In cleaning out an old dresser so that I could refinish it for Hazel back in July, we found an entire drawer full of my brother’s and my childhood craft supplies. I really, really hope Hazel likes to make things as much as we did. I think that crafty parents, life sans-cable-television, and an abundance of supplies was about all it took for us, so she should be set. Most of this stuff is still completely usable, so her stash at grandma and grandpa’s house is off to a good start.

Random gems – rubber stamps, miniature cookie cutters used with clay, a VW beetle-shaped paper punch (there was also a teddy bear, which I think I have somewhere in my grownup supplies)…

…knitting spool, book of lists (have I really been doing this my whole life?)…

…beading supplies, some of which was my mom’s (hence the 1950s scotch tape tin can) and some of which was mine (hence the 1990s boo-bucket)…

…an eraser fetish for sure – you could buy them for a quarter from the secretary at my elementary school, or in packs of a million from the one and only lisa frank, and we’d glue them to old wooden building blocks to make rubber stamps (we found a bunch of these, too)…

…and of course an endless supply…

…of drawing materials. colored pencils, pastels, crayons, markers, watercolor pencils… you name it.

Also, I cannot stop making these, using this tutorial, which is so so so good – even I, who only knew how to do three stitches, could follow along:

Listening: The Hidden Cameras
Reading: Dr. Sears’ Vaccine Book
Working on: um… endless granny squares, when I should be doing lots of other things

I remember sitting to have my profile sketched when I was little so that we could have silhouettes made of my brother and I. It was tedious for me – I can’t imagine actually making them that way.

a.) because I can’t draw.
b.) that’s pretty much it.

Enter technology. You can still do the cutting (which you don’t even really need to do, I guess – you could just use the printed silhouettes), but digital cameras and photo-editing software and printers do all the drawing. Yay! These were very satisfying to make. I love my little family, and desperately needed to spice up the wall over our diningroom table. Pretty things to look at = ability to tolerate this microscopic apartment for another handful of months.

Take headshot profile photo (silhouetted against a bright window is good), make black & white, up contrast as far as it will go, neaten up with a drawing tool if you wish, and print the mirror of the finished image that you want to see (i.e. – I wanted us all to be looking left, so I printed us looking right). Mount on black paper – I glued all over and taped the edges down. Or you could skip the whole cutting process and just frame the printed version, but then you don’t get to use an xacto knife.

Use cutting mat & precision cutting tool to cut out the image. The glue I used let me easily peel the printed version off of the back (junk gluestick), but you don’t have to. It shouldn’t show.

Pick a background paper. My frames are 10 x 13 and I wanted to use this 12 x 12 scrapbooking paper, so I had to trim and match up my edges. If you put your shorter “extra” piece towards the top of the frame and fix them together so that it’s tucked down behind the “outer” layer, the seam won’t show when it’s hung – even with this really thick, double-sided paper. I love these (expensive, wasteful, gifted, delightful) glue runners for exact matching that is acid-free & won’t rumple the paper.

Mount silhouettes on paper and frame. Ta-da! I am so happy with these :) But I really do need to get a polarizing filter so the photos aren’t all glare-y…

Frames: on sale for $5.00 each at Michael’s
Pretty paper: $1.69 per sheet at Michael’s
Black paper: $1.19 per sheet at Michael’s (I got 12 x 12, turned out I could have gotten away with 8 1/2 x 11)

Listening: Billy Bragg & Wilco
Reading: Columbine
Working on: crochet lessons from a friend this evening! hopefully there are some amigurumi animals (etc.) in Hazel’s future.

(or whatevers)

(1.) Pick a size
(2.) Cut some cardstock to match envelopes (or buy some prepackaged envelopes and matching flats, like me:)
(3.) Cut pretty paper a little smaller than flats
(4.) Print and cut text slightly smaller than the pretty paper
(5.) Sew text to pretty paper
(6.) Mount on flats
(7.) The end :)

Listening: sleeping-baby-silence
Reading: Columbine by Dave Cullen
Working on: baby bibs… that I can wipe clean :)

In the form of terrariums. My brother and I used to make these as kids, and once he unknowingly nestled a praying mantis eggcase into his little glass container of mossy goodness. Not too long afterwards there was a pretty horrible number of teensy creatures in our midst – hopefully I haven’t brought any living creatures into my apartment.

It’s a pretty simple process, although you can buy books on how to make elaborate terrariums with complex layers of nutrients & drainage materials. My mom & I pieced together things she remembered trying in the past and layered the following from the bottom up: crushed terra cotta pots, charcoal (we got a container from the aquarium supplies), sandy dirt from my parents’ garden, potting soil, and some nice crumblydamp rotted log. On top we put the odds and ends we’d gathered from the woods – moss, bark or rocks with lichen attached, some tiny plants.

