Etsy Euro and Dollar

I'm delighted about the new changes taking place on Etsy, as sellers we can now list our items in our own currency. For a while now customers have been able to see listings in their chosen currency,but this nearly made things worse because of the variable exchange rate. For example one day my item could be €3.20, then another €3.65 but at my stall I always charge €3.50, it just wasn't feasible to keep changing loads of listing prices, but I hated that my market regulars weren't seeing consistent prices online. So now I'll list in euro and it will always remain the same price in that currency, which is fantastic. At the moment they seem to be just testing it so only one of my shops has the option, which is pretty frustrating, but they'll be rolling out this tool for all Etsy sellers soon.

The other new tool is coupons, which is a code that will be offered to people who have made a purchase to offer them a discount the next time they buy something for my shop, which I think is a fantastic idea and encourages return shopping.

It's these tweaks that are gonna make it more viable to sell on Etsy as a non US seller. There are loads of things that I make that I don't list in my shops, but lately sales have been picking up and I'm feeling more inclined to list the full range of items that I sell, it just might have to wait until the new year when I'm less busy.

On a side note I hit my 200th sale in my supplies shop last week! It's been a great little side earner for me and I'm so happy I went to the effort of setting it up, I wasn't sure at the beginning whether to slit the two shops, but it's proved a success both personally and fiscally.

Belated Halloween

(L-R)Alice, Dorothy, Queen of Hearts

Thanks to Neville Gawley for the photograph

Thanks to Neville Gawley for the photograph

As some of you might remember from last year I love Halloween, and this year was no exception. I was quite pressed from time which meant I was designing my costume in my head for the weeks coming up to it, but it was only the few days before that I managed to squeeze in some costume making time into my schedual. I dressed up as the Queen of Hearts, and my house mate Cecily was Alice in Wonderland.

I altered this red skirt that I originally made as an exhibition piece, I just needed to shorten it and take out 2 of the 5 hoops. I also added poofy sleeves and a stiff white collar to a black corset waistcoat that I had. After that I just had to accesserise with a crown and a pink flamingo croquet stick. I made the croquet stick from felt, then stuffed it and attached to a black pole, I made two so Alice could have one too. The crown was a bit trickier, Beth from Magpie and Button was nice enough to give me some tips. I got a plactic bowl, cut out the bottom of it, turned it upside down and covered it with gold ribbon. I then made a red velvet cushion for the centre piece, adding a painted red foam heart. Lastly I added the cut out of gold paper to give it the crown finish, I sewed the piece onto a hairband and clipped it onto my head...and crossed my fingers and prayed it would stay on for the night!!

I was lucky enough to win the prize for best costume(ever), I had attended a party a the printmakers, so my prize was a beautiful etching from Tommy Comerford, which I'm totally delighted with as I've always loved his work.

Christmas Card Supplies

I've been doing a crazy amount of supplies shopping lately for the build up to all my Christmas markets, ans the scary thing is that everything has to be bought in bulk. From the 2000 brooch backs, 1000 badge parts, 1000 magnets, a mountain of felt, and then a bit more felt..the list goes on and on. Yesterday was no exception, popped into Silkes in town to get some blank cards and came out with this lot:

150 Blank 5x7in cards

250 3-d glue dots

2 sheets of foam glue dots

A round edge cutter

2 packs of xmas brads

2 packs of paper frame shapes

1 set of xmas stamps

1 black ink pad

Also next week I think I'll be making a trip to Cork to go to Cork Art Supplies to get some of their paper as the selection here in Limerick is frustratingly small. In the past few days I've made about 50 cards and I plan to make lots more. Also some time over the next week or so I plan to print my lino cut Christmas card sets. Luckily I have the blocks already cut from last year, but the printing is still pretty labour intensive.

It's all go here at the moment, lots of preparation, lets hope it all pays off!

A is for Apple

It was about a month ago that I made myself an 'A for Apple' badge, and I've been wearing it on my coat for a while now. I got lots of comments asking if I had made the whole alphabet, which spurred me into making the set.

First of all I set to doing all the drawings in Bic pen, which is harder than you'd think. At stages I was left sitting at my desk thinking of 'something interesting beginning with J?'. After a couple of days drawing I was ready to scan them in and begin the colouring stage. It's much easier to do this in photoshop then in pen as I can change the colours as I go if I want to make alterations afterwards. Just at the very last minute yesterday I dashed to the printers before he closed and got the images printed up.

