Finals Week

I want to apologize in advance....there won't be as many posts this week as normal. I am starting finals week here at Sam and there will be lots of long hours studying and finishing projects for the end of the semester. Plus my little sister is graduating college this Saturday! I'm so proud of her and very excited to see her walk! Check back next week for the regular scheduled posts. I hope everyone is having a fun and safe holiday season so far!

Oranization is Key

One day I was searching through the Etsy forum...basically looking for people who knew what the heck they were doing. I found a few comments that caught my eye, and they all said the same thing: get organized! They also said a few other things like: start a blog, don't be afraid of Twitter, and always have business cards on hand....but I'll get to all that later.

I started with organization. Just like your studio, office, or in my case, craft-closet, you need to be organized. This always starts with setting goals....think New Years resolutions. This year I want to lose weight! Great! How much? By when? How do you plan on doing that? How do you stay motivated along the way? I've recently learned that you need to answer these same questions when it comes to your crafting business.

What is your long term goal? Is it to make $300 a month crafting for the next year? How many sales do you need each month to meet that goal? How much product do you need to make each month to meet that goal? Is your goal to post 3 items a week? Next, break it down even further. How many sales/product do you need to make each week?

These goals need to have three qualities: they need to be realistic, they need to be attainable and they need to be specific. If your goals don't meet these qualifications then toss them out and start over. Don't set yourself up for failure right off the bat. Start small and grow over time.

Now that you have your goals, post them where you can see them. Next you want to come up with your plan for making that $300 in sales. Any time I get ready for a craft fair, I make a list of items that I know I already have the supplies for. Then I figure out how much I can make from what I've got! Then I get busy. This is no time to get lazy....craft your little heart out. And post...make sure you are posting your items when they are finished. Sure you only have one item now, but this will get your name/shop out there so people can see what you can do.

Now you have a system in place. We'll start to talk about advertising next week. Get ready to blog!

December 7's Showcase

LonelyPaper journals are perfect little multipurpose journals. They have several forms of paper in each one: heavyweight watercolor, drawing paper, graph paper, various cardstock, book pages, illustrations, colored construction paper, day-planner pages, and more! Each journal is 5x5 inches and includes 100+ pages. The pages are heavy enough to support pasting and additions to the book. There are no two alike; each book comes with a unique cover, end pages, and arrangment of journal pages.

Snow in Texas?

That's right guys! It snowed last Friday here in Huntsville. It didn't last long but for a moment there is was pretty heavy. When I went into Walmart it was nice and pretty. Just some light flurryies. When I came out 15-20 minutes later, it was like a blizzard! Well a bizzard for Texas anyway. By the time I got to my car I was covered. Of course, we had to commemorate the moment by running around like idiots trying to scoop up as much as we could to throw at each other. It was fun while it lasted....all 3 hours of it.

The fanny pack is FABULOUS again!

This Monday's Fabulous Find is Kinies Ruffled Waist Purse. My favorite is the dark gray, But check out all the other styles and colors! Now you don't have to worry about leaving your purse on the table when you go out dancing or to a party, because its part of your outfit. The straps are adjustable as well, to fit you!

P.S. Check out the hooded scarves too!

Product Promotion for People who ate Poor at Promoting Thursdays!

I've been a member of Etsy since October of 2008 and I've made 5 sales. Not the best. Sure, I've made a few bucks at craft fairs and on custom orders for friends and family, but things aren't going the way I had hoped. What I want is to take my business full time. I want to be my own boss. And most of all I want more time to spend crafting and less time actually working for someone else.

So I've been reading everything I can get my hands on about how to promote my site and my products. I'm hoping that I can share what I learn with others. There are lots of people selling 'how-to make more money on Etsy' manuals, but if this stuff is so easy to master, how come more people aren't "selling more on Etsy?" And shouldn't this advise be free? I think so.

So I'm starting on my little advertising adventure. Sharing what I find. What works. What doesn't. And every Thursday I'll post my progress here! Join along, learn a few things too, or share your knowledge with others by way of a comment.