We used several glass containers with various-sized openings, from an old glass bottle to a small goldfish bowl. This is a pretty way to recycle glass conatiners, although we bought a few. After “planting” we watered them while simultaneously rinsing off the inside of the glass with drinking straws full of water, and the ones with larger openings were sealed with plastic wrap for a couple of days so they settled before beginning to dry. Now that they are a few days established I’ll sprinkle them with water every day or two, depending on what sort of puddling I do or do not see in the bottoms of the containers.

They are so pretty and they smell wonderful! As long as no bugs hatch and they live for awhile I will be happy. It’s all practice for big ones with more plantlife when we have the space. I know it didn’t involve any stitching or glue or anything, but it’s still pretty crafty.

[1.] Collect moss & whatever else you want to try.

[2.] Get together your glass containers, drainage materials (pebbles, crushed pots, rocks, whatever) and soils – consider nutrients AND aesthetics :)

[3.] Layer drainage materials on the bottom and nutrient soils at the top, with something nice and damp as the top layer.

[4.] Add your bits and pieces of things to grow or that just look pretty.

[5.] Use chopsticks or skewers to insert and arrange bits of moss into containers with small openings.

[6.] Water / rinse inside of glass. Everything should be nice & drippy but not swimming in water. Seal openings of larger containers for a day or two, and then water as needed.

[7.] Admire!

Glass containers: $3 – $4 apiece at walmart; $4.95 at JoAnn fabrics; pocket change at a yardsale; $9.00 at Target (left over wedding decoration)
Charcoal: about $5.00 for already-finely crushed charcoal in the aquarium supplies
Terra cotta pots: a few quarters anywhere – free in your mother’s backyard :)
Soils & moss & stuff: free during Hazel’s first hike in the woods

Listening: Paul Simon
Reading: Annie Dillard (is THIS why I wanted to make terrariums?)
Working on: ideas for babyproofing craft space; Hazel clothes; never-ending baby gifts!

Mine is! And so are the living spaces of a few mommies-to-be in my life, so I wanted to make some wall art to go with their more practical baby gifts. With a five-month old I don’t have all the time in the world for intricate, pretty art, but these turned out so cute and are perfect for all of that scrapbooking supplies that is just too cute to hide between the pages of a book:

Chipboard letters: $1.00 per set at a dollar store
Clippy frames: $1.00 each
Pretty paper: some from a huge pack that was on clearance for $5.00; one sheet was thirty-five cents
Skill required: you must be knowledgable in the fine art of applying glue :)

Listening: Frank Proffitt
Reading: Annie Dillard
Working on: nothing crafty – packing to go home to the states tomorrow, yay!

Last year I did a craft show at the beginning of November and had made about 150 promo packets of goodies from other sellers, and the ones that I had left over went into outgoing orders from my shop and were quickly gone.  They were a huge hit with the people who were a great target – existing Etsy customers who were doing their Christmas shopping.  I’m not doing that show again this year because I will either be overdue or have a brand new baby – neither is conducive to traveling home to the states! – but I decided to do the same promotional idea for the holiday season.  A few weeks ago I started putting out calls for promotional items and they are rolling in every day.  I finally got around to putting together my first batch of packets yesterday afternoon – about 55 for round one – and they’ll begin going out in orders tomorrow.  You can make them as cheap or elaborate as you like, and it’s a great way to promote other sellers and Etsy in general.

I’ve found through browsing the forums that while most customers appreciate things like this – and any other kinds of freebies – there are a few things they DON’T like.  They don’t like scented samples, edibles, or anything that will add weight to their package (they aren’t paying shipping for stuff they didn’t order, after all).  Some people don’t like pins, magnets, or other things like this advertising a specific shop, but if there’s a decent mix of this and general Etsy things it seems to go over much better.  These promo packets that I had left over were perfect – slim, mostly just cards and coupons with a few teeny samples or buttons tossed in.  I wanted to do the same thing again this year, and so far so good!

Over the past couple of weeks I made a couple of batches of cheap & easy stickers.  The first take no artistc skill whatsoever.  Etsy has all kinds of resources available for our use, and if you’ve got some sheets of labels (dollar stores!) and a printer, you can make stickers:

If you’ve got a little more time, a few supplies, and a sticker maker, you can get more creative.  My mom has loved buying me crafty gifts since the day I was born, so I have and love one of these guys – you can get more or less fancy for a range of prices.  On Sunday afternoon I was looking for a small project that I could work on while curled up on the couch watching movies, so I took my cue from Claire and busted out a sketcbook with nice thick paper, a basket of markers, and my tub of puffy paint and glitter glue.  Later that day – stickers!  Some for my shop, some Etsy in general.  Buttons are another easy thing to make if you have or would like to invest in a button maker (which I also have, courtesy of my crafty mama, who has temporarily hijacked it for horse-show-button-making) – if you can fork over the dough for the press itself you can get button parts for dirt cheap.  Magnets can be made from flat marbles and magnets from the dollar store; I’ve seen everything from six-inch plastic rulers with shop name stickers on them to tiny notepads to pens to commercial stickers, magnets… anything that you can put your name on can become a promo item!

