i art a day.

Today the 4th of 5 new books will be added to the Etsy Shop! All 5 are sturdy hardcover books filled with recycled sketch paper great for a variety of media. Two new cover patterns and a new large 8×10″ size are all here! As always, the shop can be found over at http://iartaday.etsy.com. More preview photos below!

5×7″ Hemishpheres Hardcover Notebook

8×10″ Map Hardcover Notebook

5×7″ Mixed Greens Hardcover Notebook

8×10″ & 5×7″ Mixed Greens Notebooks (comparison)

5×7″ Street Cafe Hardcover Notebook (Rome, Italy)

As I mentioned earlier I took part in a little craft show at the end of April, and I’m here to report back! It was a great time, and the smallness of the show made it a bit more comfortable than if it had been a massive ordeal. The boyfriend and I arrived around 11:40 am to set up for the noon opening, carrying the folding table, book bag full of books, suitcase, and milk crate props on the subway. Next time we’ll be taking the car. Thankfully I didn’t really have that much to set up and had already laid everything out the night before so little would be left to the imagination in the morning. We quickly set up camp and got comfortable.

I sold out of my small notebooks (2.5 x 3.5 in) within the first several hours, and will definately have to make more of them for next time. There was also a lot of interest in the medium sized books (5 x 7 in), which I make more than anything. A lot of people were looking for small books with travel themes to take with them on trips or to give as little gifts when travelling.  All of the books covered in the vintage flocked wallpaper sold, people just couldn’t help rubbing the fuzzy covers!

To attract people I also set up a raffle where I raffled off one of my medium sized sketchbooks. Overall it was a fine idea – I just need to remember not to use permanent markers next time in case someone decides to use one of the books as a writing surface. I was worried that I hadn’t made enough books for the show (which in this particular case turned out to be unnecessary because it was a pretty small deal anyway) and also threw together a little video that shows some of my bookmaking process and some of the final products:

(clicking photo will take you to the video)

Overall it was a good experience. It was great to meet a lot of the other vendors and see some of the other work. Besides the personal list of things I should make for the next show, some other things to consider for any craft show are:

1. Take a buddy. Having the boyfriend there was absolutely indispensable.
2. Take some snacks. I had a box of cheese crackers but will have to do better next time, especially since it’s a seven hour show.
3. Take something to keep your hands busy! I took a sketchbook and drew for a little while during slow periods, but that got old after about 2 hours. I also took some paper to fold for new books, but ended up folding all of it in an hour. Maybe more paper or some other little project to keep my hands busy, but my attention still on the table.

The next show will be at the end of May, so hopefully I’ll be a little wiser and more prepared. =)

This week - although a quiet one – has been full of some serious thought given to this blog, the shop, the website, ideas and goals. At the moment, the most this entire thing can be is a side project, a part-time gig. Sure, I’m one of the thousands of people out there that has an idea and dreams of opening my own business one day, and getting up every morning with the enthusiasm to create something amazing. Well, I’ve got the enthusiasm down, but time and resources are just as important I’m finding out. Here’s what’s cooking:

In the shop:
1. Posted 4 new items! 3 bookmarks and one hardcover notebook. While the quantity of products is getting larger, the timing is not. All 3 bookmarks were posted Monday, and the notebook today. I’m told spacing it out a little is a good way to go, for a wider range of exposure on the site over time. Even if it’s been a little while since I’ve posted something new, I’ll have to exercise some patience with updating.

2. I purchased a spot in the Paper Goods Showcase today to generate some more traffic across my page and see just how effective it is. At this point, I’ve gotten a couple more hits than I had before, but no more hearts or sales than I started the day with it seems. I’m also thinking about purchasing a Books & Zines Showcase spot sometime next week to run a similar test and perhaps point shoppers towards some of my other categories of creations.

3. Some serious organizing has been going down. Excel has gotten a workout making Supply cost sheets that factor in price, taxes, and shipping of all of the materials I buy. I’ve also set up similar sheets that track the cost of materials + fees & shipping prices to make sure I’m selling my items for enough in the shop to break even.

4. Planning for the next set of creations has begun. This includes feasible projects, materials, time frames, and quantities. OY!

At the blog:
1. A first draft of an Editorial Calendar has been made. Basically, a plan of what I’m going to write about, and when I’m going to write it. The idea is that it’ll help minimize that blogger’s block that I get from time to time and hopefully post more often about things that are actually relevant and interesting (to me anyway)!

2. The continuous search and brainstorm about an all-inclusive and beautiful site is underway. Today I spent an extraordinary amount of time seeing just exactly what squarespace.com had to offer. More on that later.

So, with all of that in mind, I’m picking up and heading down to Virginia for the weekend to paint some walls and tackle a couple of little projects at the parents’ house. Have a great weekend everyone!!!