I opened a Store - How Can I Advertise it? - Business Advice

You can sign up for Twitter and tweet about it (send a text message up to 140 characters in length, can include links) and let people who like the type of things you create know when you have new items up for sale.

 

Set your profile status on facebook to your store.

 

Advertise your store link in your signature for your emails and thus all your message posts to groups. (*General rule to keep your email signature to a maximum of three (3) lines of text). *Please note that when your posting anything to message groups and forums that everyone may have their own rules about advertising certain types of links from within your signature. Example: XYZ Clay Group on yahoo has an Official/ Dedicated supplier (one willing to give a discount off products to all members of that group in exchange for the privilege of having the groups membership base as their possible customer base) and thus you can not have links in your signature to a site or stores that may sell products of the same type as the official supplier. 

 

Put the link to your store online in anything you mail, or post, make some business cards and be sure to put the link on them in a font that can be easily viewed. On business cards you do not need to have the http:// part of the website address printed, just the www. DebsStore.com should work great. You can get 200 FREE business cards through Vista Print for like $1.99 and the price of shipping or something, its like cheep and they are nice cards. I have heard of other services you can get cards from online and you may find some less that are even better. I know the free ones with Vista have their logo on the very bottom of the back with their info/link. A very small price to pay for FREE cards for just the cost of shipping, but your image speaks of who you are. Your an artist and you don't use cheap materials and supplies in your art, perhaps you don't want to send a message that your cheap on your cards. Many people will not realize this or even care, but there may be few in your own mind then you may not wish to go this route. I have heard different opinions about this.

 

 

Depending on what you sell you can create specials and advertise them where those types of products would be of interest and need.

 

If you sell supplies you might wish to create a class where you can in turn sell the supplies needed to complete the class.

Make up starter kits of clay and tools, and maybe include a little tutorial or 2 in free with purchase, etc..

 

There is always a way to make your product/sale/service/idea more desirable to others.

 

Think of contests to win things from you that you sell that can get others to help you advertise.

 

Submit your site to the search engines. Most are free and there are free services out there where you can submit your site to many of them with just a few clicks of the mouse and your keyboard. *TIP* You may wish to use a separate free email account like yahoo, hotmail, or gmail so that you can register with the search engines using the email you don;t mind getting allot of email to because all those search engines will reply, as well this email account now may be used for other purposes, after all you just registered your website with many of them for free, there has to be a catch somewhere, of course they may send you notices when its time to renew your free listing etc..

 

Tell your friends and family.

 

If you have a restaurant, store or someone you know that wouldn't mind allowing you to put up a flyer or a business card stand (can make a neat one in clay) and leave it with them. You could have friends put their names on the back of the cards so that if someone buys something from you they can get 10% commission or 10% off anything you sell, etc... give them an incentive and you never know what you can get others to allow you do.

 

Craig's List and other Free to post online community classifieds. Post your link to your site and what your advertising in your message, choose the category that's appropriate and hope for the traffic to start flowing in or if you leave a number your phones are beginning to ring.

 

I hope these tips help you on your journey to new store ownership no matter what it is your selling Deb. I hope this can help anyone trying to open up a business of their own and market their items/products, services or whatever you wish to deal in. All basically the same principles. Advertise!!! You will get it all back at the end of the year when its time to answer to Uncle Sam.

 

Cre8ively Yours

Andrea "Cre8"

CDHM Miniature Forum: Live Tutorial

We have an exciting Live tutorial for you Saturday, September 19, 2009
that you will not want to miss. There is still time to gather your
materials and register for the class.

Learn To Make 1:12 Raffia Baskets
Instructor: Hanna Meronen (hannajaleijona)
Class: Sep 19, 2009 :: Time: 8pm Eastern (Eastern European Summer Time
(EEST) +0300 UTC) Finland
http://forums.cdhm.org/index.php/board,388.0.html

Check your local time conversion for this class:
http://forums.cdhm.org/index.php/topic,8884.0.html

Hope to see you there.

Regards,
The CDHM Miniature Forum Team

The New Craft Smart Clay 88 Cents, Save 25-50 % Off Michael's and More

Michael's Crafts This week The new clay if you wish to give it a try for yourself if only 88 cents. Its supposed to be the lowest price of the season.

