2 New Listings!

Remember those pens I talked about last week? Well I finally got two of them listed in my shop this morning. I took pictures of the other ones, and I will probably list them tomorrow after I think of some good titles.

Aqua Swirl Pen
This festive pen features generous swirls of blue, gold, sea foam, and magenta all an an aqua background. Pen writes in blue.










Forest Jagged Motion Pen
This pen features a wild and earthy fusion of color on a forest green background. The whirled color palette includes: light blue, cream, forest green, royal purple, and magenta. Pen writes in forest green.






Do you prefer the classic simplicity of the swirl design, or the wildness of the jagged motion design? Please share your thoughts with me in the comments.

Playing with Color + Giveaway

I had so much fun making these new pens! I love playing with color and adding and subtracting different colors of beads from my palette to get just the right combination. My abstract "Jagged Motion" design is perfect for color experimentation. I hope to get these listed in my etsy shop this week.

Fellow Dallas Etsians Megan of Harrilu and Ashley of Ashley Akers Jewelry are running cross promotion giveaways! Click here to enter to win a Teal and White Peonies Tunic, and click here to enter to win a red plexiglass Coral Branch Pendant.

Blog Award

I just received the One Lovely Blog Award from Anna of Life, Craftiness, and Everything Else. She is also the creator behind The House of Mouse. Go check out The Beatles Mice, they are too cute!

Thanks so much, Anna! Now it's my turn to pass it on...
Here are the rules:

• Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.
• Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

1. Craft Cove
2. Macaroni and Glue
3. Studio618
4. Sand Fibers
5. Joy of Life
6. Jaycee Patterns
7. Bags and Buds
8. Funky Finds
9. A Bead A Day
10. Here There Be Monsters
11. Almost Precious
12. Fairy Davis
13. Etsy Stalker
14. Monster Bubbles
15. Today in the Jewelry Studio

Please checkout all these wonderful blogs. They are in no particular order, and you may find a new blog to "follow"!

Side Note: I'm still working on my "Mandibeads" etsy shop. I have some new products, many pens and journals to photograph, and a new logo in the works. I'm shooting for a Grand Opening date of June 1, 2009. Back to work :)

I just listed my Purple Haze Pen & Pencil Set in my Etsy shop. Purple is my all time favorite color, and I just love Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix. His guitar riffs are just amazing! Those two things provided some great inspiration for the set :)

I wish I didn't have to work today. I feel really motivated to create more designs and list more things in my shop. The worst part about listing is writing the copy, but I think I'm getting better at it.

Song lyrics | Purple Haze lyrics

Interview

I'm turning in my profile for our Etsy Texas Crafters Membership booklet today. It's going to be a CD of profiles of all the members and we'll use it as a promotional tool. Here are the questions and what I wrote:

Etsy User Name: Scribbles

Tell us a bit about yourself (name, location, affiliations, achievements/awards, and any personal stuff you want to share).

My name is Mandi Flint and I'm a right handed Leo born in the year of the boar. I'm a hippie-liberal type from Austin, who went to school at Texas A&M for a history degree, then moved to Dallas. I'm an artist, peace activist, feminist, and I have a bead addiction. I've been beading since I was 10 when my grandma gave me her loom. I had my first jewelry show at age 12, nearly sold out, and made $78. I thought I was rich! Lately I've experimenting with other ways to use beads besides jewelry. I love writing, so I was already a fan of the G2 Pilot Pens for the fun colors and the smooth gel ink. The only problem was they looked so ordinary. I combined the pens with my passion for beading and BANG, Scribble Scrabble Beaded Pens was born.

Are you an Etsy Buyer, Seller, or Both? both

What is the first thing you can remember making by hand? How and why did you make it?

That’s a hard one, so I’m glad it’s the first thing you remember making. My grandma taught me to sew at a very early age. She got me a book that had several sewing projects in it. I think the first was a bag to keep all my sewing supplies in. She allowed me to choose any fabric from her large and deliciously colorful stash. I chose a green fabric that had big pink hibiscuses on it. I think I still have it somewhere!

Why do you create?

I create because it’s a meditative freedom. My mind and creativity are free to go anywhere they want without hindrance. Whatever I’m feeling goes into what I’m making, and I love that I can just lose myself in it.

What inspires you? Where do your ideas come from?

I’m deeply inspired by other artists and the stories behind their work. I’m also inspired by nature, color, feelings, even books.

What are your favorite materials?

Beads; with the definition of beads being anything that has a hole through it :)

What is your favorite color?

Purple

What are your most and least two favorite films? My favorite is a toss up between Boondock Saints and Pulp Fiction. My least favorite film has to be What Dreams May Come just because I don’t like the way it affected me.

What are you reading right now?

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the way we make things. It’s really changing how I look at things and what I choose to buy. It gives the word consumer a whole new meaning.

What is your favorite item you have purchased on Etsy?

I’m going to go with my red velvet cupcake pin cushion! My beading needles just weren’t happy with the boring old tomato pin cushion.

Now I have to choose which photos I'd like included!

