I've decided to open some commissions on my other account since I don't have too many other options for making money right now, and some people have been pestering me to offer commissions for a while.

There are a lot of restrictions due to things I'm not willing to draw/write, and I'm certainly not a professional, so there's a lot of things I won't be able to do very well, but still, the option is there.

You can read my commission info journal to find out more.

A friend suggested using a basic contract/agreement form to outline all of the rights of both myself and the donatees for the donation program. This is only for people who want to have me sell specific items based on their stuff, since I don't really need to make a contract with you to send you money from the donation codes.

Once I get it approved, I'll have it available for anyone who wishes to sign a copy (even if you're just on the donatee list and don't want any items made specifically regarding you), and anyone who wishes to have me make items for their fundraising.

The main point is just to make sure my donatees know I'm not going to rip off their work or anything.

So you probably remember the stuff I mentioned before that's already screwing up our finances this month and next month... well, when it rains it pours. My mom's car is a Saturn, and they're known for having a lot of issues, but great gas mileage. The stick shift started sticking a couple weeks ago, and wouldn't change gears except first and second, so she started driving my truck to work instead. Yesterday we went to the post office to get our mail, and I noticed a huge green puddle under the front end in our parking lot. Sure enough, the radiator fluid tank was dry as a bone. Firestone was too busy to help us yesterday, so we made an appointment today and she took it in this morning (I was up sick all night, so i stayed home to rest). Turns out the water pump had broke, and was leaking fluid. While they were fixing that, they found out the manifold is leaking oil. The pump was $350, which we maxed out my credit card to pay for, but the manifold is going to be $500+, and we can't afford it, so the guy told us to just keep an eye on it for now and bring it in when it gets worse.

So now not only are we short on the bills til probably april, both cars are in bad shape, and I'm really worried that whichever one we drive will just get worse, and we'll have to junk it. I seriously wish we had some work coming in soon, but they just keep giving us the run-around.

Due to this, I'm debating opening commissions for art and stories. Both will have restrictions for things i'm not comfortable drawing/writing, so I probably won't get many takers, but I have to do something, right?

For the rest of the month of January, 2013 From now through the end of February 2013, I will be offering TRIPLE VIP point rewards for any giftcard purchases. That means 3 points per dollar spent if you're not yet a VIP member, and purchase at least $10 in gift certificates, or 3 points per dollar up to the first $49, 6 points per dollar for $50 to $99, and 9 points per dollar for $100+ if you're already a VIP member. These bonus points apply only to purchases of Giftcards made this month.

To purchase a giftcard, send me a note for the amount you'd like to purchase (USD), along with your email address, and I'll send you an invoice through Paypal. Once purchased, this giftcard will be redeemable for it's full value and will never expire or accrue fees. Giftcard balances will be kept track of through paypal receipts and my excel spreadsheets. Please keep your invoice/receipt email(s) for your own records. If anything ever happens to paypal or my system, I'll need proof of your purchase to correct my records. These giftcards are digital; no physical card will be mailed to you. Physical giftcards are available (but not necessary for your purchases) for an extra fee.

These are redeemable in person, if you ever find me selling at a convention, as well as online, of course.

VIP points earned on these purchases will be added to your VIP Point total, which is also kept in a spreadsheet. Details of these points will be given in the invoice & receipt, however, so please retain those for your records. VIP points will also never expire or accrue fees.

For more information about Giftcards or the VIP program, please read the FAQ.

Just letting you guys know I've applied for micropayments pricing through paypal for my business account. Why? Because I intend to start taking payments marked as payments instead of gifts once I get more customers, and the fees bug me to no end, so I figured I should at least try to make them smaller, since most purchases are for $10 or less.

