Classy Trash

I'm always trying out new ideas in my Etsy shop, my most recent one being handmade pendants with beer bottle caps and decoupage technique. I thought about making jewelry from recycled parts last Halloween while making a beer and soda can pop-top necklace for my costume (I was a Joe in a Joe the Plumber/Joe Six Pack costume pair).

Kona Blue Hibiscus Bottle Cap Pendant

I have made a few pendants so far find myself wanting to wear them myself instead of selling them! I have listed three in my shop so far and I'm collecting my caps (and my friends') to make more.

I have two Hawaiian themed summery pendants and a poker themed pendant so far. I have decided to try to make the picture in the pendant fit the theme of the beer. For instance, I have two Hawaiian beer caps from beer produced by the Kona Brewing Company that feature Hawaiian fruit and flowers. I decided on a poker theme with the MichUltra since that's the beer of choice for a world renound poker player.

Hala-kahiki Bottle Cap Pendant

Scotty - Poker Pendant

Some are made with Aanraku style bails, but on some I tried to preserve the appearance of the back of the pendant and made my own bail so that the wearer could see what beer their particular cap came from.

Preparing for the Holidays

I know Christmas will sneak up on me just as fast as it did last year, I'm just hoping to be more prepared for it this year! I had a Christmas in July Sale last month and was able to unload three items from my 2008 Christmas inventory. Soon I will be making new holiday items, which will seem like a big rush because I haven't really started working on my Autumn inventory!

On the subject of Autumn inventory, I will be participating in my first craft fair on September 26th - it is in Crandall Park in Glens Falls if you are local!!! Hopefully I'll get some sales and some business cards out there for some new Christmas shoppers.

Flower Earrings

My newest theme line in my Etsy shop is my collection of flower earrings. So far I have only made three varieties, but expect more to come! Wing nut beads, flower bell caps, and seed beads, threaded on sterling silver or gold filled head pins with some inspiration from Mother Nature.

Yellow Flower Earrings, Mint Green Flower Earrings, Pink Flower Earrings

Creative Thoughts from CREATEaTHOUGHT

CREATEaTHOUGHT is the well-deserving featured EtsyBlogger of May. She offers a wide variety of handmade items to help you express your thoughts, as well as some cool vintage stuff.

A quote found in her profile pretty much sums up her shop:

"There are thousands of thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up the pen and writes." ~William Makepeace Thackeray

Her unique journals provide you with a place to record your own personal thoughts, and her pins and rings display words and phrases so you can share your thoughts with everyone else!

ART Book Journal Kit

Imagine the Stars Ring

Check out her Etsy Shop and her Blog

Zany Zebras and Zarkles

If you are looking for a one of a kind gift for a baby shower, or perhaps for you own toddler, baby, or grandbaby, you should check out the unique and adorable handmade gifts by Mama Z of Two Zany Zebras!


Mama Z has a lot of creative ideas. For instance, her Zany Pocket Blankets come with a pocket to hold the included Zarkle. A Zarkle is a stuffed cute monster that is good for cuddling with at night to keep fears and scary things at bay. The Cuddle Blankies have little loops to keep the blanket attached to a car seat or high chair so that Baby can't kick it off.



Zarkles can be purchased separately, like Carlton Chameleon here.


Gift sets are offered with a Cuddle Blankie and matching onesie or toddler t-shirt.



And Mama Z loves custom orders! You gotta love her work and her creativity!

Follow her blog at http://twozanyzebras.blogspot.com

Special Invitation to a Huge Team Wide Sale

YOU ARE INVITED!!

Come see a LIVE virtual TRUNK SHOW this Friday night!! On Friday Jan. 30th @ 9PM EST, where twenty-six talented Etsy shops from all over the world will be showcasing a select few of their items ONLINE in the GALLERY of the EtsyLabs! Sales and special offers will apply only to the EtsyBloggers TRUNK SHOW attendees!

Everyone is welcome to attend, so come and join the fun here:

http://www.etsy.com/virtual_labs.php
on Friday Jan. 30th @ 9:PM EST.

You need an Etsy account to enter the trunk show, so if you don't have one, register here!
(It's really easy)


I will be offering FREE WORLD WIDE SHIPPING for all purchases made by trunk show attendees until Sunday, February 2, 2009 at 11:59pm Eastern Time. My promotional code will be given at the trunk show. The free shipping is in addition to my 10% Valentine's Day Sale which is ongoing for EVERYONE until Valentine's Day.

