#31 French-inspired, redux, with green

As you might be able to tell if you compare yesterday's post to today's, I think this paper makes up into very pretty envelopes. Today I'm featuring the 1.25x1.25 inch style, which has been a big seller in my store.

This week

This was a big week for my shop. I made several series of cards, which are sampled above; I bought my first ad on craftcult.com, and the CCCOE handmadeincalifornia gift guide went live, where I have both a listing and an ad. I also joined the EtsyTwitter Team, have been using Google Analytics, and uploaded my shop to Google Base using LetsEts to format the .xml file. I tried Twitter Magpie and junked it, preferring my own Twitter postings to using the site just for ads or promotion.

Another thing I did that was kind of fun was have a great 15-minute sale (any five cards for $10), which I announced on my team threads and on Twitter. Maybe next time I'll list it in the promotions section of the Etsy Forums. I might even do that tonight just to see what kind of results I get.

I also made my first two sales in my 1000 markets shop -- very exciting. And I went through and changed the exposure on 150 photos and then reloaded them to both my Etsy site and my 1000markets shop. I cleaned up my Flickr site, too. And I found out that I have been on a few front pages recently. The next thing I'd lilke to start doing is blog interviews again -- that was fun and it's exciting to learn about and promote other people's shops.

The gift guide has launched

The incredibly talented CraftyWren, a.k.a Shop Whimsy is the graphic designer who put this amazing site together. She has an able crew of CCCOE members who are also working on a constant basis to write up Spotlight articles (OhMay Designs) or curate the collections on the front page (ButtercupBloom). You can find the gift guide here.

Gift Guide front page today

CCCOE's Handmade in California Web site included me as one of the front page picks for the day. Go by and visit to see all the other great CCCOE artists that have signed up.

Handmade in California

The California Crafters Club of Etsy (CCCOE) has a wonderful PR team which has set up our spring "Handmade In California" Web site, following on the huge success of the Winter site. The new one won't go live until February 1, but you can get a preview now. Last time I checked, one of my cards was on the front page.

Valentine's Day is coming

I got my first request for this year's batch of teeny tiny envelopes for Valentine's Day this morning. That was a fun project, and, of course, led to a trip to not one, but two craft shops. Scrapbook Territory is one of my all time favorite shops because they have beautiful paper, wonderful stamps and a great store dog named Wilbur. Diane is the friendly proprietor. I also went to Michael's. You know what that's like. I got a new pad of beautiful double-sided cardstock, some Valentine's cardstock to make more teeny tiny envelopes, and some stamps for making my Valentine's cards. The visions of them are starting to dance in my head. Look for them in my shop in the days to come.

CCCOE Gift Guide for 2008

My street team, CCCOE, or California Crafters Club of Etsy, is sponsoring a holiday gift guide this year, featuring the work of a whole range of artists. Please stop by and visit it. You can find me in the Paperie, Holiday, and Gifts under $25 sections within the next 48 hours. In the meantime, you can visit my shop for all sorts of new cards for the fall and winter holidays -- and just every day.

Win this prize

The CCCOE voting ends tomorrow at midnight for our February monthly challenge, Science and Geekery. Go to this thread to vote and enter yourself in the drawing

cserpent features my shop

Please stop by her blog and read her lovely feature on my shop.

CCCOE January Challenge Entries - SCIENCE

These are the 27 entries for this month's challenge.

27. The Marie Curie Origami Peace Crane


26. dichroic DNA by jenifereadington


25. Theoretical No. 1 - blank note card set with visible green squid
by audelaine


24. Serotonin Necklace - for happiness by molecularmuse


23.A New Beginning Ring by AmandaKLockrowJewels


22. ALBERT EINSTEIN soldered glass pendant by DesignsbyTami


21. Starry Sky by RedBessBonney


20. I Am Having Heart Palpitations by NeedleWorks


19. Transistor Earrings by luchi


18. Phrenology tie by knittergirl


17. Star bracelet by appleandstar


16. bbzz by OhCuddles


15. A Heavenly Body by PamelaJean


14. Salute to Gregor Mendel by ArttoWearDiva


13. elemental aka chaos theory by mrsm


12. Dichroic Computer Chip Fused Glass Pendant by CalyxAnn


11. Shell Bracelet (Marine Biology) by PalleikoDesigns


10. Marching Prehistoric Lava Bugs Bracelet by cigarboxbeads


9. Paige the Wild Carrot by buttercupbloom


8. Victorian astronomy necklace by AlliesAdornmentss


7. Girls are Great Science Students by TresLocas


6. Albert Einstein Soft Sculpture by peggradyart


5. Sum of Two Halves Necklace (w/free matching earrings) by prettycheap


4. Science is Sexy by Surly


3. Scanning the Universe by ElenaMary


2. Intravenous by Tresijas


1. MI CORAZON by SandySimone

Pretty Cheap Jewelry

"Nothing Here is Cheap Except the Price" broadcasts the shop of Pretty Cheap Jewelry, a.k.a. prettycheap. “Customers either love or cringe at the name,” says Nina Danza, sole proprietor of the company, “Ever since I opened, I have to explain my products have high quality and exceptional value.”

