All Packed Up And Ready To Ship

NOTE: My shop The Beehive is now Papercut Kitchen! Please visit my shop Papercut Kitchen by clicking here.

A few weeks ago I finished my special order, the 12 x 12 version (seen below) of the 8 x 8 Little Princess Album I have listed in my shop. I was so excited when my customer purchased it right away because it meant I didn't have to wait to pack the first of my new boxes!

I love the way this album turned out and it gave me the push I needed to put "start listing 12 x 12 scrapbooks as a regular part of my stock" on my to-do list.

I always include a thank you note and three business cards in my packages. I print them on different scrapbook papers, appropriate don't you think? They get placed in a white envelope with the customer's etsy name on it. I think it's important to let my customers know they're appreciated and hopefully they'll appreciate me enough to pass it on!

First I wrap my items in bubble wrap, not the most attractive wrapping if left as-is. I like my customers to feel like they're opening a gift though, even if it's for themselves, so I tie a coordinating ribbon around it, slide the thank you note envelope underneath it and voila! A simple, super cute wrapping!

To fill in around the item and keep it from slipping around in the box I use paper that I shred myself using a cheap office shredder and a roll of white craft paper. When I first started I struggled with myself about recycled shipping materials vs. new shipping materials and the clean, professional look of new simply won out in spite of my earth consciousness in other realms of my life.

All taped up with self adhesive address labels applied I'm ready for a trip to the P.O! My labels will be going through some changes soon. I want to design and print my own pretty labels. I also am thinking it would be smart business to start printing shipping labels through PayPal. They print with all the necessary info and shipping is less expensive. The downside, ugly shipping labels. That can be a big downside for me!

A Trees Worth Of Boxes

Today the UPS guy came to my door carrying this obnoxiously large bundle of boxes. Yesterday I ordered boxes because I received a request to make one of the albums in my shop in a 12 x 12 size and I wanted the right size box to ship it in. I discovered ULINE where you can buy mega quantities of anything you could ever need for shipping in any size. I don't know that it turned out to be tons cheaper per box than buying locally but it's not more expensive, even with shipping, and I can get exactly the size box I need brought to my doorstep! Another thing that I was ridiculously excited about was the fact that they sent it to The Beehive, I feel like an official business! I know, I'm excited to a nerdy degree! Now, where do I store the other 24 boxes until they get used? Hey, I can't help my overwhelming optimism, I think I can start making this little hobby into a full fledged business! Or Maybe the boxes are emitting some kind of drug-like fume that's getting to me.

NOTE: My shop The Beehive is now Papercut Kitchen! Please visit my shop Papercut Kitchen by clicking here.

Etsy Extras

I'm discovering alot of fun site features and helpful etsy sites. I also learned that only days after I spent all that time editing my listings one by one to add international shipping, etsy added batch editing for shipping. Would've been nice to have a week ago, but it'll be very useful in the future, especially with the usps shipping changes on their way.

etsytools.com has a fun feature, and rather useful for someone like myself who is still on dial up. It's called the Heart-o-matic. All you have to do is search for your shop and the heart-o-matic comes up with a list that shows each of your items, how many times it's been viewed and how many hearts it has. This is saving me checking hearts one item at a time. Now what I do is look at the heart-o-matic then I can just check the items that have new hearts. Heart-o-matic me baby!
Ahhh! I just went to etsytools to look at their other features and discovered they're closing the site! Thanks alot to the mean people who are forcing them out. This was their announcement:

It is with a heavy heart that I announce today that Etsytools will be closing in two weeks time. It's something we've been talking about for a little while now, but today the camel's back was finally broken.

I will never understand why so many people think the world owes them. I get dozens of emails every day from people who think I could do better, and I should do better because they say so. I should be more professional, I should respond quicker, I should offer more features, less features, better features. I should pay hundreds of dollars for a server that is lightening fast so you don't have to wait 10 seconds for the charts to load. I've been called every name under the sun, I've been threatened with legal
action, and today I received a death threat. A f****ing death threat!

I recognise that for every jealous idiot there are a dozen wonderful etsians out there, but I just don't care anymore. I used to love the community but it has changed so much lately I don't even recognise it. I don't have any faith in
Etsy anymore, and I'm tired of hacking away at this website just to be humiliated and mocked on the forums. There are people who will be jumping for joy to see this website close, and I'm glad to finally have satisfied the f***wits. Leave me alone now.

Anyone who purchased advertising in the past week or so will be refunded. Everyone who purchased before that should use their impressions before we close the site on March 31st, or contact me and we'll sort something out.

Thank you to everyone who has offered their support and encouragement over the past 8 months. I'm sorry to those who are disappointed, but there's just so much more to life than Etsy. If anyone wants me, I'll be at St Kilda Beach.

What is wrong with people these days! It's a free and helpful site and if they don't like it why don't they just not use it, why all the anger. This kind of thing just makes me sick.

It looks like a form of the Heart-o-matic will still exist at majaba.org but as far as I can tell it's just hearts for your entire shop not item by item. Ok, I was thinking this would be a fun post but this mean people stuff has gotten me down, it's the reason I avoid the news in all forms, this mean 'ole world just drains me. Maybe I'll find some fun stuff later.