 

Sale started today Sunday September 13th and runs through until Saturday September 19, 2009.

 

Crafts smart Modeling Clay

2 oz./57g Reg. $1.29

 

50% OFF Michaels Coupon

Also if you get the paper you may enjoy the 50% off any one Regular Prices Item (excluding sale items) coupon. If not click

http://www.mycraftcoupons.com/ and find the coupons you want and print easily print them out. No registration or downloads required.

 

25-40% AC Moore

Enjoy various 25%-60% off coupons* for AC Moore locations. Coupon valid Sunday, September 13, 2009 through Saturday, September 19, 2009.

40% OFF Joanne's Fabrics and Crafts

Enjoy 40% off any one regular priced item* at Joann locations. Coupon valid through Wednesday, October 7, 2009.

40% OFF Hobby Lobby

Enjoy 40% off any one regular priced item* at Hobby Lobby locations. Coupon valid Monday, September 14, 2009 through Saturday, September 19, 2009

 

Enjoy!!!

Cre8ively Yours

Andrea “Cre8”

New September Edition AIM Miniatures Magazine FREE Online Edition

   No matter what craft your into, most are into miniatures or should be...so here is a little something to infect you all with the miniature bug if you have not already been bitten =-)

 

 

 

 September edition (Issue 15) of the FREE AIM miniatures magazine is now 
available to enjoy online at (http://www.artisans inminiature. com/) 

 

 

 

Enjoy!

Cre8ively Yours

Andrea "Cre8"

New Craft Smart Clay at Michael's

New clay or another brand with the Michael's Crafts brand name? See what Angela from CraftyGoat's Notes wrote about it on her blog.

The new Craft Smart Clay may not be as smart as they think!


CraftyGoat's Notes: New Craft Smart Clay at Michael's

Enjoy!

Cre8ively Yours
Andrea "Cre8"

Jane Zhao Rose Tutorial & Spotted Lily Petal Cane NOW ON DVD!!!

The very 1st real (beautiful) flower cane I ever made was a rose cane I made thanks to my good friend Jane Zhao. She is a member of my polymer clay guild and was teaching a class on a night I had planned on driving up and sitting in on the guild meeting to see how it was. Since I live far away from where the meetings were held and far from where Jane lives here in Florida as well as where she is willing to travel to teach I thought it a great opportunity to kill 2 birds with 1 stone and do both. I was taking a class from Jane live on how to make a rose cane from polymer clay. I brought in just the materials she requested, the colors were up to me what I chose and I beautiful rose cane was born, one of which I still have quite a bit of and use in my beads quite often thanks to the methods Jane has taught me.

 

Jane has just come out with two videos on making her canes. I hope they are just a coupe of more from her to come. She is such a wonderful teacher even though she herself thinks her English is not as good because she is Chinese.

 

Jane's Rose Cane making video is Two hours worth of making two (2) types of the rose cane.  She shows you how to reduce the cane for cutting and slicing into beads for a nice necklace she shows how you can make. She makes beads and shows you how you can roll your own beads by hand without using a machine, how to pierce the beads to make holes in them for stringing and how to use up some scrap clay as well as some other nice things like the skinner blend, using the pasta machine, a nice blend of clay for making a nice clear translucent clay and more. Its  $39.99 and can be purchased through her website or at Polymer Clay Productions as they were the ones who helped her make the videos.

 

The Lily Flower Cane making video is 1 Hour of her showing you how to make a skinner blend, a skinner plug, two type of lily petals small and large, her way of reducing canes, using the pasta machine, fan folding clay, creating lily flower pendent, pin or one that's both a pendent and a pin using different findings, as well as how to make and place an eye pin in the clay, enforce the clay to make jewelry items that wont break etc.. This Spotted Lily Petal cane, Spotted Lily flower and Spotted Lily Jewelry was in the Spring Edition of the 2007 PolymerCAFE' Magazine Vol. 5 No.2. Jane was featured in this magazine along with Charlene A. Therien who made a beautiful Calalily flower cane tutorial and many other nice project how tos are in there as well. The video is only 29.99.

