Work Therapy

So my afternoon was just slowly going down hill. Today would typically be a day off for me...well at least from the creations. I had a short day at work with the kiddos, and was just going to spend my afternoon relaxing. Then some upsetting and stressful information arose. My therapy - Work!

So, in turn I set up my Etsy account. Finally. I linked it to my facebook page, but still felt like I was forgetting something. You Guys! Any of you who are not on my facebook page would not be able to find my Etsy page --durr-- so here is the URL for the Etsy shop.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/jcscraftycreations?ref=seller_info

I wish I had the patience today to create a fun little button for you to click on with the url linked to it, but I guess that will have to wait for another day. Today will just be mainly for posting inventory into my store.

Have a great Tuesday everyone,

J 

Begin the Holiday Weekend!!

Today is the beginning of the holiday weekend in our house. What that means for me? 3 solid days to work :) Don't any of you worry, I am taking some time on Saturday (Most of the day) To spend with family but otherwise you will most likely find me at my desk making jewelry and touching up tiles and coasters.

So far here is what has been produced during the holiday weekend. Mind you some of these may or may not be gifts for friends and family so please if you are interested, ask if I can re-create what you see here and I will be more than happy to make you your very own version of anything I have made here.

This is a stretch bracelet made in deep reds and browns. I can duplicate a similar bracelet for $7 (higher price due to the crystals in this design)

Here is a green stone necklace. I kept it simple with this one. I was making it to match the chunky green earrings I made last week so I could give it as a gift set. I have some of these stones left over and can make an earring/necklace set for $12

These are teal drop earrings that I made on a whim last night. I saw the beads and just thought they would make adorable earrings. $5

Here are some blue and white dangle earrings I made out of some fun wooden beads. $3

I made these with school spirit for my alma mater. These are black with green crystal earrings. $5

These earrings were also made to make a previous item (pink chunky bracelet) into a holiday gift set. $5

I had a few of the pink stones left over so I made another stretchy chunky bracelet with pinks and whites. This one is $5

As you can see the items now have tags but do not have pricing written on their tags, instead they have a colored sticker. The idea was to give you an idea of the price range withing its bracket each item might run. This way I can also run special sales on colored tags. However, I got my colors a little mixed up before taking these pictures. I will have them fixed in my botique but genterally yellow would be the lower priced items, and pink the highest. Orange and green are for the mid-priced items.

I will keep posting all new items throughout the weekend, as I mentioned before the holidays wiped me out of stock. Keep checking in for fun new designs!

Happy Holidays Everyone

J

Short N Sweet

So being that I completely lost track of time while making some jewelry tonight I dont have much time for the normal posting of new items. I did, however, make a necklace and bracelet to go with my Asian inspired earrings, and plan on posting pictures tomorrow.

I just wanted to update everyone on the latest and by far greatest plan. I have signed up for an Etsy account by reccomendation of my friend Amber. Great idea by the way, thank you!

So if you are from out of the area and are looking to buy some of my product hopefully after Christmas (So I have enough time to rebuild my stock) I will have some items up on Etsy for you to browse. My seller name on there will be of course, jcscraftycreations.

Tomorrow is an early morning being my first day with the kiddo's so I will post more tomorrow

Night all,
~J

Working Hard, While Hardly Working!

Though I barely did a thing today, I feel today was very productive. I visited my family to give my little sister her birthday card, tried on wedding dresses and cashed in on a butt load, yes, I said butt load...of loot! I want to give a big thanks to my good friend Katie for picking up a ridiculously large grab bag of beads and jewels for me in exchange for making some of the pretty beads into chunky jewelry for her. Its always great when someone elses trash can become my treasures!

Last night I got started on my holiday line with some valentines jewelry. That was fun let me tell you. Making cute little bracelets in pinks and reds with hearts on them was entertaining to say the least. I did manage to drop a bracelet twice loosing beads all over the floor (occupational hazard) but it was worth it in the end to see my end product;

Valentines Red and Black $6

Chunky Pink Stone $6

Red and Pink Valentines $6

Red and Pink Valentines (Stretchy) $6

Pink Drop Earrings $5

Please keep in mind when browsing that every item will be unique meaning no two pieces of jewelry will be the same. I am not producing in the masses so unless specifically requested for a set of matching bracelets, or earrings every item will be one of a kind. Also, some prices may vary. I may knock a dollar off or add a dollar on here and there for little imperfections or additions. For the most part pricing will be as follows:

Small Earrings $3

Chunky Earrings $5

Small Bracelets $5

Chunky Bracelets $7

Beaded Necklaces $8

18" Necklaces with Chain $8

30" Necklaces with Chain $11

(Some prices have raised from original quotes as for more popular items such as my chain oval and gem chain necklace sets I am upgrading to a better quality chain product)

And for inspiration and/or portfolio like reasons I am posting the following earrings which are NOT for sale. You can request earrings similar to these if you like and I would be more than happy to create you something unique and special. These earrings are part of my payment to my good friend for picking up all of the beads and stones for me to create my new lines with

And last but not least I thought it would be fun to share with you the earrings I created for myself, which I of course, wore all day today. I will be turning this design into a three-piece set that I will sell for roughly $18. Once I have made the set I will post pictures with accurate pricing.

Thanks for stopping by today!
~J

HOTCAKES!

