Wednesday, December 1, 2010

EGL Giveaway Winner

Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Hi folks! I had a friend help me organize a giveaway on the Livejournal community, Elegant and Gothic Lolitas and it was a fun time to read people's comments. I used a random number generator to figure out the winner. Although there were 67 comments in the post here, I only counted comments that were true entries so I excluded replies to comments. 

So the winner is...

Laiferr!! She liked the scented cherry-filled chocolate truffle charm and I am so excited to send that over to her because it looks so good and smells amazing!

http://tinyhandsonline.com/charms/scented-cherry-filled-chocolate-truffle-charm
Anyway, thank you so much to everyone who participated, it was great to have you guys on board!

P/S: Have you done your Christmas shopping yet? If you're in the USA, it's still not too late to place your order!

Love,
Mei
http://tinyhandsonline.com

1 comments

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Preparing for the Holidays

Tuesday, November 9, 2010
I just posted a couple of new scented jewelry at my website: Tiny Hands!

I especially love this pumpkin pie necklace, it's probably my newest favorite! The scent is so delicious and sweet smelling. I wear my own scented pumpkin pie necklace all day and it's all I can smell and think of, haha! I will also be releasing a ring in the same design soon.

Of course I also have some Christmas jewelry coming out! I just posted this Scented Christmas Tree Necklace/Choker. I think it's beautiful as a choker, but there are some people who aren't comfortable wearing chokers so you can also get this design as a necklace. And it smells so sweet and sugary too! 

Some new Christmas goods I'll be posting in the next couple of days are holly berry earstuds, christmas tree cookie eartuds and rings! 

By the way, thank you all for voting on m giftbox colors previously. I've archived the poll to close all voting. At 12am, Wednesday November 10, there was a tie between the pink top with the light bottom and the dark bottom. Most people preferred the pink top over then orange one! 

Hugs and kisses,
Expertly Crafted and Customizable Scented Jewelry

4 comments

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Vote On Your Favorite Tiny Hands Giftbox!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Hi everyone! I've got some neat things coming up for you! First, I'm going to be putting up some cool Fall and Christmas jewelry at Tiny Hands - of course, they will be scented goods that smell like you can eat them! I'm working on photos to be put up at my website.

Next, I'm working on new giftboxes for all Tiny Hands customers! It's my policy to ship every order in these pretty little things (tied with satin ribbon too, it's a treat to anyone's eyes) so I want to know what your favorite giftbox colors are. There's a poll below where you can vote on your most liked color combination, the pink top with light brown bottom or with the dark brown bottom; or the orange top with the light or dark brown bottom. Honestly I can't decide, but if I absolutely had to based on personal preference, I love the pink top and dark bottom one! 

Click on the image above to get a larger view!




Thanks, and don't forget your daily dose of Tiny Hands Online!

2 comments

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Salmon Sushi Charms

Sunday, September 5, 2010
I had an order for salmon sushi charms and to my despair, I didn't have the color chart for the salmon-colored mix! I worked for a solid two days just working through trial and error to figure out the right color measurements, size and shapes. The rice bits took a long time too! Sometimes rolling teeny tiny clay pieces can be therapeutic but if you've just moved houses and it's 2 o'clock in the morning, it's not very fun. 




Anyway, I absolutely love how the color turned out. It's way more realistic and salmon-y than my previous attempt. They did come out a little larger than my usual jewelry pieces, so I plan to make smaller versions to sell permanently at Tiny Hands. 
What is your favorite sushi? I love salmon and tuna sushi, mm! If there is one thing I had to live on for the rest of my life, it would have to be sushi. Hands down! What other kinds of sushi designs would you like to see me make?


