The Revival!

Yeah, yeah. I know I've said it before. But, this time I am intending to make a much more valiant effort to revive my blog (and to keep it revived!).

I shut down my Etsy store for several months late last year and earlier this year to focus on family and finishing my ECED degree. I recently got remarried, settled back in my hometown, and re-opened my Etsy store.

I also created a Facebook fan page for Designs By Janna:

http://www.facebook.com/designsbyjanna

I have been adding many new items to my Etsy store, and plan to introduce many more products in coming weeks and months! Please tell all of your friends about Designs By Janna, as the money I make helps to support my new family of five! Plus, success serves as a great motivator! Wouldn't you agree? ;-)

Today, I am offering FREE SHIPPING (domestic and International) when you purchase 3 or more listings! Just mention my blog in "notes to seller" during checkout, and I will gladly refund the cost of S/H!

I'm having lots of fun creating decoupaged wooden pendants like the one pictured below! Great prices, so please spread the word!

New Fabrics!

Ooh wee! I am so excited! I placed an order yesterday for some more gorgeous Michael Miller fabrics to add to my massive collection! Michael Miller's Watermelon Paisley has been a huge hit with my customers, so I think the new fabrics will fit in with it and the other beauties very well. I should be receiving them in a few days, so look for many new listings in my store around the middle or end of this coming week!

Mother's Day Gift Ideas

Hi, everyone! Just a reminder that Mother's Day is around the corner (May 11)! If you're struggling with what to buy those special mothers in your life, please take a look at my store. Designs By Janna offers a wide variety of handmade gifts including accessories for all ages, jewelry, home decor, and more! I've been adding lots of new items lately and continue to add more everyday. If I don't have what you're looking for listed in my Etsy store, then please contact me to inquire about a custom order. I also encourage you to check out the many other talented arts and crafts seller on Etsy for more handmade gift ideas. Designs By Janna has been open for less than a year, and I've already sold more than 428 listings (not including wholesale orders)! :-) I am very pleased with my success thus far, and look forward to taking my business to the next level very soon. My business wouldn't be nearly as successful without the support and encouragement I've received from many of you! Word-of-mouth is great advertisement, and I would be so grateful if you could tell your friends and family about my boutique.
Key fobs are some of my best selling items, and they would make wonderful gifts for mothers! Honestly, I don't know how I ever got by without one! Here is the key fob section of my store. Please check it out in addition to the other sections.

Divine Scents My Nose Is Itching To Smell....

Quite a few scented goodies have caught my eye on Etsy in recent weeks. It's taking all the will power I've got not to splurge and buy everything I'm wanting to. :-) Here are a few that I keep coming back to...

Pink Cupcake Silky Body Lotion
Spa Therapy
This is another one of those scents that you just want to sink your teeth into! Delicious whipped, sugary pink buttercream frosting on top of a fresh-from-the-oven vanilla cupcake. It's girly, feminine and if you like vanilla, you'll LOVE this!

Enriched with Shea Butter & Goat’s Milk, this top of the line lotion will leave your skin silky and fresh scented all day while healing and supplying long lasting moisture by locking it into your skin, without any greasy or sticky feeling! Your skin will feel softer, silkier and moisturized.

The owner of this highly successful store is a longtime friend of mine. I'm thrilled that her products are so popular, and I can't wait to try some of the Pink Cupcake scented goodies she's selling now!

Amazing Grace Shea Butter Sugar Scrub
Cozy Moments

Our Shea Butter Sugar Scrub provides a very efficient exfoliation! We use ultra-moisturizing shea butter and blend it with a combination of beneficial skin drenching oils including Fractionated Coconut Oil, Apricot Kernel Oil, and Jojoba Oil. Pure Cane Sugar and Vitamin E are the final additions to this pampering scrub!

Amazing Grace (Philosophy Type) - This scent is absolutely lovely with top notes of all-natural Italian bergamot and lemon essential oils sweetened with fruity touches of peach, plum, and ripe raspberry. This is all a brief prelude to a mind-blowing midsection composed of a classic floral trifecta of jasmine, orange blossom, and rose. A hint of cedarwood and an enormous splash of the most glorious, long-lasting, head-spinning white musk imaginable make for an awesome fragrance!

I *love* Philosophy's scents, and Cozy Moments appears to sell most of them! I cannot wait to order some of her popular products (including wax tarts) in the Amazing Grace scent, as well as in Baby Grace and Falling In Love. She has a long list of other scents that sound heavenly too!


COOKIES-N-CREAM Jumbo Cupcake Candle
Candle Confections

If you love Oreo Cookies, then this is the cupcake for you! This Cupcake Candle makes a bold statement, beginning with the strong Cookies-n-Cream fragrance--sugary vanilla filling, nestled between two chocolate sandwich cookies. Perfect for dipping in milk...but, as tempting as it is, please don't do that!

The "cake" is colored in what I call "Oreo brown", and the "frosting" is white, just like the filling. Topping off this bold cake are 5 mini Oreo cookies. They're perfect little replicas of the real thing!

Candle Confections makes the cutest and most detailed candles! I bet every one of them smells as yummy as they look! These would make such unique gifts too!

Dusting Off This Poor Ol' Blog...

Eeek! I totally forgot about my blog. I've gone through a lot of major life changes in recent months, so I've been insanely distracted. Now that I remember having a blog, I plan to post in it much more frequently. I promise! No, really... I do!

I was excited to find out tonight that I received an award from a wonderful, respectable website and community: PoshMama! My fellow Posh Mamas nominated me for this award, and I am so grateful to receive it! Honestly, I am somewhat of a newbie on that site. One of my customers said that they heard about me through Posh Mama, so I quickly traveled over there to check the community out. It's an amazing community of supportive and creative moms. I look forward to being more active in it.

Here is my Posh Mama award:

Awesome New Line of Products!

I've got a new line of hair goodies that I'm so proud of! I thought of the idea last night, and I made my first few kids hair ponies before bed. I plan to make lots more too! Basically, I "made" my own fabric. I can design just about anything you want (that will fit onto the hair buttons) and turn the image into fabric! These are especially great for babies, toddlers, kids, and teachers! Check out the ones I've listed so far...

http://www.DesignsByJanna.etsy.com

Oh, and if you want me to make custom ones for you (with your child's name, a school name/mascot, picture, words, whatever), just send me a message through Etsy and let me know! :-)

NEW - Gift Certificates!!

I just listed gift certificates in my Etsy shop! I currently have listings for $10 and $25, but any denomination is available! :) What a great gift to give a friend!

Vote For Me, Please!

I just submitted my site to the Top 100 Children's Boutique Sellers on Etsy. Please go here and show my store some love...

http://etsykids.gotop100.com/search.php?search=Designs+By+Janna&searchin=title

Thanks!!

Interview

My friend, Jussara, kindly asked if she could feature me and my store in her blog. I, of course, happily agreed. She then threw out a few questions for me to answer since I had abrain freeze and didn't know what to share about myself. Thought I would copy and paste the interview here so you can get to know a little more about me and how my this business venture came about.

Please check out Jussara's wonderful blog! She does *great* job of keeping it current and interesting: The Creative Corner

She also has two awesome stores on Etsy:
www.BrazilDesigns.etsy.com and www.SpaTherapy.etsy.com

I've purchased several pieces of jewelry from her, and it's even more gorgeous in person and of great quality. I've also tried her soap, and it smells soooo good!



MY INTERVIEW:

Shop name:
Designs By Janna

What do you create?
When I opened my Etsy store in May 2007, I primarily sell two very different types of items: hair accessories and custom graphic designs. As each day passes, I am creating and offering even more hair accessories, jewelry, and custom graphic designs (including birth announcements, invitations, photo collages, greeting cards) in addition to other fun accessories for women, young children, and pets. I also have plans to begin selling whimsical home decor in the near future.

What do you love creating the most and why?
While I love creating everything that I sell, my favorites would have to be graphic designs. I absolutely love working with computers and photos, so designing various things in Photoshop is a blast. I enjoy the challenge of coming up with new designs and satisfying customers who are looking for unique designs to fit their taste.

What inspires you?
I am inspired by so many things, and it's hard to say what inspires me because it really depends on the type of art/craft I'm working on. Obviously, my son and loved ones inspire me a great deal. I'm also inspired by everything from friends, memories, dreams, colors, fabrics, poems, articles, and pictures to the seasons of the year and my mood that particular day. I find inspiration wherever possible.

Rolling Out New Designs...

Long before I got so involved in making crafts to sell, I spent my extra time playing with Photoshop. Graphic design got put on the backburner for some unknown reason... until today. I just listed three designs that I came up with a while back, and I plan to design several more cards, invitations, and birth announcements this week. Check out these first three, though, and let me know what you think!

Click on each picture to view the listing on Etsy!

Please forgive the blurriness of the images! ;-)

New & Improved!

As I dust off this poor, neglected blog... I want to tell you all about some changes happening in the present and near future regarding my business! I want to start by inviting you to visit my blog more often as I will be updating it much more frequently. I have big plans for this baby. I plan to share business news and specials in addition to highlighting other artists and stores. Of course, I'll be throwing in some pictures of random goodies that I find on Etsy and Internet sites. We'll call it my little wish list, okay? ;-) I will also be using this blog as a tool to pick the brains of friends and potential customers so that I can improve my creations, store, and whatever else that needs improvement. Stay tuned... this blog is about to get much more interesting!

My New Business

In early May, I created my Etsy store after discovering the site while browsing shops created by two of my friends, Jussara and Kami. Jussara now runs two great Etsy shops: Brazil Designs and Spa Therapy. Kami sells the most adorable felt hair clips for little girls through her successful shop: Maya Papaya.

I started my shop with intentions of primarily selling handmade hair accessories for women of all ages. However, some family and friends encouraged me to continue designing custom invitations, greeting cards, and birth annoucements. So, I expanded my shop to include such items... and now I've added many more categories! I sell lots of random items now, but they all have one thing in common... they're all handmade by yours truly.

It's been great to express my creativity while earning a little extra cash! I am so fortunate to be able to stay at home with my son, and this new endeovor makes that even more possible. Thanks to everyone who has supported my new business thus far! I truly appreciate it. I've now sold more than 33 items (or sets of items) in less than a month!