Box Making - The Pillow Box

Something a little different today and throwback to my days on The Carol Duvall Show. If it's one thing Miss Carol loved, it was a good, handmade box! As someone who simply adores the fine art of paper engineering, I developed a deep appreciation for them too!

This past week I sold a bead pen on Karen Thomas' Beadable Products page (a lovely little Facebook group devoted to finished beadables that Karen sells and the beads that fit on them!) But it was not any ordinary bead pen! It featured an extra large, extraordinary plant bead from the oh-so-amazing Cynthia Tilker. The humble spacers from me... Meet Audrey:

Isn't she just fabulous??? Cynthia is a master sculptor!  And after it sold ...to someone in Hawaii... I was panic stricken when I realized I was out of long skinny bracelet boxes... then more panic set in as I went to order them and realized Audrey was a bit to plump to fit nicely in a bracelet box!

I searched and searched for the proper box. I quizzed other bead pen sellers and remained panicked!

I started puttering through my box stash and realized that the pocket boxes I ship "cheaper breakables" in would almost fit...but not quite.

We interrupt this post to discuss everyone's least favorite topic: PRICING:

Cheaper breakables??? Isn't all glass breakable?? Well, yes, but the likelihood of a round or donut bead breaking in transit is pretty nil. And... you have to analyze YOUR costs. For me, the jewelry boxes I use for shipping cost me between 30 and 50 cents each. After doing the math on my shipping charges, they are only cost effective for me on orders of $20 or more.

So, $20 or more goes in a cotton-filled jewelry box. Under $20 gets bubble wrap as long as they are simple, less likely to break beads.

But then there are those that don't fit nicely into to that rule structure. Such as the mini witch hat I made this year. It sells for $17.

But that brim is thin... In cases such as this, I use corrugated pillow boxes which are around 18 cents each... a pretty cheap insurance policy if you ask me. I've found these boxes helpful when shipping weight is on the verge of a price increase. The lighter box often makes it a few pennies cheaper to ship.

Back to the box:

You can find a million templates for pillow boxes out there  such as the one below...but it was hard for me to find a ready made one as long and as thick as I needed for Audrey.

The basic pillow box has three parts: 2 sides, a hidden tab, and four "eyes" that form the opening mechanism. For those of you who are new to paper engineering, solid lines are cut lines; dash lines are where you score.

Because of my sizing issue, my template only gave me a rough idea of where to go... so I got out some plain cardstock and my trusty bone folder and made myself a template. I knew it needed to be at least 7" long to accommodate for bubble wrap and just over 2" thick to allow for the big bead.  I used a CD to sketch big round ends... and it was a total failure! It would not close properly.

I pondered my failure for another 1/2 day. Then while getting a relaxing massage for my crappy shoulder, it hit me...the ends have to remain EYE shaped to work!  I knew that by making it a little bit wider, I would get the depth I need!  (See what happens when you relax and clear your mind!)

I made a 2nd template, this time using the full width of the 8.5 x 11 paper. I stuck it together with some temporary tack glue and voila! It held Audrey beautifully! Then I was ready for the final box.

For Audrey to travel overseas, I knew I wanted corrugated for the ultimate in protection. I had some green corrugated rolled card stock in my stash. I traced my template and cut it out. I had to use the round end of the bone folder on the score lines to not puncture the paper and I scored it twice for good measure as the paper was thick! I glued the flap to the inside so the outside remained smooth. Here's the finished open box:

I found the ends a bit hard to open so I used a paper punch to create notches. This took a bit of patience on the thick paper:

Here is Audrey, all bundled up: tissue paper, bubble wrap with an extra piece of bubble around the big bead, all taped up. She fit the box just fine!

Here she is tied up and waiting for ribbon trimming:

Have you ever had a boxing dilemma??? I would love to know how you solved it!

Tutorial: Keeping Track of Different Sales Venues

Today, I'm showing you how I keep track of what's selling and where. It can be so overwhelming! I stopped listing all together in early May when my dog died. As more and and more groups sprang to life, I became obsessed and confused! HOW does anyone keep track of this???

So I sat down and did what I always do when I'm confused. I write all out where I can see it!  Once I can look at the big picture, all the pieces parts start to make sense!