 

 

So if you make your own beads and jewelry items and want to learn her methods you now can in your very own living room with Jane on these DVD videos.

 

Jane Zhao is from Shanghai China and there she was a Chinese landscape artist. When she came here to the US she was not able to do her landscape paintings but instead found polymer clay. A new world was opened up to Jane and she continues to use polymer clay as a way of transforming the same concepts she learned with painting into her wonderful polymer clay canes of flowers, butterflies, fish, leaves, feathers and many other wonderful things. Jane is also a certified Instructor for Donna Dewberry, Bob Ross Certified and also Studio By Sculpey Certified to Teach and Certify others.

 

 I do her website and she has been such a good customer always providing me with her products she sells like her wonderful wet dry color coded micro fiber sandpaper set. I got one of her most beautiful and should be famous for polymer clay beaded watch band watches along with a matching set of earrings. She made me another set of earrings that matched my website and I have a painting by her that was one that got her certified in Bob Ross oil painting. She is a wonderful artist but when it comes to polymer clay canes and replicating images in them she is a master and will take any image and make it into a clay cane.

 

Cre8ively Yours

Andrea "Cre8" 

 

Weldbond Glue

I was simply amazed at what this stuff can do when I read about it just now on this website for WeldBond. 

http://www.franktross.com/weld_craft.asp

 

There is a contest going on apparently and you can see lots of nice eye candy of things made using this stuff.

http://www.franktross.com/gallery/gallery.html

 

This stuff is amazing from what I can see. Most cases you mix it with water so you get more out of it dependent upon use. I have seen it sold in Wall-Mart and it was under $3US for what I think was the 8oz size.

 

I like that it can be used for image transfers, not of photos but of magazine printed type images where you apply it to the image, leave it to dry clear and then let it sit in some water until the paper will be soft enough to remove and the image will stay which can be used for so many different applications. Not to mention decoupage, reinforcing those plaster molds to keep them from chipping, bonds wood, glass, ceramics, porcelain, marble, granite and so many surfaces for so many different craft as well as other helpful uses.

 

Enjoy!

Cre8ively Yours

Andrea "Cre8"

 

Create this detail sander from a Battery Powered toothbrush

I think this could be done easily enough, I knew I had to post about it.
Take a cheap battery powered toothbrush and create a nice detail sander.

PlanetJune » detail sander (ex-toothbrush)

Refer A Friend

Refer A Friend: "
"

NO SCAM they do pay!!!!

PayPals future competitor. $25 just for joining. Tell you friends and make $10 for each.

~Hugs~
Andrea "Cre8"

Making Dolls House Miniatures

Making Dolls House Miniatures

Definitely a blog to see. So many wonderful free and very useful miniatures for you. Each post is a Free Mini Printable or a quite useful How to. There is even Free 12th scale crochet and knitting patterns.

Sue Whittick, is very creative and has the ability to entertain with her blog has certainly shown its worth to my desires as an online viewer of blogs and great websites. Certainly worthy of the mention and link back to her.

Exclusive Offer from Michaels 20% Off Coupon

Exclusive Offer from Michaels

Click to get yours now!

Hurry Offer Ends April 19th!

Orphan Works legislation

Through some friendly sources I have just been turned on to a story that is certainly worth the lengthy read. Mind Your Business: You Will Lose All The Rights to Your Own Art, certainly caught my attention. As an Artist how could it have not?!!!

I worry about what I put out there knowing it can and or will eventually be taken. Having been a victim its sad to know that with all the art out there a large portion of it if only self proclaimed to be copyright and yet it has not been legally registered as such is not and will not be a legal infringement if used in any way by another then the creator with or without permission.

Not sure if this is true or legal. Imagine of all the artists in the USA and all the art, the copyright office would have to be bigger than the IRS to keep track of it all. Why is it also that on the internet there are sites claiming that with the addition of just 1 of their banners on your site they are registering all content on your site and that you post to your site?

