Be inspired!

Have no fear, keep learning, and practice, practice, practice!

What inspires you to create?

Share the Love,

Chelsea

 

 

Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday – Where to Shop & SAVE!

So, if you’ve watched the news or have been on any social media site lately, you’ve probably witnessed, and possibly participated in, the disappointment many have felt toward the companies who have decided to open, and even have mega-sales, on Thanksgiving this year. So, if you’re looking for a way to encourage big businesses to allow their employees to spend the day with their loved ones on Thanksgiving, the obvious choice is to not shop there on the holiday.

You can even go a step further, though, and not have to sacrifice awesome discounts and deals, by supporting local, small, and/or handmade businesses! You see, there’s this nifty day beyond Thanksgiving and Black Friday called Small Business Saturday, on which small businesses around the world participate in giving Black Friday worthy deals to their customers. To top it off, most of us small business people have websites and online stores, and can participate in Cyber Monday, a day when we can all stay in the comfort of our own homes (and, let’s be honest, pajamas,) and still find good deals on merchandise that we may not have been willing to fight the crowds for during the big, in-person shopping extravaganzas. The best part is that if you buy from small businesses online, you’re more likely to find more unique and personal items, and you can still have a less stressful shopping experience while you help your local economy thrive.

As for us, we’ll be offering 20% OFF your entire purchase from Saturday, 11/3, to Monday, 12/2 in our Etsy shop! Simply enter EFWHolidays at checkout to receive your discount. Not only that, but most of the members of our Etsy Fort Worth team will be offering various discounts or free shipping, too, and we’re all using the same discount code to keep things easy. Click the image above to view a list of the participating shops, and their special offers.

We wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving, and a happy holiday shopping experience!

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Chelsea

Vending on Haunted Grounds

I snapped some photos of our shared booth space at 13th Street Morgue/Dungeon of Doom last Friday. Stephanie and I had a lot of fun talking to people after they came (running and screaming) out of the haunted house!

Our side of the booth.

Monster embroidery and new jewelry.

Stephanie’s awesome table!

Head out to the 13th Street/Dungeon grounds for a good scare for Halloween!

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Chelsea

Join us for a good scare!

You may remember the custom orders we did for our friend, Tiinia, and her Friday the 13th wedding at a Dallas haunted house’s grounds (which was all featured on Offbeat Bride – how cool is that?)

We’ve become friends with Tiinia and her husband Kevin, who play delightfully creepy characters at 13th Street, and Alex, the owner/operator of the haunt grounds, and we’re constantly in awe of their talents!

Several weeks ago, our friend Stephanie from Studio Longoria sent me a message with a great idea. Since we (JuJu Eyeball) and another of our Etsy teammates, Amy of Larkspur Studio and Frankensister all sell Halloween appropriate items, why shouldn’t we contact some local haunted houses to see if we could set up shop on the grounds?

I instantly thought of Alex and his awesome haunts, 13th Street Morgue and Dungeon of Doom (which neighbor Reindeer Manor.)

So, I got in touch with him, and we’ll be setting up booths this Friday, 10/18, and next Friday, 10/25; we’re so excited! It’s definitely a unique job. It’s not an arts and crafts “show” or convention, and we won’t be working typical show hours, which are usually morning to mid afternoon, or afternoon to evening. Nope, we’ll be set up in time for the houses to open at 8, and we’ll close the place down around 12:30 a.m. So, if you’re in the DFW area, and you’re looking for some fantastic Halloween fun (maybe after a Friday night football game?) come out and see us!

A Gatsby Summer

I’ve taken a break from making treasuries for a while, partially because of time restraints, and partly because I couldn’t come up with any interesting themes for a collection. I have to confess, I haven’t read “The Great Gatsby,” but it’s on my long list of books. With Baz Lurhmann’s version out in film this summer, though, people are going wild for the the roaring twenties, a decade that’s been one of my favorites since I was about 12 years old.

So, here’s my nod to the 1920’s, with hints at Gatsby, and plenty of glamour.

Be sure to “favorite” and share anything that tickles your fancy!

Share the Love,

Chelsea

Make It Monday – Martha’s American Made Awards

If you look to the right of this post, below the photo of me looking very colorful, you’ll see a new button that looks like this:

Yesterday, a friend from our local Etsy team, Etsy Fort Worth, shared the link for our team members to nominate themselves for Martha Stewart’s Made In America Awards. The finalists from the six categories will receive an AM gift basket, and will be featured on the site and on Sirius radio. The first prize winner receives $10,000 to use toward their business, and a trip to NYC!

All you have to do to enter is click the green button on the right (or the picture below,) check out our profile, of course, and click the “nominate  yourself” button at the top right of the page. You’ll select your category, add any photos, videos, and links you’d like to share, then write a short bio about yourself/your business, and answer a couple of questions. You can save a copy of your profile before publishing it, and once you publish, you can edit your profile if you notice any mistakes or something you may have left out.