I realized there were four categories of information I was trying to track:

The tabs of my four page spreadsheet

• Tracking: Where a listing was (and where it had been...I don't want to relist an item in the same venue when I just listed it there yesterday!)
• Listing: What did I say about that bead and did I remember to say it's annealed?? I can't tell you how I hate having to rewite listings after hastily deleted before pasting! I also need to know where the photos are on my computer or what they are called. 
• Sales: Who bought what for how much? Did I ship it? Am I holding it?
• Groups: It's a PITA to look up the rules every time you list... So I made a list with links to the groups and basic rules I need to remember...like how many listings I can have in a specific group!

Here is the tracking page:

 The headers on this page are:

• Name: What I call the bead
• Page Listed: As you can see, I use abbreviations. LA = Lampwork Auctions. LBA = Lampwork Bead Auctions
• List Dates: Dates the listing was / is active
• Result: I track likability and comments by buyers to gauge whether I should relist or wait a bit. Notice none on this page are sold...more on that in a bit!
• Link: Hyperlink to the active listing. I delete when the listing is over as I don't want to accidentally paste the wrong hyperlink into a promotions photo on my fan page! Klutz prevention!

Using the Tracking Page:

• When I get a bid  or BIN, I write that in the results column and cut the name / Page listed / Dates / Results and transfer it to the SALES page. I then delete the enter line with the link to keep things tidy. 
• When it doesn't sell, it gets highlighted and moved.
• About the colors: White is an Active Listing, Green means Go Relist. Yellow is expired and something I'm pondering... Move it another sales page, Etsy or my website. 

The Listing Page could very well be incorporated into your Tracking Page. I chose not to for a few reasons. I didn't want to accidentally delete my lengthy listing info (and I don't trust myself!) and...it made the page too long!

This page only has two columns:

• Jpg names: the name of the photo on my computer. Alternately, I will list what file it's in. 
• Description: The actual listing copy pasted into my Facebook listing. Tip for EXCEL: if you click in a cell and paste a listing with spaces in it... it pastes them in multiple cells. If you double click...it pastes all the formatting in one cell!

If something sells but I'm holding the item (pre-negotiated payment delay / wire wrapping / customer still shopping), it gets highlighted and moved to the bottom. Once it's shipped, it's deleted.


The Sales Page:  Again, the first four columns are pasted from the tracking page. Then I add:

• Sold To: Buyer's name
• Contact: Have I found her Facebook contact info... did it go to the Other mailbox?
• Shipped: The date I mailed it. 
• Price: The price they paid.
• Ship: The shipping costs I need to add (I give discounts for multiple items.)
• Total Sales: I add a little math widget to total my sales for a given period. 

 I just add a line and keep it all organized by buyer but I can sort by date sold or date shipped.  It's pretty easy to see at a glance who I need to invoice or ship.

The Groups Page - Again, I use this to keep the hyperlinks to the groups home pages handy and to keep any rules I need to be aware of easy for me to find. That being said, some groups change their rules quite often. 

Columns here are:

• Main link - hyperlink to home pages
• Listing numbers - How many active listing are allowed.
• Nutshell - Any rules I need to watch out for or actions I need to take.

You will obviously want to check the groups you sell in and make tweaks accordingly.

This may be overkill but it's what I need to keep track of it all. I hope it helps you as well!

I have uploaded a blank version of my doc for your use ( I did keep the groups page intact... no need to put you through more research!). It will run on Excel.


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Tutorial: Promoting Your Facebook Sales

It's no great secret that ever since Etsy allowed "additional makers," sales for so many handmade bead artists have tanked over there. We simply cannot compete with "bead makers" importing their stuff from China and selling it as first quality goods!

Along comes Facebook and whatdayaknow??? Many of us who were ready to sell off our equipment have sales again! Turns out, customers like interacting with bead makers and jewelry designers in real time! Thank you Facebook!

But almost all the sales venues are private, making sharing difficult. Customers have to join to even see what is available. I've been told by several admins that the sites get spammed around 20 times a day! All admins are very quick to remove the spam and ban the user.  But that means we sellers have to work a little harder to promote our wares. 

And, as I shared before, each of the groups has their own rules... with active listings allowed ranging from a paltry one to a jumbo six! In order to make a living, you have to spread the listing love around. Plus, what doesn't sell in one place, very well may sell in another.

