Happy Birthday Brittni!

It's Brittni's birthday (of Papernstitch) and she has a gift for you!



Brittni says:

So today and tomorrow I am offering Track This, at a "pay what you'd like" price. The retail cost of this workbook is normally $27 but right now, you can pay any price you would like $1 or over. Just change the price at checkout and click "update cart" before paying.

If you aren't familiar with the workbook already, it is a 33 page plan of action, so you can organize your thoughts, understand what you truly want for your business, and use that knowledge to propel yourself forward. 

Click here to view more details.

My two cents:

I have this system and highly recommend it. At this "pay what you'd like" price, this is definitely a steal! If you are an indie crafter with your own business, this will help you keep on track with your goals. Brittni is a successful business owner and blogger with lots of sage advice. Even if you don't buy this guide, be sure to check out her Papernstitch Blog for more (free) tips on running a creative business.




Full disclosure: I am a Track This Affiliate. This post include affiliate links.

putting it all together

One of the unexpected perks (and joys) of having my own Etsy shop is designing the packaging for the items. There's something about adding a hang tag to an item that makes it look professional and just so darn cute! Luckily, I am a reformed scrapbooker (i.e. I am a former obsessed scrapbooker who used to scrapbook Every Day).

One of my (paper) scrapbook pages.

So I have the benefit of having lots of papercrafting supplies on hand. And know my way around a scrapbooking store!

My business card and two free gifties I put in every order: an accordion flower with little tag and a sample felt flower on a kraft backing. (The exact flowers vary for each order. It depends on what I made recently).

I designed and created my business cards, the little labels I put on my paper flowers and the backing/packaging for my vintage buttons and hand-made felt flowers. Kraft cardstock is my favorite material to use for all of these things. And a paper punch is my favorite tool. Add in the (very basic) Photoshop skills I picked up when I became an obsessed digital scrapbooker who used to digi-scrap (i.e. use Photoshop to make digital scrapbook pages) Every Day......and I am golden.

when two worlds collide: digi-scrapping about crafting

One of the latest bit of packaging or branding that I created was the little ticket-shaped hang tag for my heartfelt hoop art. Yes, my embroidery hoops now have an official name. I got the idea for "heartfelt" from this blog post about Catshy Crafts on the Paperstitch Blog. The name just clicked with me and totally described my work. I especially love the double meaning as many of items feature hearts and most are made of felt!

I am also toying with the idea of adding a small label on the back of here hoop as well.

My new ticket-shaped tag will be on all the embroidery hoop art I make from now on.

One of my free gifties all packaged up with a 25% coupon stapled to the top, a chunky fuchsia yarn and larger catshy tag. Every order gets a variation of this with their purchased item.

I am hoping to put more paper goods in the shop very soon. Right now I have two all-paper items: my conversation hearts and my accordion flower garland. I keep meaning to put the accordion flowers up, but I keep giving them away in my free giftie!

conversation hearts printed on kraft cardstock

So, I hoped you enjoyed seeing a bit of behind the scenes at Catshy Crafts! I have some new items about to go in the shop this weekend. It's a new color scheme for me: yellow and grey. So stay tuned! Or you can see a sneak peek of them on my Facebook Fan Page right now ;) 

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: guest tutorial on papernstitch!

I am excited to share a new tutorial with you!

Felted Flower in Five Ways

This time, it's posted on the Papernstitch Handmade blog. 

I hope you can check it out!

And while you're there, I definitely recommend browsing through the other DIY tutorials....and if you have your own indie craft business, Brittni's podcasts and creative business tips are definitely worth your time.





P.S. Tomorrow is the last day of my Holiday Sale! Enter holiday25 at check out too get 25% off your order at my shop. Thanks for visiting!

Still looking for a stocking stuffer or two?

If you're like me and leave the stocking stuffers until the last minute, you might have a few people on your gift list that aren't checked off yet.

Most of the items in my shop would fit in the proverbial Christmas stocking. And better yet, most are under $15 and super-cute to boot. Two of my hoop arts even made it onto Papernstitch's Most Awesome Stocking Stuff Gift Guide!

The first one has your name on it! (literally.) It's a personalized oval felt hoop with a wee little bunting on it. And comes in 2 color choices. The hoop can fit up to 8 letters.

personalized oval embroidery hoop yarn wrapped with mini-bunting

The second one that made the gift guide also has a bunting. It's pink and grey. Love that color combo!


 

felt bunting embroidery hoop art pink and grey

And don't forget to use your holiday coupon code to get 25% off!

If you order by December 15, not only will you get the 25% off (if you enter the coupon code), I'll guarantee shipment by December 24. (I use priority shipping). Happy shopping!

heartfelt decor + 25% holiday sale!

