Surprise! Surprise!

First of all I'd love to thank everyone that commented on my last post about great finds that I personally enjoy on etsy and extremely happy that so many others have also enjoyed handmade items too! Now that I go shopping I look at items different and won't blink an eye when it comes to handmade items... recently I've taken a lot of notice to the little boutiques around my neighborhood and many I see are basically stores whose items are from different small companies ... dare I say there might be some etsians there.

Anyways this morning was gloomy with a chance of rain and it's almost summer so bring in the darn good weather already! By the late afternoon when I get out of work it was sunny as heck and I just found out my above little print was chosen to be the picture for an article "Rainy Day Rescue--Homemade Play Dough from Your Kitchen Cupboard " from a site called Handmade News. I never heard of it before but I'm very impressed of how the site looks.. it's literally like a jammed pack quilt of various articles on handmade crafts and DIYs for you and your family. Suddenly I realized it's affiliated with a handmade selling site called Artfire.

Hmm that's kind of odd... I've heard much about ArtFire and I've read a lot of how people found mixed success there. I have wondered about it myself and was tempted to open a shop there for my art as to me the name suggests art though it actually is a handmade site very similar to Etsy. The biggest reason people like Artfire is because it's one flat fee of I think 12 dollars a month to list as much as you want as opposed to 20 cents an item on Etsy. You can also have a free account but it limits to like 10 items and some other limitations.

It is something to look into if you are looking for other areas to expand to. Remember that Artfire is rather new but seems to be picking up momentum. Another thing to realize is that like Etsy... or any other business for the matter is not a "build it and people will come" ... you really have to work hard and promote yourself... on a lighter note I'm wondering if I should reserve a spot for June or July for my craft fair.

As I'm planning to do only one this summer since I'm really strapped for free time now. =( . What do you guys think? It's going to be at the Brooklyn Indie Market. I was going to check it out yesterday along with Renegade but I had an unexpected funeral to go to.

Until next time guys... live long and prosper!