Etsy Five Favorites of the Week #3

A brief note: These are five things I really liked that I found on Etsy this week, they are not items made or sold by me!

Mini Crossbody Messenger bag from HangaBag

 Embroidered Necklace by merriweathercouncil

Halloween invitation by dandydesignsink

War Eagle Football Dress by Little Bee's Clothing Shop

Misunderstood Pitbull Stuffed Animal by Flaky Friends

Etsy Five Favorites of the Week #2

Pixel People Superhero Sampler PDF Pattern

Vintage Robot Cookie Jar

Homework Helpers embroidery patterns

Flutter Skirt Pattern

Halloween Wreath with Ghost

Etsy item of the day! Karma with a Side of Love Bracelet

I've long had the idea to post a weekly round-up of great Etsy items. I have yet to figure out how to make little montage of pictures in an appealing way.  Today, I decided to heck with it, how about a daily item instead?

So our first Etsy item of the day is this Karma with a Side of Love Bracelet.

Isn't that adorable? I think it perfectly fits my own personal style. I'm a big lover of a bracelet that I wear all time  (or a necklace or rings, I rarely change my jewelry) and right now I am between bracelets. I started with a leather Life is Good one, but one of my children CHEWED ON IT! Then I got a cute one in Hawaii made of white shell but quickly realized that it was turning dingy- I think from dishwashing. This one, or really any one of several in the Mae Bee shop, would fit me quite nicely. And at $18 might even fit my budget!

Disclaimer: The Etsy seller of this item has no idea I'm posting, and no affiliation with me, my blog, or my Etsy shop. I just want to share a little bit of what I love.

Craft, Inc by Meg Mateo Ilasco

(Some of you have already seen this, but there are a couple people who only read this blog who might be interested in the book.)

As you are all fully aware, given how much I talk about it, I have a shop on Etsy. I'd love to turn it into something that will generate a little extra income for my family so that I could one day be debt free. (Yes, "one day" is a long long long long LONG time in the future. Do not crush my dreams.) To that end I bought (yes, bought!) this book- Craft, Inc.: Turn Your Creative Hobby into a Business. It's a short little book, only 160 pages, and while not everything in it will really apply to me, there was a lot of inspiration to be found.

Ilasco breaks the book down into chapters about marketing, inspiration, sales, and pricing, among others. The book covers in very general terms all the different aspects of owning your own shop AND creating your own brand. She's very clear that you have to brand yourself fully, you can't have a bunch of random stuff throw together and expect to be a rousing success. I think this is possibly the most useful thing I took out of the book and I expect it'll cause me to think more about my own shop and how I can pull it together more cohesively. One thing I took the time to do already was to create a Facebook fan page for the shop, please go become a fan!

Throughout the book there are short interview from various people who have managed to turn their hobbies into very successful brands. Each one was about two pages long, just long enough to keep me interested, without too many details. Some of them were very inspiring and make me think that this IS possible for me.

The one aspect of the book that wasn't so helpful for me was that a lot of the book does focus on things that can be mass produced. For example- pottery pots, or lip balm, or even knitted hats. Most of what I make tends to be one of the kind- custom team banners, messenger bags, and tote bags from t-shirts. It's a little harder to market something that is so unique- just how many sample banners do I need anyway, if the Twins fans don't bite?

Overall, a useful book, one that I'll add to my shelves. It certainly does inspire me to work harder at my goal. If you're interesting in starting a creative business of your own, I think you could get a lot out of this book, otherwise probably not for you.

If you could turn any hobby into a business, what would it be? What do you love to do? You don't have to be great at it, I'm just interested in what your passion is... and don't say "I'd love to make a living reading books!" cause DUH.

Craft, Inc. by Meg Mateo Ilasco

Chronicle Books

2007

160 pages

Did you know?

That you can subscribe to Etsy shops through Google Reader? It's TRUE! I just noticed it. So say you want to know when your favorite seller (ahem) posts a new item- just go to their shop and near the bottom you'll see "subscribe to shop feed."

Ta da!

Cool, huh?

.

The Etsy Shop

FINALLY, a new bag in the shop! There's only one right now, but soon, soon there will be more.