More Etsy Tips

I hope everyone had a great weekend! My son came in town, so I had a wonderful time. :)
More tips to share!
1. List new items and list often. I try to list a new item at least twice a day. I have found, using google, and most of my visits come around noon and again between 8 and 10pm. I try to list new items, but if I don't have anything to list, I will renew an item.
Renewing will bring your shop up to the "front of the lists". It doesn't always brings tons of views, but I do think it keeps your shop "fresh".

2. Visit the Etsy forums. I can't tell you how much I have learned from the forums. Granted, you must take advice with a "grain of salt", but there is a lot of good info in the forums. Ask lots of questions and most of the time you will receive good advice. The forums have changed in the past few months and sometimes you have to wait longer for answers to your questions.
3. Visit the Etsy blogs. No, I don't read each and every one, but I do try to each week. Be sure to comment on the blog. Why? Because every time you comment on Etsy you are leaving a link to your shop! I have noticed an increase of views each time I comment on the blogs. Google also picks up your comments!

I hope these tips have helped you. Please feel free to post any questions you may have and I will be happy to help you.

Etsy's New Coupon Code!

 I decided to try Etsy's new coupon code tonight. I've been waiting for a few days for this to become active in my shop. I'm just having a sale tonight to check it out and see how everything runs. So far so good and I've made a few sales!

Sale ends tonight (11/20) at 10PM (CT).
This is just a test to see how the coupon works, so I'll have another very soon.

Coupon code: 112010

Needle Felting Soap Bars

Felting handmade soap is fun, but needle felting handmade soap is even more fun! The wool used is very soft merino wool. I like the softness of the wool, but it's difficult to work with. You have to work carefully so the wool does not bunch up and create "folds". Each soap takes about 20 min to felt just the background.

I wrapped the stem of the flower around the back of the handmade soap bar to hide some folds I had. I think they turned out well! I have a few more bars finished and now I just need to decide what design to use.
Square soap is harder to felt, due to the corners, but you just have to be extra careful to wrap the corners and wait until the sides are firm before working on the corners.
I'm looking forward to creating needle felting soap for the holidays. I know, it's too early to think about Halloween and Christmas, but it's not too early in the handmade world.

I wanted to show off the finished soap. I covered the bar with a brown paper bag and a cute red checked ribbon. Didn't they turn out well?

Can You Picture The Scent?

I added candles to my Etsy shop awhile back. I have always wanted to make candles and after lots of testing (which was fun!) I listed my candles. I think bath products go well with candles and what better way to pamper yourself!

The problem I have this that I love so many scents, so I get carried away when ordering my oils! I also have a hard time narrowing down the size of candle. I decided to offer tea candles, round tin candles, and glass candles. Tea candles are nice to have around and are pretty inexpensive to ship. I am offering glass candles because they look really nice I am selling them in my shop...so no shipping costs!
One of my favorite scents is Tomato Leaf. It sounds like a strange scent, but it's really a nice FRESH scent! My son was home last weekend and after smelling this candle, he said, "wow, that really smells like a tomato vine". This coming from a young man that won't even walk into a bath and body shop! He even took one home with him. Now that's an endorsement!

How much do you love bath and body? Now you can buy at 50% off!

Coming June 1st - A MONTH long hunting game! Every day I will "hide" a word, number, or symbol somewhere in one of my Etsy listings. I will post the "search" every day and the first person to find it in my shop will receive that item for 50% OFF! I will post the "search" during various times each day so everyone had a chance to find it. Check back every day for the new hint!
So, be sure to check out my shop at ABreathOfFrenchAir every day for fun discounts!

I'm In The Storque!

I was in the Storque this weekend! Check it out....I'm the first shop featured!

I Am Featured In NeatoStuff!!

I am featured on NeatoStuff!! They featured my beer soap! I love this site and am so honored to have them feature my Beer Soap!

I

Kumquat Cold Process Handmade Soap!

What an amazing scent!! I was not sure what Kumquat smelled like until I received my oils...OMG...I'm not a "fruit scented" lover, but this smells amazing!! Big chunky bars of juicy fruit!

My First Ebay Listing! Handmade Cold Process Soap Set

I listed my first soaps on Ebay! If you click on the picture of soaps, it will take you to my Ebay page. If you purchase this set, through Ebay, I'll refund your shipping costs!

I have my first ad!

I have my first ad on another blog! It's called EtsyRox and the link is right here:

EtsyRox

The ad is on the right side. Thanks, Princessbride!

Pick Three Handmade Soap - Cold Process Method - With Shea Butter - You Pick Your Scent

I decided to offer 3 soap bundles in my shop. I think it will take the guess work out of how many to purchase and you can't beat the shipping price of $4.75! I picked up this bucket at an Estate sale last year and I really like to use it in my pictures.
I used scrap paper to wrap my soaps in. The paper came in a bundle and they match in color and style, which I like!