So today I sold a loot in jewelry! Well I didn't do the selling, the future mother in law did it for me, but I am glad her friends really liked my work. Passed out a few flyers as well, so I want to exted a big

WELCOME!!!

to all my new visitors and customers. Sorry that all I have right now for a page is a blog and a facebook. Soon I will have a website for you, I promise :)

Today we sold almost completely out of my jewelry stock, so I have a jewelry making weekend/week ahead of me. Hopefully my coasters and plaques are as big of a hit next week as well!

I would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone and inform the new visitors that I am always looking for and encouraging requests as well. Sometimes my creative eye gets a little tired and I run out of colors and combinations for things. However, I have noticed that the things I create when I am running out of creativity are the ones that are selling the most. Strange.

Anyways it is off to the craft store now with some of my earnings to refill my bead stock. ~COMING SOON~ Charms! I am super excited!!

Talk to you all soon,

J

Today, Today

Today felt like a ridiculously long work day. Working at my own pace makes for a longer than normal day, but I also feel like I got a ridiculous amount of work done! I not only made some baseball cards for the future brother-in-law, I also got almost all of my christmas shopping finished, made a few bracelets, and put the finishing touches on the coasters for my big order.

I know, you are just dying to see the baseball cards I created aren't you? Well here is the main one I used to make his plaque with:

He had a great idea of doing a baseball fund-raiser out of some of the baseball coasters I made, and I thought; Why not take it up a notch? I can make trading cards AND plaques for the boys! So with or without the school taking on the fund-raiser, I at least created something cool for my store.

I also started my red hat society line. Keep in mind that unless requested, no two pieces of jewelry in my store will be alike. Here are some of the red hat goods:

Now begins the dreaded hunt. I had to create my own designs for paper because apparently craft stores have discontinued sales of red hat items or something of that sort. I went to three different craft stores in search of red hat beads and paper and all I found was some red paint. I guess I shall move my search to online.

Hope you enjoy the new additions to the store, check out the facebook page for a full inventory.

Thanks!!

Getting Legit

Today I spent most of my afternoon finishing up my big coaster order. Was pretty excited about that, for sure! I had 5 sets of coasters and a bracelet ordered by a single individual. Who knew I would kick off with such a large order? Guess it helped to be preparing my launch around christmas time. Now I just have to make some flyers to put in with the orders to get the word out a little more.

I also did some research on getting  licensed. It is going to be a lot easier and cheaper than I thought it would be. That was a giant relief. I will mostlikely go through zazzle.com for business cards and flyers. I used them for my housekeeping cards I made and they're a pretty good deal. I suggest the site to anyone who may be looking for printing services. You can design all of your own products and the prices are reasonable.

I also got my desk all set up so I feel like I have an actual workspace now. I am still, however, working on the floor for the coaster part of the creations but at least I have a desk for paperwork and jewelrymaking. Soon enough I will have an entire office. I will I just know it.

Hopefully soon I will be able to spend the $15 to open an ebay store as well but in the meantime I need to build up stock because if my bracelets sell online at all how they are selling by word of mouth I will not be able to make them as fast as they are ordered. Right now I have everyone expecting a week processing time hopefully I will be able to cut that back to about three days once I get a routine going with things.

Thanks for checking in today!
Jasmine

Up Up and Away!

This morning I emailed and informed the ex-boss that I will not be returning to work for him. I have to admit I was really scared at first but as I was writing the e-mail, I remembered that I was doing what's best for me. Come Monday I will be back in the childcare field and will have a little more time to concentrate not only on letting my body heal but also to get this business under way.

I also have to take the time to design some jewelry for myself ;) The best advertisement is a walking one, in my opinion!

With how much I am looking forward to getting the extra time to hammer down on my little botique, I am also really looking forward to spending the time with kids again. These children I am going to be looking after are smart and very creative and they might actually have some great ideas that can be used! I am getting ready to begin the childrens line come next week. A line of jewelry and plaques made of hypo-allergenic child frendly materials and designed by children themselves. I think this will be a fun new take on what I am already working on and will also add great virsatility. Hopefully once the line is designed I will be able to make kits to sell so that the children can assemble the jewelry themselves. These would make great birthday party kits or something fun to do during summer to keep their minds active while they are out of school.

The Beginning

So there I was sitting at work, feeling physically ill from the strong feelings of dislike for my day to day job. I wanted to get back into childcare but knew I would not make as much money as a boring 5 day a week 8 hour a day job. Then I overheard some co-workers talking about something they had created and were trying to market.

A light bulb clicked on and my creative juices started flowing. I thought, "Hey! I can do that stuff easy cheesy!"

And now here I am working my little tukkus off getting things set up to launch my little business. I have been feeding it and watering it like a flower, and hope to soon see it sprout into something beautiful and eventually grow into what I hope to become a botique. As of right now I am just making some trial crafts and selling them to try and raise some extra money for my wedding.

I have been offered work day caring for 3 children and look forward to begin that soon, which will give me a little bit extra time to put some more work into this little startup business of mine, and also enjoy what I do from day to day. (watching kids never gets old for me!) As of now I just have a little facebook business site and am slowly one by one listing things on ebay hoping to get a few hits. I have been reading about making money on youtube and blogging as well so I thought why not start a blog to go along with the business? What will it hurt? Either way you get a little insight into my day to day work, updates on upcoming items to be released and if I am able to advertise on it to make a little bit extra money then heck yes!

For now its just to share my thoughts and ideas with you, the reader, and hope that you enjoy the things I make (which make fabulous gifts, might I add - wink wink) With the holidays quickly sneaking up on me I have been working double time on my jewelry to have plenty on hand for last minute gifts.

If you need a last minute gift please let me know I will be more than happy to create something unique and inexpensive for you! Visit my facebook botique.