I try to list between six and eight items and generally sell about 1/2. That is including the oh-so-amazing five minute listing.... where someone calls BUY IT NOW while I'm still loading items!

Being that our stuff is spread between several sales venues, just HOW does one promote? Most Facebookers have learned to copy the link to their listing in the private group, upload a photo to their public page and paste the link. But if you have six or eight or more listings... How the heck do you promote that? You DO NOT want to do them one at a time. Seriously, not enough people will see it!

And that type of posting is problematic... Do you know what people see when they do not belong to the secret group??? This:

You would think the good folks at Facebook would make it say: "Content from XYZ Beads is not available because you are not a member. Click here to join!" But it does not! Our customers have no point of reference of where to go... We are confusing them!


Why Promotion Is Important:

Before you even ask... as I was prepping this tut last week, l@@k what popped up in one of the groups!!!

That last comment - about search being hit and miss - is from an ADMIN!

Customers WANT to find you... they just don't know HOW!

Create Your Listings:  As you go to the various pages, uploading your listings, you will want to open a sticky note or notepad to keep track of your links with a few word description for each. It may be helpful to you to keep your photos for each day's listings in one folder.  I will be sharing my tracking docs with you all later in the week!

The Art of Collage: 

After struggling and failing with this...showing single beads, reminding people to join, not getting views, I stumbled upon this technique. Make a collage... ONE photo of ALL your listings for any given day.

At first the idea overwhelmed me... but as I was researching hits for my glass bead promotions blog, I had a stunning realization hit me upside the head! I started to notice that certain posts got way more hits and clicks than others. When I started comparing to answer the why question... all those posts had one thing in common: a collage!  On the days we show off a collage of beads, our hits nearly triple!

That was all it took to sell me!

Prep Your Pics: 

Now I understand not all of you are Photoshop freaks. That's OK. But you should know how to size your photos for web viewing. The number one reason being, it makes your images that much harder to put into a catalog for someone else to try and sell your designs as their own. Plus your photos will load faster.

If you need help sizing your photos, I cannot recommend Online Image Editor highly enough! Aside from the kid friendly interface, they do not logo your photos!! (Many edit sites add their logo to your pic! Ewww!)

For Facebook, I make the longest edge of my photos 500 pixels. And the resolution for online viewing is 72 dpi. That gives me nice sized photo of my listings and a more than big enough image to make a collage.

Be Funky:

BeFunky is an app and online site that allows you to create a collage. They have a paid service with more options, but their free service is very generous. You can create a nice collage of your listings in minutes! This tut will walk you through their interface. By all means, if you have the skills to do this on another site or Photoshop... keep using it!

•  On the collage page, the first tool on the left is photos. You are going to upload your pics of all your listings for the day. You will click on the little picture graphic next to the red 1. Use the pull down menu to tell Be Funky to search your computer and click the green Add Photos button.  Upload each pic and they appear on the left side of the screen.

 The additional tools on the left are:

• 2 Templates - These are the collage templates
• 3 Backgrounds - This allows you to change the space between pics, round corners and add a background color.
• 4 Patterns - Prints to place behind pics.
• 5 Text - Add text in a variety of fonts. You can logo your pics with your name.
• 6 Goodies - stickers and such. 

Truth be told... that's a lot of work... I only use photos and templates.

• Choose a template.  The photo below shows all the free templates. Once you click Get More Templates, you are entering the paid area.

• I've selected a template. The site highlights it in red. (Note: for the example, I changed my mind after this pic was taken!)

• Start dragging pics over to the collage. Just drag and drop. If you mess up, hit the trash can in the upper corner to delete or drag to a different pane to make the photos swap places.

• Here, the red arrows show the drag tool engaged on the key heart bead photo.

• Save your image: Presuming you don't need any of the fancy stuff, you are ready to save!  There is a menu bar along the top of the page (go back two pics to see it!). Save is the second button from left. When you hit it, this box pops up:

You can save directly to your personal Facebook page but not your fan page - so I don't bother. I always just save to my desktop. You can see the green yes next to desktop above. *More on collage ideas at the bottom!

