Craft Envy and the Working Mom

Confession: I have serious craft envy. I have a day job where I have spare time throughout most days; this spare time is generally spent hopping around to different crafty blogs to see what others are creating out there. I see so much creativity and think: these are moms, like me, but they don't have a day job. This makes me envious. Then I think, well, if I didn't have to work, I could get so much done! I could work on all of the projects that I see and want to try for myself, but just don't have the time! Sewing, baking, Cricut crafting, fun with mod podge...oh yeah, and spending more time with the kidlets fits in there somewhere, too.

I realize that the grass is always greener on the other side, and I have no idea what daily life is like for these other craft mavens. Maybe they're envious of someone like me for getting to come in to an office full of adults having adult conversations everyday (it's not all it's cracked up to be, let me tell ya). Not likely, but you never know.

For now, I do have to work, so I have to make do with late-night craft sessions and cramming too much into weekends. I have to remind myself to be thankful for what I have: a job that supports my family, two beautiful healthy children, and a husband who puts up with me jumping from project to project without rolling his eyes too much.

Maybe I'll just stop sleeping so I can finish everything I want to do!

My Cricut and Me: A Sort of Love Story

The Cricut Digital Craft Cutters and I have a long history; I've been drooling over die cutters like the Cricut for years. When I first heard of a machine like this, I didn't even know what I might do with one, I just knew I wanted it. So, a few years pass, and I continue to drool. I think to myself, if I could justify the cost, actually have a use for one of these puppies, I'll treat myself. Believe it or not, I never came up with a good reason; at least not reason enough to spend around $200 - which is funny, because I've spent way more than that on other more silly things, go figure.

Fast forward to Christmas 2010. I was finishing up my grocery shopping at Kroger, when I came across a display near the front of the store, filled with Cricut Personal Cutters and various cartridges. The price of the machine was $99. "Hm", I said to myself, "that's not a bad price." I kept walking and went on with my day.

A month later, early January, I saw them again at Kroger, this time marked down to $65.99. I had never seen them priced that low. So I thought about it for a bit, but kept on walking. Again, I couldn't justify that purchase, even though it was a geat price. The next couple of times I was in the store, I kind of kept an eye out to see if they were maybe marked down any further, but I didn't see the display. I just figured they had sold them all, and went about my business.

Then, in February, I was again doing my weekly grocery shopping, when I randomly went down the "Seasonal"/Pet Food aisle. I'm not sure what drew me down that particular aisle, as I knew we didn't need dog food; maybe it was Providence. Anyway, there were a lot of Christmas leftovers, toys and various other things, marked with clearance price stickers. Lo and behold, there was the Cricut. The price? $35.99. That was it, my decision was made. There was NO WAY I could pass that up. I would find a purpose to use this machine. I would find a way to make it pay for itself. Afterall, I'm crafty, I could use die cuts. Plus, adhesive vinyl is all the rage in the crafty personalization world, right?

So I grabbed one. I couldn't wait to use it. No more drooling! Then a few days later I went back and picked up another one for my sister-in-law Katie, because I'm awesome that way.

Now, there was something else that had been stopping me from buying a Cricut for all those years: the fact that you couldn't do anything with it unless you had a Cricut cartridge. You couldn't use any of the fonts on your computer, or any other designs you already had. You could only use what was available from Cricut on their cartridges. Personally I found that to be a little stifling. I didn't want to be limited to the cartridge-based system, especially when the cartridges themselves start at around $45. This may be okay for some, but I don't want to spend that kind of money everytime I want a new design. Of course there are other die cutting machines that don't require any sort of cartridge, but where am I going to find one of those for $36?

So I did some more research, and found out that there is software you can buy (online) to enable your Cricut to use any font you have on your computer. Hurrah! I was sold.

I know there are ongoing lawsuits and issues between Provo Craft, the makers of Cricut products, and these other software companies, such as CraftEdge/Sure Cuts A Lot, but I feel like these companies have opened the doors for crafters everywhere to be a little more creative with their machines. I'm happy I have my little Cricut, but I'm also happy to have options.

