01-26-2015

{Mostly} Handmade Valentine’s Gift Ideas

I love Valentine’s Day but I don’t think you need to spend a fortune to make it special. There are lots of great ideas around the internet for things that you can make or you can make and then purchase. Here are some of the ones I have thought about.

12 Months of Dates. I am sure you have seen this on multiple blogs but Clean & Scentsible has free printables for it as well. You can prepay for the dates or just have ideas for the following 12 months. What an adorable (and thoughtful!) idea.

Shutterfly Photo Books. I am a huge fan of these books. I make them all the time. Watch for their sales because you can normally get free shipping and then some amount off.

If you don’t have as much time to make a Shutterfly book or want something a little smaller, have you heard of chatbooks? They are smaller and you can make your own with one picture and captions on each page. I made Josiah one for Christmas and he keeps it on his desk at work. Use this code to receive your first one for free: 9PETNKKA. Just download the app.

How about some food? You can never go wrong with some homemade cookies or bread. You put time into it and it tastes absolutely delicious!

Another cute idea is the Alphabet of Our Love. I have seen a few versions of this but here is one from The Twinery Blog that came out really cute.

Filed Under: Holiday Tagged With: gifts, handmade, valentines day

10-24-2013

Featured Etsy Shop

I am so excited to introduce another shop to you! This one is called Melanie’s Marketplace. She sells unique beaded utensils, serving spoons and other kitchen items. These would make excellent gifts. The holidays are coming up!

How long have you been designing & how did you start? I started designing in 2010, selling and gifting serving spoons to family members and friends. I had seen beaded serving utensils at a local bead store with many small beads around the handles and I immediately fell in love, but decided I wanted to make something a little different. I started beading everything I could possibly think of from bracelets and watches to flowers and serving utensils.

What inspires you to come up with a new design? In 2011, my love for the beaded serving utensils spread to wine charms, salt and pepper shakers, plates, bowls, and much more. Beads By Melanie: Jewelry For The Home was born. I just very recently (in the last month) opened my Etsy shop, Melanie’s Marketplace to sell my products.

How has your business grown since you started? Honestly, walking through the kitchen department of any store always gets my juices flowing. I see something new that would look great with beads and immediately try to come up with an idea in my head. I have contemplated bead-dazzling everything from drink glasses to measuring cups.

Where do you see the business going in 2 years? Since starting out, I have finally decided to publicly sell my products. This was a HUGE step for me, since I always only sold to family, friends, and friends of friends and I am so excited to show off my creations to the world. I can only hope that other people love my products as much as I do!

Do you have a philosophy, or mission statement your company stands behind? In two years, I hope to see growth for my little business. As I said before, I am new to Etsy and I can only dream of what this site will do for Beads By Melanie. In addition, I hope to expand my shop to sell even more than my current beaded serveware.

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Do you have an etsy shop or another shop you would like me to mention? Send me an email at kristen[at]ladybug-blessings[dot]com

Filed Under: Featured Etsy Shop Tagged With: etsy, handmade, shop

10-17-2013

Featured Etsy Shop

Have you heard of The Ruffled Stitch? Absolutely adorable custom & unique cash budget wallets & other sewing items. If you follow the Dave Ramsey plan (or any plans like it), these are fabulous! Actually they are fabulous in general. Look at how absolutely adorable they are!! Some have cute bows while others have other accents. These wallets would make a wonderful gift (Christmas is coming up!) or just a nice gift for yourself!

How long have you been designing & how did you start? I started designing things for my home in June 2012. I loved to it so much I started sewing more things and taking them to a local farmers market. Then I started giving some things as gifts, and my friends encouraged me to do more. I officially started my Etsy shop August 2012, but really got serious about it in the past couple months.

What inspires you to come up with a new design? I just love following what is in style and trying to use those colors or that certain style to make a product. So when some new color is in or a new pattern, I love incorporating that into something new. My mind is constantly coming up with new ideas. Some turn out great when I try them, and others not so much. I also want to bring my customers something I would love and want to use.

How has your business grown since you started? When I first started I was selling locally here and there. Craft shows and word of mouth were my biggest sellers. I really wanted to sell more on Etsy though. This past month, when I introduced my wallets, I started getting lots of sales on Etsy. So that is really exciting!!

Where do you see the business going in 2 years? I would love to do mostly wallet sales. I have a lot of different ideas and designs of wallets that I am planning on to adding to my store. My goal is to keep growing it, to make it into a constant full time job!

Do you have a philosophy, or mission statement your company stands behind? I just love the phrase “Keep Going.” So I just want my business to serve God by serving others. To provide someone with great customer service and a quality and unique product that will bring a smile to their face and the courage to keep going!

Is there anything else you would like our readers to know about your company? I just really want to provide my customers with complete satisfaction when they purchase something. I have come to find out, that really when it comes down to it, my business is not about how successful I can become, or how much money I can make, but rather, how can I please my customer?

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do you have an etsy shop that you want me to look at? Send me an email kristen[at]ladybug-blessings[dot]com.

Filed Under: Featured Etsy Shop Tagged With: crafts, etsy, handmade

11-18-2012

Gift Guides

Okay, I apologize for being MIA this week. It has been so crazy with job stuff, and I have been doing so much. I did spend some time last night making some adorable new pajamas that I will share with you once I finish them (just a few embellishments to go!) but I wanted to show you some gift ideas.

I LOVE the Handmade Holidays over @ Sew, Mama, Sew. Each day there is a new category of gifts you can sew.

50 DIY Days of Christmas from The Paper Mama. Each day has a new project and make sure to look at last years!

Make sure to check them out and let me know if you have any others that you know about!!

Filed Under: Holiday Tagged With: gifts, handmade, handmade holidays, holidays