Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Undiscoved Artists on Artfire!

One of my fellow bloggers from Artfire runs monthly features introducing new undiscovered studios and allows viewers to vote for their favourites.  I have found lots of new Artisans by watching her blog, maybe you will too!

Here is her June favourites!:



Vote for your Favorite Undiscovered Studios
Discover ArtFire Studios
and Vote for your Favorites

Monday, June 28, 2010

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Gearing up for the Christmas In July Sale Event on Artfire!

Are you ready for this?  Every year people start shopping for their Christmas gifts earlier and earlier, trying to find just the "right" item. Sometimes that can be quite the challenge!

So as you go through your list of family and friends, please do not forget your cat, as they are most definately a valuable member of your family.

Keeping that in mind, I have been slowly adding a few things in my studio for this year's Christmas in July sale event on Artfire.  So far I have added some adorable 7 inch plush Christmas stocking toys, stuffed with my very own homegrown organic catnip.  (I also have some new catnip toy pillows and a cute little zombie kitten toy)

















Sunday, June 20, 2010

Quilted coasters, table runners and placemats

I do love the look and feel of handmade quilted objects. Right now I am making rag quilted coasters, table runners and placemats. As time goes on, I will be adding more to my Artfire studio, http://jewelz_creatives.artfire.com/ so keep your eyes out!  You never know what I will come up with next.






 





Saturday, June 19, 2010

Fabric holders for plastic grocery shopping bags

So you are tired of taking up valuable space storing those pesky grocery shopping bags?  Well, here is a convenient yet decorative way of organizing them.  You can have one of these in each room of the house where you may wish to have them, such as the bathroom, laundry room, nursery, kitchen, hallway (by the dog leash) garage and even keep one in your car.

Now available in my Etsy shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/jewelzodonnell











Friday, June 11, 2010

Newest in my shops on Etsy and Artfire!



Ta da! Here is a really cool way to brighten up your kitchen and store those pesky grocery bags as well. I listed it on Etsy today.

And to match the quilted frog blanket I have in my pet accessories section in my Artfire shop, a cute little organic catnip toy.




I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Saturday, June 5, 2010

The trials and tribulations of learning SEO and the new Google search

I have recently been checking out various venues for showing my handmade craft items. Hearing so many good things about Artfire, I decided to check them out. I just love how they have it set up!  They offer so many options to their members, up to and including clear instructions on SEO, ways to have sales and offer coupons, and the ease of the one page listing, it was a clear choice for me.  And that is only mentioning a few things I love there.

So, I have started moving some of my products from Etsy to Artfire. Now, I have no plans for the immediate future of shutting down my Etsy shop, but I also think it is a wise thing for me to have more than one option.

I also found that within hours of listing an item on Artfire, that it was crawled by Google. Whereas, with Etsy sometimes it took days. And, even when my Etsy shop was crawled, I very rarely show up on Google search. In fact, most times when I performed a Google search for my products, only a couple shops from Etsy showed up. Most often they were very popular shops with wonderful products that have been active for a long time, but for someone like me, that was not a good thing. It is hard enough getting "out there" on the internet, but having to compete with established shops is a bit discouraging.

The recent changes Google has made with their search, using shorter url tails, and SEO, etc is a bit daunting to someone like me. I know, if I wish to survive on the internet and hopefully prosper, I do need to learn this. With the help of Artfire and their wonderful support staff it looks like this potentially painful process will become much easier.

So, without further ado, here is my new Artfire shop, if you would like to take a peek!

A couple things I have moved over there (I will only show a couple a day until I catch up):

Coasters: