The Benefits of Trading!

So this morning I had my first official Etsy trade! What a wonderful experience. I have a little posting in my shop announcement and had posted in some forum threads that I am a trade friendly shop so I was super excited when I was contacted. Here are some of the benefits that I found through my trade today:

*It means that people are actually visiting my shop and gave me exposure to potential customers
*It helps to increase your number of sales
*It familiarizes you with the checkout process
*It gave me something to relist
*I had a chance to treat myself to something that I might otherwise have "rationalized" myself out of
*It was a chance to practice my packaging
*I will be able to give and receive feedback

For new sellers especially I think that trades are an excellent way to practice and refine your online selling experience. It is important to know how the process works so you can assist a customer if they need it and when those orders start rolling in you will have an idea of what to do. And of course you get to choose something wonderful to enjoy as well! If anyone is interested in trading with Kawartha Beads in my Etsy, Artfire or Zibbet shops please feel free to contact me!

Get to know....the featured ad space winner!

I had such a blast with the ad space giveaway and enjoyed reading everyone's comments. I think that I might do this again later in the summer and leading up to the holiday season. I thought it would be fun to learn a little more about the first ever winner of Kawartha Beads ad space for a month so I asked her to share a little bit about herself and her blog! Be sure to stop by and check out Life in the Pitts! Thanks to Helena for sharing with us:

Hi guys! I'm Helena, from Life in the Pitts.

This past year I got engaged, got married, and moved across the country so my husband could start Dental School here in Pittsburgh. It was a big year.

It took me a while to find a job (mostly because the job market is tough. But also because I was lazy), and so I started blogging to fill my time. But then I discovered craft blogs.

And became obsessed.

My husband doesn't really approve.

Probably because I keep writing about him.

Life in the Pitts isn't really a craft blog. There are craft blog elements, and I make stuff sometimes. But really? I write about everything.

I host Giveaways, share my artwork with the world, and try to give realistic, meaningful examples of family love.

(I also have an Etsy shop, but it's kind of an afterthought)

And that's me!

Ad Space Giveaway Winner

Congratulations to the winner of ad space for a month Lanie Ree of Life in the Pitts!

comment #15 Lanie Ree said...

And I follow Blogger Chix Designs

Winner has been emailed. Thanks to all who entered!

Front Page Etsy Tags #8

***Every Friday I recap the item tags and themes that have made it to the front page of Etsy. It is important to not mis-tag your shop items but keeping track of current trends and looking at different tags can help a shop owner to get seen!***

Today is the last day to ENTER to win ad space for a month right here at Kawartha Beads!

As I write this post the front page of Etsy features a treasury entitled "Pounce the Tags". The tags chosen were: bumblebee, round, jasper, modern, landscape, barn, kitchen, blue, angora, pearls, elegance, salmon, vintage, country, shabby, cottage.

Also appearing this week:

• inspired by White Linen
• inspired by Geek Love
• Seaside Weddings
• Hint of Magenta
• golden
• Off to Sea
• bark & grass
• The Color Purple
• Waiting for Watson
• scottish red
• green
• hydrangea
• Mint Green Condition
• Mint Tea
• femininity
• Asphalt & Daffodils
• Dark Fairytale
• Throw a summer craft party
• teal & lemon yellow
• Sweet as Honey
• yellows
• cinder & fuschia
• Fancy a cuppa?
• a thicket of brambles
• turquoise & yellow
• Take me to the Circus
• So Peachy
• Old Yellow Farmhouse
• Tea and Cake Please

Have a great weekend!

Tidbits About Abalone

I just finished a fabulous necklace that includes an abalone shell pendant and I was intrigued to find out some properties surrounding it. Aside from its beautiful colours it sounds like it is something that everyone in the creative field should add to their wardrobe!

Abalone is said to provide for boundless growth in whatever you undertake, and stimulate intuition and imagination. For the business minded it is also said to enhance mental clarity and insight and assist in decision making.

Closely connected with family, in particular motherhood, abalone shells are told to be worn on the forehead of Apache girls on the morning of the initiation into womanhood.

For those who take interest in its healing properties, abalone is said to help build and protect the heart and aid in digestion.

What are some of your favourite abalone creations? Do you have another stone that is a favourite of yours?