For example, her Turquoise Hoop Earrings are priced at $5.00. Nina gives the classic style a unique imprint by facing the hoops forward for more visual impact. She uses top notch materials, such as genuine turquoise and sterling silver flattened French wires.

So why are the prices so low? “I design as a creative outlet to balance an otherwise technical day job,” explains Nina, “and am perfectly satisfied that customers find the work delightful and affordable.” She is a bargain lover herself and blogs inside a money savers website full of tips for any size income. See the handmade category on her blog.

Classic styling and clever design characterize the jewelry at prettycheap. Freshwater pearl spray earrings suit any age, but the glass heart charm in her Cherish Red Earrings speak volumes of love. “A customer once described my jewelry as 'delicate and feminine' at a craft fair,” she reports.

You don’t have to spend a lot to GET a lot at Pretty Cheap Jewelry. In fact, have some free fun by trying your luck in the trivia contest open to all shop visitors. Just go to her Etsy shop and give it your best guess! A free prize awaits the correct answer. No shipping. No strings. No kidding.

Arttoweardiva

Arttoweardiva has been on Etsy since September, but she had been selling her unique, original, handmade bags and jewelry in Southern California before joining. The beautiful piece that you see featured here is hand-beaded in black, white, and deep pigeon blood red glass beads. Stop by and visit her shop.

Diva is the sole designer and creator of the items in her shop. Her background is in graphic arts and art history, and she has been designing clothing, hats and jewelry for several years now. " I love what i do," she says. "Most of my ideas come from my dreamscapes. I'll wake up in the middle of the night and stumble around fumbling for a sketch pad to catch a vision before it slips back down the ol' rabbit hole ...you wait for it -- like a slow train comin' and then Halleluah Beullah! The adrenalin starts surging and sparking and you're on fire. For me that creative adrenalin rush is like nothing else on the menu. ...It still amazes me how one can take an image from one nonphysical reality and breathe life into it, giving it form and matter in another reality. I call that magic."

The story of how Diva became a beader is in itself magical:
I was a Political Science student at Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo in my senior year when my department head started giving out government internships for the summer break. I was excited because people I knew were getting internships to the governor's office, state congressmen, the mayor's office, etc. When he handed me a letter of introduction to a small band of intertribal Native Americans and a map showing how to find their camp deep in the Los Padres National forest, I was stunned!

The tribes needed someone to articulate and set up a hue and cry about their wells being poisoned by uranium by a corporation who had not even bothered to cap their drilling sites and had broken through the aquifers and contaminated the tribe's drinking water, causing the death of their animals and high rates of miscarriages.

It took me three tries to find them, travelling down unmarked dirt roads and crossing a running stream with my old VW van.

My husband and young son were taken in as family from the first moment by the most amazing, kind, and giving people I have ever met. They were living totally off the grid. no electricity, no phones, wood fires only for heat and cooking. And yet every day was spent in joy and bliss. We would all start the day by meeting at the fire circle to sing and dance to greet the sunrise and then fix the morning meal together.

This was over twenty-five years ago but it was a pivotal experience for my family. I am a child of the Sixties and was used to alternative realities but nothing like this. It was there that I learned to bead, dance, pray, really open my heart, build sweat-lodges, adobe bread ovens and become grounded and centered in the spiritual life I was meant to live.

Face to face

Today, Karabu and ShellMitchell and I met face to face at Fatapple's. It was our first get together, and only the second in CCCOE history. We shoulda taken pictures, but of course hindsight is better than foresight, and in this case there's no sight at all.

Pretty in pink

I'm enjoying making two things in particular right now -- all sorts of origami boxes and iris-fold cards. I need to make a listing for my Etsy site for the origami boxes since I'm getting quite a pile of them made now.

Another treasury today

I'm enjoying this curating gig. Today's treasury is called California Craftin' and features members of CCCOE -- California Crafters Club of Etsy (I can never get that exactly right)

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=6097