Bumblebee Mini Pen

Here is my new pen design, and I am soooo proud of it! I made a cute little bumblebee, and gave him 4 violets all to himself :) I have 3 other mini pens that I will be adding to my shop this week. I'm going to try again on the posting one item per day for a week. I have a mini butterfly, another peace sign, and another waves pen.

I got so much stuff done over the weekend and caught up on a lot of my favorite podcasts. All the sampler packages have been sent out, so I'm hoping people like my pens and come have a look at my store. Then I will be working on my new website! I kind of want to model it after www.betzwhite.com. She has a link to her etsy store under "shop" and a link to her blog. I'd also love to have a gallery. I need one of her cupcake pincushions, too!

"First Monday" was a Success!

Etsy Texas Crafters had our inaugural "First Monday" on June 4th and it was a success. I made two sales, and one was from our fearless leader Milly! We had 31 member shops participate, and 17 had sales with a total of 37 items sold! I glad the "I Heart Yarn Pen" finally found a good home, too. I am having my first talk with a team member today about our the ETC website we are building. Staying busy, that's for sure.

Also, my Sampler package was found! Apparently many of the packages had trouble making it there. Silly mailman! All are found and will be going out today, and I'm really excited about that. I'm also going to try to get this new pen posted before I leave for work.

Good News and Bad News

I guess I'll start with the bad news so I can end on a positive note. My package to the Sampler was lost in the mail! I cried when I saw they didn't receive it, and after I went to the post office and they said there's nothing they can do. I lost over $200 worth of merchandise and promos, plus all the time that went into it. It was so stupid not to insure it or get delivery confirmation or something. For those type of packages I think I'll use UPS or FED EX so this won't happen again.

The good news is that I got a new lightbox, and I can finally get those awesome white backgrounds for my pictures! I just posted this blue peace mini pen in my shop. I'm going to re-photograph all my pens this weekend and hopefully have everything finished in time for the very first Etsy Texas Crafters "First Mondays." The first one is this Monday -- this will be 24 hours of great sales and special offers in the ETC team shop, as well as in ETC members' shops, and will be held the first Monday of every month (12:01am to 12:00 midnight Monday, Central Time / 1:01am Monday to 1:00am Tuesday, Etsy Time). Watch for our special avatars to appear when First Mondays sales are going on. My sale will be a BOGO, so when you buy a regular size pen, you'll receive your choice of mini pen free!

Gotta Have Friends

Alison Gordon does a lot for our crafty community as co-organizer of Bazaar Bizarre and Sampler Contributor Relations superhero. She has recently faced a medical emergency, and like many independent artists and crafters, she is without health insurance. She is getting some help from her friends who have set up an etsy shop called Wonderland Retreat, a play on the name of Alison’s site, WonderlandQ. The proceeds will all go to Alison to help ease the financial burden. It’s awesome that there are over 5 pages of donated items, and 160 items have already been sold! I’m so proud to be part of such a wonderful crafty community, and I am donating a pen (pictured) from my shop, Scribble Scrabble Beaded Pens. If you have an item to donate, contact Renee Garner at wonderlandretreat [at] gmail [dot] com. I’m off to the shop to set what cute goodies I can buy to help out :)

Busy Week

It's the weekend so I finally have time to sit down and think. The picture is of the scribble pads I've been making to go out with my orders and for promos for fellow etsyians to pass out in their goodie bags. When you flip open the cover, there are 10 little pages to take notes on, or scribble on :)

I received two orders this week, even after raising my prices! My customers are happy, and I feel like I'm getting what my work is worth. I love my new job, too. We're not too busy in the morning and the time goes by slow, but from 4-7 it just flies on by! There are a million other things I need to learn though. I went and looked at some Mini Coopers with my fiance yesterday. I will be needing to get a new vehicle before too long as I don't think my Jeep can hack it. Even though I absolutely LOVE my Jeep, it gets terrible gas mileage and its not convenient unless the weather's nice. I wasn't too impressed with the Coopers though...way overpriced in my mind. I've you have any suggestions for cars, lay 'em on me :)

Snow Day & Peace

It snowed yesterday...in TEXAS! Ruby and I had a great time playing in it. It was the first time for both of us to see snow, and it was awesome. The previous few days were icy and windy, the kind of cold that rips your skin off. The cold we had yesterday was different. You still had to bundle up, but it was just plain cold. I didn't feel like I wanted to run back inside ;)

Today I finished up my peace pens for our Etsy Peace Swap. I also made one extra for the basket of Peace items we plan to sell for charity. We haven't chosen a charity yet, but my suggestion is Peace Action. I think we will end up picking one that is international so everyone will feel included. I added a quote about peace to go with my pen:

"Nonviolence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man."
-Muhatma Gandhi

Peace Swap Update

I have completed the first set of pens for the peace swap. I changed the pattern a little from the one I showed before. These have a caps of color on the top and bottom, and the peace sign is centered. The sea green on dark green is the color combo I like best. I also took the keyrings off so they'd be easier to photograph. I hope my swap group likes them.