It's Felty Friday Time!!!

 This week I am presenting you with a Felty Friday 

featured artist with a cool shop name:

fullenstar and her magnificent fiber arts! Her scarves are amazingly bright and unique.  I love the soft look of them and the punched up colors!  Fashionable and so artisticly concieved with a slight flair for drama this is felt dressed up in it's finest!!!

Here are fullenstar's Felty Four!

Why Felt?
Felt is so cool because it is art, craft, function, science, and magic all rolled into one piece of pretty amazing material.  Until you have actually went through the entire felt making process it is hard to understand how a few loose fibers and hot soapy water can create this fabulous fabric.

 

 If you could make anything out of felt not restricted by cost or design what would it be?

I would love to felt a really big piece of furniture, like my sofa. I can't imagine being able to make that much nuno felt yardage, not to mention sewing it all into a cover.  Maybe I'll start with a throw pillow!

 

What is your Creative Process?

When I take a seat in the studio  I am surrounded by all of my hand dyed silks and gorgeous hand blended rovings, that is all the inspiration that I need. I simply pick out a beautiful colorway and a piece of silk and felt, felt, felt.

 

 If you were stranded on a desert island with only three craft items what would they be?

Wool, silk, and bubble wrap, of course! Has anyone ever felted a bikini?

 A felt bikini NOW there's something 

I'd like to see!!!  Make sure you give our 

                             Felty Friday Artist some love!  Happy Shopping!  

30 on 30!

A wonderful idea emerged on the Etsy Forums yesterday... anniepoo of  http://www.etsy.com/shop/anniepoo asked what if everyone spent $30.00 on handmade on just one day?  Hence the 30 on 30! 
We want EVERYONE to spend $30.00 on handmade on November 30.  Don't have 30? I know times are tight... spend what you can!  Etsy is a vibrant community of handmade goodies and vintage at all different price ranges!  Get a gift, buy a spluge for yourself.  Most importantly you will be supporting handmade and vintage craftsmen and sellers.  You can search for local artists to put the money right back into your community or you can just support lovely artists from all around the world!   Tis the season to give and give back,  so support handmade!  It only takes one person to start a movement!
Scroll down for a list of participating shops!

Go to Etsy and search the term 30on30 and get your shop on!

If you are a seller and want to participate sign up on the forum here HERE and view the informational thread HERE!  And your shop info will be added to this post!

Happy shopping and spread the word!!!

Participating Shops: 

anniepoo: 
Stop by Annie's Powder Room for totally unique soaps that are perfect for gift giving and stocking stuffing! We TRULY have a soap for ANYONE!!!

OhMyCupcake   
Handmade vegan soaps, candles, cute jewelry & household items.

Gemstoneandwire:
Handmade custom Jewelry and accessories.

trucdart:
Check out my shop for colorful, small format original artwork and gemstone jewelry.  

ferozasjewelery:  
Check uot my shop for handmade jewelery. 

kitchenstichen:
Cute AND functional kitchen linens for the descriminating chef.

FernHollowFinds:
Fern Hollow Finds offers useful products for everyday living; hats, scarves, jewelry, jewelry travel organizers, fabric napkins & more.

michellenstamps:
Quality handmade cards for all occasions. I have many cards to choose from.

momomadeit:
Where there are lots of Everyday Housewife™ aprons to choose from - for everyday, every season and any reason!

 FabricGreetings:
One of a kind fabric postcards - mailable textile art

sunflowerexpress:
Fine Felt Jewelry and Accessories

Fiberfads:
Hand Knitted and Felted Fiber Gifts

craftygurll 
Stoneware pottery & soaps...soap ships free if you buy a soapdish too. :)
  
KayzKreationz:   
 Unique, useful and decorative Stained Glass, Mosaics and Fused Glass items for your home and garden. 

AptNo5:
Come vist Apt No 5 for modern jewelry with an edge.   Real 14k goldfill charm necklaces for just $30!

Amievoltaire:
Clothing and accessories available here and Great stocking stuffers.

leeesgal: 
Vintage clothing and accessories

cottontailquilts:
Hand quilted memories and treasures, kids wear, winter accessories, hand quilted fiber art.

quiltingcafe:
Featuring a wide variety of handmade quilted items, specializing in personalization and custom quilts.

kitkit96:
Jewelry that everyone will love! Look no further that is just what you will find!  Wide variety of materials including glass, pearl, solid sterling silver, silver plated. Something for everyone!

BlueForestJewellery:
Unique, colourful, beautiful, handmade silver creations

ArtheliasAttic:
knit and crochet items made from vintage patterns


HandmadeBySandi:
Crochet items for the whole family, even your pet!

KnitterScarlet:
All things knitted...get your wooly winterwear here and also gorgeous beaded jewellery for that Christmas present.

starbabyonline:
One of a kind jewelry finds, mostly in sterling silver and gems!

wellspringcreations:
Lovely sterling silver accessories starting at $12.99. A quality gift for a low price!

funnyfuser:
Safe to wear anodized Titanium and Niobium earrings. I also only use nickel free findings. Fused glass art to wear. Barrettes to beads.

tracydesigns
XL Veggie Diva hot pads for cookie sheets and baking dishes (hot item), wristlet key fobs (hot item), quilts, bags, fabric coasters, duct tape stuff by my daughter, and much more!

kimbuktu
Tissue cozys and quilted round coin purses available in my shop, plus, for 1 day only I will adjust the price on my placemat sets to $30 for four beautiful quilted placemats. That is a savings of $6 per set.