More Holiday Items

I'm trying to get the rest of my holiday inventory online before it's too late. My problem is mostly weather and schedule related. My pictures come out best in natural sunlight, but there was only one day this week that the sun was still up and shining while I was home.

I've added two more decoupage pieces, a snowman and a two cent postage stamp of Santa. The snowman piece comes on a ball chain necklace. The Santa stamp necklace comes on a gold plated choker necklace wire.



My Garden Gnome necklace isn't exclusively a Christmas piece, but will go nicely with a red shirt. I got inspiration from the pendant which reminds me of a garden gnome hat for some reason. It was made using turquoise howlite beads and coral chips. Sterling silver wire was used to make the bail, and the clasp is a sterling silver hook and eye clasp.


Search my Etsy shop for the keyword Christmas for all my Christmas pieces, and some things that would go nicely with red or green.

Holiday Sale

Due to my jewelry party on this weekend coming up, I am unable to participate in the team sale, with the possibility of having to temporarily inactivate some items in my shop during my party. I am, however, glad to be able to promote my fellow teammates who are having a team-wide sale!


Sales include free shipping, 10-20% off, BOGO deals, and more! Click on the ad for details.

And stop by my shop on Cyber Monday... I will probably have a promotion going on if I can organize myself after the party.

One Year Celebration

Celebrate my one year anniversary on Etsy with a free gift!

A pair of Pumpkin Earrings will be shipped with any purchase from my Etsy shop, excluding custom orders, from now until October 22nd at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time. The earrings you receive could either be on gold plated or silver plated ear wire, so please specify in your message to seller if you have a preference.


If you are only interested in purchasing a pair of these earrings (as opposed to purchasing anything else and receiving them for free), they are available here for only $5.00.

Breaking the Chain

Remember back before email forwards, there were the dreaded chain letters? I personally did not receive too many, but I remember my mom would open one up and groan. "Send this to seven people, or else!" Snail mail chain letters... how retro.

I came across an article on Silcom.com, "Chain Letter Evolution," in which the author studies chain mail trends, and gives a little history. The author points out that prior to photocopiers, chain letters were typed or handwritten; can you imagine? (Of course, some of you probably can.) This led to misspellings, misprints, and variations of future chain letters.

In the era of internet and email, they are passed much more quickly with just a click of a button. Some electronic chain letters promise luck, wealth, or true love, but warn of eternal unhappiness for breaking the chain. I just take my chances and delete them all now, figuring if anybody is monitoring what lands in my private inbox and what I send to others, then I have more problems than I thought.

Since the birth of chain and spider email, an even newer internet chain has evolved - the blog meme. I've now been tagged "it" on two blog memes, twice. I feel guilty for breaking the meme chain, as my blog taggers thought enough of me to play. Instead just breaking the chain, I'm going to give my two recent taggers a little exposure, since they were kind enough to link to my blog in theirs!

On the topic of chain letters being somewhat retro, ironically so are my taggers!

TexasVintage tagged me passing on the Brillante Blog Award. Technically it was my first time being tagged with this title, but I had previously been tagged with the Primio Arte y Pico award, which is similar enough to make me not want to play again, plus I'm running out of friends to tag. TexasVintage is a fellow EtsyBloggers teammate, and has a beautiful blog, "Adventures in Vintage." There are a lot of cool vintage items in her Etsy shop, and as a child of the 80's I have a not-so-secret love of things from that decade - and nothing says 80s like a puff sleeves sweater dress! Check out her Vintage 80s St. John Knit Day Dress!


Another EtsyBlogging buddy, we'll call her HBIC for short, tagged me for a variation of a "seven things about me" meme, but this called for 14! Nobody wants to hear fourteen things about me, trust me. Want to guess what HBIC sells? Handmade retro kitchen items and other household things! I love the retro trapezoid mouse pad below. I found on her blog, "Home Deconomics," a link to another retro blog, "Trapped in the 80s Moms," which I now subscribe to.



Anyway, thanks TexasVintage and HBIC for thinking of me!

What Keeper's Keeps

The next EtsyBlogger's Blog Carnival had two topics. I chose to write about the following:

"So, you have an Etsy shop. You enjoy to make and create and really love it when others love it as well. What kind of crafts do you do for yourself? Any adventurous do-it-yourself handy work stories? Is your home filled with your creations? Do you make your own clothes, jewelry, etc.? If so, why not show off your favorite item you kept for yourself."