I've Gone International

NOTE: My shop The Beehive is now Papercut Kitchen! Please visit my shop Papercut Kitchen by clicking here.

I've been wanting to add international shipping to my shop forever but just haven't found the time to do it. Now that I'm having trouble finding time to craft and I've been doing more playing on the computer I decided it was time to dive in. I got to use the new postal scale I got for Christmas and hauled all my items and packaging out to start the process. Doing it all with a dial up connection was a hastle. I got on usps.com and played around with numbers and different countries so that I could add just Canada and Everywhere Else, but wanted to try and make sure a miscalculation of Everywhere Else didn't end up sinking me. I think I found amounts that would cover the main places. As long as someone from a strangely expensive country doesn't buy something I think I'm covered. It took me two days to get it set up but now I have international shipping on everything!

Now I'm waiting for my first international sale so I can see how it goes. Alot goes into shipping international it seems, customs forms and such, but I know it's just a matter of doing and learning as I go. Etsy does have a nice feature where you can save shipping profiles, that way when I list items in the future all I have to do is pick the profile that most fits the item and it loads the info for me. Setting up the profiles takes some time but it's well worth it. I think it's exciting to think that my things could start ending up all over the world, heck I've been excited that they're making it all over the country!

Thinking of going international yourself? These links may give you some helpful info, oh and don't forget, usps is upping their shipping prices and changing the way they price shipments starting May 12, 2008, stock up on your Forever stamps while you can get them at the current price!

usps price and services changes
usps.com homepage
usps index of countries where you can find shipping rules and regs for specific countries
EtsyWiki customs information
Etsy forums are also extremely helpful, especially now that they have made their forum search functional. Go to the forums and do a search for "international shipping" and you will find lots of helpful information on how to go international and learn through others' experiences.

My Secret Love Affair

I have a little confession to make, I LOVE, love, love the post office! I know it's crazy, some people put it right up there with visiting the revenue office, but I can't help myself! I love it that people who seem perfectly happy getting out of their cars in the parking lot are suddenly transformed into an angry mob as soon as they step foot through the doors.

I love the bizarre people and the bizarre lines. It seems it always takes forever to get in and out. The line can be miles long or you can walk in to find only one person in front of you but it's some strange old man with a giant, black garbage bag full of tiny, identical packages that all need some kind of special delivery.

I love listening to everyone grumbling about the post office and yet they're there. I love the fact that the postal workers are unfazed by the grumpiness and are always polite and jolly. I always think they are the kind of people that I could be friends with, they seem strange and interesting and hysterical. When I ask for my package to be stamped "fragile" they pull out an ancient, battered, laminated comic that's been cut from a newspaper. It has an illustration of a package marked fragile that has been mutilated by the post office. I laugh everytime because they think it's brilliant everytime, and so do I! They stamp "spoiled" on my boys hands and laugh "now you can say they've been spoiled by the post office!" I love it when I get to go in by myself and I love it when I have to load my fussy 2 year old into the flimsy umbrella stroller and listen to "Out! Out! Finshed!" and constantly grab his 3 year old brother by the hood of his coat to keep him from socializing his way through the line of customers until he's lost in the crowd. Now that's true love.

Packing and Shipping and Paypal, Oh My!

Learning this new etsy business and all the details that go along with it feels a little like I'm learning to write with my left hand. I'm clumsy and slow and it's just going to take getting out there and learning by doing. This is not something that comes naturally for me. I like to know every tiny little detail of who, what, when, where and why in everything I do. Spontaneity and new experiences make me so tense I feel like my shoulders might tighten enough for my head to pop right off my neck. I have been working very hard to get over this and having kids is a big inspiration for self improvement. I already look at my 3.5 year old having trouble transitioning from one activity to another and getting peeved anytime something new messes up his little routine and I think "My baby is already uptight and stressed and it's all my fault!" So I'm doing my best to ditch the over researching and just jump in and learn from experience.

Now that I've sold an item I'm realizing that there are so many things to consider. I spent most of the day Tuesday trying to get set up on Paypal, something I thought happened automatically when I set up shop on etsy, and running back and forth from Walmart, the UPS store, Hobby Lobby, Walmart again, and back to Hobby Lobby (with a side trip to the grocery store for diapers and milk) just trying to figure out who had the best boxes at the best prices to fit each of my differently sized items and how I could make sure these items survive the US Postal Service without being bent, warped and drenched with rain but still be appealing to the buyer.

Bit by tiny bit throughout the day I reluctantly went through the painful process of letting go of my earth conscious (translation, overly frugal, ok, down right cheap) idea of putting the items in a ziplock bag from the grocery dept (to protect from water damage), shredding up old junk mail and bills for packing material and shipping in the boxes our boys' diapers came in and traded it out for the more business conscious idea of wrapping the items in the nice cellophane used to wrap gift baskets, shredding up nice, new, crispy white craft paper for the packing material and shipping in --gasp!-- brand spankin' new boxes. I have to admit, the revised plan was so much better. I kept stealing glances at this beautiful package, so tidy and clean, thinking this was worth the work. This will make the buyer feel like they're opening a gift to themselves instead of feeling like they found a pretty cool thing in the dumpster that you can't believe someone would throw out because, with some work, it could be really nice.