6 comments

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Polymer Clay Tip: How to keep your clay clean

Tuesday, August 31, 2010
It can really be a pain when you're working with your polymer clay and all this dirt gets into your wonderful work. There are several things you can do to keep things clean:
  1. Keep some scrap clay on hand. Every time you feel you need to, roll the scrap piece in your hands and try to cover as much ground as you can. Roll the clay on your fingers, between your fingers and all around in your palms. I like using a white piece of clay so I can see just how dirty my hands are, even after I've washed them!
  2. I love baby wipes. They help clean everything up (like Liquid Sculpey, which can be really awful and sticky). I usually wipe my hands with baby wipes but sometimes this leaves white micro threads on my hands that get worked into the clay. 
  3. With baby wipes you can also lightly brush away dirt that sticks on the surface of your clay.
  4. You could also wear gloves, except I personally prefer not to. I like feeling the clay as much as I can, I feel like it gives me more direct control over it. 
Scented Strawberry Sprinkles Donut Earstuds
My scented polymer clay donuts are made with a special color mix that I make and for some reason it gets dirty really quickly! White polymer clay is also an offender. It can be awful to work with certain colors and clays that pick icky stuff lying around your work station. So I hope that some of these tips will help you because they certainly work well for me! 

Got a personal way you keep your stuff clean? You can share some of your tips with us too!

1 comments

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Craft Fair Tidbits

Tuesday, August 24, 2010
For the most part of the summer of 2010 I spent my time preparing for the Red Hot Art festival in Minneapolis. The event was a successful one for me. For the first craft fair that I've attended in a metropolis, I experienced a good deal in the two days and I want to share it with anyone who would be doing their first (or second, or third...) show. It's always great to learn some new things from other people.  Well, here goes!

Presentation
Without a doubt, most of us can agree that your presentation of your booth and yourself is a very essential part of making your show a successful one. With all the other 50 or so vendors around you, you need to give your potential customers something attractive to come to and you'll need to stand out from your competitors. If you have access to a list of participating sellers, you can do your research beforehand. If you already know you will stand apart from the crowd, then you're good to go! If not, look for something that you can change around so you're not another cookie from the cookie cutter. Changing the colors for your booth is a great start. Many vendors I noticed opted for darker, muted colors. I personally went for a shimmery golden-beige fabric that I bought at Joann's Fabrics. It matches the light yellow in my logo, complements my jewelry and is a different color than many vendors.

My Tiny Hands booth. 
The way you present yourself is also very, very important. As they say, you are your brand and the only representation that people have of your product. Try to stay consistent! My jewelry aesthetic is feminine with a dash of cute. I went to the fair in a white dress that wasn't too over the top, looked "serious", was comfortable and tied in well with what I want to portray for my brand. The way you dress and look is important, even if you don't believe so, there are many other people who do.


Another thing worth mentioning is that you have to be very prepared for worst case scenarios in regards to your booth presentation. If you're based outdoors (which I was), you need to be a little more careful. It was a really windy day on the second day and my jewelry frames (old photo frames on plastic Michael's frame stands) were being blown away, it was quite the crisis for a while. Thankfully, we had brought a glue gun and had asked for access to electricity prior to the event. We glued down the plastic frames and that fixed our problem!
Bring as many things as you can. Helpful tools to keep on hand are like a staple gun, cardboard, sticky tape, a glue gun, measuring tape, baby wipes (my absolute favorite!) and paper towels.


Customer Service, How to Sell and Create Buzz
It might seem like an obvious one, but customer service is also the key in having yourself a great show. We all know we wouldn't be happy when you talk to a grumpy salesperson at the mall, so try your best not to be that Ms. Grumpers. Even if you've had a bad week, it's important to know that your mood and lack of enthusiasm will influence people that walk past your booth AND the people around you.

Don't be afraid to speak up to your customers. I had many people walk past my booth, glance at my sign and look like they're interested but they keep walking. I know that these people are curious but hesitant, so I call out to them to come have a sniff at my jewelry. 95% of the time this worked, and they came over! A note to make though, is that telling people to do something, opposed to asking, can make this work so much better. The second day of the event I started out by asking people, "would you like to smell my jewelry?" Strange question, I know, but it being a question gave people a chance to answer "no, thanks". Instead, if you suggest to them to take a sniff at the jewelry, they are more likely to come over. I said, "Feel free to pick something up and smell it!"