Cool Art/Hot Jazz Festival

Here is our ShowMeEtsy booth. It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun! I learned so much over the 3 days. We were a bit crowded, since there are so many of us! I didn't make much, but the learning experience was priceless. I also met several local artists who would also like to join our team!

St. Louis Cool Art and Jazz Festival At Queeny Park

I have my first show this weekend! I'm so excited! It's a 3 day show at the Cool Art/Jazz Festival at Queeny Park. I'm leaving in a little bit to help set up. ShowMeEtsy is a group of Etsy sellers from the St. Louis area. We have a Street Team on Etsy and you can visit our group on our Blog.

Cool Art/Jazz Festival

Art, live music, food, kids' activities. This weekend's Cool Art, Hot Jazz Festival in Queeny Park is filled with fun for the whole family. For art lovers, there are 130 juried artists from all across the U.S. and Canada showing off their paintings, scuplture, photography and more. The interactive children's program gives kids of all ages the chance to meet the artists and learn more about their work. Local emerging artists, like the ShowMeEtsy group, will also have booths at the festival where they will be selling jewelry, decorations and other crafts.

Cool Art, Hot Jazz Festival
August 15 - 17, 2008
Greensfelder Recreation Complex
Queeny Park, Ballwin

Twenty One Steps To Making Handmade Cold Process Soap

Gather all your equipment. I have my gloves, goggles, scale, lye, beer (making beer soap), and various containers.
Getting ready to pour the beer into the pitcher.
Measuring out the beer. All materials are measured by weight and not volume.
Measuring out the Lye. You can see that I have covered my counter tops with newspapers. It keeps my counters free of soap and makes cleaning up much easier. I just gather the paper and throw it in the recycling bin.
Adding my lye to the beer. I always do this in the sink since it's safer and easier to clean up.
Mixing the lye into the beer.
Watching and stirring in horror as my beer reacts to the lye and foams up and spills all over the sink...see why I mix in the sink!! This is the first time this has happened with any of my batches! It was flat (or so I thought) and has been open (and poured) for two days. Sigh....
Starting over with water this time. LOL!
Measuring out the Lye...
Pouring the lye into the water.....again....
Stirring the solution...again.....! I always wear rubber gloves and (knock on wood) have never been burned from the lye. I also wear goggles at all times.
Here I have my coconut oil measured in the pitcher.
Added the Palm Oil.
Added Palm Kernel Flakes.
Added the Shea Butter. This is 8% of the batch.
All melted and ready to go! At this time I usually leave everything and go about my day for a few hours. My kids are not home, and hubby is away at work. What I didn't show were pictures of adding the other oils in the recipe. These are added to the melted oil and help cool off the oils.
All set to go! I have measured the oils. I'm using lemongrass and black tea.
JUST stirred the lye mixture into the oils. I stir by hand for a bit to see how everything reacts.
I use the stick blender to finish up the batch. You can see it coming to "trace" right here. See how the blender is leaving a "wake" in the mixture....all set to pour!
All poured! Now I cover the mold with a piece of cardboard and then place a few blankets on top. I don't uncover until the next morning.
Thanks for taking the tour with me!

Getting Organized

The boxes on the floor are empty. The shelf on the top has my mailing supplies.
See the ping pong table? This is where I was setting my soaps on. I had them in trays, which was ok, but I'm hoping to fold up the table to allow more space in the room.

DH brought some shelves home yesterday. They came from his warehouse (he is in the shoe business) and they transferred over to a new system so they were not using them. The shelves go all the way to the ceiling (8 feet) and are in our basement. I spent most of the day getting organized and getting all my soaps together. He also brought home new shoe boxes and I'm using these to store my cured soap.

Summer Hydrangea Cold Process Soap

This soap was "supposed" to be pink and green! It started to trace faster than I wanted so I quickly plopped it into the mold without any color, but I really like how it turned out. It hasn't changed colors during curing, which is nice! I took the picture with a bloom from my Hydrangea Bush. The bloom is about 8 inches wide! They started out blue, and later in the summer turned pink, and now they have this fantastic rose color! Oh, the soap smells fantastic too!

Too Soon For Christmas??

I had some leftover bags from last year, I decided to offer my handmade soap inside the bag to make a great little gift for someone special!The soap is scented with Sleigh Ride, which smells just like Christmas Eve...pine trees, fresh snow...yummy!

Blackberries From My Own Bush!

We have several Blackberry bushes in our backyard. DH planted them about 5 years ago. His idea of planting is to dig a hole, plant the bush, give them a drink of water, and then to leave them to survive on their own! LOL! Last year we actually had a few berries (I think a total of 3!) and this year the bushes are COVERED with berries. I have been able to eat quite a few, but most have not ripened. Here's a group....they are HUGE! I took some pictures of the berries with my soap and lotion. This is my Blackberry Sage Soap.
It's so hard to take a full picture of my bottles..they are so tall!