Irritated or Happy?
25 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
in Arts and Crafts Tags: arts and crafts, craft page, Facebook, friends, home business, jewelry, networking, orders, wire bending
I have had my Facebook fan page for a little over a year now. It’s awesome. I feel like it’s been helping me a lot because I have a bunch of fans that aren’t people I actually know and I’ve had a great amount of people purchase items after they have seen them on the page. I am also so frustrated sometimes because of the lack of people I get to LIKE my page. It’s so easy; you click a button and you see all my stuff and all my updates. One of the new things on the fan pages are the insights. You see a graph will all kinds of numbers; how many people like your page, how many people you reach and a few other things. Again, this is awesome and a bit disappointing. I feel like Facebook is so huge and I am only reaching a teeny, tiny, wee baby little amount of people. For example, I currently have 262 likes (totally not complaining about his, that’s awesome). If all the friends of those 262 people also liked the page, I would have over 60,000 likes. Whoa! The one number that is keeping me interested the last couple weeks is the REACH number. Now, with some of the new settings on Facebook, when you LIKE something or comment on something, sometimes it decides to show up on your News Feed for everyone to see. Example, I liked a photo on a fan page and now everyone can see something that says, “Chrissy LIKED a photo” and it shows the photo. So this is working to my advantage because when people like or comment on something from my page, their friends see it. They don’t necessarily need to come to my page, but they can see me, sort of. This number used to range in the high hundreds. This last week, I was up to 756 people. Here’s where I get to the point of my story. I am soooo happy that that many people are seeing my stuff. But I am so irritated at the same time that they won’t LIKE my page. I guess it’s just part of the business. Like the saying, if you have a good experience somewhere you tell one or two people. But if you have a bad experience somewhere you tell ten. So I am back to feeling happy that there are no bad experiences.
Another thing that makes me both happy and irritated is the way people interact on my page. Now that it’s becoming more and more like a business, I try to keep the conversations on a business level. Here are some examples. I have a friend who likes to post things in some sort of language that is a little bit of English mixed with gibberish. I don’t mind this sort of posting on my personal page. But one day he posted something silly on my business page. I deleted it and told him to keep it professional. No big deal. A couple weeks ago my best friend posted something about hillbillies on the page. Again, delete and tell her that she may have mistaken my business page as my personal page. These things happen, you see my name more than once on your news feed and you get confused. Well yesterday I posted a question on my page about what sorts of words people want me to try to bend with wire. I got a good initial response; Peace, Faith… and then my friends posted “YOUR MOM.” At first I had the reaction of “Really?” Then she posted that she was serious and wanted to know if I could do it. As I was just about to delete the comment and email her saying, “I would love to make that for you but that is better suited for a private message,” people are LIKING her comment and saying that is so funny. So I’m torn. On one side I am happy because she does actually want a bracelet and that means more business for me and she got more people to interact with my page. But I still feel like it was inappropriate for my business page. Grrr… all these mixed emotions.
I will just continue on the path of being happy and make some more custom orders today and ride my skateboard to the post office.
Put a Little Love on Your Wrist
25 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
in Arts and Crafts, Uncategorized Tags: arts and crafts, bracelet making, creative creation, LOVE, wire bending
I am pretty sure I’ve posted a photo of the LOVE bracelet, I know I’ve posted one of the necklace…anyway, here’s the newest creation.
A friend really liked the bracelet but wondered if I could make it more into a cuff-like bracelet. And here it is. It can be bent just slightly to get around your wrist and then it stays snug in place. I added a small 4-link chain on the side just to be sure it stays in place. But boy are these popular. I’ve had a few orders of these so far and a bunch of people mad that they didn’t wait and buy this instead of the other LOVE bracelet.
I’m trying more names and things. I felt like I needed something to show off at my craft fair this weekend, so I made this one.
This way I can show off that I love my husband, and show off my mad wire bending skills at the same time.
Like this:
Funny Story
25 Apr 2012 2 Comments
in Uncategorized Tags: funny, mommy, skateboard
So business has been amazing lately, which means I have to go to the post office a lot. We only have one car in my family, so my daughter and I walk to the post office. We live on a very small military base so it’s about a mile or less to the post office. So she rides her bike and I walk. That was working out great for a little bit but I either have to walk really fast to keep up with her or I am yelling at her to stop and wait for me. So I decided to ride my skateboard along side her. It’s been working out great. I get a little bit of exercise and skateboarding time. I have to admit, I felt like a dork the first couple times. What mom rides a skateboard around town? An awesome one!! LOL!!!!