November 30: Fabulous Find

I was combing Etsy looking for Christmas presents and I found LittleMissDressUp. Fun accessories with a vintage feel. The bib necklaces are classic and trendy all at the same time making them a must have for anyone who loves vintage modern style!

Crafters Block

I have completed stage one of my super secret project! Ok you guessed it....its a book! Hm...but what kind of book?! To fill the inside, I'm searching google and other places to find some cool layouts. I'm not so good when it comes to arranging things on the page. So I'm cheating a little. There are so many people out there who constantly churn out great designs. I have no idea how they do it. But I figure this would be a good way to get some fresh ideas and figure out new ways to place things on the pages, or even ideas on unusual things that would look good on a page. The layout gallery at Scrapbook.com is a good place to look if you're struggling too. I like the ones that use white space (a large area of blank space on the page).

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving with lots of turkey and a good nap! I am thankful for my friends and family; for their constant feedback, their never-ending love, and for laughing at my jokes...even when they aren't funny. I love yall!

Sew What?

I wanted to give ya'll a sneak peak at a new project I'm working on. I've never worked with sewing buttons on anything before, but I'm very pleased at how things are going so far. However, I don't recommend sewing anything through paper.....very very very think paper. If you do however decied to rise to the challenge, get yourself some rubber fingers to protect your real fingers. Large needles + bare fingers = pain! 15 minutes of near misses and direct hits, and I put away the needle and broke out the Aleenes!

I'll post more pictures when the album is done. Stay tuned!

FAQ's

What kind of products do you make?

• Here at Lonely Paper Designs, our primary medium is paper. The majority of our work is hand-bound books made from 75% or more recyclable materials. We try to provide a variety of binding styles as well including but not limited to, coptic stitch pamphlet, and Japanese binding. We also have a large supply of postcards. These are designed and printed right from our workspace. We also offer limited edition postcards made from recycled materials. We recently began creating photo frames as well! In addition to this we also make greeting cards, paper dolls, and recycled magazine boxes.

What are your shipping policies?

• We prefer to use the most economical method available when shipping. Smaller items will be shipped through USPS first class mail. Larger items will be shipped via USPS priority mail. We also try to recycle our packing ans shipping materials. This cuts down on the cost for the customer and just makes us feel better about ourselves (and who doesn't love that?!)!

What payment options do you offer?

• We accept Paypal and also money order. If your payment of choice is money order, we must receive payment and it must clear before we ship your item. If we have not received payment for an item 2 weeks after purchase then the item will be relisted

Have a question? Leave us a comment and we'll add it to our FAQ's!

Contact Lonely Paper Designs

Email: audrey@lonelypaperdesigns.com

Etsy: LonelyPaper

About Lonely Paper Designs

Lonely Paper Designs was created by Audrey Stanley in 2007. We originally started with just simple booking binding. Since then, Lonely Paper has evolved and we now create several varieties in hand bound journals, postcards, greeting cards, tags, and photo frames. We've recently added a new member to our team as well, Jillian Poole! We are constantly working on new and exciting creations to bring to our Etsy shop each month for you to enjoy.

Audrey Stanley is a victim studies major at SHSU in Huntsville, Tx. She enjoys being outdoors, crafting, finding new ways to scare her cat (its ok...he likes it).

Jillian Poole has an Art degree from University of Texas and is currently working on her education degree. She enjoys crafting, buying shoes, and reminding her dog Lily to sit on the floor...not the sofa.

LonelyPaper Twitter

Ok so I finally caved and got a twitter page.  Do you need more up to the minute informaion about the goings on in our workshop?

Follow us now!   http://twitter.com/LonelyPaper

Fair on the Square Success

I just want to thank everyone for coming out this weekend. We had a great response to all the new products and our original books as well. Below are some picture of just a few of our new products. We'll be posting some more within the week.

lonelypaperdesigns

Unique Gifts

New products

Due to the recent entrance into the Fair on the Square, I haven't had much chance to update things here on the blog.  But, I do have s0me very exciting news!  This recent development has caused the creation of some new products that LonelyPaper has never offered before.

We've introduced monthly skinny books!  This extra slim books give you a page for everyday of the month to write your thoughts, to do lists, draw your morning coffee cup, or whatever strikes your fancy!  These are make completely of recycled paper and leftover thread from other projects.  Go green and get organized all at the same time!