♥Happy Father's Day♥

Happy Father's Day to all of the wonderful dads, grandpas, and papas out there! Hope you have a wonderful day! Thanks for being our teachers, advisors, instructors, mr. fix-its, and heros!

Jewellery Lovers! Win a pair of Lavender and Lace Pearl Earrings!

You may have noticed the button on my sidebar for Simply Stacie's Spring Bling jewellery event, where wonderful shops and sites have goodies up for grabs! I am thrilled to be a part of the event and have offered up a pair of my lovely Lavender and Lace Pearl Earrings for you to win! Giveaway ends July 2nd so don't miss your chance to win. Just click here to check out all the great giveaways!                                     

Have you entered to win free ad space for a month yet? Just click here. Entering is super easy!

Front Page Etsy Tags #7

Hope everyone had a wonderful week. It's supposed to be sunny and hot here this Father's Day weekend so me and the little dude will probably be spending most of it enjoying his kiddie pool! Be sure to enter for your chance to WIN ADVERTISING SPACE FOR A MONTH!

And now for the themes and tags that appeared this week on the front page of Etsy.

• To Market
• Summertime Fun
• Sunshine, Blue Skies and Green Grassy Days
• Stairway to Heaven (colorless?)
• Sunlit Bronze Summer
• camping
• golden
• Lazy Days of Summer
• vivid colours
• chocolove
• Oui
• terra cotta and turquoise
• ivory
• Backyard Bliss
• pastels
• tea time
• Hit the Road
• Beautiful Science
• June Bugs
• geometry
• porcelain affairs
• beautiful blues
• retro
• butterflies
• nerd
• American pride
• Old and new, pink, yellow, blue
• Yellow in the Shadows (yellow & grey)
• verde (green)

Your Chance to Win Ad Space!

I was thrilled to meet Sarah over at Blogger Chix Designs, a fun and informative blog for working at home, growing your blog and more! She has been hosting Ad Spot Giveaways for various sites and blogs and you can win great advertising spaces throughout June and July.
Now it’s your chance to WIN a spot right here on Kawartha Beads! One ad space (125x125) will be given away for the duration of 1 month. Only family friendly blogs are eligible to win.

But first, here's more info about me:

I am the proud mommy to an adorable toddler, bead addict and coffee-aholic! I began my blogging adventure as a means to promote the supplies shop that I run in conjunction with my mother and our handmade items. I am lucky to have inherited the creative fever from her and she is my greatest teacher and inspiration. I instantly loved blogging, sharing my thoughts, learning from others and exploring the endless stories behind the computer screens. I launched Kawartha Beads earlier this year after taking some time off from the creative aspect of our business to focus on my little one and evaluate my direction. I really wanted Kawartha Beads to be a resource both for the online community who loves handmade, as well as to offer local information for those in the area. I am continually working to create a balance between the two and am still learning everyday.

The creative flame is hard to extinguish and I’ve found my beads calling me late at night when my little one has gone to bed. I recently opened my own Etsy shop Kawartha Beads to share some of my own treasures while my mom concentrates on her own line of jewelry at Bijoux Designs For You/ Together we still scour the globe for interesting and beautiful beads and findings which we offer in our supplies shop Rouge River Beads (http://rougeriverbeads.etsy.com). Above all else I cherish the time that I have been able to spend with my mom while sharing this adventure together. In addition to expanding our family my long term goal is to be able to open my own bead boutique someday! I’ve always believed that if you follow your dreams and work hard they can come true. Hopefully you will join me in that journey…who knows where we will end up!

Now for the entry options. Choose to do one or all! The more times you enter the more chances you have to win!
Want to Enter? Make sure your email address is in your profile OR include it in a comment!

1. Follow Kawartha Beads through Google Friend Connect.
2. Follow Blogger Chix Designs through Google Friend Connect. 2 entries
3. Visit Kawartha Beads and tell me about your favorite item.
3. Follow Kawartha Beads on Twitter.
4. Grab Kawartha Beads button and add it to your blog (right sidebar). 3 entries
5. Grab Blogger Chix Designs button and add it to your blog. 3 entries
6. Blog or tweet about Kawartha Beads, Blogger Chix and/or this giveaway. 3 entries

ENDS June 25 at 11:59 EST!

Follow Me I'm Canadian! Link Exchange

I love connecting with people all over the world but it is always super exciting to get to know other Canadians and was thrilled to discover an opportunity for discovering new blogs, shops and more over at Follow Me, I'm Canadian!  Now for the details!

