Working with brides

Seems like a lot of the brides I have been working with on Etsy are getting their bridesmaid dresses at J.Crew. This makes it great for sending them a little collage that shows the dress they already picked along side my fabric recommendations for clutches. If you make other wedding related items, like the gorgeous brooch bouquet by LionsgateDesigns shown in my collage, I think you can use the collage feature on Picnik the same way I do. Just right click the photo of the dresses they are wearing, and save it to your computer. Do the same for any fabric swatch photos or other accessories you want to recommend. Upload those photos to Picnik. Click on collage, choose your layout, and drag and drop the photos into the layout. Click "done." Save the collage as a photo and email it or attach to an Etsy convo. I think it is a very impressive way to communicate with your potential customers.

Customer Service with a Smile

Does this guy make you smile back? He makes me smile, every morning. My 10 year old is the star of my current treasury on Etsy. (That link will only be good for a couple of days from the date of this post.) Here is the customer service story. I was shopping for some face paint to help out with the school carnival. I bought this mineral powder from PinkQuartzMinerals. Thanks to our dyslexic mailman, my neighbor received the package and promptly forgot about it. After canvassing the neighborhood while the airhead neighbor was not at home, I contacted Doree at PinkQuartz who sent me a replacement which coincidentally arrived on the same day as the neighbor cleaned off her kitchen counter. Now I had 2 cool sets of mineral makeup. I gave one to my friend who happened to be in the living room with me chatting up a storm at the very moment of this harmonic convergence of minerals, neighbors and postal incompetence. When I offered to pay for the extra, Doree refused, so I sent her some photos of my sons in their pirate faces to use in her shop. (My older son is now too cool for all of this - but his photos are amazing!) The carnival just happened the other night and I have been so consumed with work that I never did volunteer to paint faces. As it happens, one of my son's classmates has a dental hygienist mom who also happens to be the reincarnation of Matisse. I stood in awe as she turned a first grade boy into a webkinz dog, and thought how silly of me to ever think kids would line up for me to paint them. There was a line up around the building waiting for her facial masterpieces. I probably would have been roaming the place in pirate garb, accosting everyone with the offer of an extra eye or two. Aarg! Doesn't anybody want an eye?!!