FoxyGknits
hand knit scarves, shawls and wraps for today's women.

Quiltedbabe
My shop has a nice selection of sewn, quilted, hand knit and recycled items.

 YellowBlack
bird a variety of fun, fashionable, and inexpensive jewelry. All earrings come in a both pierced and clip on. Shipping is free in the U.S. and Canada and is only $1 for international shipping!

vintagegirldezigns  

Handcrafted jewelry, bags & ornaments with vintage flair make great gifts. Take a look!

Tokyoinspired 

Fun and colorful screen-printed and embroidered pouches.

whimandfolly
Owls, butterflies, buttons, and ribbons are just a few of the delights that you will find featured on my handmade paper goods.

FashionablyChic
Check out Fashionably Chic for original handcrafted jewelry for all occassions.

openheartcreations
Handmade jewelry, greeting cards, frames and more. Perfect stocking stuffers and gifts!

QuiltSewCover
Paperback book covers, checkbook covers and lace Christmas Ornaments. Nothing over $10.00

underoakstudios
Organic Jewelry in Silver and gold. Some dirty word necklaces too!

HeatherScent
Stop by my shop for some great stocking stuffers and gift packs. Everyone loves my Sinus inhalers -- they are a perfect gift this cold/flu season!

fiberpuppy
Quirky felted hats and lovely textured scarves.

blackcatmima
At Black Cat Mima you'll find, vintage hairpin sets,  handmade gift tags,  vintage holiday decor, felt brooches, magnets and tree ornaments,  and coming this weekend, handmade toss pillows, Christmas stockings, Hanukkah Hoots (owl plushies).

SuzyQQuilts
Visit Suzy-Q's for great gift ideas under $30 including purses, re-useable items and drawstring backpacks.

metropolisbody
Shocking tales of soapy scandals! Our products are 100% vegan and great for stocking stuffers!

desertgarden
Stop by desertgarden for luxurious spinning fibers and yarns.

lostmitten
Stop by Lost Mitten for handmade geekery, including my original Nintendo and video game housewares made out of Perler Beads and needlepoint! I also have knit wear and cute pinback buttons!

threepeats
carries long, light, easy to wear necklaces and earrings made from recycled vintage beads, chain, ribbon and lace. Each piece is UNIQUE!
ARTISANNE
Scottish Sea Glass and some other wee creations, everything under $30!!!!

UpandUpcycled
Upcycled jewelry, decor and accessories- all items made from repurposed materials! Good for your wallet and your soul, items as low as $3:

ChellaBellaDesigns
fantastic shipping rates and marked down items. Fabulous gifts for everyone, including your pets!

CutiePatootieBeads
Wonderful Handmade Jewelry

2MuchYarn
Lots of crochet items that are perfect for gift giving either to your self or others! From hats to slippers and everything in between

MomNMiaQuilts
designer quilts and baby gifts for modern moms and kids. (Plus, take advantage of our 10% OFF sale 11/27-11/30)

 kimwhitecreations
You will find gifts for everyone on your list! All my $10 Coffee Cozies, Slouches/Berets, Scarves, Care Shawls and Lap Wraps are on SALE and ready to ship!

MiniMade
I make a variety of sewn items from coasters to quilts!

CuteNation
Handpainted wooden dolls that are the epitome of cute!

A little Bit about Why I Create and Design in Felt

For those of you not familiar with the wonderfulness of Wool Felt, let me go ahead and break it down as to why this is one of my FAVORITE mediums.
For all of my jewelry items I use exclusively  Genuine Wool Felt.  Genuine Wool felt is a blend of usually 35 percent wool and 65 percent polyester or 20%wool and 80% polyester.  This blend makes a super durable lush and smooth felt.  This felt maintains it's shape, when blanket stiched around it does not stretch at all.
It can be layered and accented with sequins and beads.
Everyone has sterling silver or gold jewelry.  My goal is to throw my own spin at the jewelry market, with designs that are elegant and fun and most of all play off of current trends.   My goal is to create jewelry that creates a statement and is completely unique.
I enjoy creating peices that will wow and create a conversation. The Metal jewelry market is so saturated, my aim is to present an alternative that is just as beautiful and just as wow worthy. I love having a soft and light piece of felt hanging from my ears or around my neck...
My jewelry is created using original free form embroidery techniques and the layers are first glued together using industrial strength felt glue and then each layer is sewn toghther.  This creates jewelry that is not only durable but virtually indestructible.
Each peice can be lightly cleaned using a damp cloth... It's not advisable to submerge the peices in water.  It is totally preferable to remove the jewelry when washing your hands.
I love taking such a simple and durable material and transforming it into something beautiful and unexpected.

Felty Friday The Thirteenth

No need to dive in corners or be extra specially careful of ladders and black cats.

How could you possibly be scared while looking at this?

ShesSoCrafty Is Proud To Present today's 

Felty Friday Artist: fiberpuppy!

fiberpuppy works with felted wool and makes the most adorable felt hats and lush scarves. 