Welcome to Follow Me, I'm Canadian! The Great Canadian Link Exchange, a hop for all Canadians to network every Wednesday!

HOSTED BY: Tanya of Little Village Naturals and Kat of Kat's Confessions creators of Canadian Moms-An online community for Canadian Moms and We Are Canadian- An online community for creative Canadians.

WHEN: Wednesdays

WHAT LINKS: Blogs, Websites, Facebook Fan Page, Twitter, Shops, and/or MySpace

RULES:
1. Follow only those that you would like to. Please Do Not leave comments asking for others to follow you back. Let that be the choice of the individual you followed.

2. Please indicate what the link is associated with. (example: Kat's Confessions-Blog, KatsConfessions - Twitter etc.)
You may leave the links for all of your sites and profiles.

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Add your link to the Mclinky. Don't forget to tell us what the link is for.
2. Follow those you would like to follow (Don't forget the Follow Me, I'm Canadian blog!) :)
3. If you would like to post about the hop feel free to grab a button for your post or sidebar. You may also copy and paste this post for your blog and grab the code for the list of links.
4. Have a fantastic time meeting fellow Canadians!

♥New at Kawartha Beads♥

Well this week is off to a better start. Needless to say I don't want to repeat the lack of internet for four days thing again! As a result Sarah over at Blogger Chix Designs was kind enough to postpone my ad space giveaway until things were back up and running smoothly. There are still plenty of great blogs giving away ad space to be won so be sure to stop by and take a peek and stay tuned to find out what the new date is to win ad space for an entire month right here at Kawartha Beads!

I wanted to share a couple of new creations for June including paper heart punches, necklaces for the crafty gal and more. I will be adding more items this week as well and would love your feedback!

Front Page Etsy Tags #6

Despite my lack of internet I did manage to collect some of the themes that made it to Etsy's front page this week. Many of them feature themes from the June merchandising desk which we discussed in a previous post. The July Merchandising Desk article is now available for you to start your planning for the next couple of months. Here are some of this week's tags in case you missed them:

• violet & lime
• mint & pink
• If I had a Beach House
• French anyone?
• Sunny June
• pinstripe
• milk & mint
• la vie en rose
• botanica
• June pearl
• orange & gray
• Home Sweet Home
• la vie en rouge
• cameras
• robin's egg blue
• Summer destinations
• red & black
• Hey Sailor
• red

I created two treasuries this week of my own and hope that you will stop by for a peek!
lemon and lime with a twist of orange
For the Wine Lover

NO INTERNET!!!! WHAT A NIGHTMARE!

Sunday morning started off nicely. My little guy slept in a bit, we had a nice relaxing morning, did some cleaning and checked our emails just before lunch. After lunch when I went to get this week's blog posts started the internet wasn't working. I didn't panic...yet...we live in a remote area and sometimes the service gets interrupted for a couple of hours. It is now late Wednesday afternoon and to make a long story short I FINALLY have internet again thanks to TWO visits from technicians and oodles of phone calls to my internet service provider. On the bright side my house is much cleaner, I made quite afew new products this week and took my little guy to the zoo leading me to believe that perhaps I spend too much time hooked to the internet! Needless to say I will be getting my computer fix tonight though when the little one goes to bed!

The downside is that I didn't have a chance to share the marvelous sewing patterns and other goodies from djstoreroom. Here's a little more about this amazing shop:

"Hi! I am Diana, the owner and pattern designer of djstoreroom. I design, sew, pen and publish my own sewing patterns and tutorials from my home studio in sunny Singapore.

I have been sewing since 1995 and finds that many sewing patterns are too difficult to understand for the sewers who are just starting out or have taken a long break from sewing. My PDF sewing tutorials and patterns come with printable CAD patterns, clear wordings and color photographs to fully orientate you through all the steps. They are geared towards the beginner sewer who needs help in sewing simple projects."

♥Featured Supplies Seller ~ Ruthkim♥

Our next featured seller is also a mother/daughter duo who sell a variety of craft supplies including "trims, pearls, headbands, tissue papers & combs in all shapes, colors and sizes." Be sure to stop by and visit their Etsy shop!
Ruth is originally from South Korea. She moved to California during the early 80s and became a US citizen in the mid 90s.

