I'm Ready!! Promotion!!

Sponge Bob said it best so we reinvent what's happening for me tomorrow... I'm ready for my promotion spot on Etsy's Main Showcase page! And this time in more way than one. Last time I didn't have Web Analytics set up so I'm prepared to see the board light up.

I've made some additions to the shop which hopefully will be fun...

Above is a wire wrapped ring... My new fun and easy thing to do. I made the bead out of clay, glazed it and then added the wire. I have more ideas that could work around this theme too.

This is another version of the blue ring except I used a different color and shaped bead.

Twilight mania continues and as promised, the favors I made for The Twilight Game Night Party are now in my Etsy shop. We'll see how it goes. Above is a one inch button. Just fun and iconic. I love them. Hopefully others will too.

Ahhhh! The bookmark! I'm particularly proud of this one because I came up with the tag line. The silhouette is recognizable as Edward's life sized cut out from the Twilight movie but the rest of it is mine. It makes me chuckle and it is soooo true! I keep praying for Midnight Sun to be published. I got my wish that Bella's Bedspread came back into production from Target sooooooo maybe...... One can hope anyways!

Here's the other part of the poop scoop... I want to add more info to the blog today but sometimes I can't stand using Blogger! And today is one of those days!! I'm not stupid... I'm pretty good with technology but for whatever reason Blogger consistently adds more spacing between images and text and when you add more photos they always go to the top which throws all the spacing off again.. It's very frustrating!

I think I may end up doing Flickr slideshows and then do a long text explanation or something because it's just too much work to blog here and I want a better experience.

I promise to rise from the ashes here and report about tomorrow's and Sat.'s (?) showcases but for now I am tired and off to put pics on Flickr. Thanks for listening!!!

Woot! Woot! Edward has left the building! (Little Edward anyways..)

Hooray! Just when I least expect it, a SALE through my Etsy shop!! Love ya, love ya!! And LOVE your choice of what to pick up!

I started calling this wristlet 'Little Edward'. This little guy's Papa is of course '30 Days of Edward Cullen' which I have yet to find a home for but it will happen! Little Edward is going to live in Kentucky with a lovely woman who I am sure will take great care of him. Enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it! I've already got another sibling to this wristlet in the works so you can look for him soon. I kinda want to strike while the iron is hot with 'Twilight Saga: Eclipse' coming out this summer... Oh yeah... And did I mention I have a raging Twilight addiction so it's never a problem to keep these in good supply. :)

A good day and a nice surprise indeed!

On the horizon, I've been thinking about a Spring handbag (saw great Amy Butler fabric at a local shop) and of course I need to make my 'Pay It Forward Handmade' items that I signed up to create via Facebook. Lots of people around me are buzzing about that one so it should be a lot of fun... Hmmmm. Maybe after this one cools off I could persuade some of the players to do a themed art swap? Waaaayyyyy of on the horizon though.

Good Productive Day

It was a pretty good day in the crafting/other world universe... I mananged to book two spots on Etsy's showcase area. One will be for the Main Showcase and the other will be for the Spring Showcase. The second one I bought on an impulse as I couldn't stand to know that in about two minutes time there would be no spots left... I'll admit it... I was on a little bit of a high because of the competitive nature of getting the spots!
These are good things bc it will force me keep making items, coming up with new ideas and trying to improve my etsy shop. I really do enjoy it all.
I also had time to do some clay work this afternoon which was great. No pics right now but I'm sure some will find their way here soon.
Finally, to make my Curriculum layout/review/planning/pain in the butt, (whatever you want to call it) more bearable I went ahead and created some planning sheets so maybe when I work on this stuff (which at times can get kinda heavy) at least I'll get to look at pretty paper. How can that not be inspiring!

I have 36 days that I need to plan for and then I also created an 'Ideas' page that is the same layout. Again, anything to make this process more exciting. :)

Twilight Game Night

So Twilight Game Night came and went last week... What a great time! I spent a lot of time and effort to make decorations, favors and other extras but it was a TOTAL blast and well worth it to make it memorable. Here are some pics of what went down and how I set it up...

Some table decorations above...