• Name your file: I usually name mine by date... so I have a visual record of sales. And here's one quirk of BeFunky... it always takes the name and adds .jpg twice! In the example here July10.jpg.jpg   I urge (BEG??) you to delete one of those! It can be confusing to some websites!

• Share to your FAN PAGE!  Your fan page is your business portal to Facebook and ...you can't really share from your personal page to your fan page. In theory, that's where you customer's are looking for you. 

This part is a bit of work and can be the most confusing. Create a post, and describe each listing in a few words. Try to do this in some logical order that follows your photo. For the collage at the top, mine would go like this: 

Pink Coral Disks in Lampwork Bead Market {hyperlink};  Sasha pink and coral focal in Lampwork Auctions {hyperlink}; Clio orphan in Gone to Pieces {Hyperlink}

I would keep adding picture names / sales venue and links for each photo in the collage. Sometimes, I have to save, double check a link and go back in and edit. But you can edit!!

Here's a screen shot of that listing:

Note: You should update this... If something sells, you don't want customers getting that 'Content Unavailable' Screen.  And... I personally think when people see your work selling, it places a higher value on that work! It makes people want to "jump on the bandwagon!" See my Tiny Heart listing in the middle of the page: SOLD!

Finally, I will add a comment reminding people they need to join. Sometimes I will post links to all the groups and above all, remind them I'm there to help...just ask! 

• Share Everywhere!  This is the most important step! Log out of your fan page and return as yourself. Share to your personal wall. Your friends and colleagues want to support you! 

 But that's not enough! Presumably, if you are selling on Facebook, you've already done some marketing there! I belong to several...many bead groups! This is where your networking really pays off.

Most of these pages allow you to share at least one item a day... well why not ONE photo with 8 beads on it! If you are sharing from your fan page, the link goes right back to your fan page. Where they can LIKE you! And if you are keeping up with your sales, they can see if something is sold or available! 

If they comment or like or share... you are on your way to a viral listing! 

Here is the perfect example... One set and I didn't share it. A whopping whole 63 people reached (which is decent for FB these days! On average, a listing like this may only get 25 views!): 

 

And one I shared everywhere. 256 people reached!

Additional Promo Ideas: You want this to get out there. You want people to get the idea to go to your fan page to see what you have. Here's some other promotions... I do some most every day depending on my time frame.

• Link your fan page to twitter so all your posts go there and link back to your page! 
• Have a prize drawing for your fans who like and comment on your listing posts! Even a modest giveaway will get you a few likes or comments! (NOTE: Asking for shares is against Facebook's Terms of Service and you do need to run disclaimers!)
• When you have a sale, update that post on your fan page and while you're emailing your customer about the sale, share the link with her! People will often buy something else to save on shipping! 
• Blog your daily listings! How hard is it to upload a photo and paste in the links?? Mention your end times... build that sense of urgency!
• Share on any Jewelry boards or Lampwork Etc. A lovely pic gets attention!
• Share on Glass Beads Daily. The hyperlink (right click on the time of the listing / copy link location)  of your listing on your fan page uploads with the photo! No manual upload. I just tweak the Link Title to read Daily Facebook Listings ends at 4pm Hollys Folly Glass Beads & Jewelry. You have 75 characters... say as much as you can!

*MORE Collage Ideas: As I've gotten better at understanding the power of the collage style promotion, I've been trying new ideas with great success!

• Plan your listings by color! If you don't have enough, choose the complimentary color or work in color triangles. Color grabs attention! 
• List only focals of a certain style one day... or sets... or ribbed beads or angels... whatever you specialize in.  Make the collage as cohesive as possible. Use the collages to let customers know what to expect from you.
• Develop a sales plan: Pages A & B on MWF / Pages X, Y, and Z on TTS. OR a color plan: Red beads on Monday, seasonal beads on Tuesday, Spacers on Wednesday... Try to develop a pattern! 

I hope you've found these ideas helpful in promoting your Facebook sales! 

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If you enjoyed this tut and found it useful, please consider supporting the starving artist that wrote it.
My glass beads and tools are here.

My Starbucks account. Click the link and enter my card # 6044305060554270

My Paypal:

Thank you!!!

Bracelet Fix

I've been busy with taxes, custom orders, a new job and my mother coming to visit and all the cleaning that entails! But I thought I would share a quick post on a not-so recent order. I sold this bracelet to a blogger buddy at my August trunk show.

