Same ol' Same ol'

Have you ever been online looking at jewelry and saw something, then though to yourself, "I swear I've seen this before?" You're not crazy and more than likely, completely right... especially if you were on Etsy. There is one type of bracelet out there in Etsyland that seems to be the gold standard for copycatting. I will admit it's nice, but it's just that... nice. Nothing extraordinary, just nice. Here's what I'm talking about:

See what I mean; all the same, AND they are from different sellers. The kinda sad thing is that these bracelets sell really well. Not sad for the seller or buyer, but more like sad for artistic integrity. It really is a shame that so many talented artisans feel the need to replicate on a commercial level. Oh well... done ranting.

Animal.

I recently acquired some leopard print fabric. I've never been too fond of animal prints, and I'm trying pretty hard to get my preconceived notions of vampy-rock-a-billy chick out of my head. I like the fabric, and it's perfect for the upcoming winter months, but still, trying to get rid of old stereotypes. Old safari style seems more appropriate.

New Stuff for Fall

I've been up late the past few nights working on some new hat designs. I'm really digging the new animal hats with the cute ears. Bears and monkeys should be next, till then, here's an idea of what I got going on. Be on the lookout for some of these on my Etsy page. Let me know if you've got any special requests.

Silly Dreams

I had a dream last night that I was doing some shopping at an outdoor market. Suddenly I see the boy that I used to be infatuated with when I was in the 7th grade. I hadn't seen him in nearly a decade. We jokingly say that we should really meet more often than once every 10 years. He invites me to meet for some coffee sometime tomorrow, and I delightfully accept. We say our goodbyes and go our separate ways.

About 10 paces on, I realize that we never set a time, coffee house, nor did I even catch his number. I turn around and see him turning the next corner, so I then start to chase after him. The next few blocks of the city then begin to turn into a multidimensional labyrinth. After only a few moments of searching, I decide to go back to my apartment where my husband and dog greet me just as I'm approaching the door.

A Different Kind of Autumn

For as long as I can remember, I have longed for the season of Fall. Having been a Texan all my life, the notion of falling leaves, bundling up for 50 degree weather and experiencing seasons in general is a rather foreign notion. The typical Autumn here is far from what the rest of country knows. For the most part, things are still pretty green. Cold snaps don't hit us till late November, and even still, a snap to us is 55 degrees. The only time vegetation actually does die is when we're hit with weeks of dry heat in the middle of October.

I went around town the other day to give you an idea of what Autumn looks like in the Alamo City.

Race to Space

I woke up today to an insane amount of views to my Etsy store today... nearly 300! All before noon too, and views are still climbing. The item behind this surge is my rocket necklace. I'm not too sure why, but I do suspect that it is because I entered it in Etsy's Space Craft Contest.

In just the past 12 hours, this little necklace has gotten over nearly 600 views alone. Either way, I'm still super stoked that lots of peeps are taking a look at my stuff.

Urban Street Bazaar 11

Now that the dust has cleared on a fun filled weekend, I am finally able to post about it. My crafting partner in crime, Val, and I got into Dallas late Thursday night, which gave us all of Friday to roam around the city. That evening we decided to hit up the Texas State Fair. I love going to the fair... so much food everywhere! I decided to try the fried beer which looked like ravioli. I did not care for it at all!

There we are after hitting up the Texas wine tasting booths just in time to catch the parade.

Saturday came with a vengeance. It was also the same day as the Red River Shootout, and since I went to UT, I of course was rooting for the longhorns. The only bummer about me being in Dallas during TX/OU weekend is that I'm bad luck. In all the years I've gone up there since 1999, I have never seen UT win against OU. The only times they've won are when I stay home. Whomp, whomp.

You'd never know there was a huge game in town though, because there were so many people in the Bishop Arts District for the Bazaar! Things started rolling really quickly so I forgot to take pics of our booth on the first day. The pics below are from the second day of the Bazaar, Sunday.

As you can see, there wasn't much left... Our knit/crochet hats and scarves were selling like hotcakes! In addition to what we had there, we were still making while at the fair, and those were selling as soon as they were finished!

Yup, that frame is looking a bit sparse...

This was my nice little ring display set up at the front of the booth.

After a long (and successful) two days of selling, Val and I had a much deserved beer! Eno's Pizza on Bishop Street was AMAZING! I'm so going back the next time I'm in Dallas!

And this was our reward for our weekend!

We had such a blast, and its a shame that this was the last Urban Street Bazaar. While it's nice to see its reincarnate, Indie Genius continue on with the vibe of the Bazaar, I'm still bummed that I won't be going up there to participate in this awesome craft show anymore.

This Week in the Treasury

A pleasant surprise of all the treasuries I've been featured in on Etsy this week. To check out the full twentysomething list of treasuries I've been featured in, click HERE and just search "blinkdesign."

Here comes the rain again...

Storm...

After the Autumn Wedding...

Skully...

Under the Clear Blue Sky...

Next Flight to London...

Boys Stuff

I've slowly been trying to infuse men's accessories into my inventory. Below is the one of the first tie tacks I made. It can be personalized and can be purchased HERE.

This next one was created in response to my popular "Ode to Geekery - Lightning Bolt" necklace. This tie tack is available on my website too.

Now I didn't make any of the following, but It does indicate the direction in which I would like to expand my line to include more items boys would like... enjoy.

Cycling Cap by bicyclerandi

Awesome ties by toybreaker

Cute cuff links by TheCufflinkMaker

Another Day of DIY

Ok, so you've made tons of cute knit hats ready for sale, but what do you tag them with? This was usually my dilemma when first venturing into selling my wares. Sure, many craft stores carry various styles of tags, but they all seem so sterile and boring.

Last night I figured a way to create 100% personalized DIY price tags that will set you apart from the others. This is what they look like...

Items you will need: Card stock, hole punch, tag paper punch, your computer and computer printer. If you don't have these items lying around, don't worry... luckily these items (sans the computer stuff) aren't too expensive. On a good sale week at the craft store, the supplies will run you about $25.

First, your logo. If you don't already have one, try to create an image that is simple, timeless and something that truly reflects you and your creative style. Avoid detailed images as the details will be lost if/when the images are forced into a small space such as these tags.

Create a type of wallpaper image using either Photoshop, Publisher, or even Word. I found that things work best if your logo is about 1 inch wide and sits at least 1 inch apart from the neighboring images. Using the 1x1x1 ratio made it pretty easy to fit at least 20 images on 1 sheet of card stock.

Now that this has been done, print this out on a test sheet of card stock as shown below. Get creative on your card stock too! You don't have to always use white.

Next, use a tag paper punch and simply punch out the tags with your logo at the center. Within minutes, you will have about 20 new tags. These paper punches can be found at any craft store within the scrapbook section. This particular paper punch is the exact one that I used and creates tags 1-1/4 in.X1-7/8in.

After you've created these tags, now you need to create a hole to attach these onto garments. Any hole punch will due, however I prefer to use the tiniest hole punch I can find, which is the 1/16 size hole punch.

See how small hole is!

I personally don't like using floss or string to attach the tags onto garments, but rather prefer to use safety pins.

I find that the smaller hole makes the tag look a bit more polished and less bulky and awkward. Now that you've got a mini arsenal of tags, start pricing and get your name out there!