Rouge and Whimsy

Rouge and Whimsy is a good place to find handmade hair accessories. I got yellow headband myself and Love it. It only took a few days to get here and shipping was very reasonable. No damages, no problems, all was very nice and smooth. Headband itself looks great, feels great and is very comfortable. I often had problems with headbands being too tight or too lose, this one fits perfectly.

I have little cousins who love cute hair accessories, I bet they aren't the only once. I can definitely see all the girls in school turning green with envy if my cousin was to wear one.

All in all, great headbands for both kids and kids at heart. Girls, go get them.

And for your viewing pleasure, a YouTube video of me wearing and talking more about it. Well, I'm talking about it at the end of the video at least lol.

Last but not least, This seller has 100% positive feedback and policies are very reasonable and easy to understand. Great seller, great crafts woman, great hair accessories.

Skrynka and Beautiful Hand Embroibery from Ukraine

Skrynka is yet another one of those shops you can find a treasure in. Natalka's items are very unique and all the items looks fabulous. I know, I'm rather partial to it because I lived in Ukraine myself and love Ukrainian culture, but look at it. Isn't it just adorable? The item I featured here is my favorite, probably because I spent too much time studying EKGs, but there is a lot more. I personally love the jewelry from this shop. Have you ever heard about embroidered necklaces and earrings?


Now to the next part. This seller has 100% positive feedback and very clear policies. Natalka does everything she can to keep customers happy, so no fears here. She is shipping from Ukraine, so it will take a little longer to get it if you are in the US. Keep this in mind if you need your item soon.

Holiday Season is Closer Then You Think

When should we start getting ready for winter holidays? Just about now is a good time. For artists it's perfect time because all those items take time to make and creating them in advance is always helpful. Plus the retail stores are going to be looking for items for this holiday season in July, so why not have them out there and get some wholesale orders?

For buyers it's good time to get those gifts. There are going to be many sales now, so why not take advantage of it? It's getting to that time of year when you can find all the Christmas in July sales on etsy.

And yes, this is one of the paintings I'm working on for this holiday season.

Etsy, Place to Buy and Sell Handmade

I found my way to etsy about a year ago. I found many great artists and a lot of great arts and crafts there. I haven't touched my account on Etsy for a while, but now I'm finally back and loving it. There are a lot of changes that make my life so much easier. Lets get back to basics though, what is Etsy? It's a site where people can sell anything that is art/craft as well as supplies for them. It works a lot like ebay, except this one is made specially for artists and those who would like to buy art. The whole site is organized into categories so that you can easily find your way around. Each seller gets his or her own store which also can be organized. Etsy doesn't charge much, it's $0.20 to list an item plus 3.5% after the item is sold.

Problems I had with etsy a year ago were few, but they are now fixed. It was difficult, for example, to have discounts. You had to sell an item for a regular price, charge the customer full price and after this payment went through you had to send the money back (this is how it worked with paypal at least.) Now, they have a new coupon system. You can create as many coupon codes as you would like and people can use the coupon code when purchasing from your store. This is such a great and helpful tool as it not only makes sales easier, but it can also help track customers. For example, you can create a coupon code specially for Facebook and promote it on Facebook only. When someone uses a coupon you will know where this customer came from. This can help figure out what sites are better to advertise on.

Another great change is apps. You can now add apps to your account and they can help you stay on track as well. One app I added is for international shipping. It automatically calculates shipping cost so that you don't have to. I can't begin to describe how hard it was for me to figure out sipping costs to put in my listings. Since I didn't want to charge people too much, I would end up sending the money back if the shipping cost was more than a dollar less than what I got.

Etsy is constantly improving, they do their best to help shops and teach sellers how to make more sales. I constantly receive very helpful emails from them with tutorials on how to take better pictures, how to promote, how to use their new features and much much more. Information I learned there alone is worth it.

I plan on using my Etsy shop to sell my original artwork while selling prints through Red Bubble. There are many people though who sell prints through Etsy as well. They make prints and sell them as they would any other item. I am too lazy to make my own prints however, so I figured I'd rather divide the load between the two sites.