Attention Crafters: Would you like your stuff promoted for free?

Alamo City Handmade wants your stuff! If you would like your handmade goodies to be featured any of the next batches of Alamo City Handmade Loot Bags please let us know! We need sample sized goodies to be distributed at upcoming events this spring!

We have a few events coming up to cover:

Backbeat Magazine Release Party/40 Bags - March 6
Lunafest/40 Bags - March 12

Backbeat Magazine Release Party/40 Bags - April 6
Alamo City Handmade's 1st Birthday Bash/50 Bags - April 16
ArtSlam/50 Bags - April 24


You can choose one or more to send goodies for. We just ask that items are attached to your shop information so that the folks who win your goodies can find where they came from. People will either win them in a raffle or they will go to the first to arrive at each event, they are never sold! We encourage crafters to send items on theme, so if you have questions or need more information or some inspiration please ask! We'll be happy to help you however we can.

Contact GeminitaArt@gmail.com to be included in any of our upcoming promotions!

First Alamo City Handmade meeting of the Year

Have a delicious lunch at Casbeers at the Church and meet with Alamo City Handmade members! We'll talk about the ins and the outs of the crafting business while offering support and gathering ideas for upcoming events and promotions.

Bring business cards for networking and any supplies that you would like to swap and any promotional items that you would like to hand out or pass along to Alamo City Handmade to disperse.

We hope to see you there! Click here to RSVP on Facebook.

Handmade Market – New Site for Sellers

Damien, from Yaami and HandmadeMarket, recently shared information about his team’s new site, tips for handmade sellers, and what he thinks buyers look for online.

Why did you start HandmadeMarket.com? Who is your target audience for the site?

“We wanted to take the traditional way of browsing craft items (the local craft market) and today’s way of browsing craft items (online marketplaces such as Etsy and ArtFire) and mix the two together to create a more ‘real-life’ experience to browsing craft items online,” he said.

“Our target audience are buyers and sellers of handmade, art and craft items who want to buy or sell online while also experiencing the traditional craft market experience.”

What makes you different from other selling platforms for crafters (i.e. ArtFire, 1000 Markets, Etsy)? What does the site offer sellers?

“The market is unique in that it creates a more ‘real-life’ experience for the shopper,” Damien told HandmadeMarketing.org. “HandmadeMarket’s role isn’t to provide a selling platform, as we think there are many great platforms out there already, but to provide a new and unique way for sellers to showcase their items – a shopper can then purchase via the sellers’ site of choice (such as Etsy, ArtFire or their own website).“

What does the site offer buyers? Why should those who love handmade buy from HandmadeMarket.com?

“The online handmade world brings many benefits to those who love handmade – browsing items from all over the world from the comfort of your home is one of the benefits – but in doing so you lose the experience you get from your local craft market. HandmadeMarket allows shoppers to browse from home, while still experiencing the craft market experience,” he said.

Tell us a bit about the team behind HandmadeMarket.com. Who is involved in managing the site? Why did they choose to work on this project?

“The market is managed by the small team at Yaami Handmade,” he said. “Originally planned to be a feature of Yaami.com, we decided the idea deserved its own website. We’re hoping other sites in the online handmade world will become involved in the project to make the market even bigger and better.”

Where do you see the site going in the future – 6 months? 1 year? 5 years?

“In the future we want to continue to add features and implement improvements to make the market even better,” Damien told us. “A chat feature is one of the features we plan to implement, allowing shoppers to talk with other shoppers and sellers, just like you would at a ‘real-life’ craft market.”

“We’re planning a themed market for the Christmas holiday season and more themed markets throughout the year,” he added.

What are some tips you would give crafters looking to break into selling online for the first time? What are your top three “musts” for all online craft sellers?

Damien told us the following three tips for sellers:

1. Create a brand for your shop and be consistent with the use of your brand image.
2. Market your shop and items – let your shop be known to shoppers.
3. Present your shop in a professional yet friendly manner, especially in communication – you want your customers to be return-customers.

Have you visited HandmadeMarket.com? What do you think of the site? What types of features would help you sell more handmade online?

Alamo City Etsy is switching nams!