I've had my Etsy shop for about 8 months now. I do it for the love, not for the money... obviously :)

While I make a lot, I don't sell everything. I do mostly make jewelry, and usually what I keep for myself is something that I made for a certain occasion, or something that I didn't really think came out well enough to sell. I also try new ideas and wear them, see if anyone says something. If I wear it twice and nobody blinks, I think maybe it isn't anything that people would enjoy. Keeping things for myself serves the purpose creative accessorizing and free advertising and marketing.

Of course I don't have many pictures of what I keep for myself, but this here is a piece that I made to go with black things, since I wear many, and the black, white, and silver color combinations can go with a lot of things.


This one is something I made for my cruise in February to go with a dress and fun shirt that I brought.


My husband picks on me for TiVoing the show "Tool Belt Diva." I'm pretty handy for a young woman, learning pretty much everything from girly DIY books, the internet, and the advice of others. I ripped up the near-shag carpet in the living room and put in laminate flooring - before and after pictures shown below. For anyone considering putting in laminate flooring themselves, it's probably possible to install by yourself but it's definitely a lot faster with an extra set of hands; one person can hold the pieces together and the other can bang them into place. Depending on the size of your room it can feasibly be installed in a weekend, not including the removal and disposal of the previous flooring. If you click on the "after picture" you may see that Pepper is sticking his tongue out at you.

Before and After.

I'm still proud that I found and fixed the mysterious leak in the kitchen sink, and repaired the water damaged cupboard. I paint too (the walls, not artistically).

Before (gross) and After - Obviously the kitchen floor is my next project.

I'm going through a decoupage phase and have made outlet covers, switch covers, and coasters for my house. I'm trying to find a sealer for coasters that can withstand a hot cup of coffee. (Suggestions anyone?) My mom has a much more creative side than I do. As a kid, my mom and I made our Christmas gifts for relatives in the summers at the camper. We'd sew me up some school clothes, decorate wreaths, make candles. Actually, now that I think about it, I would love to relearn candle making.

Going Green

With focus on global warming and rising oil prices, it seems everyone is trying to go green, or at least more green, these days. By finding ways to cut down on waste and find new uses for things that would normally be discarded, the outcome is better for the environment and for the wallet. I have recently discovered a few crafty people that find creative uses for waste, turning trash into handmade treasures.

"And this, our life, exempt from public haunt,
finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
sermons in stones, and good in everything."
~William Shakespeare

According to Wikipedia, an average of 55 greeting cards are sent per person each year. It seems like a waste of a caring thought and a postage stamp to display them for only a short period of time before they are discarded! Why not turn them into something that can be reused? RunOnTheSun takes old greeting cards, as well as cereal boxes and anything else of similar structure that would normally be tossed, and punches them into mini jewelry tags. They are the perfect size! It shows customers not only the price of an item, but that the seller has taken a step toward going green.


SimpleLifeDesigns helps clean the earth by going to the ocean beaches of the coast of Central California and picking up beach glass. This sea glass is formed when the ocean waves beat down on the littered glass, typically from broken bottles, giving it a beautiful smooth and frosted appearance. She literally turns other people's trash into beautiful treasures. Below is a creation made with green sea glass and sterling silver.



Another seller I have come across recycles her empties, but not in the traditional way. MadeFromTheHeart makes jewelry and buttons from her empty soda cans. A pair of earrings is shown, recycled from a Mountain Dew can! She even has jewelry made with pop-tops! The backs of her empty can pieces are backed with foam and have no sharp edges.


Mother-and-daughter team Pouch are true environmentalists. They have certainly done their research to educate shoppers on the harm that plastic shopping bags do to the Earth. Not only are they promoting the use of cloth bags in lieu of the plastic ones that they offer at stores, but they use old clothes and vintage material to make the bags. The denim tote below is made from recycled jeans, even the waist band was used.


These artists uniquely turn would-be trash into common items, and are truly inspirational. Before throwing something out we should ask ourselves if there is something better that we could do with the item.

Some "green" suggestions for fellow craft sellers:

• Instead of a light box, use natural light for your photos
• Replace the traditional light bulbs in you studio/craft room with energy-saving compact fluorescent ones
• Combine your trips to the post office if you send out several orders a week
• Reuse boxes/containers for shipping
• Instead of buying new fabric for quilts, use old clothes that you were going to get rid of
• Save your scrap paper from scrap booking, even if you can't use it in a scrap book, you can use it for notes to your self, or for gift tags at Christmas time.
• Random left-over beads make great earrings

You don't even have to be crafty to go green. Instead of wasting paper towels, if you need a rag use the lonely match to the sock that the washing machine mysteriously ate. If you have plastic grocery bags, use them for bringing your lunch to work, for wastebasket bags, or donate them to a local business to be reused. Combine all of your errands into one trip to save gas and try to start a work carpool.