If my application is approved, I might hold a special new years' giftcard bonus sale to try and raise some funds, so look forward to that :3

Update! I've been approved, so I'll be holding a sale soon =3

Obviously I can't really do that with my crafts, since they require shipping and cost of supplies, but I was thinking about doing a PWYW donation-type art thing on my other account to raise some money, if possible. I don't usually participate in others' pwyw streams or anything, so I don't know a good way to go about it, and would like some advice.

Is it okay to have a minimum price, like $1? Can I instruct them to only send it as a gift through paypal, since the purpose is to raise money? Is it acceptable to offer different types of art (lines, colored, shaded) for different amounts of money, or do I have to offer whatever they want, no matter what amount they donate?

And I guess I should go ahead and ask this, since I already assumed it wasn't plausible... could I do such a thing for my crafts as well, with minimum prices to at least cover the material & shipping costs? Not that it would be much different than normal prices, but who knows.

Thanks in advance for your help guys

So my mom wound up getting a $200 prepaid visa for a christmas bonus from work, which she used to pay the only bill it would work on, though it was less than $100 for that. We're still short on rent money for this month, so mom's going to try to finegle some money from next month's bills to pay for it or something, so January is going to be kind of tight as well. February is going to suck simply because I have LifeLock, and my payment date is in the middle of february, so since December and January were tough, February is just going to be the icing on the fubar cake. (That actually sounds like a type of cake XD)

Donations are still greatly appreciated, and all are reimbursed with giftcards for now on a 1 to 1 basis (minus any paypal fees if you send it as a payment, so send it as a GIFT please if you do).

The point is just that I wanted to let you guys know what's up with the situation, and that I might not accept any trades for the next few months, since I can't even afford to ship anything. I gave the postal clerk a good chuckle by digging through all of my pocket change to scrounge the money to ship the Secret Santa gift XP.

I also probably won't be getting many new supplies for a while, so if you're waiting on me to get stock for something, be prepared to wait some more. Sorreh.

Anywho, happy holidays, happy new year, happy 2013, and warm wishes to you all <3

Have you ever wished your purchases could benefit your favorite webcomic, artist, writer, or crafter? Now some of them can :3

Those who I opt to support through donations now have custom codes, listed below, which you can input as part of your purchases in my shop. When these codes are used, a flat 10% of item profit will be sent to the donatee of your choice.

Some of the donatees have specific items in my shop themed for them. Those items carry a standard donation amount specifically for that person.

Codes > Donatees
Akira> Egodominustuus's Story Commissions
WolfinasTrinkets > Wolfina2007's Craft Shop
Nekokeno > Neko the Kitty webcomic
Papabear > Papabear’s advice column
ShiraLexx > Alien Dice webcomic

Rules:
-One code per purchase.
-Codes do not stack with or alter Donation-specific item donations.
-Donation codes will all be a flat rate of 10% of product value (not shipping/tax/fees/etc).
-Donation payout times will be monthly by default.
-Donation codes don't apply to purchases of giftcards themselves, but will apply to purchases paid for by giftcard or VIP points.
-Coupons or sales, however, may sometimes affect the donation values (the coupon/sale will mention this if it occurs).
-Donatees cannot use their own donation codes for my products.
-Donation program, membership, and values are subject to change if/when my business requires changes.

Note me with any questions, comments, ideas, or to sign up.

I've figured it out... I think.

I still like the idea of making group/webcomic/company/etc-specific items to raise funds to donate to specific people/causes, but I also had another idea that would make things easier on everyone.

I will offer specific donation codes to correspond with different causes/people I'm willing to donate to, and when someone buys ANYTHING from me, and applies their choice of donation code during purchase/checkout, a certain percentage of profits from their purchase will go to that Donatee (is that even a word?)