It may seem like a more aggressive approach, but if you don't step up and make an attempt to sell your product, you won't sell anything (unless you have a well-known product that people already know about). And once you have a few people at your booth, more will come based on the herd instinct. This can really create a fantastic buzz for your booth, especially if you have a unique story to tell about your product! So don't hold yourself back.

I don't have a story to tell, per se, but my scented jewelry can be a new idea to many people. I used this as a tool to draw people in to my booth. If you effectively sell your idea to them, even if they don't buy from you on the spot, they will definitely tell their friends and family about it, since most of the time craft fairs are a social event for people.

Before the event, I took some time out to study on craft fairs. One tip that many writers and sellers give is to always stand while you're manning your booth. For a long time I never understood how this would be so critical. But after I tested it out, it was like I found some great treasure! When you choose to sit down, you get less face to face attention with the people that walk by. Especially since pretty much everyone recommends that you create differing levels for your booth, you can easily become hidden behind your booth. You can give people a smile and try to say something, but most of the effect is lost through the mess of your booth displays. When you stand up however, you eliminate this barrier and you also gain more control of the traffic on your booth. You can point at things to your customers while you make suggestions for them to try it on, for example.

Another trick I soon learnt I had up my sleeve, was making the experience for the shoppers more exciting, by getting them to participate. Scented jewelry's not scented jewelry if you don't smell it, right? A lot of the time, people are afraid to touch your wares because they are worried that they might ruin something (and anyway it's supposed to be more polite... ?). When I notice this from a potential customer, I immediately jump in and ask them if they like chocolates. Most say yes. So I proceed to tell them that my personal favorite piece of jewelry is the cherry-filled chocolate truffle ring, because it looks good and smells exactly (seriously) like the real thing, decadent, sinful and sweet. I actually take the ring and hold it up to the person's nose so they can take a whiff. That's when the magic happens and I know that I've made my point.

Tiny Hands' Scented Cherry-Filled Chocolate Truffle Ring
Again, it might seem like a very aggressive approach. Perhaps I would have been told of by someone who had a bad day and I tried to shove a fake chocolate ring up her nose, but fortunately for me, I didn't meet anyone quite like that. In fact I know that this tactic worked well for me and created even more buzz for my booth. People were surprisingly very open to letting me bring the chocolate ring close to their noses! When I get one person in a party to smell something, more often than not they would take it from my hands and let their family and friends smell it too. So in my devious plan I had gotten the first person to help me market my scented jewelry. Once you buy over one person, it's so much easier to gain the interest of his or her family and friends.

The Technical Stuff
Be prepared to accept credit cards, even though there is a nearby ATM machine. I used Intuit's GoPayment program for the Android because they were offering a free 2 month trial and had no setup or cancellation fees. However, they did give me trouble with cancelling my subscription, so I wouldn't recommend them. You might want to try something like https://squareup.com/ or go the old fashioned way and use a knuckle buster (credit card imprinter) which you can get online for about $20 inclusive of shipping, and sign up for a Propay credit card processing service for a small annual fee.

On the left corner I have a frame with some good information on it.
The reason this was important to me was because I identified that there would be customers who would become hesitant or who would change their minds about making a purchase if I, as a seller, had to send them away from my booth to the ATM machine. Personally I know that I can sometimes be fickle minded like that, and it's usually some unknown factor that makes me change my mind. "The walk to the ATM is too long" or "I need to be somewhere else" or I might just get distracted. I don't want to miss the opportunity of giving my customers some convenience, and lose some potential customers along the way.

Also, if you have some kind of elaborate gift wrapping service, be sure to have all materials as ready as you can so your customers don't need to wait ten years to get what they bought.

Giving out receipts is a good idea and shows people that you can be trusted and that you're professional. Why wouldn't you want to do this? I gave my customers an option and most said they would like a receipt. There are others who don't really mind.

When it comes to handling cash payments, I tried to make it as simple as possible. Every vendor was responsible of collecting sales tax, which I did. I included tax in all prices and rounded it up or down, whichever was closest. This means I wouldn't need to bring loose change in coins. I brought about $200 worth in small change, with more quantities for lower amounts like $1's and $5's. Eventually you'll have enough people paying you in cash that you'll have collected some small change from them that you can use again. $200 was overkill for me, but you never know what to expect!

