New Site Design

Business , Etsy , GGMT • Nov 19, 2016

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I’m excited to finally release a new site design! It features everything the site had before along with an integration to my shop items. I apologize if some of the updates are coming up slowly. It’s taken me a little bit longer than expected to learn the features of the new theme.

Etsy has truly been great to me and i’ve had somewhat moderate success but I know i’m going to outgrow their services at some point. My fees have seemed to be somewhat heavy for such a small shop but i’ve understood their important (marketing, storefront, etc). I can imagine paying the amount of fees i’ve been paying as my business continues to grow. On a small item the fee eats the majority of the product. Profit is the end goal (someday) but right now any income that’s coming in is going straight to product upgrades and stock merchandise.

I hope that everyone enjoys the new layout! I look forward to any feedback. Thank you as well to http://helloyoudesigns.com/ for the beautiful design and assistance with any setup and this beautiful stock image above.

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Opening My Own Business – Vol 2

Business , Crafting , Etsy • Jul 19, 2016

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It’s crazy to think that almost a full six months have passed. SIX MONTHS! I still wouldn’t quite classify myself as a small business though. That is of course the end game but for now I would say that I’m still hovering in the hobby zone. Although I wish business was a bit steadier I’m feeling good. It takes a lot of time to build any sort of brand and I’m doing my best to make sure that I’m spending the right amount of time on the right projects.

My biggest fear getting into this (aside from wasting time and money) is a bad customer review. When you have a sheet of 100+ stickers you can’t take the time to test each one to make sure it’s properly peeling form the back. My fear was that one that wouldn’t come off would take a five star review down to only a two thus potentially tanking a fresh reputation. I’ve been lucky with a lot of five star reviews and nothing less.

For anyone looking to potentially start their own small/craft business I’ve created five quick bullet points of advice. Nothing crazy but things that I didn’t think of beforehand that I hope could be helpful to you!

1. DON’T WAIT! Seems pretty straightforward but it’s the truth. I personally have a tendency to spend a lot of time planning to start. Planning to make something happen when the truth is that I should have really just jumped in head first months ago.

2. CREATE A SYSTEM – I’m not saying I have the <i>perfect system</i>, I’m just saying you need one! I’m not at a point where I’m getting consistent orders but it seems like when I do get an order that I end up with more than one at a time. In an effort to keep myself sane I had to create a simple system. That mostly consists of not delaying on the order or tracking progress.

3. CREATE A FINANCIAL SYSTEM – This is important for many reasons. Unless my business really picks up over the course of the next four months, I’m going to end up in the red because of the initial startup costs that go with starting a business. This leads me to the next item…

4. PLAN AHEAD – This was my biggest mistake. I was so excited to start creating things that I didn’t realize I had no way of shipping these beauties. As I adapted to my new business I got in the habit of ordering packing supplies ahead of a product release. If I got ahead of myself I simply adjusted my shipping time in Etsy to plan for a mishap. Worse case, I knew I could run to the post office and pay extra to get it right!

5. BE FLEXIBLE – To me this is the second most important aside from not waiting. You can develop your systems and plan as much as you want but if you’re not willing to roll with the punches you can’t succeed. Life isn’t black and white. It’s extremely grey at times. My stickers weren’t moving very fast so I quickly had to develop new products that would help move the current ones along. I also moved into Vinyl a little faster than I was truly hoping to. That’s okay though because I’ve ended up making more money in two weeks than I did in the first three and a half months.

I’ll admit that I’m not exactly where I was hoping to be financially but I’m satisfied. I have plenty of room to grow and I’m really looking forward to the advances over the next few months. The holidays are coming soon and from what I’ve been studying that seems to be a very busy time. I assume of course it’s going to depend on your product and the market that your own.

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Opening My Own Business – Vol 1

Crafting , Etsy , GGMT , Personal , Project Life • Feb 15, 2016

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I’ve decided to go out on a limb in 2016 and start my own business. Yes, my very own baby! It definitely wasn’t an overnight decision and was something i’ve been wanting to do for sometime that i’ve kept to myself. The idea for the store came with the want for a Silhouette Cameo came to me.