Her choice of colors is amazing and her designs have a touch of whimsey  and who could possibly resist a cozy hat with an owl, cat or dog staring back at you?  

Here are fiberpuppy's FELTY FOUR!

Why felt?
I love making felt because there’s an element of surprise. It’s like shrinky-dinks. You think you know what it will look like but when it comes out , but it’s always a little different; maybe more lofty or thicker or longer. You kind of never know.
Also there is a structural element to felt that I love. To me it’s much more 3-D than plain knitting. I love the texture I can create with the shibori process, and when it's still moist you can give the felt shape by putting it over a form or stretching it.




If you had to describe your work as a song what would it be?

The Manamama song from the muppet show. It’s quirky and the hippie muppet keeps trying to go off on tangents but the cows keep reigning him in. He does finally get the last word though.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8czf_muppet-show-manamana_fun




What is the one thing you hate about your work?

The little bits of fluff everywhere. Felting has nearly killed my washing machine. The machine got so clogged with fiber it wouldn’t drain. Finally enough pressure built up and a huge fiber poop came shooting out.



 
Greatest Crafty Accomplishment?

This didn’t win any awards but I was pretty proud of myself. I knit the seats to our lawn furniture using mop handles and clothesline. I learned that one from the Manly art of knitting (which is unfortunately out of print). If featured a pattern for a hammock using boat oars and clothesline.
 (shessocrafty wants to see a picture of this LOL)

Click on any of the images above to be taken to fiberpuppy's Etsy shop or just click right here!

fiberpuppy on Etsy

Thanks for reading and make sure to give ALL of our Felty Friday Artists Some Love! 

Extended Info Or the Way to totally Optimize your Facebook for Search Engines

This is part of our Facebook fan page tune up section.

Ok so previously we talked about search engine optimization... And I told you that the easiest way to do this was to utilize two things on your fan page... The box below your profile picture and another facebook application called Extended Info.

Let's start with the Box.



That handy little box under your profile is for much more than links. It's a traffic gold mine... put in a killer description of your business when people are googling your keywords wouldn't it be awesome if your etsy shop didn't come up at least your killer fan page with all of your info would????

Next using the Extended info application http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2374336051 you can customize your info tab and make that an awesome boon of information. Again remembering to use words that describe your business and a little about yourself if you want.I'm still workin on mine...
As with most things home business based... There ain't enough hours in the day!!!
 But since using this boxes to my best advantage when someone googles my shop MY FANPAGE comes up before even my Etsy shop.  So it is definietly another door into your shop... granted its  a bit more complicated a door but a door nonetheless and I think all of us can use a few more of those!

Oh Where oh where has Ms. Crafty Gone

Ok so I'm on a making binge... of epic proportions... Stay tuned later on tonight for an Extended info Tutorial for Facebook and Felty Friday for tomorrow!  Meanwhile Here is the latest peice I am finishing...

Hundreds of hand stiches here on this bib Necklace!   Almost done hopefully listing maybe today but definitely by tomorrow!  Post some links of your Works in Progress!

Felty Friday Artist FeltLikeStitchin

Felty Fridays is a new feature That we will be running every Friday On the Blog and on the ShesSoCrafty A&D Fanpage   Here .   Felt is such a Wonderful Material, I want to bring to light ALL of the wonderful Artists working in this diverse, durable and fantastically wonderful material.

ShesSoCrafty Is Proud To Present today's Felty Friday Artist:  FeltLikeStitchin!  

  ShesSoCrafty Presents FeltLikeStitchin's Felty Four:
FeltLikeStitchin Answers four questions about her love of felt and her shop on Etsy!
(click any of the pictures to visit her shop! ) 

Why Felt?

For me, the best thing about felt is the wonderful range of colours. It's so bright and cheerful I can't help being inspired to create! I love that it's so versatile too, and it doesn't fray making it great for kids to learn how to sew.

Greatest Crafty Accomplishment?
My best and most exciting accomplishment so far has been seeing my work in print. My Russian Dolls have appeared in a craft magazine and in the Sunday supplement of a national UK newspaper, my Cross Patch Kits were featured in another UK craft magazine and four of my DiDi Dolls appeared in the Crammed Organisms book.



How do you work are you sloppy sue or neat nelly?
I'm a neat freak in my head but in reality my sewing stuff tends to gradually take over the house. Only yesterday I heard my husband muttering that our living room is starting to look like a sweat shop but I just buried my head in the felt and kept on stitching!

If you were stranded on a desert island with only three craft items what would they be?
I'd definitely need needles, thread, felt, but then I'd need some scissors too so that makes four! I guess if I had a pack of needles, a box of threads and some sharp scissors I could try stitching leaves and tree bark - if I was lucky there might be goats or some other woolly creatures on the island and I could have a go at making my own felt!

Her shop is a wonderful collection of wonderfully Bright and Charmingly 

Cheerful Items for your shopping Pleasure!  I really love her Matroyshka dolls and her super playful gingerbread houses and ornaments, all perfect for Christmas!   

Visit her shop here (or click any of the images listed above!)

http://www.etsy.com/shop/FeltLikeStitchin

Happy Shopping!