I was also asked for my wholesale line sheet during the show. I had plans to print some out but had so little time before the show that eventually I either forgot and didn't bother. I figured that no one would ask anyway! I was so wrong, I wanted to face palm myself! Thankfully the lady was very sweet and patient and showed real interest in my work, which has led to many email conversations and a personal face to face meeting (and a new wholesale account)! So if you do sell wholesale, please be ready to speak to or provide retailers with some good information. I ended up writing down her contact information and made sure I sent her a .pdf copy of my line sheet as soon as I got home from the show.



All this might seem like obvious tips for some of us, but I was genuinely surprised at how many vendors who didn't follow the "rules" and etiquette of craft show selling. Make sure you do your reading and apply what you've read. Learn from other people's mistakes so you don't waste your own time!

5 comments

Friday, August 6, 2010

Red Hot Art Festival

Friday, August 6, 2010
I had my first "real" craft show here in Minneapolis last weekend. I thought the Red Hot Art show was great! I had only started making inventory to sell about two weeks before and I was rather stressed out during that time. I like being prepared for what I can, so I tried to make as many pieces of a design as I could. I had something like three charming candies bracelets, 15 ice-cream cones, 27 sprinkles cupcakes, 12 chocolate sandwich cookies... It was definitely tiring and I couldn't afford to take a break and do something fun. For a while it was just work, work, work! But I'm glad I worked hard for it, I think it paid off. 

So before the show I scouted around several places and bought some pretty frames, plates and dishes for real cheap. I got the tablecloth from Joann's and I just love the color and pattern on it, though not very noticeable, that's the point right? I got most of everything else online. Had 1000 business cards printed professionally for the first time and am so happy with the results! I gave out a whole ton of them during the show.

I absolutely love the mirrors I got! It's the heart-shaped mirror on the far right of the table. I spray painted it white from silver so it would match my table. I even got a lady asking to buy it during the show haha!

The fair ran for two days and thank goodness the weather was permitting. I'm surprised at how well I thought I did. I think this has earned itself another blog post for the kinds of things I did to attract people to my booth. And as a person selling her jewelry, how I interacted with my customers. All the preparatory reading I did about craft shows has helped me a lot. I guess it never hurts to do your studying!

Not only did I get a good number of sales during the show, I also opened up some grand opportunities for Tiny Hands. Don't forget also that if you don't make any sales, the number of business cards you gave out, all the people that you talked to and made aware about your brand, are potential future customers on your Etsy or website. While you can't really calculate how much you profit from that, you can be sure that there will be those future customers!

And here comes the Grammy award winning speech part... *sob sob sob* I want to thank my boyfriend, Peter for being so incredibly supportive, helpful and sweet. I know that I would never have been able to do so well without him. And I'm not just saying that, okay! :P 

So I also made a ton of new designs for the show, but will be putting them up soon on my website. I'll be sure to blog about it! 

7 comments

Friday, July 23, 2010

Flourless Rich & Moist Chocolate Cake Recipe

Friday, July 23, 2010
If you're like me and cake isn't actually your favorite dessert because it's too fluffy and empty, then you might be like me too in liking cake that's thicker, more dense and more moist. Here's an amazing flourless chocolate cake recipe I tried out over the weekend. It's so sinful. You'll love it, promise!

Flourless Rich & Moist Chocolate Cake Recipe
Look at the texture! Makes me want to drool
Ingredients:
4 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Chocolate cake makes me happy!
  1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Grease an 8 inch round cake pan (I didn't have a round cake pan so I used my pie dish), and dust with cocoa powder.
  2. In the top of a double boiler over lightly simmering water, melt chocolate and butter. Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, cocoa powder, eggs, and vanilla. Pour into prepared pan.
  3. Bake in preheated oven for 50 minutes (but keep checking back after 30 minutes). If the cake is still really wobbly in the center it's not done yet. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. 