If your not familiar with the Silhouette machines it’s definitely worth checking out. I wanted the machine more for Project Life but couldn’t justify the $199 price tag. Then it came to me.. I spend all this money on stickers and stamps for my planner why not make my own? I crunched some numbers and thought that it might actually be possible to make my money back! My hope is to make enough to  balance the cost of the machine. I figure if I haven’t made back the money i’ve spent on the initial investment by the end of the year, then the venture may not be worth it.

So.. let’s keep it real.. when i ordered the machine I actually spent about double what I was expecting to spend. Oops, lol. I found an intro package that had a bunch of accessories I felt were important. Better to have it instead of getting stuck when I need it. At some point I would love to do a review of the tools. As a newbie it’s been essential having most of them if not all of them (amen for the scraper).

I opened my Etsy store on January 24th, 2016 and so far i’ve had TWO SALES! Sounds exciting but one was my partner and the other was my best friend from high school, lol. I will take it though! It’s a start. I’ve done a lot of research on Etsy and how the site works so i’m hoping that the sales being to boost my store within their site.

Currently my main focus is going to be Planner Stickers. Mainly in the Icon style format. I’ve branched out a tiny bit with Hello Kitty and Inkwell Press inspired designs. My goal is to get into vinyl and expand my options a bit more. Below is an example of one of my sets, titled #ADMINPROBLEMS.

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I haven’t been active enough on my blog in years. Ugh.. the struggle is real, lol. I feel like it’s never had a purpose outside of my fanlistings so i’m excited to see what this adventure hold for me and the brand new God Give Me Truth.

I would love for anyone interested to a place an order. Between now and August 16, 2016 I am offering a 25% discount to anyone that visit’s my site here and places an order. Just use code WEBSITE25!

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Preparing For Project Life in 2015

Personal , Project Life • Jan 28, 2015

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Finding Project Life in 2014 was amazing! With so many vacation photos, ticket stubs, and miscellaneous memories we’ve wanted to save this was perfect! More than just perfect there are many days when I have felt like it was a true god-send.

What is Project Life you ask?

Project Life® is an ultra-simple, über-stylish solution for getting your photos off your phone and computer, out of boxes, and into albums. Gone are the days of cutting, pasting, buying oodles of supplies, and spending hours on an album. Or even hours on just one page.

Enter Project Life. Simply choose a Project Life Album, select a Core Kit full of artfully-designed cards, and slip them into our Photo Pocket Pages along with your treasured photos and you’re done! By spending less time on your albums, you’ll have more time to rearrange your sock drawer, give Fido a bath, or clean your house. Well, you get the idea. Take a while to look around our site and see what this revolutionary product is all about! #MindBlown

WHAT WORKED WELL?

Nothing. When I look back on 2014 and the beginning of my Project Life journey I wouldn’t say that it was a failure, I just don’t think that I did things as well as I should have. When you start something new it can be a challenge to master it. I feel good about my results but I know that this year i’m going to make it better!

  • Making My Own Cards – It didn’t go as well as I hoped it would but it helped with the cost savings of it all. The Core Kits can be so expensive but actual scrapbook paper doesn’t have to be. There are so many great deals each week on both individual sheets and books. The card punch was also a godsend. I chose the squared corner so that I would have the option to do squared corners or rounded (using my corner punch).
  • Storage – I hesitated on this one but I truly feel good about my storage situation. There are so many little bits and pieces that are needed to created the pages and having everything in an ‘easy-to-access’ space is amazing.
  • Creativity – I’m surprised by how creative I became. There were many times that I felt like I didn’t have the creative ‘juices’ to proceed but it always worked out. I’m proud of a lot of my layouts (and embarrassed by some of them).