SEO Optimization for Face Book Fan pages

Ok so I'm really digging the customization for facebook fan pages and I just wanted to share with you a few more optimizations to get some links back to your Etsy Shop.

I've been checking my Google Analytics and have realized that traffic from my fan page has increased a hundred percent since implementing some changes, including the Custom Landing Tab.

I just wanted to discuss here a few ways to optimize your page for Search Engines.

Make sure when you are filling in the Info tab or the box on your profile directly beneath your profile pic with keyword dense text. Think about your business and use keywords that people would use to search for businesses like yours... If you have already optimized your Etsy shop use those Keywords to build a really very accurate description of your business.

There is also a really great application called Extended info which will allow you to add custom fields to your info tab. I will post a tutorial on this shortly and that will let you add a rich description of your business the Search Engines will pick up on directly to your info tab.

Many businesses are starting to use their fanpages as a second home on the web and pulling in as many people thru searches is very helpful to driving traffic to your site... I started out on Wednesday with 37 fans, I now have 98... and I'm only halfway done running my ads.

Rich content andd lots of info will help draw people in and keep them coming back for more!
I do not think I have yet gotten a sale straight from facebook but people are coming and that is a very good thing especially in this holiday season to bring in as many people as possible!!!

Custom Landing Page Part 2 or DUST OFF THAT PHOTOSHOP!

Prerequisites:

1. Photoshop (IF YOU DO NOT Have PHOTOSHOP, SCROLL DOWN to the bottom of the page and I will put the code to copy past and some instructions to get you started!)
   
2. Some basic familiarity in working with images on Websites Specifically how to upload images to your webserver or photo sharing site (I highly recommend using your website for this).
3. Basic Html knowledge if you went thru part 1 you should be good to start.
   

Ok so for step 2 Open up your Photoshop... I am using CS4... so things may look slightly different if you are using older versions of photoshop. But the layout is BASICALLY the same.
Make sure you have gone thru and read Part 1 FIRST!!!
Ok so open up your photoshop.
Click New.
You need to set up your dimensions to be no bigger than about 750 across. Length wise you can add as many boxes as you would like but I'm going with this:


Click Ok.

Create your boxes. You want to keep them aligned vertically and horizontally. If you wanted to create boxes on one side and columns on the other that is fine play with this all you want.
But I just created some basic boxes for this excercise, like this:



You can find some great badges on the web just by searching around... or create your own using your images and text. (If I went into how to create custom images this would be A VERY long tutorial) you can find some great photoshop tutorials on creating images for websites just google it!!! you can drop pictures on these boxes which I created using the box tool. It's pretty simple once you start working with it. I tried doing this with a background but because of the way that facebook renders slices I ended up with lines where the slices were so for sanity's sake just keep your background white.

So once you have your boxes with images, text, badges whatever you like we are going to go to find the slice tool. I BELIEVE for most versions of photoshop it is grouped with the Crop tool... (Refer to google: where is the slice tool for CS3 if you are having trouble with finding it)
in my version I find it here:




A little backgound on the slice tool... this allows you to cut up a design for rendering with html and allowing you to create images that can be linked for use on websites... It's really simple and easy way to create the custom fanpage with out having to worry about positioning because you can basically lay this out exactly the way you want it.

Ok so you have your slice tool selected using this tool you will select your images. You will basically just draw a line around your boxes (works just like the box tool) You will notice something like this:



When you create slices... you will notice that it breaks your images into peices make sure you leave enough white around your images AND that you keep them aligned in a reasonable manner both vertically and horizontally.

MAKE SURE YOU MATCH UP YOUR SLICES AS IN THE PICTURE BELOW... THIS WILL TAKE SOME FANAGALING... IF YOU MESS UP JUST CLICK UNDO AND START OVER!!! IF YOU SERIOUSLY MESS UP GO TO VIEW ON THE MENU BAR AND CLICK CLEAR SLICES!

For the purposes of this excercise we will be dividing the image into four quadrants (notice that once you create your first slice that the box directly beneath it is created so now we have 3 peices but we have four boxes that we want to link out.
To create the fourth quadrant line up your slice tool with the top right node of the first slice and create a box around your top right image.
You will end up with something like this:



Now we have four equal quadrants that we are going to link out in the next step.

Go to File
select Save for Web and Devices.
This will let you create not only your images BUT also an HTML file.
This is the screen you should see:



Now we're going to create some links... Double click your first image... Mine is the Twitter badge... a box will pop up that looks like this:

Step one Name the image.
Step 2: in the URL box add the url you want the image to link to
step 3: Target select blank
Step 4: Message put something here like Go to my blog or Follow Me
Step 5: Select ok
Should look something like this:



Repeat this step by double clicking each of your quadrants and filling in your link information for each image slice or box if you will...

When you have completed these Steps we need to save this so we can get the HTML and Images to use.
So click save.



Next we need to make sure that we will be saving both and the images and the HTML.



For the SAVE AS FILE TYPE use the drop down to select HTML and Images.
Make sure you name your file something you'll be able to find easily The images will be saved to a file called images and the html file will be called whatever you typed into the box when you saved.
Save it to your desktop to make it easy to find.
This will save an HTML and an Image file folder with your four images.

Now we need to upload JUST the four images to your web server or photo service.