If you have a Cricut machine, any of them, I highly recommend looking into Sure Cuts A Lot, while it's still available. You'll be amazed at what you can do with it!

Selling Your Handmade Goods on Etsy

I first started selling on Etsy in May of 2007. My daughter had been born the previous September, and I was looking for ways to bring in more income. I was originally hoping to be able to start a business that would someday enable me to stay home with her - I'm still working on that. Now my Etsy shop has grown into more of a hobby. I love to create and explore new ideas. I love fabric, and I love being able to create something out of a yard of fabric that someone could actually use. I also love paper and have been playing around with papercrafting, so I'm not sure where that might take me!

I feel like I've been fairly successful with my little shop. Of course there are shops out there that that have had 100 times the sales that I've had, but my shop works for me. Here are a few things on selling on Etsy that I've learned over the past few years. Hopefully I can help someone out! Again, I'm by no means an expert; this is just what I've learned:

List or renew items daily - Keep your shop fresh, and your items to the top of searches – if I don’t list something new everyday, I’ll renew one or two things just to keep whatever item at the top of search results. Try it at different times of day – you never know when the right shopper might be looking for just what you’re offering.

Price items fairly - Pricing is kind of a double-edged sword in the crafting world. You want to have your prices low enough to attract buyers, but at the same time you want to make a profit. I have a tendency to keep my prices low, maybe a little too low, but it’s always at a point I’m comfortable with. You have to definitely make sure you have the expense of your materials covered, first of all – if you don’t have the cost of materials covered, you might as well stop right there. After that, you have to take into consideration the time it makes to create your product. Don’t undervalue your time and efforts! Here’s a geat article on how to price handmade goods by my crafty friend Becky.

It’s also important to note that you don’t have to under-price your items just because someone else on Etsy is selling something similar to yours. We all have different styles and different tastes, so a similar item in your competitor’s shop may not appeal to one person while an item in your shop does. And vice-versa.

Great Photos - I have to admit that I don’t always take the time to try and get nice photos for my listings. When I finish something for my shop, I’m generally so excited about it that I can’t wait to get it listed to see how fast it might sell. I’m funny that way. There are a few dark cell phone pics in my shop right now that I’m a bit ashamed of, so this is something I need to work on. Take a little extra time, use a real camera, make sure the lighting is decent, and take photos. The photo of your item IS the listing – if you don’t have a good photo representing your product, chances are it won’t sell.

Those are my tips for now. I may be throwing in a few more here and there as the month progresses, but I feel like these three things are the most important tips for successfully selling on Etsy. There are also tons of great articles and stories from super-successful sellers available right on Etsy. If you’re serious about your shop, I highly recommend checking out the Etsy Seller Handbook.

Now, go sell your crafty goodies! And let me know your shop links; I love checking out new shops.

Sew Along Update - Slacker City and Toulose-Lautrec

So, now I'm even further behind on the Sew Along for Japan; I didn't finish my t-shirts last night as I had intended. But, I do have a good excuse: the hubs and I went to the High Museum of Art to see the Toulose-Lautrec exhibit (loved it!). My plan now is to work on the shirts tonight and hopefully get good pics and link up with the rest of the super-cool shirts tomorrow. All of the participants have done such a geat job, go check them out!

I've also made another possibly crazy decision: I've joined the Ultimate Blog Challenge for the month of April. The goal is to write 30 posts for the month of April. I'm hoping to drive more traffic to this blog, my Facebook page, and Twitter. So we'll see what happens. This really is going to be a challenge for me, especially on weekends. Weekends are my time for relaxation; some Saturdays I don't even get out of my pajamas. But with working a full time job and managing a family of four, I feel like I deserve those Pajama Saturdays.

So, stay tuned and check back with me over the next month, and we'll see what I can get into. My goal is to write about my crafting, but other things may slip in from time to time. You just never know!