Its a few pages long, but the guy took the time to write it, I agree it is really worth the time it will take to read it. Animation World Magazine

Beaded Art Dolls Group: 2008 Face Pin Mini Challenge

Beaded Art Dolls Group: 2008 Face Pin Mini Challenge
These simply are amazing! The face has always been a fascination for me to sculpt. I am so much the perfectionist when it comes to making faced with clay. This seeing this was truly a treat. Some of them are images of the face and not necessarily a sculpted face but still quite the attention grabber.

YouTube - Miniature Polymer Clay Teapot

Cre8te this adorable little green pepper teapot/

Pencil carvings

Pencil carvings by Mizuta Tasogare and Kato Jado
Unbelievable that any of these can be made from pencils.

And get a load of the pencil sharpener. Oh My!!!!

Pencil Art like I have never seen before.

Normally I would have lots to say but quite frankly I am speachless!!!

Household Hints For You

I would love feedback through your comments if any of these actually work or Not?

• Stuff a miniature marshmallow in the bottom of a sugar cone to prevent ice cream drips.




• Use a meat baster to "squeeze" your pancake batter onto the hot griddle and you'll get perfectly shaped pancakes every time.




• To keep potatoes from budding, place an apple in the bag with the potatoes.




• To prevent egg shells from cracking, add a pinch of salt to the water before hard boiling.

• Run your hands under cold water before pressing Rice Krispy\ treats in the pan and the marshmallow won't stick to your fingers.

• To get the most juice out of fresh lemons, bring them to room temperature and roll
  them under your palm against the kitchen counter before squeezing.

• To easily remove burnt on food from your skillet, simply add a drop or two of dish soap and enough water to cover bottom of pan, and bring to a boil on stove top.

• Spray your Tupperware with nonstick cooking spray before pouring in tomato based sauces and there won't be any stains.

• When a cake recipe calls for flouring the baking pan, use a bit of the dry cake mix instead and there won't be any white mess on the outside of the cake.

• If you accidentally over salt a dish while it's still cooking, drop in a peeled potato and it will absorb the excess salt for an instant "fix me up."

• Wrap celery in aluminum foil when putting in the refrigerator and it will keep for weeks.

• Brush some beaten egg white over pie crust before baking to yield a beautiful glossy finish.

• Place a slice of apple in hardened brown sugar to soften it.

• When boiling corn on the cob, add a pinch of sugar to help bring out the corn's natural sweetness.

• To determine whether an egg is fresh, immerse it in a pan of cool, salted water. If it sinks, it is fresh, but if it rises to the surface, throw it away.

• Cure for headaches: Take a lime, cut it in half and rub it on your forehead. The throbbing will go away.

• Don't throw out all that leftover wine. Freeze into ice cubes for future use in casseroles and sauces.

• If you have a problem opening jars: Try using latex dishwashing gloves. They give a non slip grip that makes opening jars easy.

• Potatoes will take food stains off your fingers. Just slice and rub raw potato on the stains and rinse with water.

• To get rid of itch from mosquito bites, try applying soap on the area and you will experience instant relief.

• Ants, ants, ants everywhere ... Well, they are said to never cross a chalk line. So get your chalk out and draw a line on the floor or wherever ants tend to march. See for yourself.

• Use air freshener to clean mirrors. It does a good job and better still, leaves a lovely smell to the shine.

• When you get a splinter, reach for the scotch tape before resorting to tweezers or a needle. Simply put the scotch tape over the splinter, then pull it off. Scotch tape removes most splinters painlessly and easily.

Now look what you can do with Alka-Seltzer:

• Clean a toilet. Drop in two Alka-Seltzer tablets, wait twenty minutes, brush and flush.




• The citric acid and effervescent action clean vitreous China.
  

• Clean a vase. To remove a stain from the bottom of a glass vase or cruet, fill with water and drop in two Alka-Seltzer tablets.

• Polish jewelry. Drop two Alka-Seltzer tablets into a glass of water and immerse the jewelry for two minutes.
• Clean a thermos bottle. Fill the bottle with water, drop in four Alka-Seltzer tablets, and let soak for an hour (or longer, if necessary).
• Unclog a drain. Clear the sink drain by dropping three Alka-Seltzer tablets down the drain followed by a cup of Heinz White Vinegar - Wait a few minutes, then run the hot water.

