The Art of Giving. Part 1

sea unicorn

 Part 1: Artful Giving
Part 2: Artful Tagging
Part 3: Artful Embellishing.

There is something truly sweet when a package arrives in the mail and upon opening the mailer, you pull out a deliciously thoughtful array of eye candy. Whether you are an online or brick an mortar seller of goods, or you are giving a gift to a friend, little details can make all of the difference. These are nice and simple touches you can do easily to make a small impact.

daughter of luxury

talula

mia sophia

rafya

A packaged gift does not need to be all fanciful, full of frippery with a flippant regard to wasteful packaging, but just a touch of something special, a little hint of awesome is all it really takes to make an already splendid thing turn into an exciting valuable to behold.

farouche

sjane

percival road

garden gwyn

by bethany

jack and izzy

Now, I mostly am showcasing little boxes for gifts, but any of these techniques can be used for those of you who sell (or give) larger things. If you cannot gift wrap item, perhaps a tea stained tag with a paper rose or seashell tied to it? If you leave the gift tag blank, this can double as an additional gift that the recipient can use in the future.

anna laura

annie and olive

annie and olive

jack and izzy

Later, I will show you what you can do with simple embellishments for tags and more packaging goodness!! If you would like to find out more right now, than visit Etsy's online mag, the Storque, for packaging ideas HERE!!!!!!

nan's glam

Cross Promoting, Screenshots, Happy Day

Look what my husband made me. A warm, buttery, ginormous blueberry muffin with a strawberry and milk in my (new) favorite vintage Popple's cup. I got it from SplishySplashCrafts, she has cute handcarved stamps and lots of vintage goodies. I still have my white Popple by the way... do/did you have one? If you are needing some memories of 80's toys and such, check here. I will find Rainbow Bright, Strawberry Shortcake, My Little Ponies, Smurfs, Muppets...

Also, I was featured in two treasuries today! Thanks to the wonderful Etsy sellers, CreaShines and JanEleven.


My Victorian Blush Flower Necklace

Do you know how to take a screenshot? Me neither. But I DO know how to copy and paste a link, and that is all you need to do to get a screenshot. It won't work on password protected sites (like bank accounts, convos...) but it is great for other things. Just click on the size you want after "thumbalizing is complete", right click the image and save it in your photos. Easy. Go and play with it at Thumbalizr. (In the past, I was able to crop these so the weird white background wasn't all huge, but the format has changed, so it will take me some figuring out, but at least I have them.)

**UPDATE** I learned how to do a screenshot. Here is how:
Screenshot info...
Position your page you wish to copy, then find the keyboard button for Print Scr (top row, right hand side) hit that key, then open up your programs and find Paint, open it...
Open Edit, click on Paste, next open your File tab and click on Save as (save as a jpg.) then put it in any file you want on your computer.


My Compass Ring

Now, a final word on Etsy selling. Have you ever considered cross promoting? I saw on the lovely Talula's site that she had cross promoted a matching item with another seller and vice versa. I thought that was a wonderful idea, so I contacted Miss Indie and suggested we do the same. Her mom, Beautiful Bridget joined in, and now we are cross promoting!



My Tribal Goes to the Ball Earrings with Miss Indie's Old Manor Cowl

Here are some ideas for you:

How can you make this work for you? If you sell jewelery, then a bag, clothing or fiber accessories person would work well with you. If you sell soap, then a candle person would do well (like, if you love my vanilla soap, you will love these vanilla candles by...) If you make baked goods, then perhaps a lipgloss in a matching flavor (if you love my mint cookies, then you will love her mint lipgloss), if you make soap that looks like food, then maybe a seller of that food OR a polymer clay artist who make that food charms (if you love my bundt cake soap, then you wil love to eat this bundt cake OR you will love this bundt cake charm...) Anyways, those are some ideas for you. Sewn baby items can cross promote with baby nursery artists, mixed media and fine art can cross promote similar styles of others (like a painting/photo of an ocean lighthouse, can cross promote with someone who makes sea glass art.

I hope this gets everyone's head turning to think of people you may or may not know to cross promote with each other. Feel free to use one of my listings as an example to show to you who contact.



My Garden Love Necklace with Beautiful Bridget's Miss Marple hat.