Etsy Team Columbus Secret Pal Swap

My Etsy Street team, Etsy Team Columbus, does lots of fun social activities.  Check out our Crafting Challenge, and be sure to sign up for our newsletter.

But here I want to share about our recent Secret Pal Swap.  Its sort of like a secret santa exchange, but much more crafty.  You sign up and get assigned to two secret pals: one who you give stuff to, and one you get stuff from.

I just got my stash from my secret pal, Lenny of lcabanerodesigns.etsy.com just today.  Here is all of the coolness.

	First, look at how bright and fun these fabrics are!  There was some really pretty red velvet and lots of great cotton prints.
	There was a whole box of buttons in the package.  Some of these buttons may become pendants for necklaces.  The vintage ones with the seahorses?  Very awesome.
	This is very cool little art box that I can keep in my purse.
	The funniest bit was this set of "vintage" Kellogg's cereal cards.  I might have to frame them.  Seriously.  Sugar Smacks is my favorite cereal of all time.  I have a bowl of it every morning.

Thanks Lenny!

Another Distribution Channel

When I started selling online, I originally stocked my Etsy store with paintings.  Like my purses, my watercolors and oils are popular with friends and family, and I thought that there'd be a good market for originals on Etsy.  (do a search on Etsy for ACEO - Art Card, Editions & Originals - and you'll see what I mean.)

Well, the art world was not exactly taken by storm.  More like, they were taken by apathy.  

On the other hand, there was even less enthusiasm on the home front.  Surprisingly my family was dismayed to see "their" paintings put up for sale in the coarse and crass public marketplace.  Who knew that they felt so proprietary?  It was kind of sweet.

Ultimately, it turned out happily for all concerned.  The coarse and crass public didn't buy my original watercolors after all.  So I was able to give them to my daughter and husband, which made them (relieved and) happy.  My Monster Bags are doing very well on my Etsy store, so I'm happy.  

And just in case someone out there in the interwebs missed the opportunity to acquire an ArtsiBitsi painting, I set up a store on Cafepress to sell reproductions and prints.  Check it out, and if you see something there that you'd like changed a bit (a certain painting on a different t-shirt, for example), just let me know.

Artsy Accomplishments - New product, new shop

Accomplishments for today:

1) Talked to Olivera at Wholly Craft and made an appointment to start selling my Monster Bags there.  Yay. 

Another distribution channel.  Plus it will help potential customers get comfortable seeing these bags.  

I remember from my marketing classes that it takes approximately 30 impressions of a new product before a customer feels comfortable enough to buy it.  They have to see it, and remember that they saw it;  like it, and then remember that they liked it -- all before they will buy it.  

2) Figured out how to make covered buttons of my watercolor paintings. Each one is 1 1/8" in diameter. They're like tiny little pieces of art!  And they have so many uses:

Pin them to your jeans
Use a set of them to make a really fun jacket
Wear them like a brooch
Use them as the closure on your purse

Tomorrow I will figure out how to photograph and list them on my Etsy.

I also want to get started on a fresh set of purses to replace the ones that are going to Wholly Craft.