Due to this, I will be accepting requests to be on this list of Donatees (if it wasn't a word already, it is now), and will also be offering it to specific people I wish to support outside of FA. The list of codes will be posted and updated whenever necessary, so that anyone who shops my products can choose a code if they so desire. They will be unlimited, as it isn't a discount code or anything, it just tells me who (if anyone) to donate to. Codes will not stack on top of Donatee-specific items, and will not change the Donatee on such items (i.e. a Neko The Kitty code won't do anything with a PapaBear bottle, donations will still go to papabear, and a Papabear code with a papabear bottle won't double the donation amount)


SO, for anyone wo wishes to become one of my donatees, send me a NOTE (I want our communications to remain private, please), and we can discuss your donation code and any you-specific items if you wish.

I will never use your artwork or ideas for donatee-specific items without asking your permission first. That said, if you apply for this donation program, be prepared for contact from me whenever I come up with a new idea for items, or if a customer wants a specific item design related to your work. I'm also happy to receive new notes from you whenever you have concerns, new ideas, or anything else


There is no limit to the number of people who can sign up for this program, however, the percentage of profits I will be donating will vary depending on the items you wish for me to sell specific to you and the price we negotiate for said item(s). Donation codes will all be a flat rate of 10% of product value (not shipping/tax/fees/etc). My profit margin is usually 10% to 15%, so I feel this is fair.

Donation payout times will be monthly by default. If you want a different payout schedule, let me know.

Donation codes don't apply to purchases of giftcards themselves, but will apply to purchases paid for by giftcard or VIP points. Coupons or sales, however, may sometimes affect the donation values (the coupon/sale will mention this if it occurs). Donatees also cannot use their own donation codes for my products.

To be eligible for this donation program, you must have a paypal account for me to send the money to. All applications are subject to my approval, as there are those who I simply will not wish to support. If you are one of those people, and you really wish to participate, we can discuss options. Also, membership in the program is subject to termination if I feel you are exploiting the program, customers, or otherwise causing problems. You will be notified with a warning first, and we can discuss the issue before action is taken, so don't worry. This isn't very likely to happen, but I wanted to mention it in case it becomes necessary.

Donation program and values are subject to change if/when my business requires changes. I'll notify everyone beforehand, and accept any feedback on the topic if this happens, as I don't want to disappoint/upset/offend anyone, and I really like this program idea

So I posted my ad yesterday, and some people have clicked it, but it links here, since this is the easiest place for me to keep updated. Not everyone is going to look past what website it's on to see my crafts, so I'm trying to get my Storenvy shop updated and nice-looking. Unfortunately, I can't do that very quickly, so I'd like to hire someone to help me out by designing the shop Icons for me (the pics for each item and option), so that they all match, and are eye-catching and clear as to what they're for.

To give an example, this kind of thing really looks neat to me: Dicesupial Extras. I like how the individual pieces are drawn to show a clear example of what the item is, and can be customized by recoloring, resizing, etc, as well as the icon's background and title being colorful and descriptive. I don't want these exact icons, I'm just saying that I'm hoping for something that has the same kind of image components (drawn image of the item, an item title, and a consistent background).

I still am short on the bills this month, so I don't have any money directly available. However, I am willing to offer a giftcard to my shop as payment, or we can work out something else. Price is negotiable, as I've never hired someone to do this sort of thing before. Quality of work is important though, so if you don't feel comfortable doing anything other than stick figures, please keep that in mind.

Please note me if you're interested.

First up, the Christmas Raffle is now over, and  dieselweasel is the winner =3

Secondly, as to the announcement about adoptables scammers, it really is depressing that people would stoop so low, but unfortunately not very surprising. An announcement was made by a favorite artist of mine on DA earlier about an art thief using people's art to make decals to sell on Ebay, so I thought it would pertinent to let you all know as well.

VinylCustom has been stealing art from many people, so if you recognize any of the art, alert the artists so that they can file a formal complaint with ebay to get this person IP banned from ebay.

And thirdly, just to re-explain myself, I ask most of you to pay me through paypal as a gift payment so that I don't have to deal with the fees, because when most purchases are in the single digits, losing almost a dollar in fees is just ridiculous, and I don't feel that it's fair for either of us to have to cover such fees, especially since I try to keep my products low-priced for your benefit. Anyone who wishes to pay as a payment instead is fine, I'll just need to adjust the purchase price for the paypal fees.