Tip: for an extra chocolate rush, replace all cocoa powder with chocolate squares. This gives you a richer, creamier and smoother cake (though the original recipe is pretty amazing in itself!)

I wish I had more of it. It got eaten up so quickly :(

Wish there was more...

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this treat!

5 comments

Saturday, May 15, 2010

The Things I've Learnt From Tiny Hands

Saturday, May 15, 2010
I've been reading a number of crafty business books recently which have really inspired me to share my own stories of me and my own handmade business. Everything that you do in life is always a rewarding experience - whether good or bad, it's what makes you who you are and it's up to you to decide how to make use of that experience!

Sticking with One Product
I started my business way back in 2006 when I was still a teen! (Bet you didn't see that coming!) I have a love of blank handmade journals and that was how I started crafting for a profit.



At the same time, I loved jewelry and had taken a basic jewelry-making class with my mom. Armed with techniques for both bookbinding and jewelry making, I was selling both types of products in the same store.

Major mistake right there! I couldn’t agree more with what other crafters say about sticking to one product and style in your store. The problem with this is that you’ll soon come into roadblocks when you start to think big, in terms of branding, advertising and marketing. Selling books and jewelry at the same time confused me with who I was to market my products to. Neither could I derive an attractive brand image that would work for both products (it’s not impossible, you might need the help of a professional!). I told myself that I had to make a decision. I ended up choosing jewelry for a number of reasons.




First, jewelry was so much less time consuming. That in itself made it easier for me to make and sell my product for a price that my customer and I could both respect. I didn’t want to slave away making books and price them at over $50 and not sell a thing!

Second, I made a shift into polymer clay, in particular because I knew this was my main material for my jewelry that I can easily find anywhere for a low cost without having to worry about quality or major price differences. I knew I could expect to get the same thing every time. I didn’t want to make beaded jewelry back then because that would require a lot of time resourcing for supplies (beads) and the worst thing is, some suppliers can sometimes up and leave you high and dry! Unless you’re selling one of a kind items, this should really be something you want to consider.

Polymer clay jewelry making for me is a very low cost/capital in monetary terms. As a student in university (I’ll be graduating in December 2010, yippee!), Tiny Hands is my only source of income so I don’t have a lot of capital to start with.

Jewelry is also something that people buy more than handbound books. Most ladies wear jewelry, it’s only a matter of what style or look you go for. But a handbound book is something that a person would use for a year, at least! How many journals does a person need at a time anyway?

My materials for jewelry making are also convenient for me to pack and bring wherever the wind takes me! I would almost consider myself a nomad, shifting from one location to another a few times a year. I can’t imagine having to tug around a huge piece of machinery every time I moved!

Even as a student and a nomad, I found something that really works for me.

Prices
Another thing that I want to talk about is the quality of your product and the price tags you put on them.

I started out selling everything I make for a rock bottom price, so I could test the waters and see how well people accepted my work. When I started getting more orders, I became tired and unhappy with how I was working. I didn’t feel like it was all worth it!

The important thing that I learnt in the past couple of years is that you can never undercharge yourself or your time (though that doesn’t mean putting unreasonable prices on your items!). I spend several hours on an order, and I truly believe that my prices represent the quality of the work that I deliver (including photography of products, customer service communication and packaging).

When you have very low prices, it may seem very affordable to a potential buyer, but as a consumer myself, I have been turned off by products that are charged too low because I immediately lose confidence in what I’m looking at.

Not only does it look fishy (I’m thinking, “what’s the catch?” *suspicious eyes*), but it really shows through how much you value your own work. Quality and price should go hand in hand. Even with a fantastic photo of your product, I won’t believe that it is of high quality based on the price tag. As they say, “you get what you pay for!”

The Ultimate DIY-er
As I mentioned above, being a full-time student doesn’t give me much financial capital for a business. I would encourage anyone to make use of this as a motivator to learn new things! Build yourself your own website, make your own graphics and business cards! Do your own copywriting and photography! The Internet is full of resources, tips and tricks and tutorials to teach you everything, and I mean everything! Even if you fail at first, remember that you’ll only get better the more you try and practice. I believe that a good eye and attention to detail is a good habit to instill in yourself – be sensitive to little details, they matter!