Yesterday afternoon I sorted out all of the stuff from various people, piled up some DIY stickers that Claire and I made, pulled out the little plastic bags that I had left from last year (I bought a huge box of these for relatively cheap from Crafts 2000 in the wedding-stuff-aisle for exactly this purpose… made for jordan almonds or whatever, they are exactly the size of a business card! – I’ve also found great bags in varying sizes and styles and dollar stores), and stuffed and stuffed until I had 55 slim little packets, each sealed with a pretty sticker and containing items from about fifteen different shops.  Hopefully these will go quickly, but another heap of goodies was delivered to my door today so there will soon be more to refill the box!

These are completely general – a whole variety of stuff – but you could also put together ones that are more specific.  I’ve also got things pouring through my mail slot that are either handmade by mamas or geared towards mothers / kids / families to put together and set out at our midwives collective – I am hoping they will go like hotcakes in that kind of environment.  These can be bigger and more elaborate, as they aren’t going in the mail.  Last night my sister and I were scheming about how to best get promo items into the hands of her students – teenagers at an all-girls school in Philly.  If there’s one thing that we know about teenage girls, they love to shop, and would be a perfect target for goodie bags full of stuff from people who sell jewelry, clothing, and body products.  Once we settle on a number I’ll start collecting things geared towards these little ladies and have a box full of goodie bags (again – not mailed so they can be anything at all) to send to her mid-November.

So how do you GET all of these awesome promo items from other sellers?  You just ask.  Who doesn’t want to promote their shop?  Of course there are always people who are unsure of how to best promote their shop or who have too much going on to participate, but it doesn’t take much effort to pop an envelope full of business cards in the mail if you’ve already got some on hand, and most people will happily do that.  Posts get buried so quickly in the “promotions” sections of the Etsy forums that I rarely bother anymore, and have found other ways to get the offer out there.  Flickr has been great for this – it’s not as busy and there are still tons of people who read the discussions in the forums of various groups.  Find some that are specific to what you are trying to promote and post an offer!  I’ve also had gread luck contacting people who have participated in promo projects and business card swaps in the past – I know they were willing to do it once, and 100% of the time they have been happy to hear from me again, even if they have to tell me they are too busy or something.  I’ve had a small handful of people respond to group posts on Facebook, but the environment there seems to be more of the “post your own promotional links and run” mentality – I don’t think many people actually look at what everyone else has to say.  I will usually post ONCE in the promo forums on Etsy, and strategically bump it up once during each time of day throughout a week (in the morning one day, afternoon on another day, and so on) if it’s still getting responses.  I will usually get steady convos for that week and then it has pretty much bitten the dust, whereas the same Flickr threads have been going on for weeks in some groups.  You can also target blog groups that you are a member of, perhaps Myspace (although I deleted mine long ago and never tried this while I was there), or any other forum where Etsy sellers abound.

So that is it!  If you’ve got a small amount of materials to put them together, willing participants, and a few hours to assemble and deliver, you’ve got a whole gob of shops in the hands of someone who will hopefully pay attention!

Listening: John Hartford
Reading: The Glass Castle
Working on: diaper doublers & nursing pads – nothing for Etsy today!

I have kept a personal blog for family and friends (and myself!) for eight or nine years, and finally decided to dip my toes in the blogging-for-strangers waters: specifically, crafty strangers! I hope to use this blog to chat with Etsians and other DIY folks, share ideas, tips, moan about crafting casualties, whatever.  I’m still tweaking and setting up house, but it is finally functional, thanks so my oh-so-frusturated webmaster (aka, hubby), and his battle with WordPress permissions.  I have kept shop at stickinthemud.etsy.com for over two years, and am steadily transitioning to a new shop: teaandlaundry.etsy.com.  Do visit!

A few nights ago I woke up at 3:30 in the morning to pee, as is my nightly ritual at 8 months+ pregnant, and for some reason thought about a huge bag of dumpstered bubblewrap sitting in storage, waiting for a purpose (the oddest things occur to me during these nightly washroom visits).  When I went back to sleep I had dreams about making mailers, so the next evening I got to work!

