Still crankin’ away at making flowers. Of course I have added something new to the mix. While searching online to try and find new types of flowers to make out of tissue paper, I’ve found these beautiful paper roses. There are many different variations that people have done, some out of crepe paper, some out of newspaper. The ones I found interesting were made out of coffee filters. The material is very porous and shapes well. Then painting them gives them a more natural look and the filters suck up the paint nicely. These are a little complicated and very time consuming. I think after lots of practice it’ll get easier but for now it takes a long time to make one. And of course with my current etsy mentality I feel like I need to have a dozen different colors, so add that to my list of more products to finish before I launch my etsy store. Ahhh – I’m moving backwards!!!
Archive for August, 2009
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How to be successful on Etsy
August 11th, 2009 
Kelly 
Wow I procrastinate. While I should be working on creating products so I can have a store on etsy, instead I’m busy looking around on etsy for articles on how to quit your day job. Wouldn’t that be great?! There are all these great stories of people on etsy who started out small and eventually became so successful they were able to quit their “real” job and do their crafting business. Some of them even opened physical store locations. Here are some great stories of people that have done just that.
While looking around on etsy, I found the Etsy Seller Success kit. This guy sells his guides on how to be successful on etsy. He has a few different topics from general etsy, to publicity, using facebook, using twitter, etc. This guy is smart! He continually lists his items so that when you search “seller success” his items are always at the top of the list and most of the front page are his as well. Smart seller. I bought his Success kit. It was cheap, since it was electronic I didn’t have to wait for shipping and I received my guide in about an hour. He gave some great information on branding your shop, pricing your items, taking great pictures and most importantly how to market yourself. That wasn’t something I was thinking about. Not only do I have to have great products and have something someone may actually want to buy, I also have to find the people that would want to buy it.
One of the ideas on how to do this was blogging. I’ve had blogs in the past for personal use and I found that after the first couple months I started to slack and then stop all together. If this could help me be more successful and get a following of people, I am all for that! So, I’ve created this, backdated the last couple posts and here we go! I’m determined to keep this updated on my progress of starting etsy. And since I’m new at this, I’m sure there will be mistakes along the way and hopefully I can give insight to others that are just starting out.
First thing’s first, figure out a name for my store. Part of the success that the Success Kit I purchased talked about was branding. What type of business do you want to have? What is the general feel you want to give? My husband is also launching a new business of web design and he also talks about the importance of having a brand. For me, I want to make paper flowers and from what I’ve seen so far, there really isn’t competition for that on etsy right now. I need a name that isn’t too long that people might remember that sums up what I do. I’m so not good at this! After much brainstorming I’ve come up with Perfectly Paper. Catchy. Short. Includes Paper but isn’t too specific in what I do. I scrapbook as a hobby and I’d like to eventually branch out to making scrapbook style cards, etc so I didn’t want to include flowers in my name. And so an etsy store is created. It’s empty of course, but at least I have one thing done! 
Weekend Work
August 9th, 2009 Kelly 
After my epiphany of opening an etsy store, I decided to get started. All I’d need would be a few supplies, some tissue paper and I’d be set! I’d do a few bouquets of tissue paper flowers, take some pictures, upload to etsy and I’d be done by the end of the weekend. Or so I thought.
I went to my local party supply store to get tissue paper, thinking they would have the widest selection of colors. Not really the case for where I went, but it was a good start. I bought a few packs of various colors and was on my way. On to Michael’s to get some wire and floral tape and then home to get started. About an hour into making my first set of flowers I realized how much work it is! While I watched a little and helped make a few flowers, my mom really created all the centerpieces for my bridal shower. I didn’t realize how time consuming it could really be. Needless to say, I didn’t get everything made in a weekend.
As the next couple weeks went on and I continued to work on my flowers, my husband and I began brainstorming on what else I should do. I could make bridal bouquets and corsages and boutonnières. Maybe I should do flowers for around the house, like you would get real flowers and just put them in a vase. Oh, I could do baskets, those would be cute. The more we talked, the longer my to-do list became.
Now here I am 4 weeks later and I’m STILL working on example flowers. They take forever and I want them to look good. I want to make sure I have plenty of examples for my store before I open it. The last thing I want is to only have few items and no one is interested. I feel like the more products I have the higher chance of someone liking one of them.
Word of advise if you want to open an etsy store – be realistic. I sure wasn’t. If you want to do it right and be as successful as you can be, take your time. Plan ahead. Be ready for all the work that goes into running an etsy store. It is essentially like starting your own business, minus some of the paperwork.
