Another sale ! WoooHoooooo

I have had my second sale on etsy.com! I am so excited. Someone bought my "Bold Dreamer" Twiddle Blanket. I hope that they like it. It is my favorite one that I have made so far so I am excited that it was my 1st Twiddle Blanket that sold online. Having another sale has gotten me in the mood to create again. To bad I have homework that has to be done :( Boo hoo. Hopefully I can get my homework finished early so I can work on some new creations tonight when he goes to bed.

I cannot even begin to describe the excitement and feeling of pride that I get when something that I took the time to create sales online. It is so rewarding to know that someone appreciates the time, effort, and skill that you have. I get comments from family and friends all the time on my creations but it is so different to have someone who you have never met to pick your creation out of the numerous other creations out there!

I am crossing my fingers that this keeps up :)

I Need Inspiration!

So, I have been in a mood where I haven't been wanting to sew or create anything. I need some inspiration. What do you do to get into the mood to create? Is there a series of actions that you have to do like cut on music, clean space, etc? I just haven't wanting to pick up a piece of fabric and thread in a few days. Maybe I'll get more in the mood.

Anyone want to share their ways of getting their creative juices flowing?

*Any websites you go to?

*Any particular music you cut on?

*etc

DIY Magnetic Board for Organizing Your Odds and Ends

So I was reading through the bloggers that had to do with etsy.com. I saw a fellow blogger that had this link on her blog:

http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2010/01/how-to_make_a_magnetic_organiz.html

I am so going to make one of these magnetic organizers.

It looks very simple and since my crafting area is TINY it would help out a lot I think. I will probably use it more for an inspiration board but not sure yet. I will hopefully get it finished in a week or so. I am not sure how much time I will have on my hands for now but it is definitely on my to do list.

1st Sale on Etsy.com

So yesterday I had my 1st sale on etsy.com. I sold my Georgia the Giraffe that is posted in the previous posting. She is going to a great home in Georgia to a little baby that was recently adopted from Ethiopia.

When I got the email that my 1st item from my shop was bought I got a rush of emotion. I was very touched and extremely excited. I have sold items in the past but man what a rush to sale something online. Hopefully it is the start of something great.

For all those who make homemade items hang in there. Your 1st sale will come. It took me almost a month before my 1st item sold. I do have some tips though for those who sale on etsy.com. Repost and renew often. Join in on the forums, especially the critique board. This is a great way to get fellow etsians to take a look at your shop. Also, ask others to critique your photographs. I thought that I had some decent ones at first until I had others critique them. I followed a lot of their guidance and direction and noticed a huge difference in the amount of views and hearts that I got. This is especially true for the items that I photographed using my light box that I made. I have a link to a tutorial in one of my posts labeled light box. Good luck everyone.

Finished my light box

So I finished my lightbox. I really like it. I used this tutorial http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-make-a-inexpensive-light-tent . Thanks to the author of this tutorial. I like how it turned out but next time I will make it much bigger. I spent $10 total on making this box because I already had a box and I used an old white sheet. The only thing that I purchased was the light and a 100 watt bulb.

Here are my before and after pictures:

Before:

After:

There is a big difference in the looks. I do need to purchase 2 more lamps though to make it bright from the top and both sides.

Going to try to make a light box

So after two days of requesting and getting critiques about my shop on etsy.com, I have definitely came to the conclusion that I need to change my photographs. There is definitely not enough light in my house. I got some great advise from fellow etsy sellers. Thank you everyone who has helped me. I love that about etsy.com. There are tons and tons of fellow sellers that offer encouragement and are willing to share their advice and experience. That is very different for me. I am very grateful. I am going to make a light box tonight. I think that it will help my photos tremendously. I have never even heard of a lightbox so thank you http://www.etsy.com/shop/Zafras for all of your help and links. Hopefully I'll get it finished tonight so I can take new photos tomorrow. We will have to see how my son acts tomorrow. It's hard to get things done with a newly mobile 1 year old running around.