Rachel Anne at Papernstitch blog posted a lovely write-up about Catshy Crafts yesterday! I was tickled to receive her e-mail telling me about it, because I was feeling under the weather and exhausted all-day. It was my daughter's 7th birthday party on Sunday, so I was recovering from all the party prep and the party itself. So this news perked me up a bit.

I really like how she described my work as "heartfelt decor". It's a bit of a play on words because I work with felt. So I changed my title description on Etsy to incorporate the little catchphrase. Hope she doesn't mind!

If you missed it you can read the whole blog post here. And I would love if you would leave a comment at the Papernstitch blog!

Branch by Nancy Kubo.

Now that Thanksgiving and my daughter's big birthday bash (will post more about that later) is behind me, I can focus on Christmas! Decorations, holiday shopping, gift-wrapping. I have the girls' presents and stocking stuffers pretty much under control, but haven't done much else. But I did decide on my gift wrapping strategy thanks to Allison at Little Lovelies. I already picked up the brown wrap at Target yesterday.

Source: Little Lovelies

Brown/kraft paper with a bit of color is just my style. Not to mention pom-poms. Since buying these this summer, I've been making pom-poms a lot lately.

So to get in the holiday spirit, I am having a 25% sale until December 15. Just enter "holiday25" when you check out.

Now go shopping! :)

By the way, Rachel Anne has her own Etsy shop! Go check it out!

I'm on papernstitch!

Something has lit a fire inside me. I have been preparing items to photograph and list in my Etsy shop non-stop for the past few days. I have been jotting down ideas for new products. I have been experimenting with how to photograph my items. I have been super-excited about catshy crafts in general! And I can tell you what that something is. Papernstitch!

What is Papernstitch? It's a curated exhibition site of indie crafts and handmade goods run by Brittni Mehlhoff. She also runs the Papernstitch blog, a wealth of information on running a crafty business. Apparently, she is one of the "Top 150 Makers" and a former high school art teacher! Gotta love that.

And why am I so excited? From November 16 to December 7, I am one of the Papernstitch exhibitors!

How did it happen? How did my little ole shop make the cut? Well, I was wondering that myself. I guess it all started when I subscribed to Papernstitch's newsletter after first hearing a podcast about creating a niche blog.  I remember thinking that this is just the type of information I needed: Entertaining, to the point, with relevant information for me. I was creating my new Etsy shop and getting this blog started so I needed all the help I could get.

A few days later I found another insightful post and was brave enough to leave a comment and included my blog URL (my etsy shop was not up and running at that time).  This was my feeble attempt at networking. Lo and behold, Brittni Mehlhoff  wrote back and we exchanged a few e-mails about how I found Papernstitch in the first place. Nothing major, but I liked how she connected with her readers and took the time to respond to comments.

Fast forward 4 or 5 months.

The deadline for the next exhibition was that night at midnight. I had seen the submission calls come and go, but I didn't think I was ready. My shop only had a handful of items in the shop at this point. On the other hand, I did have finished pieces that *just* needed to be photographed and listed.  If only I had the time.

It was a Monday morning and my youngest had a toddler class. She absolutely loves this class and no way would I make her miss it. As luck would have it, my husband is working from home these days and sets his own schedule. Would he be able to take her? Well, if she is the one doing the asking! ;) I may have whispered the idea to her. And how could a Daddy say no to her 2-year-old?

So, with my time free, I set up my lightbox and went to work. (Well, to be truthful I did a LOT of housework first because we were having guests that night - who actually later cancelled - arrgh!.) In the remaining hour or so, I photographed my felt embroidery hoop art, wrote descriptions, added keywords, etc. By the time I finished I had 14 items up! Not bad for a morning's day of work.

But there was another kink in my plan. My daughter came home from toddler class cranky and crying. Not only had she bumped her head on the car door (she was too busy jumping in rain puddles). Turns out she was sick! A fever. So with that on plate, I didn't even think about submitting again until I was lying in bed with her. Reading her stories. Remember, the deadline was midnight (I wasn't sure if it was EST or PST), but it was 8:30 PST where I live. To be safe, I told myself I only had 30 minutes. Luckily, the submission form was a snap to fill out. And before the clock struck twelve, I had my Invite to join the Exhibition from Brittni!

Lesson learned? Go for it! You have nothing to lose. Cliche I know, but so true.

These are now available in the shop!

So please check out my gallery at Papernstitch! It will be up until December 7. And I can't wait to check the other exhibitors! myself.





P.S. I have a new subscribe to my newsletter button on the right-hand column of the blog under my photo.

I would love for you to subscribe to my  newsletter! I will share special sales for subscribers only, tutorials and more!