In part one I told you that we would need to Upload your images to your website. I can't tell you how to go about this since everyone's website is different. You could use Flickr or a photo sharing site but they really don't like this. I use Microsoft office live for my website. I am going to gloss over this part a bit if you have questions specific to a web service contact me and I can help you figure it out.
I have an image folder on my website already (MOST DO have a spot for you to upload images to, that is usually an image folder the URL folder for my website is this: http://shessocraftyartanddesign.com/Images/
This is very important to know the location for your images for this next step... if you are doing this using photobucket or any other site you will still need the url for the individual images to edit the html.

Now we will Edit the code.


For the next step open up the notepad or other word processor tool if you want.
Next open the HTML file we created in photoshop by double clicking it, It should open in your web browser. In your browser menu bar click View then Page Source. Copy the HTML on the page there. (I am using firefox)
Paste it into the notepad.

We will need to remove everything ABOVE the Table Id tag at the beginning and everything below the table id tag at the end.




What you will be left with is this:



Here is a brief breakdown of what THIS is.



There should be 4 image sources and 4 links. If you are not familiar with HTML this picture should break it down for you... (My 3rd image above IS NOT linked but yours should be!)



Next we will need to Replace the image tags with the url location of the images you uploaded where ever you see an img src tag:



Whew!
Still with me We're almost there.

Once you have done this we need to COPY this CODE and go BACK to Facebook and follow the steps in part one to add a Static FBML Box to your page.
Once you have the box open DROP IN THIS CODE. Name your Tab and click SAVE.
Next go back to the Page Manager for your fan page.
Click the pencil icon next to your Newly created FBML box (remember you renamed it).



Select Application Settings.


Where it says Tab, it should say Available... Click on Add to add a NEW tab to your page... you can also at this time REMOVE the Box option.

Okay so we've got the tab. Now how do we make this the default tab for our NEW visitors???

Here we Go.

On the Page Manager screen Navigate to Wall Settings.



Click the Pencil

.
Default View change this to the Name of your new tab and click save.
Give it a few minutes to update Logout of facebook and google your fan page... Your new landing page should come up. Test your links to make sure they work.
This is just a basic framework for what a fanpage can be. Play with it have fun and post links to those fanpages I wanna SEE! Um just don't clone my page and we'll be all good. With a little imagination anything is possible!!!

PS. There are much easier ways to do this I know but this is the simplest and least complicated for me to figure out how to do this without having to figure out how to position the images WITHOUT writing code from scratch... Facebook has some limitations and is a bit wonky, I tried this several different ways without any luck but this worked!!!

If you have any problems feel free to comment and I will get back to you!!!!!
FYI... I name my images curse words when I have been working on something for days and it is driving me crazy... This slightly did that hence the up at 3 am thing and the cursey words in the file names... I have to amuse myself somehow. :)

NO PHOTOSHOP??? Here is the code for the basic image layout... I have used which is for four boxes... if you know html you should be able to build off of this nicely.

Scroll above to the part where we modified the code you will still need to modify what I am providing here, but you will also have to modify the link portion as well.

This is the code I have used...



<table id="Table_01" width="750" height="600" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">

<tr>

<td>

<a href="link location" target="_blank"

onmouseover="window.status='Shop The Fall Line'; return true;"

onmouseout="window.status=''; return true;">

<img src="image location url" width="426" height="311" border="0" alt=""></a></td>



<td>

<a href="link location" target="_blank"

onmouseover="window.status='Follow Me'; return true;"

onmouseout="window.status=''; return true;">

<img src="image location url" width="324" height="311" border="0" alt=""></a></td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td><a href="link location" target="_blank"

onmouseover="window.status='Follow Me'; return true;"

onmouseout="window.status=''; return true;">

<img src="image location url" "width="426" height="289" alt=""></td>

<td>

<a href="link location" target="_self"

onmouseover="window.status='Shop SSC'; return true;"

onmouseout="window.status=''; return true;">

<img src="image location url" width="324" height="289" border="0" alt=""></a></td>

</tr>

</table>




Ok you will need to replace link url with your link destination... you will need to replace image location with with the url for your images! This will create the quadrant formation... If you want columns or anything more you will need to modify this code MANUALLY!

If this is beyond your grasp... I am thinking about adding this as a service (RE NOT EXPENSIVE) as I know not everybody can decipher this. Contact me if you need that kind of help and I can see what I can do. I Really just wanted to share this info to get it out there!

Custom Facebook Fan Page Part 1

Ok so I'm gonna go thru the preliminary steps... I'm gonna break this up into 3 parts this first installment will teach you how to add a clickable image to your profile side bar on the Left this is the first step in working with the Static FBML Application on facebook.

1. Prerequisites for this Excercise is of course a Facebook fanpage
2. Some basic knowledge of HTML... (Copy Paste is what I call basic for this excercise)
3. Some familiarity with Photoshop and creating images for when we get to the custom landing page part. (I will be adding instructions that will be as basic as possible but I do this for a living so I may take for granted or gloss over some things.
   
