Banners with Paint and PowerPoint

I created two banners to use on my Etsy and Facebook pages. I used Paint to draw that moons and then PowerPoint to add then to the text.

A friend offered to make logos for me but the ones I've seen so far don't quite fit. Plus, I've had the idea of a painted moon, in a sort of Japanese watercolor style, for awhile. So I tried the Microsoft Office 2010 paint program which has regular, oil and watercolor brushes. I think they came out great.

I left the  spaces on the side so that I could add pictures of my products. A look I've seen and liked on several Etsy shop banners. For logos, I'll add the text under the moons for a more square look.

New order means new pictures

Here are some pics of me making and putting together the Romantic Package for my very first buyer on Etsy.
These first five or so are the Bath of Rose bath salts.

Next are two shots of the Romantic Massage n' Bath Oil.

                           

Then there are several of the making of the Orange n' Rose Body Scrub.

And the last shot is of all three items in the Romantic Package together.

Inspiration and Ideas

I'll be honest, I thought that this business of selling items that I make was just going to be a hobby. Something to help get through some really tough times and so I could have a little extra money in my pocket. My ultimate dream has been to have my own event planning business (more details on that and the bc later). It still is, but as I know, I'm an all or nothing kind of girl. I can't go halfsies on anything. I give it my all or nothing.

So, I have researched the hell out of this business and gotten so many professional plans together. I even have a business consultant (bc). Me! Its so weird when I think about it. On the other side, the creative side, I have tons of ideas for new products, packaging, sales, discounts, promotions, etc. Just random thoughts floating through my head, then BOOM, new idea.

Need an example? I'm glad you asked because the idea for this post came after such a time. I'm laying in bed, looking at facebook and I see one of my all time favorite authors post a link to someone else's Etsy shop. This person makes perfumes and has a line dedicated to and inspired by one of the authors series.

I want to do that. I honestly wanted to some how tie in all the parts of my life into these products. I've already got a god and goddess line and a sabbat line to connect with my spirituality. And I've been trying to think of a way to connect with my love of music and books. I had even looked for Etsy teams for inspiration on how to do this.  Et voila!

I'm very happy about this. Not overwhelmed at all even though I still need to make up ingredient lists, find some guinea pigs friends to test stuff on, learn how to make butters, bath bombs, japanese stab bound books (which I only learned about last week), not to mention handle and update the products I already have. Now I shall be combing through my favorite books for ideas too.

Are you excited? I'm excited.

~Lashette
Scarlet Moon Creations

Business Consultant

Three weeks ago I met with my business consultant for the first time. She's a friend who has been doing this kind of thing for years, Recently she has started her own consulting business and she took me on as a client. It was our first meeting even though we had been talking about it for awhile. This means I had figured out a few things on my own in the mean time. But my questions for now were how to start off getting clients.

I should say first that she is helping me mainly with starting my event planning business, with the Etsy shop as a bit of a tangent. But here is my homework that is to be done by today, our next meeting:
1) Make an extensive list of anyone you'd contact for work, referrals, references, or people who'd test your product, or coordinate with you on events. Group them into 'types'.
2) Write a little paragraph about what you'd say to each 'type' of person.
3) In the 2nd week, make 3 outreaches - a call or email - to different 'types' of people.
4) Think about the synergies between your past experience (event planning, Wicca/paganism, all past work experience) - your current experiences (scarletmooncreations site, working with Howard, telemarketing, current circle of friends & acquaintances and how they are evolving) -and future experiences (what kind of events do you want to be planning a year from now?)

Other ideas we talked about:
1) Working to create something that you're really excited about talking to people about rather than 'selling' your services.
2) Thinking about writing an events column (for Reny/Stacey's site.. other sites..) as a means of getting your event creativity going.
3) 'Bridge products' like sabbat/esbat packages: a mini-event-planning-ritual, associated oils, candles, etc.

I fell a bit behind during the first week but I'm mostly on track now. More details about my ideas, plans, etc, later.

~Lashette

USPS frustrations

It took my package 7 days to reach my buyer instead of the 2 I was told it would take. It was priority mail too with tracking. Since this was a gift to be given on Valentines Day, I hope it reached him at a convenient time. I also hope that his friend enjoys my products.

First sale on Etsy

So I made my first sale on Etsy last week, two days after I listed my first items. It was the most expensive item too. The feeling I got when I saw the email notification was amazing. I wanted to laugh, cry and dance around, but I was at work.

I sent out the package yesterday and I hope my buyer, and the friend he bought it for, are happy with the product. I'll be honest and say I am not completely happy with the packaging but that's a post for another day.

I also have a few people favoriting my shop and some items so that's a nice ego/confidence boost. My upcoming plans include linking Etsy mini here and on my personal blog and figuring out how to pull in more sales.

Have a great day everyone,
~Lashette