Can't go wrong with Silver

Thought I would share a super quick pair of earrings with everyone that really pops in the display cases. These are made with silver plated components - nickle free, antiqued and sealed for a lifetime of fabulous wear.

Personally I love these earrings because I can wear them with my more casual suits for when I teach classes or I can wear the with my strappy black evening gown - my choice for Christmas events. Anyway - they are supper easy to put together - just take a crystal bead of your choice - 6mm and an eye pin - thread it on, make a loop and use it to conect the dangle to the earwire.

These should retail for you between $12 and $20 depending on what area you are in economy-wise when you do your fairs.

Quick tip for the week - go to Next Day Flyers and have some fabulous biz cards printed just to dangle your earings from - you can have a decorative front that is nuetral enough to highlight but not compete with the beauty of your earrings and then you can load the back with info about you and your website. Etsy has several very talented digital artists that make backgrounds for ATC's that work really well for this application.

Punch holes for the earrings and if you hang the cards at your shows you have 2 options - either attach a plastic peal and stick hanger (jewelry show supply shops sell these in 100 packs cheap) or you can punch a hole in the top to hang on a peg. You can also get cello sleves to slip them in, if you want to set them out in a basket (people love to pick things up and get a really good look at how fabulous they are!)

Featured

We were featured in the Etsy Wedding Blog with our Medieval Story Cameos from the Winter Rose Cameo Site Thank you Etsy for the feature - the other artist we were selected with have absolutely fabulous items!

Water slide decals came in this week, so I will be experimenting with them - they are a great way to get pictures onto odd shaped brass pieces - personalizing them. They are great for dominoes, bamboo tiles and other pieces as well - hopefully instructions for those will be up next week as well as a picture of the prizes for our Designer Challenge.

UPDATES

Catching up a bit today - listing new cameos to our cameo site with a holiday theme (Halloween that is) It is right around the corner and I have noticed an upswing in Halloween supply sales so many of you are already getting your shops stocked with frightfully fabulous designs. Following on the tail of Halloween will be the premier of the new Twilight movie in November so be sure to stock early on that - Twilight fans are crazy wild for Etsy jewelry.


There were a few questions on the twitter blog so I hope these are the answers you wanted - LOL:

1. Our Twitter name is WinterRoseShop.
2. To add Twitter to your tool bar - If you have Firefox this is the bar between the address line and your open tabs. All you have to do to create a quick is click and drag the www address down to this bar and Firefox will create a quick link for you that is always on the ready.

and a few...IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER...

June 30 - last day to get a free earring kit with your order of $10 (scroll down for info)

July 15 - Entries for Design challenge are due (scroll to next post for info)

Aug. 15 - Purple jewelry entries are due at Somerset - they are sticklers for having these in on time so do not put it off - mail them no later than August 1 (yes you guessed it - scroll for info)

Call for Designers

Posting late due to fabulous weather and a new garden - hopefully you were all out enjoying the last day of spring too. And now on to the posting - I am running a contest for designers using our Woodland Brass pieces. Simple rules and a fabulous prize for everyone who participates.
Prizes first cause that's the fun part:

First Prize - Your design and site will be featured with our next Ad in Belle Armoire Jewelry magazine and featured on this blog and Twitter. Plus a fabulous set of supplies.

Second and Third place get a fabulous sample pack of supplies and a feature with photo on our blog.

EVERYONE gets a shout out for their shop here on our blog and on Twitter for participating.

And now the rules:
A good photo of your design will need to be sent to me - use the etsy convo for this at our shop or you can send me a link to a listing you already have designed at the shop or in the comment box here. Designs must use our Woodland brass pieces prominently in either the silver or brass ox colors. (Chain and/or beads need not be from our shop but the stampings/charms need to be from us.) All entries will need to be in by July 15, 2009.

Designs will be chosen based on three factors:

1. Focal use of our products
2. Overal esthetics
3. Originality and Creativity

We may need the winner to send the product to us for a picture suitable for our ad. If you have any questions, just let me know and good luck to everyone - I can't wait to see all your designs.

SALE

Trying something new today - with every $10 order for the rest of the month, if you mention this blog you are going to get a kit to make these fabulous Midnight Blue Dangle earrings with silver plated hoops and antique silver plated bead caps - you can even cut and paste these pictures to sell them on your Etsy site. Easy and Fun.


1-2-3 instructions:

1. Push pin through bead and cap.
2. Trim pin and make a loop
3. String on ear wire

The beads are Czech 8mm - the caps are our Gothic Caps (S-167) - the ear wires are the nice long ones - nearly 2 inches for added drama.

Simple Summer

My sister requested a few very simple designs to wear this summer with sleeveless V-neck tops (apparently all the rage in the Midwest) so I thought I would post a few pictures here for everyone to get a bit of inspiration from - Simply Summer!

The supplies for these designs can be found at Winter Rose Designs


Clip a pre-made chain in half and insert a connector focal like these owls or the butterfly bellow.
Quick - Simple - Showstopper


This is a lariet style necklace with one of our silver washers and the Fleur de lis pendant - add a gem or pearl to add a bit of interest.

A charm, a wrapped pearl, a pre-made necklace and a jump ring - instant crowd pleasing necklace.

Twitter Update

Finally got the account set up for the supply shop - first post on that one this morning - if you would like to follow the name is WinterRoseShop - I'll be posting listing updates, new items, sales and anything else that pops into my head. I will return follows - so tag me if you want.

Have a great week!

To Twitter or not to Twitter

Getting the word out about your shop is hard on a budget - I advertise a bit in national mags. and I have done a few paid internet ads, but more of my sales come through direct communication like blogs and inserts. So when Twitter came along I was fascinated, but a little leery of this new phenomena - So I stayed away - till now.

In my new marketing plan 'check out Twitter' was in my research section - so I wandered over there last night and set up an account for one of my jewelry shops - It was easy to do and I was sending out tweets right away. I thought "OK, but now what - how is this going to translate into sales? Is it going to be more work with no real benefit?"

Well, here is how it translates into easy sales - you add the Twitter page to your toolbar so it is easy to log into in the morning - just like your Etsy, Email and Blog - get up there and make life easy - now click on it and send out a tiny message. Add a link to the newest piece of jewelry you listed and just watch how many hits it gets in the 2 hours after you post the Tweet!

Next, Twitter is a social networking site so you follow folks and folks follow you - within 12 hours we had a Teen Celebrity following us! You can also send out personal messages on Twitter to all your followers and invite them to look at your site - do the same for them.

And yes, Twitter did translate to sales for us last night! I was thrilled - 5 minutes was all it took!

Some Twitter tips -be spontanious and funny - it's not all about the product-it's about your personality getting some attention. Second, Twitter puts up a list of other Tweeters that you might want to add as friends based on the messages you send out - so use words that will garner you friends that are into what you do.

Be sure and post comments about your Tweeting here - I have to create another accout for each of my sites - this is far too much fun! Tweet you later - have a Fabulous weekend!

Victorian Elegance

It is getting time to start gearing up for holiday sales. That means getting lots of product made, photo'd and packed for all the orders that will start coming in around September.

While we all want to have OOAK items in our shop, for the holiday rush we need items that can relist quickly (with just a click) to stay on top of the search engines. I like to create a few easy to assemble designs with real wow factor to create in batches. These earrings are in my top five. Take an eye pin and string on a cap, a glass pearl and a crystal then loop a filigree bead in the end to finish. Slip this onto a pair of earwires and you are finished.

To create a matching necklace - make another dangle and instead of clipping it into hooks, attach it to a larger filigree and then attach that to a necklace chain.