So the other day I was at the housing office and the main lady and I were chatting. She said, “I saw you skateboarding the other day.” I said, “Oh ya, that was me.” It was kind of cool that someone recognized me. To give you a little perspective…I was pretty popular growing up. Then when I went to High School, popularity dropped by like 90%. I am totally cool with that. I was sort of a nerd who always did my homework so I didn’t care. But when I started dating my now husband, I became J’s girlfriend. He had a cool car and everyone knew him. Again, whatever. But now to have someone recognize ME, it was like, “Hey! I’m cool!”
So last Friday, the housing office was giving away free mulch and flowers to residents. Again, only one car, so I designated my husband to go pick it up. He shows up and tells them our last name and they are like, “Oh. You’re Chrissy’s husband.” All the other office people are like, “Who’s Chrissy?” Then the best part… “You know, the cutie from Chevron that rides the skateboard?” “OH YA!!!!!” says everyone. So I am totally known around the neighborhood now as the cutie that rides the skateboard. Can’t say I should be complaining. I rather like that name.
So I am off to the post office again today, skateboard ridin’!!
Amazing
17 Apr 2012 1 Comment
in Arts and Crafts Tags: arts and crafts, custom jewelry, Etsy, home business, necklaces, networking, pinterest, successful, wire bending
I really didn’t know what else to call the title of this blog entry, so I just went with what I’m feeling. Right now I am feeling amazing. I have been doing nothing but making custom ordered jewelry the last couple days. I bought some new tools to help with my wire bending and I am trying all kinds of new things. I just finished making 2 name bracelets for a friend.
Taelor and Sienna.
I just sent out 3 invoices for different jewelry items. One is the LOVE bracelet that is quickly becoming a bestseller. Another is a custom order for a friend who wants to me to make a necklace for their girlfriend. She’s into sports and so I am making her a drop necklace with her jersey number and a charm hanging down. I can’t wait to get the charms in the mail to get started.
I have been noticing lately too that my networks are booming!! I am not sure if that’s the right way to state that, but… People are still not actually buying items from my Etsy page, but everyday there are people favoriting my individual items for sale and my entire shop. Just the fact that people are viewing my shop is so awesome. A year ago when I opened my Etsy shop, I would maybe get 1 or 2 views of my items because my mom would look at what I was selling. My LOVE bracelet has 69 views as of today. And even my baby shower items are getting more views. The skull set has 38 views and 3 favorites.
Now that I have been keeping up with my blog a little more often, people are starting to read these too. AND….Pinterest. I know I haven’t touched on that yet, but can I just say it’s amazing. I love that I finally have more ways to get random people to see my creations. I have a few followers on Pinterest, but I also found that I have people pinning my stuff from the internet. One day I was browsing the POPULAR section and saw one of my necklaces. Someone had seen it on Etsy and pinned it. And then 40 more people repinned it. So now those 40 people have a direct link to my Etsy page and my jewelry. Way cool!!!
This is a custom order I just finished. My customer wanted a starfish charm and orange beads to go with her orange outfits she bought for a trip to Florida. I found some charms online and voila. It’s so easy to order things from me. You ask, I find, I make.
Like this:
Freaking Awesome
11 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
in Arts and Crafts Tags: arts and crafts, custom art, Facebook, handmade necklace, heart necklace, home business, mother's day gift, necklace, networking, success
That is the first comment I got on my Facebook craft page when I posted a photo of my newest necklace. That is so great to have someone instantly think my jewelry is awesome. Then the next comment was SOLD, meaning someone wanted one…then they told me they wanted two! So awesome!! Here’s the necklace.
I saw this sort of necklace on Pinterest and made it my own. The one I saw was leaves with a hanging charm and I thought a heart would be nice. My customer also gave me a great idea of how to market this. Sell a pair of them as a dual Mother/Daughter Mother’s Day gift. Or just one as a gift, but one for each person is just awesome. Hopefully it will take off. And now I am off to make more and see what else I can hang from the bottom.
Like this:
Redo..Do-over
10 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: arts and crafts, business cards, home business, website
I have updated my business card…again. I was so excited to create a business card. I thought that since I was actually starting to sell my stuff online I definitely should be handing out cards.
My first card was so cute. It had a photo of some paints and my name, my name, my phone number and it said Tampa, Florida. That was before I had a website and was all awesome. 
Once I had a website, I needed something fresh and new. My husband told me that he worked with a computer guy who would definitely make me some starter cards. Woohoo!! The only thing I had to do was give the guy a bottle of wine. Sweet! Basically it was about $20 for some business cards. I needed them by the end of the month…… The night I needed them, they were finally done. Can’t complain too much because they were cheap. They were great. I was official. Then I saw the mistake. There was an extra S in my name. Oh well. I didn’t hand out too many.
