Networking on Etsy

Since I list my items on Etsy, I've come to the realization that networking is a BIG necessity in that type of community.  Without connecting with other artists and taking part myself in the social media they provide, I found that my traffic was greatly slowed to my Etsy site.  I took a look at all the "Teams" that Etsy hosts and found that, after just a few minutes of searching, there were thousands of Teams that I could be a part of.  I actually thought to myself, " I could totally sign up to a bunch of these and I'm set".  But after a few minutes of really digging into what these teams were, I realized that it wasn't just the act of clicking "Join Team" but the actions that follow. 

Some teams just seem so dormant..stagnant..or just holding groups for Etsy vendors with no direction.  That wouldn't work for me, I needed something "more".  Thinking on what would work for me with the resources I had,  I had come to realize that I had totally forgotten about my membership to a team I had already belonged to.  I had been with them for years,  first as a vendor but then later as a fan.  The Fantasy Artists of Etsy (FAE ) has a stellar group of artists I had admired for a long time.  So, I made the decision to be an active part of the FAE Team once again and not just a silent watcher from the distance.  With this decision came the first step of taking part in their current exibition of work.  The Midnight Dark and Dreary Exibition was taking calls for work and I decided to answer that call.  I submitted two pictures of my work.  It took a few tweeks to the images, but finally they were accepted for display.

So whats the lesson I learned?  That in order for you to have an active Etsy site, you need to be active yourself.  You can't just sit back and let your "tags" do the work for you.  Altho, they do drive traffic to your site to a certain extent, you need to do a bit more than that to be successful.  That also holds true for Etsy Teams.  You need to make sure you pick a team that fits your site, your style and your product(s).  Without this "fit" you can't comfortably participate in discussions or other team activities..and no participation, means that your team suffers as well your site.

So, when the FAE Team asked me to promote the exhibition I was more than happy to participate.  I encourage you all to take a stop by the Fantasy Artists of Esty site to view the current exhibition titled "Midnight Dark and Dreary", which is very appropriate for the upcoming Halloween holiday.  Click on those listings that speak most to you. You know those listings, the ones that make you go "Oh Cool!", those are the ones you need to click on and see how they're made or find out the story behind them. But don't stop there,  tweet them or even post them on Facebook... it's free, but it also helps out the artist involved, and it only takes a few seconds, plus you just might make an artist smile.

Fall is here!

With the season change, I felt inspired to whip up some images via Gimp.  Made Grandmother Witch and Witch Baby Otto..the latest relative to the two is Aunt Batty.  She is very proper in her attire and always stirs her cauldron with pinky up of course..as you can see by her stiff posture and wonderfully kept hair.

I decided to show you the before and after photos so you get a feel as to what was changed and what wasn't. Aunt Batty is quite a smart lady. You see with a snap of her fingers she can change from her "muggle" form to her true image. In all these years I don't think anyone suspected a thing about her. 

And of course this image, as well as the others, are available on my etsy shop for purchase for your Halloween Holiday scrapbooking/mixed media needs.

Change of Seasons brings...well change.

After doing the bills and getting totally depressed again.  I decided to distract myself and rummage through my craft room.  After a few moments of "straightening and organizing" it has dawned on me that I really need to start listing some more items up on my shop.  Unfortunately this means I also have to part with my favorites.  One is my mixed media painting of "The Littlest Bear".  She's oh so gosh darn cute, I'll be sad to see her go..but like every artist I need to let go of my babies...it's what we do.  So, without further delay she's now up on my Etsy site looking for a good home."The Littlest Bear"

Spring Has Sprung !

And so has my creativity.  :)


 I decided to break out the old bear making materials again..dusted off the old sewing machine, organized my fabrics, rounded up my needles and took stock of my supplies.  After rummaging around the closet, I pulled out my patterns and found a few nice pieces of mohair I had forgotten about.  As I pulled out the short nap blonde fat yard of mohair..a ziplock bag of fluff fell out.  Pink and lavendar fluff to be specific.  "Whats this?" I thought to myself.. "An unfinished bear! Shut up!"..I unzipped the bag and lo and behold..sure enough..it was a hand dyed bear set..all the pieces were there...arms legs..head pieces.. It just needed to be assembled.

Now..having the flu certainly puts a damper on your crafting abilities, but I was ready to get well and decided to work on that bear..piece by piece and hand sewed most of it.  I finished the head first to get a feel of what it would look like as a whole..then it struck me..I wanted to do something different for the nose..something completely different.  Cotton string would not do this time.  I again went thru my supplies..and found my stash of felting needles "hmm..better put these where they belong before I loose them again"...**Ding ding ding** ~insert bright idea light-bulb here~   Yup, you guessed it...I needle felted a nose.  I had some non-carded wool roving and found a nice minty teal color.  After a while it actually started to look like a nose.  But something was missing.  The nose was too big..hmm..  I looking thru my roving again...this time I dug to the bottom of the container...and guess what folks..I had a bunch of  roving that matched the backing of the mohair "EXACTLY".   Four broken felting needles and a handful of wool later..."ta da".   A bear is born..

Coupon Coupon Coupon

In honor of Valentines Day I am offering a 10% off coupon at my Etsy shop,  which is usable at the check out.  Stop on by to see whats new at the Ol' CLB, make a purchase and be sure to use coupon code CLB10 at your checkout.

Happy Valentines Day!

What the heck is she doing?

Thank you for asking!  Actually I have been doing a lot more work in  my art journal. Faces have always been my bane and I had decided to take an online class to get over my hurdle of not being able to draw any sort of a human looking face.  If you would like to take a look at my Flickr account or my Deviant Art, you can see how I have progressed.  Loving my new skill, thank you Suzi Blu, and looking forward to more work like that.

Recently, however, I have been toying around with Gimp. No, it is not a monkey or something I have locked up in my closet, It is actually a free photo-manipulation program which is very similar to Photoshop.  I am really enjoying fixing up old photos to remove any tears, scratches or dust marks.  The latest one, which I just finished this morning, I removed a third person from the photo.

Here is the original, you can see the younger sibling on the right.  Also, there are multiple scratches all over this photo (example: the girls hat and hair).  After a bit of messing around with Gimp I finally had finished repairing this image, with slight adjustments.

Here is the "fixed" version of the photo.  Most of the scratches are gone, as well as the 3rd sibling (sorry little guy).  It was a great learning experience and I would love to work with this program more. :)