Motivation Monday

                                     Motivation Monday

Things that inspire me, color combinations I love, the music that rocks my studio and anything else that makes me want to jump up and make a bead!

I've been hanging out on pinterest again ~(imagine that!)  and I'm finding manicures surprisingly inspiring. I totally wish I could do my nails like this, but I suck at nail polish; so I'm hoping for beads.  :)

I'm actually pretty excited to try these this week.  I'll make sure I share pictures (good or bad) next week.

Enrique Iglesias  is rocking my studio this week (between Spanish language instructions) thinking I can do two things at once, but we'll see! :)

Thanks for stopping by and stay motivated!


If you still need more motivation check out all the pretty flowers in KTBelleCrafts garden!

Featured Friday

Featured Friday

Cool Handmade Stuff From Artists I Admire

Happy Friday!  There are now 16 shopping days til Christmas ~ and just a week left to make sure online orders reach you in time!   

I know I always have at least one guy on my list who is really hard to find a gift for ~ I think I just found an awesome solution!  Bath products from PlunkSoap.  Pair this great bar of stud soap with a bacon flavored lip balm for a perfect guy gift.  Bacon lip balm, I'm still laughing!

Need something special for anyone in the office?  Boss, secretary?  I love the stained glass business card holders from MoreThanColors!

 I hope we are all shopping at small, local and/or artisan businesses this year.  Big box stores will not care if you spend $100.00 with them, but that same $100.00 could mean everything to a small business. And you get the benefit of better customer service and more meaningful gifts!

Thanks for taking a peak at these great shops ~ and check back next Friday for more fun handmade finds!

What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday

I recently posted a question in the Etsy forums asking whether a single or a bulk picture should be used first in a listing for one bead with more available.  The majority of the responses critiqued my photographs and as this is the first time I've ever received constructive criticism on my shop,  I really appreciated it!  

So this week I've been working on retaking the pictures for all 152 of my Etsy listings.  At 4-6 pictures per item that's over 750 pictures!  Considering that I haven't found a reliable light source that's anywhere as good as natural light for showing the true colors on beads, this is going to take a long time. I have about a 1 hour window of time when the sun is up but not blocked by the fence or the trees in my yard at this time of year so I just have to hope that happens to be the hour there isn't any cloud cover! Anyway, here is a comparison

New picture

Old Picture

There is a HUGE difference!  I didn't realize how bad my pics were before and I'm extremely grateful to the people who took the time to critique me.

As to the original question: I decided I had to do what felt right to me, which is to use the single bead as the first picture.  It's not as dramatic, but I also don't feel like I'm being deceptive.  In the end, being able to sleep at night is more important to me than the number of sales.