Finally, we're still short on money for the bills this month, so any purchases or donations this month will be to keep us from being late on the rent, which would obviously be bad. I am considering doing a short sale to try and earn more money before rent is due, so if anyone is interested, please let me know. Ziaki is also still offering a $5 to $10 discount code for any $10+ purchases you guys get from me. This will only be this month, as next month we'll be hopefully back to normal (unless everything is late this month, then we're kinda borked).

*squees* this is so cool

 Ziaki is doing a special promotion right now to try and help me <3 Visit her journal to learn more, or read on!

Here's how it works:

Purchase anything (or group of things) from me, and if your order comes to $10 or more, including shipping, I am authorized to give you a special coupon code for $5 off a custom tail from Ziaki. If your order totals $20 or more after shipping, you get a $10 off coupon code instead. How cool is that?!


Rules
-Limit one coupon per order.
-No sharing coupons. The code I give you will be unique to you and only you, so no funny business!
-Even if you've already placed your order with her for a tail, you can still apply a coupon code to the order and she'll send you a new price break down.
-When you place an order for a tail from her, there is a place on her order form especially for coupon codes.
-Slots for her yarn tails are limited, so you might have to hang on to your coupon code until slots open up. This doesn't reserve an immediate slot for you, okay?

I really hate posting journals like this, it's why I haven't done so in years, but I finally just have to.

I got a new job in february of 2011. It pays great, is fun (just tedious), and has flexible hours, for the most part. Unfortunately, it's also on an as-needed basis, so if there's no work that the boss needs done, there's no money for me to make. As it stands, I've only had maybe a week's worth of work, spread out here and there since March. We've been getting by on my mom's paycheck from her regular job (she and I work for the same company doing the as-needed work, along with my fiance, so she got a regular job to make up for the lean times, and because she used to work for them before she got the other job, and she really likes it there.), but they changed the way medical insurance is taken out, and how much we pay up front, and then promptly forgot to take it out of her checks last month (which is when they changed everything), so they're taking double out this month. I already went to the doctor last month, so we definitely have to pay both months' worth of fees, and she was going to go this month, but they keep giving her issues with her card, so she has to wait until the higher deductible kicks in (It used to be $20 per visit, now it's just a flat $500 up front before insurance will pay for anything).

Anyway, the point is that since they're taking double out of her paycheck, along with a weird 'we have to take away a week in december' for something that happened when they moved to the new office, we're going to be a few hundred dollars short this month, and can't pay all the bills.

For anyone who's curious, we've already cut our phone/internet/tv/cellphone bill (yay bundles) down by at least a third, thanks to a nice guy at the AT&T store, on top of the discount she gets from her regular employer, and the already small packages we chose for our bundle so as to save money. We're both bargain hunters, so we already spend less than most people we know on groceries and things for the home. It isn't that we've racked up a ton of huge bills (though one of my credit cards is higher than usual this month, but I already have that covered), it's just that suddenly our income is going to be probably a third less than normal.

And in case someone is going "wait a minute, you're constantly buying craft supplies, how can you be broke? Are you asking for money to pay off those things?" I make my purchases over the course of various months, in an attempt to spread them out. Things just arrive in the mail anywhere from one day to one month later. Also, my purchases are made with Bill Me Later from Paypal, and are always made with the 6-month promotional financing options, and with any discount programs I can apply (coupons, points earned, cash back, free shipping, etc) to get the most for my money without having to spend as much money as I would normally. That bill is really low, and is usually the first one paid each month because it's so small, so no, this has nothing to do with that bill.

