Monday, June 20, 2011
A collection of roses on Artfire
I just made a new Collection on Artfire. With Father's Day yesterday I was thinking of my Dad and how he grew such beautiful roses. So I started looking at the uses of roses on Artfire. Seemed an appropriate tribute to his memory.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
What I'll be doing for week June 13
Well, I'm finally starting to feel better after over a week with a bad sore throat. Finally ended up at doctors and on antibiotics. My best friend came down with strep and is on same meds. Likely we both caught it when we shared that mac and cheese Wed a week ago.
Last week I did manage to get the dress made for myself that I needed for award cermony. I learned years ago to alter a pattern using wax paper, then make a muslin and fit that on myself. Once I'm happy with the fit, then I cut the good fabric, and can throw together the real dress in short order. One friend said I should go through and describe that procedure, and I'll add it to the 'to do' list. I'd need a lot of photos and didn't take any as I rushed to get the dress done. Here's photo of my dress.
It was Simplicity 2247 http://bit.ly/kZZEE7 I liked that it had an A, C and D cup pattern and so you didn't have to do that sizing yourself. The fabric was something out of my stash from probably 10-12 years ago, most likely from Fanny Fabrics in Thunder Bay, ONT since my note said I had 3 meters. I lined the dress, but not the sleeves, since the fabric was a little sheer, and I didn't a want see through dress. Oh, I'm wearing a sea glass necklace and earrings that were birthday present, but they came from Fish Princess Designs http://bit.ly/kT4eYd on Artfire.
So this week should be busy. I'll be doing the Oliver + S Family Reunion Dress sew along with the All About Fabric blog http://bit.ly/jUcgyu Making dress for Emily. And when we were at my Mom's Memorial Day weekend, my daughter asked if I could make some matching outfits for Emily and her doll. So that's the other challenge this week is to make one for the baby doll that Emily is carrying in the photos below. Fortunately I saw this post in Craft Daily Newsletter http://bit.ly/kUsjqP earlier this week about changing full size patterns to doll clothes patterns. It was using a misses pattern and making one for Barbie, but I don't see why it wouldn't work for changing a toddler dress pattern to a baby doll one. And Sketchup software was free download from Goggle! So this will be a real adventure!!
And since the rest of the family will be together for Father's Day here, I want to get a dress made for Maddy and her American Girl doll. I'm using Kwik Sew 3767 for Maddy and 3771 for the doll. Just washed the fabric so waiting for it to dry before I start on that. Need to finish the collar and buttons on the sweater I knitted for baby Evan too. Should be a fun week!
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
My nautical oven mitt and potholder are featured in new Artfire collection
This new collection appeared a couple days ago. I've been running behind all week not feeling well since my allergies kicked up big time, so I'm just getting to post this on the blog. Hope to be feeling better tomorrow and spend the day sewing!
Emily in her yellow eyelet dress
Back on May 12 and 15 I told you about making the yellow eyelet dress for my granddaughter, Emily. Over Memorial Day weekend we were all in VA for my Mom's 97th birthday, and Emily wore her next dress to the birthday party. It turns out the Thomas the Train shirt I'd made for her twin brother, Jake, was too big, so I didn't get to see him in it. At least he can always grow into it.
The only photo I have with the purse and it's on her other arm so you really can't see it that well. But she did like to carry her little boxes of raisins in it.
You can see the front of the dress better when she's sitting next to her great grandmother who was opening her presents.
My birthday is the day before my Mom's and when I was opening presents we got a photo of the back of Emily's dress as she was leaning on my knee. The size 2T fit her perfectly. I just had to make the skirt 1" shorter than that pattern called for.
My next project for Emily will be the Oliver + S "Family Reunion Dress" that Sarah is going to be heading up starting June 13 on http://www.aboveallfabric.com/blog/
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Back from Memorial Day weekend/Mom's birthday
Well I got back home last night and am slowly digging out of the things that piled up over the week I was gone. We had a nice 97th birthday with my Mom. Emily wore the yellow eyelet dress I'd made for her to the birthday party, but the Thomas the Train shirt is too big. I'd made a size 3T before I found out he was still in 2T. So we'll get a photo later when he grows into it. Emily's dress fit perfectly! I'll post some photos of her in it on here later. I haven't gotten that far in unpacking/digging out etc.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day holiday.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Why I like selling on Artfire
Artfire is having a contest and they are going to randomly pick a winner from the blog posts that are made. They want to know the 5 things I like best about selling on Artfire. I think my number 1 reason is that I pay a flat fee per month, no matter how many items I list, or how many items I sell. There's no additional fee for either of those. I had a shop at another online venue before where I had to pay a fee to list an item and it was only good for a few months, then if I wanted to list it again I had to pay again. And if someone bought my item then I had to pay a percentage on that. None of that happens at Artfire.
Another thing I like about Artfire is how helpful the staff and the other sellers are. There is a 45-day guide to help you set up your studio and get started on the right foot. There are help guides on photographing your items. Recently Artfire sponsored a social media boot camp. I learned more about Facebook fan page, learned about Twitter and got started tweeting, learned about writing a blog and got started on here. Artfire staff want all of us to succeed.
The other sellers are so friendly and genuinely concerned about each other. I've made several new friends in the forums. Again the 45-day guide was helpful in getting started here. With the other venue I mentioned I tried chatting in the forums but no one ever replied. At Artfire I can ask other people to critique my shop and help me make it better.
I have an Artfire Pro account, which is what I was describing above with the fixed monthly fee. It is also possible to have a Basic account where there is no fee what so ever. It's free! But there are several advantages to the Pro account. With the Artfire Pro account I can customize the look of my shop. There are a number of tools I can use for promoting or making changes to my shop. I can make coupons that apply to certain items or categories of items. I can select the amount off for the coupon, and the date it expires. There is a 'vacation mode' which lets me decide whether to have my shop show all my items with a message that I'm away until a certain date, or to close the shop until that date. This is extremely handy when I go out of town to visit my grandchildren! I can keep the shop open, but not worry about being away and unable to ship an item as quickly as usual.
I can select to have my items automatically fed into the Goggle Merchant Center. So that they will be more readily found in searches. The majority of customers on Artfire come from the outside web, and not just from other Artfire sellers. And anyone can purchase an item from any Artfire store without having to join Artfire. Artfire provides a 'Rapid Cart' that I can drop into my website. I don't have to figure out how to code or purchase some other method for selling from my website. There's also an Artfire Kiosk that I can have on my Facebook Fan page to promote my items.
There is also a referral program going on now. if you click on this link, Become an ArtFire Pro with this link and get your 3rd month free! as it says you'll get your 3rd month for free.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Buy Yourself a Gift Artfire Collection
This is starting out as an exciting week! I had a sale of placemat/napkin set in my Artfire studio, and now my oven mitts are included in a new guild collection. YEA!!! Happy Monday everyone.
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