 

I always list the sizes of my bracelets and my friend liked a looser fit than this one had. She asked me to resize it. Here are the measurements before on a bracelet sizing cone... this is one handy apparatus if you make bracelets!

 The original was just shy of 7" and my friend needed 7 1/4". When designing a bracelet, I never like to put really bulky beads at the back of the design. I find I have a hard time taking notes or writing or typing, so I added some 6mm crystals to the back of the piece. Of course the whole thing had to be re-strung to make it even.

This bracelet has a sturdy magnetic clasp. I live alone and just love  a clasp that I can close by myself! Here it is after the addition:

For my last trunk show, I left a few bracelets with one end un-crimped so it would be easier and less wasteful to adjust.

Resizing is a PITA but...it's also great customer service.

Cross Pollination of Skills: Cake and Beads

As a life long crafter and even a producer of craft television shows, I've tried almost every craft on the planet. Even entertained several quite seriously. One of those was cake decorating. Another was rubber stamping. It seemed like kismet that I would end up working for, then owning the only food safe rubber stamp company!

But more interesting to me is how the skills I pick up in one area...seem to migrate into another. Silk screening and printing skills helped me easily grasp the manufacturing of wood mounted rubber stamps. Crochet lead me to bead crochet which lead to kumihimo. Rubber stamping lead to carving my own images which developed an interest in wood turning and now, laser carving...on glass! See??? One thing leads to another.

Red Velvet XL Cupcake Glass Bead

But one of my best tricks as a bead maker is... cake decorating!  It's no secret that I love making pastries in glass. But I'm talking about decorating a basic bead... you can get some FABULOUS pointers from cake decorators that can easily be adapted in glass.

For instance: This spider web video. When she's dragging the icing, you realize that you would do the dragging as you lay the line down in glass.


Here's another web where she makes the spider... except for saving the legs for last - in glass they go on first - there are some great shaping techniques!



Here's another fun one on leopard prints...which is an ever-popular bead design!




Because both mediums are two dimensional, the shape work and layering is basically the same! Find a few cake decorators you like on YouTube and follow them! Their work is often season, like ours and you will certainly pick up some great ideas that translate to glass!

The Elusive Striped Bead

Ah... the striped bead. It has been my Holy Grail of lampworking. All these years in and I still suck! I still read tutorials and try one from time to time. But last week, it was just driving me nuts. I'm really good at some things... WHY can't I get THIS??? Grrrrrrr!

These are the ones I've deemed O.K. to show you: 

I always seem to have some color gap or a twist going on. I know the twist is heat control and the color gap must be volume control but when I've added the right size / equal amounts of glass, WHY do I still have this issue???

Well, the heat control turned out to be a bigger factor than I thought. I make big beads and... I LOVE to work hot and fast! Most of my big beads take me an hour or more to make! It seems really hard to justify "wasting" 5 - 10 minutes on ONE LITTLE bead!

So I sat down and read every tutorial I could find, one MORE time! And I finally made some decent stripes! See that pink and brown donut on the left... That bead has been in my head for a decade! 

Heat control is HUGE. I remember Kimberly Affleck demoing that she could tap her bead on her marver without smushing it before encasing! You can't case a soft bead and not have it distort. Working UNDER the flame is key!

And volume control... having equal size dots is imperative and still an issue!

But lastly...it's patience. After making these for an hour and a half, my old tricks started coming back. I was losing patience waiting for glass to melt and they started to distort again. The pink twisted one is the last one I made.... SIGH.

But it is FINALLY starting - just beginning- to click! OY!

These are links to the tuts that helped me:

Corina's Subtle Stripes
Basic Stripes by Melinda Melanson

Candice Mathewson's Cased Layered Triangle Bead
Karen Mitchell's Advice (Post #8)
Kandice Seeber's Striped Tutorial (for sale) 

Tutorial: Creating Watermarks

Someone pointed out that my other tuts for marking your photos are really signatures, not a true watermark. So I thought I would write another tut!

This is the photo we're going to be watermarking. It already has a signature. 

Tools Palette: The tools we'll be using are: (not in order)Move Tool,  Eraser, the Type Tool, Colors Palette.  The tools palette appears along the left edge of your screen.