2015 COMMITMENTS

  • Organization – It’s a struggle when their are a lot of pieces and parts all over the place. My Storage options were great but the organization to it all was a bit of a mess. Everything from paper to tape to stickers and wood veneers. Getting all the pieces and parts in their proper place I believe will help each commitment that will follow a better chance.
  • Keeping Up – Keeping up with it all was tough! Aside from actual life it can be a challenge just to find the time to complete each page. There is nothing worse than getting behind and feeling like there are mountains to climb.
  • Save Money – Overall I feel good about the money i’ve spent in the last 9 months. I do on the other hand feel like I bought items that were unnecessary. I’ve learned to make my own cards (although they need plenty of work). I also had a tendency to buy things that I truly just did not need.
  • More Swaps – Swapping is great! So many times you end up buying a pack of stickers but you only actually need one or two out of the entire pack. I get lazy with ‘swapping’ because of the amount of time and energy involved but I know that it’s going to go hand-in-hand with the money saving I would like to do.

I think my commitments are very doable. I’ve been reading some blog posts to see what my fellow project-lifers are up to. I’m looking forward to a great 2015!

Further Guidance – Big City Quiet • Give A Girl A Blog

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Christmas 2014 Is Coming!

Holidays , Personal , Project Life • Nov 22, 2014

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Seems crazy to even say that Christmas is roughly a month away. A MONTH! I am not at all prepared. I’m trying though so hopefully that at least counts for something. One thing that I really wanted us to do this year was make our own christmas cards. I spent a couple months slowly gathering supplies to create the cards and even signed us up for a class at Studio Calico. I wanted us to be ready.

Well, the class was a bust. Nothing against Studio Calico but i just didn’t feel like I had the tools to be making the cards that they were showing us how to make. I have A TON of craft stuff due to my Project Life obsession but I don’t have a lot of the more expensive tools such as a die cutter. I felt like a lot of those tutorials really focused on having a die cutter so that was of course of no use to me.

A lot of cards turned out beautiful. Their are a lot of really neat crafting supplies that come out during the holidays. My favorite line by far for every holiday is Martha Stewart. I just think that all of her crafting material is top notch. It tends to be a bit on the pricey side but their is always a sale and every craft store tends to constantly have some sort of coupon available (except for Pat Catans so I tend to avoid them :/).

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I went to Michaels and Pat Catans yesterday. Pat Catans sent me a 15% off coupon and their holiday merchandise was 40% off for a total of 55% off my holiday purchase. As much as I avoid going to Catan’s due to the sending out coupons-once-per-year policy they always have all of the Martha Stewart products. Above is about half of what I actually bought (but the only Martha products).  I only spent around $17 total and got a ton of stickers. I’m good on just about everything else but I tend to use a ton of stickers so it was worth the small hall in the end.

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I mean.. honestly.. how amazing are the stars above?! I just couldn’t pass that up. During Valentines Day one thing I really enjoyed using where some postage stamp-style stickers she released. I saw them (below) for Christmas and I could not pass them up. We have a couple of more Christmas cards to make and I can think of a million ways to use them. You get A TON in each package so i’ll have enough left over to use them in my Project Life book. The stickers (above) are also a bit raised so you get that three dimensional look to the photos in Project Life. A bit more appeasing to the eye!

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One other thing i’m working on is a December Daily book for this year. I haven’t really put anything together because i’m debating on how I want to make it work. Their are so many options but I struggle because I feel like we don’t always have enough to document on a regular basis. For example – I know that a lot of people due two pages in their Project Life book for each week. I generally tend to leads toward one unless something significant is happening. Aside from work their isn’t too much that goes on every week of the year. I don’t have kids so their just isn’t anything to document.

Speaking of work, the holiday events are all starting! I LOVE IT! So many great things that go on from parties, cookie baking, and of course just the overall end of year celebration (i work in finance, you must celebrate the year-end). I work as an administrative assistant so I get to assist with a lot of the planning. Looking forward to every last bit of it!

We got a good dropping of snow this week! Enough to cover everything but still keep the roads clear. I don’t remember all to much snow coming in November in past years. I saw on the weather forecast that the majority of the snow will melt before Thanksgiving and then being to snow again on Thanksgiving Day. Great… just what we want for Black Friday shopping! Madness, crazy people, and snow covered roads, what a great combination.

Anybody have any exciting plans for the upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday? Do you do Black Friday shopping?

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