Any donations will go straight towards the bills. Any income from my crafts will also go straight towards the bills. As of this moment, I don't know the exact amount we're going to be short this month, but I'm pretty sure it's less than $500. Also, I know people usually post pictures of the bills they're trying to raise money for, but I can't exactly photocopy what the insurance company said, since it was within my mom's work office, and doesn't even cross my path. As it stands, I would hope you all at least feel that I'm trustworthy enough to believe me, but if you don't, that's fine. Having seen plenty of scammers myself, I could never hold a grudge against anyone being wary of these sorts of posts.

Anyone who donates will get a giftcard for my stuff equivalent to their donation (minus any fees). I have no intentions of going out of business for as long as I can see and use my hands =P, and my giftcards never expire, so don't worry about that. You can view the Gift Card FAQ for more info.


$4.55 / $500.00

My paypal address is osoccer_babeo @ hotmail.com (without the spaces)
Be sure to mark it as a DONATION, even if you want a giftcard from me for it, or they'll charge me fees.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Some of you have seen my pink ribbon bottles, which I made for Breast Cancer Awareness in 2011. It's a nice way for my customers and myself to donate to the cause, and still get something neat out of it, because let's face it: donating might make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but having a cute piece of jewelry because of it is even better =3

I've thought about doing other awareness crafts, for BCA and other causes, but a lot of times, I want to help artists, crafters, designers, web comic hosts, etc, and I just can't afford to. Many of these people have some kind of merchandise or donation system to help them get money, but a lot of times, it's stuff that even they know is not really all that great (like opening a cafepress store to sell tshirts with your logo on them... not everyone wants your logo on their $30 shirt. I know because I tried it for 3 years and NADA. Zip. Zilch.), and most of the money that goes into that merchandise is kept by third parties, and less than 20% is even seen by the person selling it. Then of course there's merchant fees, paypal fees, etc. So by the time you get down to it, these people are only getting maybe $5 a month, and there's just not a lot they or their fans can do about it.

However, it got me thinking... what if someone were to make merchandise to sell and raise money on the other person's behalf? Like, for instance, if Ziaki was in financial straights, and I couldn't afford to help her, and neither could any of her customers, really, because of time constraints on her tail commissions, but I made some custom potion bottles to match the tails she had made for customers, or perhaps offered keychain tail commissions for her customers (provided I had the time and the skill to do so. this is all hypothetical, okitay?), and all profits, or some portion of the profits went straight to her to help her out. I wouldn't be stealing her customers, and I wouldn't be ripping off her designs (like if I took someone's art and put it on a tshirt and sold it to raise money for them, it'd probably irk them to death), but I'd still be providing goods to our collective audience and helping raise money for her at the same time.

I could also just run a donation special so that a portion of all my profits during a certain time period would go to specific people or charities, but I really like the idea of kind of collaborating with other crafters, and doing something cool for their customers to help promote their business (and yes, my own). I suppose it sounds more like I'm piggybacking on someone else's success in that regard, but from my point of view, I'm just thinking how much fun it could be for someone's customers to not only be able to order something from their favorite artist/designer/crafter, but also order something to go with it from another artist/designer/crafter, and still be supporting their favorite one.

Like if I could order a tail from Ziaki, a matching sculpey tail from Wolfina, and a matching character sculpture from Hinata as part of a bundle, because one of them was trying to raise money for unexpected bills, and the other two were offering special commissions for the first one's customers, to help make more money for her. I'm not saying that everyone should worry about trying to do this or anything, just giving an example where I'm the customer instead of the donator.


TL;DR : I want to make items that go along with items you guys sell so that your customers can buy more things related to what they bought from you, yet still support you monetarily because when I sell these particular items, some of the money will go back to you.

Any opinions?

I keep seeing people posting artist report cards, but since I'm a crafter, I'm posting a Craft report card.


Rate my crafts on the following things, whether you've bought something from me or not. Feel free to include a short explanation if you like, or any suggestions for improvement.