Type your text: Chose the capital T on the tools palette (left side of screen) and click onto your photo. Type your text.If you want a color, highlight and click on the colors palette... the box on top. This allows you to choose from a palette.

Move the Text: Click the Move Tool (upper left of Tools palette). Make sure your text layer is active in your layers palette (lower right), click over the text on your photo and drag it where you want it to appear.

NOW, here's where you have to make some choices!

• What size should it be?  
• Do you want your watermark to be solid or transparent, so your item shows through? If you sell on eBay, your listings can get pulled for doing this... BE AWARE! 
• What direction do you want / need your text to appear?
• Do you want it on top or behind your item? 

Size: Size should be proportional with your image. That being said, there are several ways to change it.

• Select a clean large font and font size before you type OR
• After you type, make sure your text layer is active in your layers palette and click CTRL and the letter T  (Edit Menu / Free Transform).  Click and drag. Drag top / bottom to make it taller. Drag either side for wider. Drag corners both! TIP: Hold your shift key while dragging on the corner to keep it proportional!

Solid vs. Transparent: Solid makes a statement but again some selling venues are disallowing this... the thought being that the buyer could say they didn't see the WHOLE item because it was covered.  But if you want solid, you are done!

For Transparent Watermarks: Make sure you have your type selected in your layers palette (horizontal arrow). Just above your layers, you should see the word "opacity" and  "100%"  further to the right (DOWN arrow below). Click the arrow by the 100% and slide it back to a lower number... Here, mine is on 25%... See how the type is allowing the background of the bead to show?

Text Direction: Let's say you need your text to be vertical. You can make text appear many ways in Photoshop bu let's not get too complicated here.  For vertical, again, make sure your text layer is active in your layers palette and click CTRL and the letter T  (Edit Menu / Free Transform).

A box appears around your text and you can turn it, using your move tool, to face another direction. You can invert it by dragging one end across the other! Once you are happy, hit enter. Use that move to to place it exactly where you want it.

Vertical Text: If you prefer actual vertical text, make sure your text layer is active in the layers palette, and from the menus choose Layers / Type / Vertical:

 And this is what you get:

In Front / Behind: All examples above place the watermark in front of the image.

Open the photo you want to watermark. In the layers palette (lower right), drag the layer over the new layer (paper) symbol to create a new background.

Alternate method: Layer Menu / New / New layer from Background.

Hide the top layer. Back to the layers palette / lower right.  Just turn OFF the eye ball next to the top layer by clicking on it.

Type your text and use the Layers palette to drag the text between the two photos:

 Take the eraser from the tools palette and erase the edges to reveal part of your logo:

 The downside is... the whole logo doesn't show... but this is one way to make photo thieves lives REALLY difficult... Spread your logo around! Simply drag the text layer to the duplicate layer icon (paper) and make a bunch of copies! Use your move to tool to line them up:

Now, that will take a bit of time to remove! You can even take the transform tool we used and make some of the layers smaller...see the tiny one on the lower right above???

This is a pain to do every time but... you can SAVE YOUR TEXT LAYERS! Just delete the image layers and keep all the text.  Create a group for all the layers by clicking on the file folder at the bottom of the layers palette. Drag every text layer into that group.

From the photoshop file with the saved text. Make sure the group layer is selected in the layers palette. From the top menus, select Edit / Copy Merged.

Now, open another image you want to watermark. Paste the text. Mine is a bit big and messy:

But I hit CTRL  and the letter T for the transform box and size it down and hit enter:

Now, it's still too opaque and on top of my bead.

I hit the opacity slider in the layers palette. This one is 21%. And I make a copy of the background layer and put this new layer on top. Use the eraser to erase the edges of the top layer. (TIP: You can also use the Magic Wand Tool to select and remove the background.)

By saving your test file as a PSD (not as a jpeg...this flattens and creates a background, making your text invisible!) you can save yourself lots of time. If your products have several different shapes as mine do, you may need to create 3 or 4 of these in the beginning but a little set up can save loads of time later!

Final image:

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I write tutorials on a variety of subjects from beading to web marketing. As a struggling artist, I appreciate your support to keep these tutorials going!

My glass beads and tools

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