So I came home and scanned them and used my mediocre skills to redo them. Then I handed one out to someone and she told me that she couldn’t read it. Back home, mediocre skills to the rescue again.
For a few months now I have had the same card and it’s been working out great. Not sure if anyone has actually looked at the card and thought, “Oh ya, Chrissy. Maybe I should order something.” But they are out floating around.
The end of this month my website is temporarily shutting down, so I needed to revamp again. So there you have it. My new card. Hot off the press that is my home printer.
My thumb is Green
06 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
in Gardening Tags: basil, gardening, gardens, green thumb, peppers, plant lover, plants, pots
Besides arts and crafts, I really could garden all day long. I love to plant new flowers, I love to start plants from seeds, I love to weed and prune the plants….I love gardening. Unfortunately I live in a duplex apartment and don’t have the yard space for gardening. I take that back. I have the space, but there are a couple problems. I get the best sun in the front yard and it’s weird to grow veggies in your front yard. And the dogs have pretty much taken over the back (which doesn’t get the best sun anyway), so I have resorted to veggies in pots. Which is working out great!!
I am growing banana peppers, bell peppers (or one giant one at the moment), snap peas and cherry tomatoes. I really wasn’t sure they would do so well in pots, but so far so good.
This is my Money Tree. It has yet to provide me with any money, but I am holding out. This is probably my most favorite plant ever. Probably because he and I have been through thick and thin together. I purchased this tree in 2006 in California while my husband was deployed. He then moved with me to North Carolina where he endured chilly winters and hot, humid summers. His leaves would fall off and I would move him to a different window and he would get happy again. Then we moved to Florida together. I thought for sure just having him outside would be the best because of the constant heat. No go. Again, he shed every leaf and looked dead. But I did not give up. I brought him inside and nursed him back to health. Now he lives outside on the front porch and looks spectacular.
One of the best little known secrets of buying plants from stores…if you are good at gardening, buy plants from the clearance section. I bought 2 petunia plants for about $0.45 and the lilies for maybe $1. They didn’t look so hot but I planted them and now look. I believe the stores just put the ones without fresh blooms on the clearance rack.
Again, a plant that started to not look so great, and now it looks amazing. I had purchased one of those baby cactus with the huge pink flowers on top a while back. It was doing fine in the house but at some point in late spring/early summer, the gnats start to invade my houseplants. So this guy went outside and didn’t do too well. I may have over-watered him a bit, or maybe he just had a crisis. He ended up under a table and just waiting to be thrown away. Then one day I looked, and he had a new sprout. It was the arm on the right. Then it just shot up like crazy. Then the one on the left sprouted and has gotten bigger and bigger everyday. It sort of looks like a crab now with one huge claw. And now there is even a little baby sprout in the front. I am not sure if it’s going to be a new flower or another arm. We shall see. Another reason to not give up on plants.
Today, a friend of mine surprised me with some lilies as an Easter gift. A $2 Ikea pot and some paint later, I have a new front step pot and plant.
And the last one of the day…my kitchen basil in another pot I painted today. I purchased this little plant for a whopping $.50 and I just know it is going to take off in it’s new home.
Like this:
Do the Twist
06 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
in Arts and Crafts Tags: arts and crafts, handmade, heart shaped necklaces, home business, necklaces, wire twisting
One of my new favorite things to do in the jewelry word is wire twisting. I am still very new at it; heck, I don’t even have all the right tools, but I am trying new things all the time and loving the results. The first thing I did was make an “S” necklace. It’s so simple but so pretty. It’s just 3 pieces of wire, each a little bigger than the first, bent in an “s” shape and then hung together.
One I made a couple of these necklaces to sell, I was hooked on the wire twisting. I saw all kinds of examples in magazines and just started to make them my own.
This is the next one I tried. Twisted hearts. I love this one. I think what I love the most is that it is perfect as is. 5 hearts and you’re good to go. But you could even do 3 hearts and it would be enough. OR…you could add colored beads to it. Like…….
This one. 3 hearts with a bead in the middle of each and some extras on the side. Perfect to jazz it up a bit.
Then as I was perusing Pinterst (which I am going to blog about in a minute), I saw a great photo of a tattoo. It’s the word “LOVE” as one continuous line. I bet I could twist some wire like that.
Voila!! Simple yet beautiful. One word, one of the most powerful words, hanging nicely around your neck. And once I posted a photo of this to my Facebook, it blew up!! Everyone thinks its great and want to see what else I can do. So great!!
