ETSY Education

It was an absolutely beautiful day today in the Northwest.
I spent some time on Etsy tonight reading several Etsy Success articles.
The message that seemed to be coming through the strongest for me was a reminder to return to, or get more authentically creative.

I feel like I keep creating for the bigger audience in order to SELL, rather than creating beautiful things from my own inspiration, that are good enough to inspire people to purchase them.

Wish me success. I will need your support in order to do the work that is required to achieve that goal. I want to support each of you in your endeavors to be creative. It is what makes life magical.

RAMP #2

I told you there was going to be another ramp, and now it exists. Hunter and I created another ramp for the TekDecks yesterday after I got home from work.
The two photos are of Hunter paying homage to the project, and the other is of him doing the spray painting of the project. He was quite excited, as you can tell by his intense look.
It was fun to do.
Sorry I did not get construction photos this time, we were trying to meet a deadline (before it was time for him to leave for home)

If you are ever thinking about trying something like this. Jump in, and get creative. I am amazed at what we create out of literally nothing.
Component parts for this project were, a pencil, scratch paper, cardboard, poster board, foam packing, hot glue, plastic tubing and spray paint

What Have I Been Doing?

My grandson Hunter had a birthday coming and he wanted something that he could use when playing with his Tech Deck mini skateboards. So I decided to construct a half pipe for him. Since I had no clue of where to start, I put the thinking cap on and went to work.
I knew that he would really play with this, so it would need to be sturdy, and realistic.
This shows the cardboard side panels
and the modified popcicle stick structure. I of course used hot glue as my cement. If I had realized that I would post images, I would have been even more careful in aligning my supports.
I kept building with most of the plan in my head, only.

More and more supports, I went crazy.

Several coats of black paint were used to give a nice finish.
Then Grandma copied Tony Hawk logos and graphics, printed them out and glued them to the half pipe.

You see the finished product in the last image.
He was very happy with the result.
As of two days ago, he sent Grandma home with a picture of my next project, a set of stairs with hand rails on both sides and a ramp leading up the back of the stairs.
I will hopefully take pictures and post them for your enjoyment.
Happy Birthday !

Long Time No Speak

GOOD MORNING WORLD. I am about to begin anew on this blog,...... again.
It has been about two months since I have added anything new. I think today is the day.
I hope all of you have been well, I wouldn't know since I have been absent on this scene.
SO what is new?
Well, I decided to close down the Etsy store about a month ago. I reduced prices (to accommodate the slump in the economy) and thought to I would give myself two weeks to see if anyone would buy anything at reduced prices, then I would close the store and forget the whole idea.

I was tired of trying to figure out what photographers wanted to see and buy, and I was certainly done with spending another dime in an effort to find out. I am not sure I will ever recoup enough money from this venture to ever make it worth it.

36 hours later I received an e-mail from one of the proprietors of PropInsanity.com, a site dedicated to a world wide search for photography props and the people who buy them. The e-mail stated that a friend had e-mailed her suggesting that they visit my store. They kindly offered to do an article about the store, featuring photos of several items made by me. The article will be offering one item in a free drawing for their readership. They have an average of 25,000 hits a month. This would definitely be more people than I have visit the store on average, by about a THOUSAND TIMES!
That sort of blew my idea of closing out of the water....not to mention the voice in my head that was now screaming, "if that many people visit their site, and even a few of them visit the CuteByDesign store, I might need more stock.

Ooooooooohhh I was so confused by this whole idea. I stewed for about 24 hours before I replied to that e-mail. I thanked them profusely and said I would send things in a short while. That short while has stretched into several weeks, but I did send a box to them 2 days ago.

SO in a few months there should be an article materialize out there in the cyberworld.
I GUESS I AM NOT CLOSING, NOT QUITE YET.