Alamo City Etsy will now be known as Alamo City Handmade. We're opening our membership to non-Etsy sellers, as the need has shown itself to be quite large in San Antonio. Be expecting wonderful things to come as we roll out the changes!

5 Tips for Item Descriptions

Do you have writer's block when it comes to crafting your Etsy item listings? You're in luck! Optimize your shop with the following five tips for effective and descriptive prose in your product listings. You'll have a way with words in no time!

1. Create an inverted pyramid. The most important information about your item should be first in your description — not only because shoppers want the details on your items as soon as possible, but also because it's a smart way to optimize the way your description displays in Google search results.

2. Short paragraphs and bullet points are your friends. Visitors to your shop might be looking for a specific size or material, so make it easy for them to glean that info from your descriptions by cutting out superfluous language and making good use of bullet points. Think about your descriptions as a way to answer your buyer's questions (within reason, of course). Here's a forum thread, 20 Questions Your Buyers are Asking, to help you get an idea of what those questions could be.

3. Keep an eye on your web analytics results. (Find out how to set that up in the Seller FAQ.) Keep a list of the keywords visitors searched for when they found your shop and write with these keywords in mind. Remember that your tags are keywords used by Etsy Search, but your most important tags and materials should also be scattered throughout your descriptions so that internet searches (through Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc) can find you too! These sites are more likely to pick up keywords from your descriptions rather than your list of tags.

4. Just like a good therapist suggests, use "I" statements. Speaking in the first person will help you connect with your visitor on a personal level — and isn't that what they are looking for when they come to shop on Etsy? Show a bit of your personality! Think of your item descriptions as you would when meeting a new friend: you want to be polite, but you also want to be your natural self.

5. End with a link. Did you know you can copy and paste Etsy URLs in your descriptions and they will function as a hyperlink? Use this to your advantage. If your visitor has read your item description and is not biting, don't let them float away off the computer, to another website, Etsy shop or back to their search results. Instead, give them a link to learn more about you, see your entire shop, check out your policies or even a link to send you a conversation.

Weekend Update

Don't miss this amazing stop on the East Austin Studio Tour. In addition to Flatfork Studios and the other permanent art galleries and studios which make up this locale, over 40 Etsy Austinites will be rotating over the two weekends selling their art and handmade wares. Sip on Tito’s, nibble on food, shop, and of course, fill your heart with art. Live demonstrations will be held each day. Mark your tour map and we will see you there!

Etsy Austin @ E.A.S.T
Saturday & Sunday Nov 14th & 15th
Saturday & Sunday Nov 21th & 22th
10 am to 5 pm

Smith Road Studios
1406 Smith Road
Austin, TX

Holiday Handmade Market on Saturday!

Come out on Saturday to the Holiday Handmade Market at Bubblehead Tea located at 1035 S Presa for early holiday shopping! Come by to support the Alamo City Etsy team by purchasing buttons, lip balms and loot bags. Look out for our ad in Backbeat Magazine this month.


We'll be having a 2nd Holiday Market on December 12th with even more vendors! Come by and see us!

Farmer John's Favorite Pumpkin Bread

Rich spice flavors shine in this tender, cake-like bread.

Prep and Cook Time: about 1 1/4 hours.

Yield: Makes 2 loaves, about 10 servings each

Notes: You can store this bread airtight at room temperature up to 3 days or freeze up to 3 months.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/4 teaspoons ground nutmeg
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 3 large eggs
• 1 3/4 cups Mashed Pumpkin
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350° (325° convection).

2. In a large bowl, mix flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, nuts, raisins, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, cloves, allspice, and ginger until well blended.

3. In another bowl, whisk together eggs, Mashed Pumpkin, and oil until well blended.

4. Add wet ingredients to flour mixture and stir just until well blended. Pour equally into two oiled 8 1/2- by 4 1/2-inch loaf pans (with 2 2/3-cup capacity each).

