Clearance sale! We're slashing prices to make room for more inventory

With lots of new ideas and tons of bulky supplies on their way in the mail, we need to move our current stock--and fast. So we've marked nearly everything in our store down significantly. Some items are as much as 80% off! We need to get this stuff out. Can you help us?

Check out our store now!

Now featured on ByHand.me!

Our découpaged apothecary jar was featured on the "All About Handmade" blog at ByHand.me. How exciting! Thanks, Rebecca.

In the works: Decoupaged napkins mirrors in red and green, decoupaged cylindrical vase

I've stained two more 10-inch x 10-inch mirrors and left a third one raw in preparation for another napkin decoupage project like this one. I've also been experimenting with applying images to a children's play tea set in four different colors and will see how they turn out and whether they meet my selling standards.

I tried using one of Durwin Rice's decoupage techniques to decorate an interesting glass vase, but since I used acrylic paint instead of latex, it didn't work out so well. The acrylic didn't bond with the glass well at all and was very streaky. I'll be working to remove the paint (leaving the images on, which still look great) and going for a new background.

Sorry there hasn't been more merchandise posted, but I've been out of town for pretty much the whole month of June and haven't had a chance to work much. Please stay tuned for more updates!

Still no response from Etsy, so...

We've officially flown the coop

The administration over at Etsy still hasn't responded to the revelation that they virtually destroyed seller traffic by tinkering with SEO settings, and have possibly jeopardized their current and future relationship with Google, among other search engines. It appears they attempted to drive more traffic to Etsy.com at the expense of individual sellers. There is also the disturbing implication that Etsy is sneakily attempting to rebrand individual artists' work as "Etsy product", which is simply unacceptable.

I opened an Etsy shop to sell things easily and quickly on a site with a very pretty GUI. As an Etsy newbie, I won't lose much by walking away. Since Etsy seems to have no intention of even responding to their rightfully angry customers (the sellers), let alone placating them, I see no need to stick around. Yes, the GUI is beautiful and fun to use--but the GUI wasn't making me any money. The GUI wasn't moving product.

So off to ArtFire we go, likely forever. I do hope you'll follow us there.

We're now on Artfire!

A few weeks ago, I noticed via Google Analytics that traffic to my store had suddenly dropped precipitously. I thought maybe I wasn't promoting enough, or maybe no one wants my products. Or maybe there was so much new competition on Etsy that my store was simply getting lost in the fog. It happens.

Then I found this thread and lo and behold--it appears that Etsy has inexplicably messed with seller SEO. Thanks to their latest "enhancement", search engines can't find Etsy stores. Not even if you search for those stores' items by name. And not even if you search for the very stores by name!

Needless to say, this explains why traffic ground to a halt. And it's made a lot of people very unhappy, and a few of those people have recommended Artfire.com as an alternative place to showcase our wares. So as of today, we have an Artfire store.

I have no idea if this will be more effective than Etsy, but since listings are free, I don't see the harm in giving it a shot. No matter what, I won't be listing any new items on Etsy until they get this straightened out. Why would I pay them to advertise their site? No thanks.

I hope Etsy realizes what a terrible decision this was and hastens to make things right. Their projected "one or two weeks" timeframe is not exactly encouraging. What a pity.

Oh well. In the meantime, check out our new Artfire store!

Felix and Paco are back!

Our store is back online! Order now and we will ship your item first thing Monday morning.

Check out our new look!

We are on vacation until next week

Due to a fortuitous change in schedules, we're on vacation for a while. Well, until next week. So our shop is in vacation mode and our items are not for sale until we get back. Bummer, but to be honest, we kind of needed this break!

Thanks for keeping up with us. We promise to have new merchandise listed and new updates very soon. And as always, you can still follow us on Twitter!