Honey Bear!!!! Original!

So I've finished the original piece and the person received it!!! :D She loves it!!!

Honey Bear!! The original character design that was ordered!! The Honey Bear design was created and made by Katy Gautier! She's an amazing artist! The picture on the left is the picture of her drawing and the picture on the right is my 3D c...rochet piece modeled after her design! This piece was so much fun! I really enjoy taking people's 2D ideas and turning them into something you can hold!!

And this piece is 20.5 inches from top of the ear to the tip of the toe, 17.5 inches from end to end of the arms outstretched, and 9 inches wide (stomach to tail). The eyes are made of felt and sewn on.

Original designs are $70 and up depending on the character! If you want to get a quote send me an email at intheloop.sarahjayne@yahoo.com

 

Please let me know what you think of it!! :D I'm proud of it but I'd like to know what you all think :) Btw I am working on a penguin at the moment as well so look forward to that!!!

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Most Profitable Month!

Hey guys!! May has been the most profitable month by far for me! The amount of revenue I got from that one month was three times what I've had in other months. I just finished two owls and will post those another time! I have also finished another giraffe! And working on another for the Etsy shop! Once I finish that giraffe I'll be able to actually open up the shop! I'm so excited!!

So this is how I decided to package my creations for sale! I got a bunch of tshirt bags from Uline and got some ribbon from the nearby Jo-Ann's and I make cards that go with my animals that explain how to take care of it and what you should do if you get it dirty. Just look at the Poly-Fil directions for cleaning and the yarn's directions for cleaning and figure out what to do.

I made this via the Calligraphy app on my iPad mini. It took forever but was totally worth it. I had to make bows in all colors that I offer and take pictures and edit each one. Sometimes the colors didn't come out well on the bows so had to find colors from the animals I have made in the past. This is something I will be sending to the people that order from me on Etsy so they can either choose their color bows or if it is a custom piece they can choose their colors for their animal this way. It's very convenient for them - lots of work for me.

So I hope this helps or gives you some ideas for your own shop!

By the way I got this incredibly cute stuffed animal chair at a garage sale and I'll show you pictures later because I'm planning on painting it and stenciling the name of the company on it. I need help deciding colors though. Please leave comments for what you think about everything in today's post!

Remember to stay in the loop and press the like button below!! I'm 4 likes away from 100!!!!

My favorite so far!! And a bit of Etsy.

So the picture I'm posting today is of my favorite creation I've made by far! I mean I love all of the ones I make but this is definitely my favorite with how it all turned out.

So you want to know the reason why I love this little guy??? Well he just turned out perfect!! When he sits down he sits up all by himself thanks to the way the tail is designed and attached! It pushes back up on the monkey to counter the weight and ends up not only propping up the monkey but the tail as well!! My boyfriend actually ended up buying it from me!! lol!! But I plan on making a brown and tan monkey soon that way I can standardize it for Etsy in order to sell it easily.

I've figured out a couple things about my Etsy and am almost able to start it up and write a good blog about it!! Right now here's what I've done. I've bought clear tshirt bags to put the animals in and tie with pretty ribbon and put into boxes for shipping. I bought the bags through ULINE which was good priced and ended up being delivered the next day. I also bought a roll of that brown Kraft paper to use for cushioning in shipping. I've figured out prices, shipping, and pricing per extra item. I've also made a banner!

I've decided I will only put the animals on that I have the pieces created for and that can be standardized (one's that have particular colors that it is known for in) like the giraffe, ladybug, duck, monkey, etc. and make the pieces ahead of time in the normal colors. I will list one of each once I create the pieces for it and the person will pick then whether they want a headbow or bowtie and what color they want it in and then I will attach everything and hopefully get them sent out within the week depending on the orders. I have also crocheted bows in all the colors I have so that people can not only pick their color bow for their animal BUT they can choose the colors I have from there for any custom orders. I will also be taking custom orders and I'm thinking I will say those will take about 3 weeks from order to ship out day depending on orders. But when someone buys from the ones already listed those will be taken off the site until I can make the pieces for it again and once that is done it will be listed back on the Etsy. This way it gives me time and I'm not overloaded with orders and I can send them out quicker.

Well I hope this gave some insight to those of you who are making an Etsy. This is just what I have decided so far and some of them I feel are some good ideas. Leave comments please and let me know if you have suggestions or comments or advice or what you think about the monkey and the Etsy!!

Also remember to stay in the loop and please press the like button below!! I'm 20 likes away from starting an offer!!!

Been a while!!

Hey guys!! Sorry it's been so long since I've posted! Trying to figure out the Etsy stuff!! It'll hopefully be up and running within two weeks! After that I'll post a nice update explaining how to do it for yourself!! I've been busy with orders like crazy! Just finished two of them a bee and a butterfly but I will only post the butterfly today! I've decided to make some changes to it from now on such as the wings will be bigger and the next shorter! But like all the others you can put either a bowtie or head bow with your choice of color and customize your's to your colors.