Being Critical
I would consider myself to be a critical person when it comes to my work. As long as you can obtain a healthy balance of being critical and being able to tell yourself to slow down, this can be a great asset for any person to have. Because you are critical with your work, you will always strive for developing improvements. And because you’re always on top of yourself, you can be sure that you’re working towards a successful business and a happier You!

I often look back at some of my older products and go through a verification process of whether or not I should keep selling this item. If I feel that the item lacks quality or just doesn’t look as good as my other items, I will either make improvements, or discontinue the product. When I sell my jewelry, I like to be confident with my work. I couldn’t live with myself if I knew that I’m sending out a necklace that wasn’t great! Your customers tend to see this as well. If they’re not receiving something that was made well, you can’t count on them for being repeat customers.

Well, it’s about that time for me to get back to doing other things. In the future, I would still love to talk about my experiences with other aspects of a business. I wanted to include a “Photography” section here, but time flies and before I know it, I have other responsibilities to tend to!

I hope you enjoyed reading this. I can’t ask you to agree with everything I’ve said, but I think that sharing my perspectives with you will help broaden yours too! Please write me comments so I can read what you guys think!

9 comments

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Tiny Hands' April Giveaway Winner!

Saturday, May 1, 2010
Hello! Guess who's the winner? Number 13 da-da-da AQUARIUS! Congratulations! Please send me an email (info [at] tinyhandsonline.com) with your address and your preference of pancakes! To everyone who participated, I want to give you guys big big hugs, and I wish I could send everyone Tiny Hands gifts so everyone can be happy! It's the thought that counts, right? ;) Thank you so much for taking the time to be blog and Facebook fans, and to sneak around my site to look for your favorite item. Your time is precious to me and I can't tell you guys how much I appreciate that you took the time to do something for Tiny Hands!

Enough of all the gushy mushy heartfelt love I feel that's making me so warm on this windy day in Wisconsin. I want to let you guys know what's coming up!

Summer is on its way, I can feel it! I'll be working on new products and also on developing Tiny Hands as a brand. It will be an amazing ride for me, and I hope it'll be fun for you guys to watch and experience through your computers too!

I already have a ton of new goodies for the site, but I'm in the process of editing photos. I also plan to write some tutorials or tips/advice on some of the things I've learnt throughout my time with Tiny Hands. I've been reading a lot of how-to books recently and feel that they leave out some important things that should be mentioned!

Congratulations again to aquarius and have a great weekend everybody!

4 comments

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

April Random Giveaway! Pancake Ring or Earstuds

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

I decided the points system I was using didn't work very well. It's hard work on both our parts, lol! So I thought, hey I want to make this fun, easy and convenient as well as rewarding for you.

I'm going to go with the simple random giveaway that other people usually host on their blogs.

I will be using a random generator to pick the winner. It should be relatively painless ;)

Here's how you can enter:
  1. Visit Tiny Hands and comment here with your favorite item
  2. For 1 additional entry: be a Tiny Hands Facebook fan!
  3. For another 1 additional entry: be this blog's follower (click the "Follow Blog" button on the top left column)
For every additional entry, please write a new comment to let me know what you've done. This way, the random generator will pick up your entries and your chances to win are increased! Does that sound fab or what? :D

This giveaway is open to anyone and everyone (yip yip hurray!) and will end at 11.59pm CDT, April 30, 2010.

48 comments

Friday, April 2, 2010

New Chocolate Chip Cookie Jewelry + Experiments

Friday, April 2, 2010

I made some new chocolate chip cookie jewelry because I couldn't stand the look of the old ones. It's almost embarrassing but every artist (not entirely claiming that I am one, I'm not close haha!) has to start out somewhere :) We always keep improving, and as long as we head in the right direction, it'll be fine!