"Many must feel the earth to know himself and recognize his values...
God made life simple.
It is man who complicates it."
Charles A. Lindbergh

Selling on Etsy

Chapter I: What is Etsy?
Chapter II: Registering and Shopping on Etsy
Chapter III: Selling on Etsy

Welcome to the third chapter of my Etsy Tutorial, a series designed to help craft aficionados buy and sell handmade goods online.

So you're a crafty person and would like to sell your creations? Etsy is a great place to do so, and the fees associated with using Etsy as a host for your shop are very reasonable. I recommend using Etsy, especially for those new to selling online. You do not need to be a computer wizard to set up shop, Etsy does all the hard work for you.

What are the benefits to using Etsy as opposed to other hosts or just setting up your own private website?

• Low fees compared to other hosts (fee details below)
• All shops are created equal: Each seller is allowed up to 5 pictures. No sellers are allowed bold, flashy colored, or different fonts. Banners and avatars are all the same standard size. Everyone is entitled to the same privileges, so aside from items that the sellers offer and the quality of their picture taking, each shop has equal capabilities, regardless of the seller's ability to write HTML protocols and so on. Like I said, it doesn't take a computer wizard.
  
• The shop is all set up for the seller. The only thing left to do is customize it with your shop announcement, profile, banner, avatar, create up to 10 sections (categorize your items) and of course, add new items to your shop. Everything you need is included. No need to import shopping carts, set up a connection to PayPal, all those things you'd have to do when creating your own private website.
  
• Forums. You have a question? Someone has an answer. You can use the forums to promote items, sales, and your shop. You can work with other members and share ideas about marketing and materials. Administrators often jump in to answer questions or to close threads if they get out of control.
• The people. For thousands and thousands and thousands of people that are in competition, its amazing how much they can help each other out, promote each other, and critique/make suggestions for improvement.
• The advertising that you aren't directly paying for! We've been mentioned by Rachael Ray, Martha Stewart, Oprah. Etsy is getting exposure.
  

What are the fees associated with selling on Etsy?
Unlike other hosts, there is no "rent" fee meaning you do not pay for opening your shop and you do not have a monthly fee. It costs only $0.20 to list each item, and Etsy charges you 3.5% of the sale price of an item, not including shipping. So if you list an item once before it sells for $20.00, Etsy only makes $0.90 cents off that item. PayPal also charges a fee (usually 2.9% plus a 30 cent fee) when you receive money. It is important to include these fees when pricing your item. If you want to make $20.00 on something, plan ahead and account for the Etsy and PayPal fees and charge $21.78.

How do I sign up to sell?
You first register, see Chapter II. If you are already registered as a buyer, just sign in under your name and click on the Sell tab. You will be directed to an online form to fill out. Follow the directions provide your credit card number. Nobody will see the credit card number, it must be submitted because that is how you pay your Etsy fees. Your Etsy bill is due the 15th of each month and you just pay with the credit card on file.

Keep in mind, as mentioned in Chapter II, you cannot change your user name once you register, so the user name you register with becomes the shop name when you decide you want to be a seller. Your store website will be http://your user name.etsy.com.

How do I customize my shop?

There are only certain ways you can customize your shop appearance, so it is important that you make it as eye-catching as you can so that you stand out. Etsy walks you through the process of setting up shop here. Instead of reinventing the wheel that Etsy has provided you with, I will just make some suggestions:

• You need a banner and avatar, it adds pizazz to your shop so you stand out from others. If you are not graphically inclined, have no fear - you can even shop for a custom banner/avatar on Etsy! Yes, people sell those on Etsy too! You can use a picture of one of your items for an avatar too. You can always change your banner and avatar in the future.
  
• I recommend putting your store policies in your profile, saving the announcement section for sales or important current information, such as if you are on vacation. The larger your shop announcement is, the less items will display on your first page.
  
