshelf or more involved like planting a tulip bed. But it does happen.

A few months ago (yes, I can't believe I haven't posted this yet!), the whole family pitched in on a project that I've been wanting to do ever since my two-year-old daughter, Zara discovered that walls are the perfect spot for her scribbling!

So let me rewind. One day, while I had my back turned, Zara decided that my pristine white walls in my scraproom were a nice place to practice her drawing. Who can blame her? It's the perfect height. It's a blank slate. And her mom has an endless supplies of markers, journaling pens and other permament writing implements just lying around the house.

Because the marks art she made could not be entirely removed (even with a foul-smelling cleaner), I thought that painting over it with blackboard paint would be a good idea. Fast-forward to one weekend in September. With nothing planned that weekend, we decided to buy some blackboard paint at Home Depot. But not to paint my now sullied wall of my scraproom. But an entire wall in our kitchen.

I'm sure  you've seen the photos on Pinterest or Apartment Therapy. Or just google "chalkboard wall". With our cherry-red linoleum floors and slate floors in the living room, I thought it would look good. Jamie agreed. Plus, the girls would have a place to doodle and we could keep track of our grocery list needs and who's turn it was to pick what we had for weekend breakfast.

Source: kitchenireland.com

So after cleaning, spackling up any holes in the wall and taping off all the trim, we were ready to roll on some paint. Two coats. The hardest part of the whole process may have been waiting the recommended three days of curing before we were able to write on the wall.

1. getting ready 2. everyone pitching in 3. letting it dry (for 3 days!)

1. Ready, set, write! 2. The paint direction recommend rubbing chalk all over the board then erasing to prime the blackboard.

Sofia marks the date.

We all love our blackboard wall!