4. I will try to provide screen shots of what I'm doing for a visual reference

First things first go to your fan page. Depending on where you land:
If you are on the ads manager page click on pages this will bring you to the page manager...
for the majority of what we will be doing this will be where you will add widgets and applications.
I will refer to this from now on as page manager.
If you are on your actual fanpage click edit page to bring you to the page manager.
Scroll all the way down to the bottom and you will see the More Applications Box. Click the pencil in the right corner select Browse More.
(click images to make larger and not blurry!)





Next on the application screen you will see a list of applications
We want to find the Static FBML APP
Type that into the search field.

When you reach the Static FBML Page
Directly beneath the icon on the left you will see the option to add to page


Click to add to page and this box will pop up:



Your page should be listed here (as I've already added the app to my page mine isn't there) but click add to page directly across from your page. Then hit close.

Now we will return to the main page manager window. Follow the steps above to get back to the page manager.

Now here is a simple simple example of just adding a linkable image to your sidebar. From which you can build upon to add custumization to your page.

Open up a new tab: Go to etsy.com and then go to the community tab and then resources
Find the big orange circle that says find me on etsy. Click on it. A code window should open up.
Copy the code.
Now return to your facebook fan page Page Manager.
Scroll down until you see this:


click the pencil Directly across from the FBML 1 application.




Select Edit.

That will bring you to a screen that says Edit FBML...
Take the code that you copied from etsy and paste it in the LARGE BOX.
The small box at the top will be what this box will be labeled I kept it simple and put Find me on Etsy there as the tittle of my box. You can always come back and change this later.
Now the Etsy code will link out directly to ETSY. We want this to shoot out to YOUR shop.
So we will need to replace the www.etsy.com with your shop url.







Click Save at the bottom.
Then click on your page name in the upper left hand corner of your page.
Click the Boxes Tab on the tab bar on your fan page.
Your Etsy button should be there.
To move this to your profile sidebar you need to click on the pencil to the right of the button and select move to wall tab.
And TADA you have created a button that links out to your page and successfully moved it to your sidebar where it will be EASY Peasy to find.
You can do this with ANY image.
A blog badge a twitter badge anything. (check out my item of the week Badge Using this same code and just changing the img src, and the link info as we did earlier.)
You can pull in images from your blog... from your shop and link them out using the steps we just used. OR... you can create an image and upload it to your website (If you don't have one you need to get one for STEP 2 (photo sharing sites DON'T like you using their sites to upload for websites so it's best to use your own web service. Get the url for your images and replace the img src"http://team.etsy.com/images/downloads/buttons/findme.jpg" with your images url and then replace the link part with whatever you choose to link it to. This Adds so much customization to your page in just a simple step.
This same principal can be used for creating the custom Landing page for the fanpage. For that we will be using photoshop to create some simple boxes and slicing them up in photoshop and inserting all of the links there and then inserting the html code generated when you save for web and devices and dropping that in the FBML box.
If you have no idea what I just said Stay tuned Tonight or Tomorrow I will be putting up the Steps for the next half of the Lesson!
But now you know how to add custom badges and buttons to your page!!! And how to work with the FBML application.
In case you want to go crazy with this and add more go to the Page Manager and click edit on your FBML box (remember you renamed it so it won't be FBML 1 any more) scroll down to the bottom and you will see add another FBML Box click edit to add to that box. Take the steps we did earlier to add more stuff.
Cheers and have fun and I would love to see what you come up with!!!

MORE MARKETING MADDNESS

Hi Guys... In case you missed it... SSC made it to the front page of Etsy. It was a grand moment for me, like my official craft badge... It was amazingly validating especially since the item that was chosen was something that I personally LOVED. Those items are the most fun to make for me.
So on to our post topic... The little front page thing kinda made me kick it in gear in terms of marketing MADNESS. As in how can I kick this up a notch...
So I'm doing Twitter.... and Facebook.... (I pretty much live on facebook personally so this is not so difficult for me.) I use Tweetdeck to manage my personal/business stuff cause its easy...
Then one day I got bored got on facebook and started looking up companies...
I started with Victorias Secret... Cause I had heard on several blogs that their fan page was BadASS.
So I checked it out...
http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=victorias+secret&init=quick#/vspink?ref=search&sid=1304828206.1150368635..1

I was like thats cool and unboring... I hate the boringness of the Facebook fanpage...
and I was like I'm all graphic designerish... This can't be that hard to figure out...
Well it kinda was... but i think the result is WELL worth the trouble.
Check this out. The new improved ShesSoCrafty Fanpage for Sunflower Express: http://www.facebook.com/shessocraftyartanddesign

And how praytell did I accomplish this???
Well it all goes back to this wonderful application called Static FBML...
Search for it in applications and when it comes up click the text that says add to page...
This wonderful little app lets you use HTML on your fanpage for anything...
That's how I got the etsy shop badge on the side of my fanpage and how I was able to link out the images...
So I was wondering... If I could build a whole page, in like photoshop or illustrator and then using images and slice it up save it as html upload the images to my web server and then drop the html in the page and TADA. Custom linked out facebook fanpage. It makes it a little more interesting and WAY COOLER TO LOOK at... I will be hoping to add a full fledged tutorial for this shortly...
If anybody sees this and has any questions FEEL FREE to contact me and I will be glad to help you out... See Branding is your vision and I think its way cooler and funner to have that vision be interesting and make someone want to stay and hang out...
I'm currently running a facebook add (re you should add the visa business app to your page to get the hundred dollar add credit I'm hoping by the time all is said and done I will have like a hundred fans.) I plan to seriously use facebook to market my business and now I think this new format reflects and consolidizes my info in a more cohesive manner. Which is TRES AWESOME. Ok I'm gonna go eat some tacos now.

