Available soon. . .

Etsy has said the "gift wrap" option would be available before the end of the month, so in my head I'm like tick tock, tick tock, I wish I could set this up already.  

I spent time the other day practicing and actually pre-wrapping some of my gift boxes in a way that they are really pretty but the contents are still accessible.  ~yay me~

By keeping it simple and not using actual wrapping paper I was able to decorate the boxes in a very "present" gift-y looking manner without actually sealing the boxes.  😇

So one can order items "gift wrapped" but still be able to check, confirm, and examine the contents and put it back without effecting the look of the gift wrapping, at least for most things.  I still have to figure out a solution for trees 7" inches and up, I have gift boxes that will fit the 3", 5", and 6" versions it's just the larger ones.  I bought some boxes like standard shirt boxes that will hold the larger trees but they are all rectangular and over-sized so may require some modification or extra stuffing of tissue paper to hold the tree in place inside.  😏

I can't wait to get this set up. . .I really hope I have orders this holiday season and someone opts for gift wrapping, otherwise I have 8 over decorated boxes. ~LOL~ 😜

Gift wrapping for the holidays. .

Finally an announcement about a new Etsy feature I can get behind. 😇  

GIFT WRAPPING FOR THE HOLIDAYS !!! 

I am not only OK with this being an option I kind of like it.  

I have always liked wrapping presents, I'm actually pretty good with wrapping paper and ribbons, I have plenty of supplies on hand.  Heck I already pack most of the jewelry in little gift boxes so a ribbon on the outside is no big deal at all.  The wire trees would take a bit more effort but I like a challenge and the little 3" inch ones fit in the bracelet boxes anyway. ~LOL~  

Looking at the screen shots in the announcement I really like that they have added some definition/expectation to the "mark as a gift" option.  I am really liking the "add a gift message" and that we will be able to print those on separate page. I've only had 1 person ask me to add a note to a gift package but she put the note in the order in the notes to seller section which doesn't print on the packing slip so I had to copy/paste it into notepad and print it out separate, it was kind of a pain with all the extra steps so simplifying that will be great.  I also bet with the holidays coming people will like the perks.  And since we can set our own prices for this additional service I am really fine with it and plan to make it available in my shop. 👍

I've seen some other sellers not so thrilled with the idea afraid it will not be profitable for them, concerned that the extra gift wrap adding weight and increasing shipping cost, blah blah.  I use priority usually flat rate boxes so a few ounces of weight will not effect my shipping costs at all. 😇  

I can't wait for this to become available so I can get it all set-up, they are teasing me with "hey look at this cool new thing you can't have yet".  😏  So I'm passing that on. 😛

Tick tock. . .

Time is running out on the Birthday Sale it ends on the 22nd, better get shopping before you miss out on the 10% off everything. 😇

https://www.etsy.com/shop/RainbowMaille

Shifting focus. . .somewhat

So after last weeks somewhat whiny post I actually got a sale for a piece of chainmaille. LOL  Wish that worked every time, I'd whine more often. 😏  

I have noticed I sell more of the wire trees than actual jewelry so I think I'm going to back off making more chainmaille and make more art instead. 

I think I'm going to set up the easel and try painting again.  Not sure what I'm going to paint, I like the space-scape I did last time but I'm considering a simple wild flower meadow so I can ribbon embroider over some of the flowers and add that 3-D effect.  Although, my husband has some really cool glow in the dark powder paint stuff so if I do another space scene I think I'll try out some of it to make glowing stars. 😍  

I'm not giving up on RainbowMaille and I'm not changing the name I'm just shifting my crafting focus a bit.  😉  It's not the chainmaille is going anywhere, I have a ton of it already made and all the rings and supplies to make just about anything anyone could ask for.  I'm just not going to spend my time making more, more patterns, more styles, more colors, I have a million ideas but limited storage.  LOL

Of course, if I paint a bunch of canvases and they don't sell then I'll have a whole other storage problem.  😛

up hill battle. . .

I'm so sick of fighting the up hill Etsy battle and getting no where.  

I have redone photos, I've tweaked listings to all grade A SEO, I've added listings regularly, I've done everything they say you should do and it still gets me basically no where. 😟 I've got this blog but no one reads it, I've got an instagram but it's hard to get followers and even harder to keep them and no one clicks through to the Etsy, I've got the Facebook page I even pay for ads but zero results zero sales.  😩

I am actually depressed and I am seriously considering just giving up, not that anyone cares. 😑  It's really frustrating, I don't know what else to do, considering making everything $5 just to try to get rid of it.  😖  What else am I supposed to do with hundreds of pieces of  jewelry?  

Etsy Sale. . .

Etsy has finally done something right.  😄  Joking but only a little, Etsy has added the ability to have a "sale" not just coupon codes.  I have over the years tried to use the coupon code option, but try as I might no one ever used them I would create them and publish them and promote them on Facebook and elsewhere and yet no one ever used them. 😩  Literally like 1 person once in 2 years, so sad, the most ineffective promo system.

The new "sale tools" allow for automatic price changes, you can do individual listings, sections or the whole shop, you can run multiple "sales" at once so different things can be discounted at different levels. You can still have/use coupon codes but the system won't allow double discounts it will automatically use which ever give the best discount.  So if one were to try to use my "THANKYOU" code it wouldn't work right now because the shop wide sale I'm currently running is 20% which is more than the 15% coupon code.

I set up a "SALE" to test the new stuff, to see what it looks like, how they would note the discount, display other info, etc.  While it's not exactly perfect it's not bad either, it does the strike-through so it shows the original price and the discounted price if there is a direct set amount.  I think the signs could be brighter, flashier but they did add a filter feature to search to look for things "on sale". 

Currently I'm set up for 20% off any order over $20, I was just testing things in the settings and that's where I landed.  

Etsy has encouraged sellers to set up "Labor Day" sales because they are doing a big site promotion for the holiday, I set up a tiered sale for that.  So the shop wide 20% off will end soon and the "Labor Day Sale" will kick in, which will be 10% off wire trees and 15% off select chainmaille jewelry.

So seriously take advantage of the 20% off now because it ends on 8-30 and I will not likely offer this much of a discount again for quite some time. 😉

Of course they just released this new feature so if there are any bugs or you have any problems please let me know.  😇

Back to what I do. . .

I have set aside the Franken-art for now, although I'm still thinking about it.  I am back to making things for the shop, like new trees and more chainmaille.  

This is the most recently listed wire tree and I think it's adorable.  I didn't label it as "bisexual pride" but it's the colors.  I also went ahead and created the listing for the "Pride Flag" colored bracelet collection even though it's not really all of them.

I am working on another small silver wire tree with pink Swarovski crystal beads, it's going to be fabulous and likely added to the store on Monday.  😇