I made a batch of forty mailers in about three hours, which can definitely be whittled down now that I’ve figured a few things out.  I doubt I will ever try to sell them as a handmade supply, but I’m considering adding a gift-packaging option to my shop for an extra $2.00 or so, since last year near this time I started shipping LOTS of Christmas gifts directly to the recipient and including whatever note the buyer requested.  $2.00ish for a fun handmade mailer, pretty little package to unwrap, handmade card/tag with the giver’s note, maybe some little extra goodies, all received by surprise in the mail? Would you buy? I’m going to put together some examples this week and then see what I think after I am looking at the finished product.

SO: DIY bubble mailers. What you might need, and one way to make them.

 1.) Bubble wrap! The more formerly-loved, the better… don’t buy if you don’t have to.  Stores usually set out all of their packing-trash very conveniently for us on trash night – all of the paper / boxes / bubble wrap / styrofoam are cleanly crammed together in a few huge boxes.  See if a shop can save some for you every now and then if you don’t want to actually take it Out Of The Trash.  Make sure it’s nice and clean and still full of air, of course, if you are pickin’.

2.) Heavy paper.  I used the sort of unlovable pages of a stack of thick scrapbooking paper – you know, the ones that look like 80′s school photo backdrops and cosby sweaters and bad wallpaper. I’m sure brown kraft paper would also be great, thick pages of used books (heavy atlas pages are on my to-try list), I imagine a couple layers of magazine pages would hold up just fine in the mail.  I found that cutting the 12 x 12 paper straight down the middle made exactly the size I needed for this batch.

3.) Something to cut with (and possibly on): I used an xacto knife and a straight-edge on a cutting mat.  Next time I will abuse my rotary fabric cutter to chop up big stacks of bubble wrap to make several pieces at a time, and my fancy-pants paper cutter to do more than a couple sheets of paper at a time – I imagine this will shave at least half an hour off of the Total Production Time. I used plain old scissors to trim up the edges after sewing.

4.) Something to make the bubble wrap stick to the paper. I used a gluestick. Spray adhesive might be quicker and more effective if you are working somewhere ventilated and not pregnant. It doesn’t really need to be able to do much more than keep the bubble wrap from bunching up inside, so I think anything would do the trick.

5.) Lastly, something to seal the edges.  I sewed mine, which was way fun and quick, but you could also try rubber cement, colored staples, hot pink duct tape, eyelets, brads, the hole-punch-and-yarn whipstitch technique… think, think, think!

What to do:

1.)  Pick your size – this could be as easy as tracing a commercial mailer that you’ve got on hand – and if needed, make templates for the paper parts and the bubble wrap parts so you can cut around them.  I totally winged mine, but since I neatly trimmed the edges after sewing, you can’t tell I didn’t follow a pattern (the 12 x 12 paper helped to keep them standardized, too).  Decide how many you want to make.  I picked forty because that’s when I got sick of cutting bubble wrap.  For each mailer you will need one rectangular piece of paper, one piece that matches (or doesn’t) and has a bit more at one end for the flap (an inch and a half or so should do it), and two pieces of bubble wrap that will leave you a nice half-inch border of plain paper when they are glued down to the paper (i.e. – measuring one inch smaller than the paper both ways).

[ Ugly-lighting photo... started making these in the evening! Couldn't contain my excitement just for pretty daytime photos. ]

2.)  Once you have all of your parts cut out, start fixing the bubble wrap to the wrong sides of the paper pieces (since this will be the inside), leaving your half-inchish border around the edge.  Glue them bubbles-down so the inside of your mailer is nice and smooth.  When you are done, you will have a nice fluffy stack of matching (or not matching) half-mailers sandwiched and waiting to be fastened together.

3.)  Once your halves are all prepared, all you have to do is put them together however you’ve decided, and trim up the edges if necessary! I stitched mine all around the edges (not the flappy end of course) and used a teeny piece of transparent tape to cover up the hangy-threads after I trimmed them – conveniently located under where the flap folds down.  If you haven’t already, you can make angled cuts to the flap, and pre-crease them against a straight edge.  This makes them look super-tidy, especially if you are selling them as a supply.  If you want to get super fancy you could put a strip of double-stick tape on the flap so the protective cover can be peeled of for sealing, just like a commercial envelope.  Otherwise employ your good friend Tape, and now you are ready to mail! 

 

If they aren’t quite ready to go but you are too tired of crafting to whip up labels, tags, etc., check out the awesome mailing supplies available from etsy sellers:

 

[ I <3 Etsy.com rubber stamp by Terbearco ]

[ sushi return address lables by Krystan ]

 

[ gift tags and shipping labels by pacokeco ]

 

Listening: Ryan Adams
Reading: various birth books