All these necklaces posted are for sale on my Facebook page as well as my Etsy page.
My Kitchen
05 Apr 2012 2 Comments
in Arts and Crafts Tags: arts and crafts, canvas paintings, custom art, day of the dead, dia de los muertos, fabric, kitchen decor, sewing
I mentioned in an earlier post that I was planning on redoing my kitchen with the Dia De Los Muertos theme. I did it!! Well, I have most of it done and I am still working on small things. Here are a bunch if photos of what I’ve done. Besides a few items I purchased, almost everything is custom made. I think that’s awesome!!!
The first thing I did was make valances for my 2 kitchen windows. Although some of the art is just a painted sugar skull, I want my theme to be couples.
Here is the other window, and what I painted above it. This is what Dia de los Muertos means in the Yucatan. It is pronouced Hanal Pixan and means, “The path to the soul through the essence of food.” Kind of fitting for my kitchen don’t you think?
Let’s see…the frame with 5 photos on top have Loteria cards in them. I was able to find Loteria de la Muerte and I was soooo excited!! The frame on top has one of the cards in it and I covered it with fabric. It was just a plain canvas frame you get for about $.99 at Walmart. The big canvas is actually a faux canvas I purchased at Walmart. When I was in San Diego and we were going to the DDLM festival, I tested out my face painting skills on my daughter. The photo was perfect for my kitchen.
Here is my dining room table. The placemats were the ones I made a couple years ago, so I just added the table runner and the paper flowers. Now those were an easy project and so much fun.
My new utensil holder. I love the couple I painted. This was just a clay pot I purchased for around $1.50. I liked this one because it was brown instead of terra cotta red.
I used the same couple as the utensil holder to make this plate. I don’t have any bisque fired plates lying around, so I went to one of those paint you own pottery places to make this.
I also painted this plate at the same pottery place. I was lucky enough to find a plate that already had the skull embossed on it, so I just made it my own.
These are two canvases I painted just to have as art around the kitchen.
This is my most recent addition to the kitchen. I found the examples of the skulls on Pinterest and made them my own. This is one of those canvases that has about a 2 inch thick back to it, so I was able to paint it and then insert clock parts and still have it hang flush with the wall. I was finally able to put away the clock that was part of my previous theme (chef) and add this one to the kitchen.
Like this:
Policies for Chrissy’s Creative Creations
04 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Arts and Crafts Tags: custom art, Etsy, Facebook, home business, inventory, orders, payment method, policies, pricing, purchases
GENERAL POLICIES
-When ordering an item, I will now email invoices. Please provide your name and email address when you make an initial order.
-If you say you want an item, I will remove it from the FOR SALE page. If it is not paid for in full within 2 weeks* of the invoice date, the item will go back up for sale.
-PayPal is my preferred payment method. I will accept checks as well.
With checks or Echecks (PayPal), it must clear the bank before items are started
or shipped.
Please allow up to 2 extra weeks* for processing and shipping if paid by check.
-I will NOT mail items until they are paid for in full.
-No partial payments for pre-made items. Pre-made items include anything that is up for sale as is.
***As of April 2012, I now also except credit card payments. All instructions for making a payment are listed on my invoices. ***
FOR CUSTOM ITEMS
-Full payment or partial payments are required up front for custom orders. I do not keep enough supplies such as fabric and canvases on hand, so I use the money to buy the supplies. If it makes you more comfortable, you also have the option of buying the supplies and shipping them to me. I will deduct the price of the supplies only from your total. Please keep your receipt.
-When discussing a custom project, the customer and I will come up with a “due date.” Full payment, if partial was made, must be paid within 2 weeks* of due date. This is your side of the bargain. I will have something done by or before the due date as my side.
-Custom orders not paid in full ONE MONTH after completion will be put up for sale. A refund will not be given for partial payments.
- I love working closely with you to make sure the items you order are just as you would like. If you would like to provide me with a cell phone number, I will text you photos and questions as I make your custom creation. I will let you know when I am headed to the fabric store and send you photos of what I see to make sure they are what you want. I will text you photos as I make a pair of custom earrings to ensure they are just right.
Note: *2 weeks= 10 business days
=======================================================
Placing an order is easy!!!
Example of ordering an item from my Facebook page:
{Photo of Earrings}
Option 1: Comment: “I would like these earrings. My email is………”
Option 2: Email me about the earrings at chrissyscreativecreations@gmail.com
I will then email you an invoice and proceed with the order. Please do not say anything on the comments that will make me think you would like to make a purchase without the intention of buying.