They share a bit about their shop:
" My daughter & I are run small businesses. I sell kitchen and household items, along with fashion jewelry in my offline shop and my daughter is trying to get a clothing shop together and the one thing we often need are supplies. We decided to set up an etsy shop with bright colors and unique and funky designs."

Etsy Front Page Tags #5

Happy Friday everyone! Before I share this week's Etsy front pages I wanted to share another fabulous supplier with you, Buttonalia! Be sure to visit her shop for a wonderful collection of handmade ceramic buttons and beads which are sure to be the perfect finishing touch to your creations!

And now for this week's themes:

• gifts for grads in green and grey
• hot sun/cool breeze (shades of teal and red)
• brown doggie mix
• seashells
• red/yellow/blue
• red/white/blue
• octopus
• lilac/lavender
• farm
• black and white
• hot air balloon
• sloth

Have a great weekend! Stay tuned next week for a chance to win advertising space right here on Kawartha Beads as well as details on winning some awesome jewelry!

♥Featured Artist~ Paperiffic Crafts♥

When I saw the yummy creations from Lisa of Paperiffic Crafts scrolled across my screen the other day I couldn't resist these calorie free treats! Lisa kindly agreed to share a bit more about her shop and her story although I don't know where she found the time amongst her busy schedule. Read on and enjoy!

What would you like people to know about you as a person?

I am a SAHM with two girls and I have a wonderful, loving husband that tolerates the messes I make with my crafts.  I have been involved in making crafts of all sorts since I was a child. I’ve always had a fascination with paper and still do! Scrapbooking, card making, gifts and home décor have been my main interest with miniatures, jewelry and gardening a close second. I built a 1:12 dollhouse quite a few years ago, and to fill it, I learned to make miniature food, furniture, plants, curtains, bedding – you name it – I taught myself to make it.

Tell me a bit about your art and your products?

I decided I needed to focus on only a few items, hoping that I might be able to make some pocket change by opening a Handmade store. I chose to make Polymer Clay charms, bracelets and possibly some other misc. miniatures. I sort of fell into Chain Maille weaves to make bracelets and I can’t seem to stop – I love it! Adding charms to some of these bracelets make them even more fun to wear! The charms are predominately food items such as cupcakes, ice cream cones, cakes, pies, etc.

What inspires you?

My children inspire me to make such whimsical charms – they bring the child out in me. They are also girlie-girls who love jewelry so anything I make goes through their inspection first. It passes if the eyes go saucer-like and the word “pretty” is stated J. My dad inspired my lemon meringue pie charms as it is his favourite pie. I guess this means I will have to make some miniature strawberry shortcake too….pumpkin pie….oh see, inspiration never stops!

How do you share your creations?

I have a blog for all my “crafty” things. There is even a post on my Fairy Garden there: http://paperiffic.blogspot.com/

Where can we find you?

I have a shop on Zibbet. http://zibbet.com/PaperifficCrafts and I also attend a few craft fairs in Calgary.

What is your most important lesson since starting your craft/ business?

Don’t get your hopes up to make a lot of money doing this unless you have a very unique and sought after product. There is a lot of competition and a large variety of products out there. As I said, my goal is to try to make some pocket change so that I can fund making more to sell

Some fun tidbits:

Coffee, tea or hot chocolate? – Coffee – coffee – coffee – coffee!!

Your favourite candy? – Jelly Belly Gourmet Jelly Beans – all flavours except cinnamon

Your favourite colour? – Green

Your favourite movie? – Lately – the Twilight series.

If I were to catch you grooving it would be to this song…. The Proclaimers “I’m Gonna Be (500 miles)”

♥Featured Supplies Seller~ deStashNotTrash♥

As I mentioned in a previous post I have put together a Marketing Exchange involving several supplies shops. Over the next couple of weeks I will be sharing their stories and shops and I hope that you will find a new fav! Our very first featured seller is deStashNotTrash your source for fabulous gemstones and more!

A little bit from this seller:
"I am a BA/RFH, beadaholic, rock, fossil hound. I especially love gemstones, can't beat Mother Nature for beauty. deStashNotTrash was opened as an outlet for my extra supplies, my jewelry designs are now going in a different direction incorporating more wire and I've collected so many gemstones and glass that I will never in this life time be able to use them all, though I would like to try. Come visit my shop and take a peek, I'm sure you will find something you would love to have in your next design."