Uniqueness -
Creativity -
Price -
Quality -
Variety -
Customizability -
Packaging (for shipment) -
Shipment speed -
Shipping Options -

Ratings:
A - Great
B - Okay
C - So-so
D - Needs work
F - Terrible

Some of the winners in this giveaway, sponsored by Intuit, have had their small business wishes granted with only a couple hundred votes, so I can try, right?

http://on.fb.me/YBwW45

Please vote for my small business wish this December, and even post your own! I'd be happy to vote for other small businesses as well, so let me know if you've posted one!


Other Small Business Wishes

Ziaki's Yarn Tails : http://on.fb.me/QIvyI9

I had hoped to make more posts through the next couple of weeks, but as it is, the holidays are taking over my free time earlier than I'd expected. I do hope to post more tutorials on the DIY group page soon, but possibly not until January.

Also, is anyone else having a hard time sticking to a budget this year? I just feel like I haven't gotten a good enough present for the people I'm buying for, so I keep trying to find something bigger and better. Post-holiday bills are going to bite.


Edit: I will be posting pictures of the two bottles I'm working on as part of a trade, once I get them finished. I think I've also figured out how to keep my sculpey from burning in the oven, but we'll see.

What else... I found some new ribbon colors at the store the other day, and some neon glitters. Also, some kelly green, aqua, and bluuuuuuuuuuuuuue microsuede fabrics for the dice bags :3

There have still only been 3 entries into the raffle, so if you want a good chance at winning something free this holiday season, joining my raffle would be a really good chance. You only have until the 15th!

So our family doesn't really do spring cleaning, instead we do "we're having company over tomorrow and the house is a mess" cleaning. Needless to say, we spent the better part of the evening cleaning up for Thanksgiving dinner, though we're not done yet. It's neat that we found some of the things we've been looking for though. I still didn't find my candle/soap/resin stuff, but i found one of my sticker makers finally, so now i have the sticker maker and some of the cartridges for it, hooray!

Also, it's not perfect, but i was experimenting with printing my own mailing labels a couple days ago, and my template is kinda off, and my black ink is dying on the vine, but i managed to make a few sets of the labels anyway :3 it's nice to be able to buy a bunch of labels at a dollar store and work out a system to actually print on them instead of handwriting them (the label sheets are only 3"x3" so i had to finegle my printer a bit). Yet another thing that makes me feel both accomplished and professional-ish. :3

Anyway, now that it's super late, i'm going to attempt to get some rest. I hope to have more stuff to post after thanksgiving though. :3

It figures... I spend days having very little to do, and suddenly, today, I get work from my boss, a couple of craft orders to work on, and I still have to finish rearranging my room (which is going well), not to mention my favorite non-famous writer is finally getting over her cold, so I wanted to talk to her about offering coupons/giftcards/discounts for my shop to her customers, and I wanted to try and work with my silicone molds today.

So much to do, and so much of it not done yet XD

Still, I got the second t-shirt posted, like I promised, and I finished the work my boss sent me. I still need to work on all the other stuff though. x.x

In college, I took a textiles course and learned a lot of fun and simple ways to customize clothing, from batik to Jacquard paints, and even embroidery (though that was way too tedious for me), and I still look at some of my old projects and think of how much fun they were to make, and so simple, too!

I don't remember off the top of my head how much I spent on some of the stuff, but I made a pair of t-shirts with custom wings on the back for myself and my fiance. Mine has since then melted together in the dryer (note to self: don't turn the shirt inside out when you dry it) because I used some globby fabric paint that gets pretty sticky in the dryer, but the jacquard paint is still just as nice as it was when I made the shirts, and my fiance's shirt is still totally intact. He wears it pretty often, actually.

I can't do anything crazy epic, since the designs kind of depend on my art skills, but I really liked doing wings and simple things like that, and I'm thinking about picking it up again, since I still have a ton of fabric supplies.

A) do you think I should pick up this craft again, and B) would you be interested in any of the products I could make with it?