 

Also I must say everyone always comments after seeing them that they are much bigger than they thought they'd be. Keep in mind that these are usually 12 inches or bigger. I'm also trying to figure out the shipping amounts and everything! Hope you like the new update and they new creation!! Please post comments on what you think!! :) Still needing 22 likes for my FB page!! If you like my creations please support it by pressing the like button below!! I'm figuring out what I will offer once I get 100 likes! Please help me out!

 



FINALS!! DONE!

So just finished my last final of the semester today!! YAY!!!!

Finished packing up my stuff and heading back to my hometown tomorrow!!! I'm so exhausted and now I need to finish up the Bumble Bee order and do the Butterfly order. I also got in a crochet order for an original character that someone has been drawing for years! I'm really excited about it and excited about the possibilities of this broadening the business to people who make up their own characters!

Because I can look at a picture and figure out a pattern for it, this is perfect for what I love to do! The Ideas Challenge didn't pan out for me an all but with all the possible orders I got and people coming up to me and asking for my business card, I think it was a success!!

I'll be finishing those three orders and also working on new ones while working on animals for First Friday for next semester. Also as soon as I get home I plan to start setting up my Etsy shop to also get more orders! I've printed out and research a lot so probably in the next week watch for an article about the research I've done on how to set up an Etsy!! I'm very excited and hope all of this helps!!!

I don't have any new projects today so I will post the usual picture!

 

Remember to stay in the loop and please press the like button below!! I still need 28 likes to get to 100!

 



Yay and Nay

Yay! Did the interview today! I think it went really well!!!

Going to start off today with a little thing I plan to start every blog off from now on with. It is called Yay or Nay! You basically say something good that happened to you today (Yay) and something bag (Nay). I will also try to figure out a good schedule for posting (like topics I'll try to keep to each day).

Yay: The interview went well!
Nay: I'm sooooooooooooooooooooo tired lol

Usually it will be a bit better than today's but I'm just really tired! Went to bed late and was at school for almost the entire day! I was planning on posting some of the comments and feedback I got about the previous post on Etsy, but I'm just too tired to put that together today. I promise though I will get it out sometime in the next few days! For now I will at least show you one piece of advice I got that I think will be very helpful!

Hawwa Land5:46 PM

GO FOR IT! Take one standard animal to your local walmart or similar store, go to the stationary aisle and find out what box/envelope would best fit them and your needs/budget. Buy 2 or 3 of them then just keep buying as you go You can usually calculate shipping online (a small postal scale comes in handy) or go to your local post office for rates. Fees aren't a big deal, I think Etsy only has one insertion fee and a small pocket fee after your sale. Make sure to price your animal according to what you want to make after fees. Policies are easy to figure out. Descriptions are very important and are the first impression for your customers next to good pictures. Apart from that be optimistic, take risks, and if you fail... well... at least you tried! Good luck!

 

Thank you so much for the great advice!!

 

I plan to look more into the whole Etsy thing and all of the sites that everyone gave me to look at for it and once I compile everything I will write a good blog explaining everything I found out. Follow me to make sure you see it when I post it! (Btw how do you follow people? lol)

 

I also want to say thank you to everyone who likes and shares my facebook page! I really appreciate it and I appreciate all the support as well! Please keep spreading the word as well and if you haven't liked the page, please do! www.facebook.com/InTheLoopSarahJayne

 

Leave a comment of an some topics you would like me to write about and make topics for each day of! I'm trying to think of some and I'd really appreciate any advice or comments you have about it!

 

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To Etsy or Not?

So I need some advice. I've been thinking for a while about making an Etsy for my business. My only problem is how do you figure out your return policies, your pay policies, shipping and all those things. I feel like I'd get more business from more places if I made one, it just seems incredibly hard to put together. I'm trying to figure out the best way to do shipping considering the animals are pretty big. Leave me a comment on what you think I should do and if there are any videos or websites that make it easier to make one and help you through it. Also how do you deal with tax and everything do you mark up the animals a bit so you would get the normal amount? I'm very curious and very interested in making one!

This is a picture of the robot I did for my roommate who is obsessed with robots. The arms are a bit long I know, but again most of the animals I make I made the patterns for so I have to do trial and error. The next time they will be half the size.

Also an update on my daily life. I woke up at 6:30am to sign up for classes and of course they decide to change the prefixes of the classes so the prerequisites for those classes were messed up and I couldn't apply for one of my classes. Thankfully they just fixed it! Also found out I got a really good grade on the test I had yesterday!! And the interview for the scholarship is tomorrow!! Wish me luck!! In the coming week I will also find out if I made the top 40 finalists for the Ideas Challenge for Texas A&M University with Sarah Jayne Studios (the main company I have).

Just leave comments about the Etsy thing and I'm looking into making ads for my page on Facebook sometime this weekend! Wish me luck!!

If you haven't already take a look at my page at www.facebook.com/InTheLoopSarahJayne to see the rest of the animals that I have done and prices for them all!

And remember to stay in the loop and press the like button below.