OOOOO new stuff...

I find that sometimes when I have the craft blues I need to challenge myself... Push myself a little bit further and a little bit out of the comfort zone... after all that is where you stagnate and become dull and nobody wants to be a boring crafter (think Great Aunt Tina and her crazy socks).
So ShesSoCrafty is taking a test drive in the floral facinator market... granted this is a hot market on etsy but I'm trying to add my own little spin on it and make it just a little bit Lisa. So just thought I'd share some pics of what I am working on!

Remember nothing beats Craft Ennui better than a challenge... self initiated or otherwise.

31 Things I've learned in 31 years

That's right folks ShesSoCrafty is turning 31! Does this freak me out? Not so much. I think I've finally gotten to the place where I am comfortable in my own skin. I have finally embraced being a generally more healthful person.
So I'm totally owning 31. After reflecting for some time I have realized that I have gained alot of knowledge about living in my humble years.
So here it is Lisa's 31 things I've learned in 31 years:

1) Say No. If the idea of doing something or being something that you don't want to be, just put your lips together and say NO.

2) Remember that not everyone's family is created equally. Sometimes the family you make is better, more nourishing and welcoming than the one you were born into. Being born is kinda like a crap shoot.

3) Come to terms with the fact that I will never know EVERYTHING.

4) There is no cure for the blues than a good tube of lip gloss and a hot dress and some cute shoes.

5) You will turn into your mother in some ways... If this idea petrifies you modify the things you can and deal with the crap you can't.

6) If you are a parent the only thing you can do is cross your fingers and jump off the bridge and pray you won't screw up your kid in the same ways your parents screwed you up...

7) & Accept the fact that you will screw them up somehow but hopefully it will be a good screw vs. a bad screw

8) Find Something you love passionately and find a way to make that your career or at least incorporate it into your life on a major level.

9) Stand up for yourself. If you don't no one else will.

10) Doormats are household accessories, and not something I will ever be.

11) Realized that Perfect is the most boring adjective EVER.

12) To love the quirky parts of myself, like the mole on my baby toe, the scar on my hand from climbing a fence when I was 12, my addiction to hotpink nail polish, my aversion to creamy salad dressings and mayonnaise all help to make me me.

13) To realize that my attractiveness in no way corresponds to my dress size...

14) Creativity is and always will be an integral part of my life. Without it I am bound to wither on the vine.

15) Men come and go but your girlfriends will be there to hold your hand when you cry, and hold your hair back when you puke.

16) That the ability to speak your mind with force AND tact is a very valuable skill.

17) Kenny Rogers said it best "You gotta know when to hold em, Know when to fold em, Know when to walk away, Know when to run."

18) That everyone needs to take time to take care of themselves, myself included.

19) Bubble Baths are the answer to world peace.

20) That I will never be normal... or want what everyone else wants, this is the beauty of being me.

21) That Love is only as strong as the risks you take to make it and the easier you make it to recieve it.

22) When it comes to work my self worth is worth MORE to me than any dollar amount anyone can ever give me.

23) A path untaken is a regret waiting to happen. So make sure to consider all of the options carefully.

24) All men are not created equal. If he makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up sometimes it might not be for a good reason.

26) LOVE MY BODY! From which a 9lbs 14 oz son was pulled, has climbed mountains, walked hundreds of thousands of miles, lifted the heaviest of objects and can open the tightest of jars all by myself.

27) Fear is stupid.

28) Change is exhiliarating.

29) Trust my insticts. If something gives me pause there is usually a reason for it.

30) The man that loves you for your mind is usually the one who will love you even more for your body.

31) That speaking your mind is the equivalent to a loaded weapon, when you aim, aim carefully and aim precisely...

So what have you learned?

Crafty Marketing: or My Weekend of Marketing Madness

Ok so most Etsy Sellers have heard that the secrets to success are off Etsy marketing. Well this is a daunting task... I know for me I would personally rather stick a knife in my eye than spend a whole lot of time marketing my Shop, when I could be spending that time creating.
So I have taken a few steps into the Marketing Wilderness. I will chronicle some of that journey for you now!