I really wish I had a picture of our shirts handy, but I don't know which folder the files are in.

If any of you have a facebook account, you've probably heard about facebook games. People invite you to them, ask for items, send you items, etc, and it clogs your inbox if you've got a lot of friends doing that. Trust me, as a person who doesn't really do the whole facebook thing much, it gets annoying to go in and clean all those things out.

However, there is one game that I know of on Facebook that is totally worth that headache for me. It's called WeTopia, and it's whole purpose, other than giving you something fun to do online, is to send money, clean water, fresh food, electricity, education materials, security, clothing, medicine, and so much more to all parts of the world, including the U.S., Africa, and Haiti, though they add new charities & causes whenever they can. The game was launched in May of 2010, and joined the facebook community in December of the same year. Since then, they've given over half a million dollars in funding to different causes around the world.

The best part of all of this, of course, is that it's a great way to help others in need without having to spend a single cent, ever. You can choose to spend money on facebook credits and buy fun things in game, just like any other facebook game, but you can also earn free facebook credits from watching short videos or taking little surveys and stuff like that, right from a little promo image in-game. I have yet to spend any money on this game since I joined it, and yet I've given tons of donations through their Joy Balloon system.

As with most facebook games, the more friends you have in the game, the easier it is to complete certain quests and get further along, but it is still completely possible to play this game and send plenty of donations even if you don't have anyone else playing the game with you. If you need more WeTopia friends, you can always go to their app page and find plenty of people asking for neighbors so that you can both get more done.

If you're wondering about the gameplay, it's fairly simple, and reminiscent of old simcity games, though without near as much headache from trying to keep your citizens happy and all that. In fact, the only thing you ever have to worry about is certain crops in game will wither within a certain amount of time, though they give you a really generous amount of time to harvest them. Whenever you go to plant something, it'll tell you how much time it takes for the plant to be ready to harvest. After that time has passed, and the plant is ripe, you have twice the amount of growing time before it withers. So, for instance, if you're growing something that takes 1 hour to be ripe, you have another 2 hours after it's ripened before it'll wither. If it's a 1 day plant, you have 2 more days before it withers. Plenty of time to harvest.

The game is still being developed constantly, so there are some minor bugs, especially with the very first quest, but usually refreshing the game page helps fix that. If not, you can always go to their community forums to seek assistance.

I've been wanting to rearrange my craft room for a while now, and I finally did so today, though I still need to organize all of the boxes of supplies that I moved to be able to rearrange the furniture. I also finally got some undershelf storage baskets for the overhead area of my enclosed craft space (the part under my loft bed), and though they're pretty shallow, they still hold a lot of little packaged supplies I need to keep handy, yet out of the way.

I was debating selling some of my magic cards yesterday, since I have cards from some of the first sets all the way to the more recent ones, and I don't really play the game anymore, I just like collecting the cards. Still, I don't think I'd get much money for them, and I'd be kind of sad to part with them, so I'm thinking about making some cute crafts with them. I'll update you guys as I come up with stuff worth showing off :3

Also, I finally got a new phone on saturday. It takes better pictures than my old one, though they're still not epic or anything, but I also decided on a new photography setup that's all purple X3. Hopefully I can get my camera to take a better picture once I mess with it some.

And finally, for the Fuse Bead artists, you may or may not have noticed my journal about adding delivery/tracking info to any future shipments I make, but needless to say, it has increased the price of the beads somewhat, and thus it might not be worth the effort anymore. Please check out the updated journal and give me your feedback.

Other than that, I'm just preparing for Thanksgiving by cleaning house and trying to finish my WeTopia quests XD. Speaking of which, I should do a journal post about that game.

I'm going to start adding tracking & delivery confirmation to my shipments, which is an extra 85 cents. Shipping costs now start at $3 and go up from there depending on the size and weight of the shipment.

Also, I archived more journals to clean up my journal page.