The idea is that they will be a 26 piece magnet set, used as a learning tool for kids.I'm now at the stage of pressing them in the machine...a lenghly chore in itself. And I'm also waiting on a delivery of boxes from The Tiny Box Company, hopefully they will arrive soon so I can have them on my stall as part of my Christmas gift stock. I'm charging €20 for a full set of magnets, but I'll also be selling them individually too. If you'd like to see more of the images, just click here to view the facebook album

Cozy Themed Team Treasuries

Rachel from Balanced is the Etsy Ireland Team treasury co-ordinator and she came up with this great idea of setting a theme for the team treasuries and then having a competition to vote for the best one. How could I resist that challenge?? I set to work on the theme of 'cozy' and had a riffle through all the Irish shops and came up with the treasury below. The voting will commence on Friday, click here if you would like to be nice to me and vote for my treasury. I love this idea, it's a great way to get us looking through all the shops, and I know part of my brain was Christmas shopping while I was doing it.

Snuggled up and drifting off to sleep

The following treasuries are ones that team members were kind enough to feature me in this week as part of the team challenge! It's amazing the variety of Irish sellers on the team now.

With lime and teal as comfy as can be

I got a touch of the blues

Cough cough, I need some comfort

Marshmallows and Memories

New Clothes for Inistioge

I just sent off another order of clothes to Roisins Boutique in Inistioge, it was stressful trying to get it finished because of time constraints but I must say it was a really fun bunch of clothes to work on. Jackets/coats have always been one of my favourite things to make, I feel I can go a bit wild with them adding embellishments. I only wish I regularly had time to work on more pieces. When I get the markets of this weekend over with I'll be making more pieces for the shop.

Peig Sayers at the Market

This is a rarity, a photo of myself on the blog, that's me on the left. This was taken last week at the market when all of us fell in love with the new scarves from Hanora.K.Designs and we had to try them on. I bought the orange one, Branden eventually gave in and got the grey one( he tried to restrain himself until he saw someone else trying it on, and then he had to buy it before they did). They are so cozy, they feel like you are wearing a blanket-a very comforting feeling when doing a 7am market.

Noreen sells her work at the market Fri-Sun every week and will also be at the craft fair tomorrow 11-7pm. The scarves are about 50-60 quid, but believe me they are well worth it, I've had loads of compliments on mine.

Custom Order Wall Hanging

I have arisen from my silence for a quick post to show you a custom piece I did recently. A regular customer ordered a wall hanging for her office, as her logo is a dolphin it seemed like the logical choice of subject. We decided on using lots of blues, and to have just as a cloth hanging on poles. I've never done this kind of thing before, and it was really fun. I included a piece of bonded lining on the inside to add some weight to the piece and to make it look a little softer. Most of the design is machine sew, and the felt bubbles are hand stitched on. The nice thing about patchwork pieces like this is that it's mostly made of offcuts from garments. In this there is a sarong, pillow case, dress, and sample curtain material, then backed with some blue gingham.

For anyone wanting to try something similar, I got a friend to make the poles from a new brush handle, door knobs, and some very handy double sided screws- all of which you can find in your local DIY store. In the finished piece there was a second pole at the bottom but it was under construction while this picture was being taken.

I Love Hallowreen

Square Jane

Ps and Qs

The Clay Boss

Repurposeful Punk

Pumpkins Hallow

Tis the Season to be Busy

It's getting near that time of year again when my busyness level steps up a few gears in preparation for Christmas. This year half of my December is already booked up for Christmas fairs and I'm really excited to see how the Milk Market is during the busy festive season. There will be additional craft fair days in the early part of December, on top of my 3 day weekly markets there.

On the list of things to make

Sets of Christmas cards:

Last year I had sets of 10 lino printed xmas cards, I still have the carvings so all I have to do is print and package them. Easier said than done though. I ordered 500 blank cards a few days ago and I hope to get them the all printed in one week. I'm not sure if that's do-able but I'll certainly try. Also I'm not sure if 50 sets of cards will be enough considering the amount of fairs that I'm doing but I don't want to waste time making loads of stock that I get stuck with.

Felt Christmas Decorations:

Last year these sets sold very well, I either sold them individually for 6 euro each or a set of 3 for 15 euro. Lots of work went into them so maybe this year I'll try to figure out how to pare this down while still keeping them cute.

Handmade Brooches:

These are always a good seller as I do a special offer on the of buy 2 get 1 free, perfect for gift time when everyone is a little strapped for cash. I did have a bunch of these made already for xmas but a friend recently took them to a fair and they sold really well and all my back up stock is now gone...a good complaint to be making I know! I just gotta order more felt, pre-cut them at home and bring them to the market to keep me occupied when it's quiet.

This year I'd like to introduce a line of Shrinky Dink xmas decorations, and also some festive bunting. I know that the iphone cases should sell well too as lots of people have been looking at them lately saying how perfect they would be as a gift. I'm sure a few more things will pop up along the way too, but for now that's the main things I've to focus on.

...So all I need to do is invent an 8th,9th and 10th day in the week and I should get all that made in time for the coming Season.

What crafty plans do you have for Christmas, and have you started making them yet?