Step one... I'm one of those troublesome etsy shops now where the username doesn't match the shop name DOH! I've kinda started to establish my shop. I kinda like where it's going and the awesome feedback. So I want to keep it at least temporarily. So I worked out a way to standardize all of my marketing materials. I developed my SSC logo last year and use it extensively for my Graphic businness... A strong imagery is important to branding. So I wanted to use the cool logo (see below as to how I created that), and use it as the distinguishing and recognizable brand piece. I love the idea of textures and I didn't want to just throw the logo on a background, so I put it in a frame threw up a very nice textured linen background and used a classy but modern font called advent (found for free on the internets) and Voila. Branding Material. Next I figured lets carry this imagery onto a business card. Opened up photoshop designed a custom business card using all of the afore mentioned elements, went on over to Vista Print and ordered up some cards.
Next I needed to address the website. I wanted a site that was fun, decorative and me, and yet with a simple interface. So I WIPED my old SSC site that was graphic related all flashy and illustratored out and started redesigning the site. I still need to add my graphic business to the site which will come in a few weeks when I have some down time. BUT the site presents all of the information on the Craft business and how it works and is handled. I hope to be adding more content and more detailed information on the individual products as well, BUT for now it serves it's purpose well. I highly recommend Office Live... It has GREAT features once you get familiar with how the system works... I've tried both ways and I HIGHLY recommend not using the third party design tools... I know right??? A graphic designer says to use the crappy templates... Ha Ha I took a basic element and with a bit of java and html turned it into something sweet in the SSC style! It worked out well... You just need to figure out how to trick out the Office Live templates and pretty much anything is possible... feel free to email me and I will tell you how I did everything including hooking the site up to analytics!!!
Next step was hey lets do some marketing... So I had this facebook fan page just kinda hanging out... my first step was to locate a facebook ad promo code (yes they have them and you should search for them right now) I found a code for 50 dollars in free advertising... Awesome I got my page some fans and a nice base to start with.
Next I figured generating some hits on my webpage might be kinda awesome as well, so remember earlier when I told you that I ordered business cards from Vista Print??? They have a promotion when you order you can chose to recieve a promo code for Google Ad words... which was for 50 dollars as well. I signed up all my info and ran an ad... The Ad words credit got eaten up in about 5 hours you must watch this one to make sure it doesn't go over. But I got some traffic to the site AND the Etsy Shop... Because the shop tab on my website redirects directly to my Etsy shop. Eventually I plan on having a shopping cart on my site, but for now I'm redirecting anyone interested in seeing products directly to the shop from my website. Now I can market the crap out of the website which is a url I own and I can manage traffic, tweak things as I see fit and I can control my SEO. In the Etsy forum someone once said I have my own URL that I market with a redirect to my site and I don't have to worry about what Etsy is doing cause I don't market my shop I market my website. This sounded like good advice and it makes sense! So, so far so good. Feel free to take any of these tips and run like a crazy person with them!

Hello Again!

Ok so it's been a hot minute... so I apologize for that... But I had lots of stuff going on! So lets update from where we left off... Sunflower Express the Show seems to be headed towards hiatus-ville for the indefinite future and I have decided that instead of letting all that hardwork go to waste, I would keep the shop open and EVENTUALLY (as in when it seems appropriate) merge Sunflower Express with ShesSoCrafty on Etsy. For now the shops are seperate and doing well.

I have just completed the first straight etsy wholesale order and it went very well!

I will say this much... Think about your pricing hard core before you dive into wholesaling make sure the money is worth the time and effort, and remember unless you are a seller who has gobs of stuff hanging out all the time to just choose from, you will be making stuff and that takes away from time you could be making other stuff like for your shop or for shows. Pricing is key and it keeps you motivated if you know that you are getting paid decently for your products.

I posted in the forums on Etsy as to how to handle an on Etsy Wholesale order as they were foreign to me. I got lots of helpful information but I think the decision on how you handle things is completely up to you. For this first order I chose to go thru E. If this ends up being a return order I will definitely then consider going off Etsy and conducting this my self thru invoicing. Some people are very leary of being scammed, I on the other hand like to be a little bit flexible in determining my terms depending on the order and the customer. All in all this was a delightfully pleasant experience. I hope it leads to loads more!

Back to the blog front.... I will be trying to get myself back into a normal grove with this.... I will also be trying to migrate my SE handmade content over here as well so I don't loose those posts either! So regardless if you are a reader thanks for stopping by and I look forward to lots of crafty bits in the future!

Cheers

L

NEWY McNEW NEW...

So what have I been up to for the last month???? Making stuff. Of course :). I have been experimenting with colors and different techniques. I'm approaching this like play time (which it is). Felt really truly is one of my favorite mediums to play with. I am preparing for the Philadelphia Buyers Market which will hopefully help me rake in some wholesale accounts and hopefully some CASH. Hopefully Etsy sales will start trickling in again...
Sunflower Express has also begun two other shops. We have one on ArtFire called The Felted Underground, and another on 1000markets called that as well. I am still adjusting to the managing the multiple venues deal. Tricky, Tricky.
I have been doing alot of reading lately about trends.
I mean seriously is anything really new? Is there really an original idea to be had? When it comes to colors, and shapes and styles isn't the designers job now just to regurgitate all of those things into something that doesn't resemble day old bread? I spend alot of time looking at pictures for inspiration of not just felt stuff but clothing and "real" jewelry (don't forget shoes, they are my favorite peice of architectural accessories). I fully realize my style vacillates between kitch and uptown girl but I'm doing that with felt so that (at least in my mind) still makes it cool. I think of it as a little hippie chick with a dash of gypsy and a pinch of bohemiana (I SWEAR TO GOD IF I START MY OWN LINE THAT IS What i'm calling it.)
Preparing the line for The wholesale show has gotten me really thinking about the details of it all the small things, the prepping, the making sure everything is just right and just so. It's nerve wracking and exhilarating at the same time... I'm like this all the time but for this I want it to be spectacular... I want it to be special. So I work my ass off lol... Here you can see some of the current work.