I grew up in a small town in the country, less than 7,000 people, nothing ever really changed, and everyone knew everyone. We had 3 schools (1st - 4th, 5th & 6th, then 7th - 12th), one grocery store, one drugstore, and a small movie theater (about the size of the high school cafeteria, split into 4 or 5 rooms), a few dollar stores, a ton of flea markets and family-owned stores, and eventually a 24-hour Walmart supercenter. You had coupons for everything, and when you didn't, you probably knew someone who could get you a discount anyway.

The first time I ever sold my crafts was as a kid at a bluegrass festival with my grandparents. I'd set up a table in front of the camper, keep my supplies in the tent, and sit there for hours working on things and selling something every once in a while. Little painted stones for a quarter, beaded pins for 50 cents, necklaces and earrings for $1 or so, and whatever other little things I had. I eventually was taught how to toll paint by a popular artist who had a real booth at the festivals, and started selling painted wooden signs for $5 or so, depending on the size of the board (the boards belonged to my grandparents, so they told me what to charge for them). People constantly told me how my work could easily be worth twice what I was charging, but I always just enjoyed making things so much, I didn't have the heart to charge more than a smidge over cost. I wanted to make sure people enjoyed what I made, and felt like they got a good deal, too.

Being a crafter now continues to give me that feeling of enjoyment as I make things, and it makes me remember those people who encouraged me to keep going with what I enjoyed every time someone compliments my work or buys something from me. I feel like I'm doing those memories justice by continuing to work at what I love, and only charge what feels right, not what marketing or accounting or pompous jerks say I should charge. Charging so little makes me feel good about myself as a person, knowing that more people can afford to buy something they enjoy because of my prices. I would actually stop enjoying this gig if I started charging more, because it would actually hurt me emotionally. I know that sounds really ludacris, but it's just how I am. Money is all well and good, but emotional and spiritual satisfaction is far better to me.

And to other crafters out there, if I ever pick up the same craft as you, it's not because I want to undersell you or steal your customers or drive you out of business, far from it. If I pick up a craft, it's because I'm interested in it, and I want to learn about it and see how enjoyable it is, firsthand. There's no way to learn without trying, and I hardly ever learn a craft without offering to make things for people, since the whole point of this craft business is to make things available to everyone. My beginning projects might suck, but someone might still be interested in them, so I'm going to charge what makes sense. It has nothing to do with interfering with other crafters' business, so please don't think it's personal.

Not sure how many of you actually watch me, but still, I'd like to ask you something.

In general, do you pay more than $2.50 per 1,000 pre-sorted beads? Do you maybe buy mixed beads for the cheaper price, but are tired of having to spend forever sorting them?

I am considering becoming a perler reseller buy buying mixed beads in bulk, sorting them, and then selling them to perler artists at the lower price of the mixed beads. I've done the math, and including shipping costs, I can afford the following prices for 1,000-bead bags:

$3/bag for up to 2 bags
$2/bag for 3 to 22 bags
$1.75/bag for 23 to 44 bags
$1.50/bag for 45+ bags

I recently decided to add delivery confirmation to all of my shipments, after some fiascos with recent items that I really didn't need that kind of headache over, so the prices are higher now. Also, just to be clear, this is only for domestic U.S. shipping. International shipping is waaaaay more, because delivery confirmation for foreign shipments is a ridiculous amount. It was $24 just for that part of a shipment I wanted to send a while back, so we had to cancel the shipment.

$4/bag for 1 bag only
$3/bag for 2 bags
$2.50/bag for 3 to 12 bags
$2/bag for 13 to 23 bags
$1.75/bag for 24 to 46 bags
$1.50/bag for 47+ bags


Now, the only stipulation is that this would only be available sporadically, since I have to wait for the beads to be on sale so that these prices can stay this low. The idea is that if I think some of you might be interested, I can try to stock up when the sales are going. If no one is interested, then I'm not going to bother stocking up, and thus this won't be available.