Tessa Farmer - Artwork - The Saatchi Gallery

Tessa Farmer - Artwork - The Saatchi Gallery
This gives a whole new look to miniatures for me as well as fairies.

I am speachless to say the least. If you dont like insects you may wish not to click. One of the reasons I have chosen not to include an image here in my blog post about this. Still none the less its neat and so very tiny!

Parole de pâte

Parole de pâte

A project pendant made from polymer clay that even a beginner would not be to intimidated to try and create. In fact I myself now want to make one, or more. Looks very neat and interesting, not to mention easy!!! 2 colors of clay and some handmade molds from buttons or other textures you can easily find around the house and or may already have in your stash of tools. A bit of contrasting color acrylic paint and of course your polymer clay dedicated oven and you can do this!

How to Make a Cardboard Box Storage System

How to Make a Cardboard Box Storage System
If you have a lot of small supplies to store but would rather not invest in a permanent storage system yet, you can make your own from boxes and add to it as your collection grows. It's not the sturdiest system, but it's flexible, easy and inexpensive, and that might be just what you're looking for!

I found this quite interesting and without a doubt if it works as good as it appears it may, it certainly has my vote for something that can help get you to be more the organized person you need and wish to be.

Do you have a new years resolution to be more organized?
Do you have a desire to be able to find what you need when you need it?
Do you have a work space that's an embarrassment to your family and friends who may come to visit you!
If you answered yes to any of the above questions, then you my friend are in need of some organization and this just may be what Dr. Neat-Freak ordered for you!!!

Bathroom Aquarium

Something's fishy With this
Bathroom in an Aquarium

"Giving dioramas a whole
new meaning. Something I myself have never before seen, but I am now so very
interested in creating" By Andrea "Cre8"

Miniaturist from Denmark by whom I
only know named Claus with an amazing love and relationship through his live in
mate's daughter Amanda, creates a dollhouse for her to house her dolls and many
miniatures offered by friends and others that were obtained for many different
places. This project which started in 2003 and was completed to where it was
finally suitable to gift in 2004 for Amanda's 8th Birthday a website about the
conception of this wonderful project was born. Named Lykkely with Lykke meaning
happiness in Danish, also Amanda's middle name, used in conjunction with
Ly, meaning "shelter" in Danish at the recommendation of Claus's mother.
Translating into "Shelter of Happiness".

Within the links of other projects
Claus has posted within Lykkely this fascinating underwater lavatory complete
with all the things one might find aside from magazines to read while waiting to
do their business. Now of course your probably saying to yourself, "what do fish
need magazines for, they can not read anyway"? To this I have to laugh since
they would not need the modern comforts of a bathroom complete with bathtub,
vanity, sink, toilet, towels, bath matt, waste basket, electric shaver, sail
boat, furnace, and bath and beauty products either, but this place has it all.
The plant I find to be a required element added, it brings oxygen into the tank
and makes the tank more environmentally beneficial to the fish.

All sorts of idea had popped into my
mind after seeing this thing. Being an animal lover of all creatures, fury and
scaled alike, I wonder now how I can myself build something that would be fish
safe or even reptile friendly and at the same time be more than just a place my
tank-able friends could safely reside in. Heck, I don't think I was interested
in fish before now. One thing I am thinking is that Japanese fighting fish
(Betas) and gold fish are fish that normally do not even require filtration or
aeration in the tank, making the project even more of something I think I could
achieve. I would just have to seek out ways like Claus had while on bunch breaks
and other times in-between when there was nothing to do back in the early 1980's
when he worked for a company that made scale models.

Using Plexiglas he heats up to bend,
and then paints to resemble the towels, mats and even water in the bath tub, he
was able to create this apparently fish friendly environment for finned friends
to swim around in. I am sure while he does mention that it seems to not bring
harm to the fish, that whatever paint and or glues he used were both non-toxic
and water proof.

Above Claus and His Friend Amanda "Lykke",
shown with the dollhouse he made for her and gave to her for her 8th Birthday.

See more of Claus's Bathroom Aquarium
as well as look at the wonderful project he affectionately named Lykkely
http://www.lykkely.dk/en/subpages/other/aquarium/1.htm