I love the new cookies' gradient and texture. And the chocolate chunks make them look so tasty! The photo doesn't do it any justice :P

I've always been working at other products as well. I took away all of the gourmet cupcakes and the chocolate, vanila and strawberry ones with the cupcake casings because I've grown more and more unhappy with them. They lack something I can't put my finger on!

So while I was experimenting, I had the most pleasant surprise. Here's a photo of what I managed to achieve and by golly they look super realistic and so adorable
!



I've yet to figure out how I want to decorate them. Some visual inspiration of Martha Stewart cupcakes would be great right now :P

They look like real muffins but wait till you see how small they are!


Okay so they're not as tiny as 1:12 miniature items but my goal isn't to achieve that. I like to create something that's large enough to be seen by people when someone wears my jewelry, but small enough to be considered smaller than the real thing.

Anyway, I've also been working on a consignment order of cupcakes! Shortcakes and pancakes will come later after I write this blog post :)



This is what happens when you don't gloss what should be glossed. Gloss makes polymer clay food stuff look scrumptious and delectable. Can't live without it! Of course, not all food items should be glossed. I made some chocolate chip cookies and glossed those and it was a disaster.

I've also tried working with resin because I was always curious with how to create a completely transparent medium. I haven't been very successful so far due to the numerous nitpicky steps that I need to follow. It's a tricky process!

Oh and now some of the more exciting parts! I'll be getting some of my jewelry to a consignment store in Singapore which I mentioned somewhere above. Also, I got another store in New York interested in my items. I spent all day of yesterday creating a wholesale line sheet for them to look at. What's more, I contacted a photographer in California whose portfolio I absolutely adore. I've just sent him a ton of my jewelry so he can photograph them on this beautiful, and I mean beautiful, woman. She's a perfect fit for my jewelry and they're going along with a candylicious theme. I'm so excited for the outcome!

Phew, now that that's all out there, I need to get working some more :) This week's flying by so fast :O

6 comments

Thursday, April 1, 2010

March Winner and April's Contest!

Thursday, April 1, 2010
First and foremost, I want to congratulate Michal for winning March's Tiny Hands contest! She did an amazing job with her blog post :)

April's contest information can be here.

2 comments

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Tiny Hands' March Contest!

Wednesday, March 3, 2010
It is a general assumption that you will first need to comment on this blog post in order to be considered for the grand prize! Don't miss out on the cupcake and waffle charms! :D

This contest is open to everyone - local and international readers :D

So I promised for this to be a monthly affair - and I have to admit that I get pretty excited about this myself. You guys did a great job the last month. :)

This contest will run through the entire month of March.

Point Rubric:
  1. Commenting on this blog post (only one comment point per person!) ... 1 point
  2. Creating your own blog post about your participation in this Tiny Hands contest and a link back here ... 2 points
  3. For every comment that you receive on your blog post (as in #2) ... 1 point
  4. For joining Tiny Hands on Facebook / being a member, and writing a comment ... 1 point
  5. For joining Tiny Hands' mailing list / being a member ... 1 point
  6. For following Tiny Hands' blog / being listed as an existing follower ... 1 point
The more you click around to be a Facebook fan, or for spreading the word around about Tiny Hands, you get some points closer to bagging the prize! According to the rubric above, statement #3 essentially allows you to gain more than 1 point... so keep those comments coming in to your own blog post!

Hint: Tell your family and friends about the prize you'd very much love to have and get them to comment on your blogpost so you can win :D

And now for the prize! The winner with the highest score at the end of March (31 March, 2010; 11.59pm Central Standard Time) will be sent their own custom scented cupcake and waffle charm with one necklace chain as shown in the banner above, so you can switch charms whenever :) I decided to give out the same prizes because I bet there are you guys out there who didn't get the chance to bag this! Who would refuse a waffle and cupcake necklace? :P

IMPORTANT NOTE: If your facebook name, mailing list email address, blogspot name, etc are all different, then I cannot tell that you are all the same person! If you go by different nicknames or names, please send me an email (info [at] tinyhandsonline.com) or write a comment here to let me know so I will have no trouble in finding you and keeping track of your score! Thanks :)

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