And of course we had cupcakes... And are there any other cupcakes to have at Twilight Game Night other than Red Velvet? No way... The batter was amazingly red. It really did look like blood. (Ew.) They retained the color well even after baking. Here's the easy recipe I used (click here). The toppers were fun to make. Lots of Twilight images to be found on the internet and then I used my portable Slice machine to cut out elegant shapes to adhere the circle photos to. Yes, I'm Craft Loco... There are image on the back too. It's all in the details! Also, please note the Edward super-intense menu cards!

Had to add text to this one... This is Mel rocking her Bella inspired hand knit mittens. She's a yarn goddess!

These are pics of us playing the Scene It Deluxe Twilight Game... Very fancy and highly recommended! After we figured out all the rules we got things rolling and our competitive stripes started to show.

Here is what we were all doing battle to possess! This is a crown that I made out of black flexible foam and I almost passed out when I found the sparkle foam at the craft store. Does it get more perfect?! The sparkle foam had and adhesive backing so it was super easy and fun to use. Add glitter glue, acrylic gems and Twilight images a plent and viola! A crown that any Twi-Hard would be proud to wear. :)

Another view of the crown and the bookmark that I gave as ONE of the favors. I'll get more images of this later as I plan to sell them on Etsy. There are fun and perfect for ladies on Team Edward... You'll see.

Here we are! Everyone of us middle aged and loving teenage romance with vampires! Love the series... If you need to escape I would highly recommend reading the Twilight Saga books.
A special thank you to Amanda (one of the redheads!) for taking all the photos since I was so occupied. You can check out her and her husband's photography business at:

http://mrdrewphotography.com/

Ho-Hum... Etsy ride is over but other stuff is brewing!

So the etsy ride is officially over... :( Edward and other items have stalled out and no one else has checked in on them... All this and just in time for my Google Analytics account to kick in. So I can actually watch the sad little 2 or 3 people look at Craft Loco and then take off. *sigh*

I'm just bummed bc I'm coming off the high of watching my shop be visited like 675 times. Oh, I'll be back for more Etsy Main Showcase. Storque Showcase was better than expected too but stil didn't pack the same punch... Alas, 50 views is 50 views. And as stated earlier I have other ideas about how I can handle Edward. (And get more exposure to Craft Loco) I will not give up hope!

In the meantime I have other fun and crafty goodness flowing... The first is I have decided to take part in Undercover Kindness' 'A Week of Kindness', with today being the last day. Not that I won't continue until I set all my cute little cards free. It's been a lot of fun and I've even gotten Lil involved. She enjoys the sneakiness of leaving notes for people to find later. Although the secret part needs some work... Many times in a store I would hear in a loud whisper, "Mom... What about over here?!". Loads of fun!

That's me with a fun card I got off the Undercover Kindness site. I think I'm going to be preachy and make it my Facebook Profile Pic since it's such a good message... Also one I could stand to exercise more often!

Coming up next... Twilight Game Night on Friday evening! Of course I have managed to make this little party a crafting and event planning extravaganza! Should be fun combining my two loves though. :)

He's Baaaaccccckkkk!

So it's Day 2 of the great Etsy Showcase experiment. As of this moment '30 Days of Edward Cullen' ha been viewed 638 times! Best money I ever spent to get more views. Again no sales for Eddie but I did manage to pick up another cheapie sale of some tiny envelopes. Honestly, it's still thrilling that someone liked my work enough to spend money, even if she didn't buy my pet project. Plus it's another rating point which I think only looks more impressive to people stopping by the shop.

Clearly the real view maker has been the Main Showcase. Worth every penny especially bc AdWords has cost as much ($15.00) to date but has only generated like 40 views. I will anxiously be waiting in line on March 3 to purchase another Main Showcase spot.

Today, as you can see from the above image, Edward is on the Storque Showcase. Not even close to getting the views as the Main Showcase but it's still nice to see him out there.

Here's another shot of him on the actual Storque Blog page. I really do love this site! It's fantastic for ideas, getting out there and feeling like you are part of a community of similar thinkers. It's all good. :)

I Am Worse Than A Proud Parent...

Yep... It's pretty bad... I am worse than a proud parent sending their kid off to the first day of school. It would go something like "Awwww... Doesn't he look cute with all his friends?!" In case you hadn't figured it out he's the dark, handsome one in the crowd.

And of course I wouldn't be a good parent if I didn't have a detailed close-up... His little brother the wristlet looks pretty good too! Last I checked, he was up to 555 views and I picked up another heart... Wee! It's almost like a drug this checking in!