5. Bake until bread pulls from pan sides and a wooden skewer inserted in center of thickest part comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes. Let bread cool in pans on a rack for about 15 minutes. Cut around outside edges of bread and invert onto racks. Cool thoroughly.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 279 (42% from fat)

Protein: 3.3g

Fat: 13g (sat 1.7)

Carbohydrate: 38g

Fiber: 0.8g

Sodium: 198mg

Cholesterol: 32mg

Sunset, OCTOBER 2005

Stories and Quality - Details Sell Handmade Online

Janet Bocciardi, crafter from the website Honey from the Bee, shared her thoughts on why she thinks a good story and attention to quality help potential buyers have a memorable experience.

“What makes your pair of chalcedony earrings different than the ones in a department store? Why do customers want to buy jewelry from an independent artist vs. a large chain store? There are probably quite a few different responses to those questions, but I think figuring this out is paramount in helping one sell their artisan jewelry or other items,” Janet said.

“I think we all know we’d rather put on a pair of earrings where we knew who made them than perhaps a factory or worse child labor in a third world country,” Janet explains. “However, sometimes the price just seems easier to focus on.”

Janet suggests handmade sellers draw potential buyers in with their personal story. “If at an art fair, buyers may get hooked on your personality or image, but online one has to focus on the story,” she said.

Can’t think of a good story to share with potential buyers? Janet suggests writing about why you are an artist. “Or more focused to what inspired the piece you are selling,” she continues. “It may be the additional colors you chose to highlight the stone remind you of that Caribbean trip you took last winter. Whatever it is – write about it.”

Janet provides a great example for sellers: “Your chalcedony earrings are drops from the sea, dripping from a mermaid’s ears as she peeks out of the water and looks longingly to shore,” she writes.

In addition to sharing a personal story with potential buyers, Janet says quality work is a key to selling more handmade crafts. “Make sure your work is of high quality,” she tells HandmadeMarketing.org. “One of the things that’s finally hitting many retail shops is folks are just tired of buying stuff that breaks before a reasonable amount of use. In this day and age of making your money count, and wanting to use our resources wisely, who wants to keep replacing?“

To accomplish this, Janet things taking good and bright photographs of items is a great first steps to ensure buyers can really see what they are buying. “Value your work. Items perceived to be priced too low are also seen as ones of questionable quality,” she says.

Have you tried something new to market your handmade items? How did it work for your shop? Do you have any advice for a new seller? Leave your wisdom in the comments!

How to Make Recycled Envelope Gift Bags

By Jessica Jones, How About Orange

Find an envelope of any size. (I embellished these by printing a label on the front of them first. You can use my design if you want; these PDFs are set up according to how my printer feeds envelopes through. If yours is different, you might need to experiment. Download the label for a small A2 envelope or a larger 6×9 envelope.)

1. After you’ve finished printing a design on your envelope (optional), seal it shut.

2. Cut off one end of the envelope.

3. Fold one side in toward the center (maybe about an inch or slightly less). Do the same with the other side, then fold the bottom up by the same amount, making creases in the paper.

4. Put the bag over one hand. Use your other hand to shape a flat bottom for your bag, pushing the bottom center crease downward, causing the side folds to buckle out. Crease the corners of the bottom into triangles.

5. Use a bit of double-sided tape to stick the corner triangle flaps to the bottom of the bag.

6. Reverse the folds along the sides of the bag to give it shape.

7. If you like, punch holes and thread ribbon through for a handle.

All done. You can fill your Baglets with candy for party favors or put little gifts in them.

Cream Cheese Brownies for Temptation Tuesday

Brownies

• 1 pkg Duncan Hines® Chocolate Lovers’ Double Fudge Brownie Mix
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  

Topping

• 1 8 oz. pkg cream cheese (softened)
• 2 eggs
• 1 lb confectioner’s sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease bottom of 13 X 9 pan.
2. Combine all of the brownie ingredients including fudge packet from mix and stir with spoon until well blended. Spread into pan.
3. Beat cream cheese in large bowl at medium with an electric mixer. Beat in eggs, sugar, vanilla until smooth. Spread over brownie mixture.
4. Bake at 350 for 45-50 miniutes or until edges and top are golden brown.
5. Cool completely and the refrigerate until well chilled.

Recipe amended from Great American Favorite Brand Name Cookbook, 1993

More Dia de los Craftos pictures!