A sneak peek of our profile!

 

Voting starts August 26, so be sure to add our profile to your favorites list for later! Mom is looking for a house right now, and we’ve been planning out our studio space (who cares about the rest of the house, right?) So, if we win the grand prize, part of the money will go toward renovating one or two of the rooms to create a space where we can make and market together, and where we can invite customers to talk about custom orders, and host fittings for models. We are in serious need of a collective, designated space for our work, so that we can collaborate on projects, and store our supplies in one space. I’m especially excited to designate an area for taking photos, with different backdrops and a light box, without having to take it all down and reassemble it to save space in our current, small apartments.  

Of course, if we don’t win, we’re just excited about the opportunity for free exposure. By creating our profile, we’ll reach potential customers that haven’t heard of us before, who’ll visit our Etsy shops and other links, and get to know us better. If you or anyone you know has a handmade business, take the opportunity to put yourself out there! It could be craft, design, food, gardening, or style related. Nominate yourself (or make them nominate themselves,) because you never know who’ll fall in love with your product.

Share the Love,

Chelsea

Tuesday’s Treasure: With Mom In Mind

Mother’s Day is coming up fast on Sunday, May 12! Take a look at the beautiful new Etsy Fort Worth Mother’s Day Treasury:

 

 

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Chelsea

Whatever Weekend – Local Arts & Crafts Shows

If you’re looking for fun, inexpensive, or family friendly events to check out in the Dallas/Fort Worth area this month, take a look at the wonderful festivals and arts and craft shows that are going on!

Local shows and festivals on Pinterest.

Share the Love,

Chelsea

Thoughtful Thursday – Branding: Lots of words and a little math

As a small businessperson, I sometimes feel a little bombarded by advice. Usually, it’s a different version of the same information, or an article about something I already do without really thinking about it, so it can feel redundant. I don’t stop seeking out those “business for dummies” kinds of articles, though, because sometimes you come across one as good as this:

http://diybusinessassociation.com/gobrandyourself/

In fact, I’m finding this site has a lot of well-written, easy and fun to read, legitimate information for entrepreneurs.

So, this particular article discusses the 20/10/4 method, which, simply put, means you come up with 20 words or short phrases to describe yourself, then narrow that list to 10, then, finally, the 4 most important words on that list.

Now, even if you don’t own a business, this is honestly a pretty cool exercise to try out to help you figure out who you are and what you want to present to others. Obviously, we’re all complex people with different aspects of our lives and personalities, so the list may change depending on the context (social environment vs. work environment, for example,) but it’s worth the effort.

I won’t re-hash what’s already been written – I encourage you to visit that link up there – but I will share my 20/10/4 journey with you. As a self-proclaimed eclectic, it hasn’t been easy, but keeping our first shop, Buy Me Love, in mind, that narrows it down some. It starts with these words:

artisan
crafty
persistent
detail oriented
eclectic
geeky
classy
theatrical
thoughtful
optimistic
sweet addict
open minded
wordy
eco-conscious
animal lover
planner
tactile
creature of comfort
introvert
friendly

Then it goes a little something like this:

artisan
crafty
detail oriented
classy
theatrical
thoughtful
sweet addict
open minded
eco-conscious
friendly

In the end, though …:

artisan
classy
theatrical
eco-conscious

So, my personal brand is a theatrical but classy, eco-conscious artisan. I can’t wait to share this exercise with my mom to see what she comes up with, and to use the exercise to brand our newer shop, JuJu Eyeball. I’m sure we’ll come up with all kinds of fun words for that one!

Share the Love,

Chelsea

Etsy 817, Meet Etsy Fort Worth (And Happy Easter!)

Happy Easter, everyone! However you’re celebrating today, or if you’re just enjoying a nice spring day, we’re wishing you a good one filled with family, friends, and peace.

There’s big change going on in the Etsy team world this season. (Appropriate, huh?) Our local Etsy team, Etsy817, and another local team, Etsy Fort Worth, have decided to merge! This was a compliment to our smaller, newer team, to have Etsy Fort Worth, a group that puts on a large annual show and has a huge following, show interest in us. It’s also practical, seeing as our team leaders were planning on implementing some new team guidelines that Etsy Fort Worth also had in the works, and several of our team members were already a part of EFW. We’ll be working together to create a more active team collectively, and to promote handmade and vintage in the Arlington, H/E/B, and Fort Worth area, which covers a large chunk of Texas, y’all. We’re having our first meeting as partners in a few days, so I can’t wait to meet some new faces and talk about the game plan.

To learn more about Etsy Fort Worth, visit the website: http://www.etsyfortworth.com/

Like I said, we’re all about promoting handmade and vintage, so if you have a website or an Etsy store you’d like to share, be sure to list it on this week’s linkup post!