We have also created a variety of vintage gift cards and homemade holiday greeting cards.  These will go right along with our line of vintage and holiday gift tags, as well!

And finally, we are proud to inform you of the creation of some one-of-a-kind books made from everyday objects that would see the bottom of a trash can if it wasn't for our team seeing their beauty and potential.

Look for some photos soon!

Fair on the Square

Lonely Paper will be hosting a booth at this years Fair on the Square in Huntsville, Texas.  We are very excited...and slightly terrified as this is our first craft show!  We hope you'll come out for those of you that live in east Texas.  And of course for those of you who aren't able to attend, you can view our Fair on the Square items on the Lonely Paper Etsy page after the event.

See you there!

Unfolded Treasure

This "book" has Japanese style or accordion pages. I absolutely love this book and will be sad to see it go. This was my first stab at an accordion book, and I couldn't be more pleased with how it turned out.  I think the reason I love it so much is because its so different than anything I've done before, or seen before for that matter.  I love using materials made for one thing and changing their purpose!

I started with a cigar box I found at an antique shop.  It was so ugly and a kid had colored all over it.  So all aesthetic value had been lost.  Plus to be honest, even though this box was "vintage," it wasn't older than 30 years or so.  So the challenge was to cover it.  I used a dictionary that I've had a long time now.  Its pages are beautifly weathered and aged.   It felt like such a shame to let the dictionary and the box go to waste, so I put them to better use. I modge podged the two together and added some decorative stamps to give it some flare.

I also put a red ribbon inside the box as a nice accent, but also to serve a very useful purpose.   This ribbon can be used to mark your place like a journal, or hold pages while you use the book as a display.  You can also take the pages completely out of the book altogether.

There are just so many uses for this book. It can stand on its side and the pages can be pulled out to display photos or art work. The best part about  continuous pages like this, is that you can use as many as you need to create your art.

Additional Information:

This book contains 100 pages of heavy weight sketch paper when just using the front of the pages, and 200 pages when using front and back. It measures approximately 8.5x6 inches.

In the works

Started working on a whole new batch of books this last week.  It seems like I have no problem with cutting my own paper and wrapping my own covers, but I'm not too fond of the rest.  Or maybe its that I have to drag out all my tools and equipment to finish them off (LOL).  Of course, this always results in a huge mess that has to be put away again.  And that's  never fun.  The most un-fun part is picking up tiny slivers of paper off the carpet that the vacuum misses.  I'm still finding paper from months ago!

Well if all goes planned, look for 4 new hand bound, Coptic-stitched books!  I'm very excited about one in particular.  It has an edgy flare.  Once again I've included black card stock which shows through on the binding.   Can't wait to reveal!

Once Upon A Time....

This is the last journal I made with real book board before I started using recycled materials.   I really do like the thickness of the book boards, but I found that using recycled card board not only helps the environment, but cuts down on the cost of the book.  Not to mention, pliable boards are much easier to work with.

This book has a variety of pages.  Like most of my books, I used varied weights of sketch paper, graphing paper, and rescued book pages.  I found a childrens fairy tale and poetry book at a thrift store for 10 cents.  It had beautiful illustrations that go great with the theme of the book.    The end pages are also story book themed and look as if they were pulled straight from a book.   My favorite part of this book though, is the thread.  I almost always use black, white, or a natural color thread.  For this book, I used purple waxed linen thread which goes great with the pink cover.   I liked the end result so much I've started using colored threads since on most of my projects.



Additional Information:

This hand bound journal is great for kids and adults alike. It has a ribbon tie which allows the book to be held shut after adding other photos or ephemera to the book. It is hardbound with 1/8th inch book board.

This book measures 5x5 inches and is coptic bound with purple 4 ply waxed linen thread.

The New LonelyPaper Blog

I'm very excited to be adding this feature on to accompany my Etsy page.  I'll be able to share additional information about my products and myself.  The blog will also include some information about how I've created my projects and preview projects in the works.  Look for more to come soon.  Enjoy!