• Feature items - you're allowed three, use them! I suggest choosing your three feature items as items that are not on your front page. Why show the same items twice on the same page when you can have the opportunity to show off three extra ones?!
• Sections! You are allowed 10 - utilize them. As a buyer, you do not want to flip through 6 pages of items when looking for one particular thing. If you sell handmade clothing and I want to buy a pair of women's pajamas, I do not care about looking at all the men and baby clothes you have. I want to be able to click "women" and see items that pertain to my search. You can always change your section names and what you put in them.
• You need to include your policies, either in each listing or refer the shopper to your profile for them. Policies should return how you handle shipping and returns.
  

How do you put items up for sale?
This is called listing an item. Etsy has posted a step by step process in the Help Guides, which I suggest checking out. What I've learned from experience is:

• When you first open your shop and you're all excited and you have so much stuff and you want to sell sell sell and can't wait to get everything up and you're on a roll and you have all your pictures and shipping supplies and you're ready to go and list your entire stock.... STOP! List a couple items a day. Spread them out. Etsy features the Time Machine which lists items most recently listed in the beginning. When people do searches, the search defaults to the most recently listed. For example if you list 10 handbags tonight, and next week someone searches "handbag," your handbags are going to buried below a weeks worth of handbags, they may never find your shop. But if you list one a day, someone may see your handbag that day. All it takes is one click on your item and they are in your shop. Even if they don't want to buy the item, they may still want to look around your store. Most of the sales I've made have been within 24 hours of listing an item, usually not even the item that I listed that day!
• You only get to show five pictures of each item. Make them good and use as many as you can. OK, so there are only so many ways you can show off a pair of earrings... but say you sell handbags. Show the whole handbag, show the inside of it, show someone modeling it. Get a close up of the pattern. Show how much you can put in there!
  

How can I get the word out without spending a ton of money?
There are many things you can do on your own that don't cost much if anything. You can make your own business cards for a relatively low price. Throw a few in when you ship your items out, maybe the buyer will pass them on to your friends. If you make things of everyday practical use, make some for yourself. I've made some jewelry for myself and for my mom. If someone gives me a compliment on a necklace, I shove a business card in their face. Just kidding. I DO say "Thanks, I made it." I've gotten a few jewelry repair jobs through my mom who has a pocket shrine of me that she shows to her coworkers.

I put a poll up on my blog a while ago asking visitors with Etsy shops what their best promotional online tool was. The winner by a mile was having a blog. Flickr also was at the top of the chart. Low votes were Twitter, Facebook, and Squidoo, but only 36 people participated.

What Is Etsy?

Chapter I. What is Etsy?

I have plans of creating a clickable tutorial for those who are unfamiliar with Etsy, so that new users and complete strangers can become more familiar with the site to buy and sell handmade items. While my motives are somewhat selfish ("Buy from me! Buy from me!"), I realize that as a new buyer or seller there are many concerns and it can be somewhat intimidating.

This is my first chapter of my tutorial, called "What is Etsy?".

Despite the many theories behind the name "Etsy," it's origin is still a secret to everyone except those who named it. While I'm pretty sure my theory is false, I'd like to think of it as:

You can register on Etsy as a buyer and/or seller. The most important thing for buyers to remember is prompt payment. It is not fair to the shop owner if their item becomes unavailable for selling and it takes an excessive period of time to receive their payment, if they receive it at all.

The rules of selling are pretty basic. The items must be either handmade, vintage items, or items for commercial use, such as jewelry findings, yarn, zippers, and so on. If they are for commercial use, they must be tagged as such. The purchased item must also be shipped in a reasonable period of time. It helps if you list in your profile your shipping policies, such as what days of the week you can ship items so that they buyer can know when to expect your package.

Why register to buy items on Etsy?

Because the Etsy administrators make you, that's why! It has to do with feedback and to protect everyone's best interests, mostly. For the buyer, when you make a purchase from an Etsy shop, you and the seller both must follow Etsy's guidelines, as well as any policies that the seller has in their profile and/or shop announcement. Both the buyer and the seller can rate the transaction through feedback. Did the buyer pay promptly? Was the seller's description of the item accurate? Of course, it is always appreciated from both sides of the transaction to discuss any problems that may arise before leaving negative feedback. If you are unhappy with an item, first contact the seller to see if a return is possible. Maybe the buyer was slow to complete the transaction because they just put funds into their PayPal account but PayPal had taken longer than three days to clear it. If you purchase an item and it is never shipped, you can contact Etsy for intervention. Leaving negative feedback for poor/unethical service helps warn other buyers/sellers, while positive feedback is encouraging to future customers.

Etsy administrators also get cranky when Etsians sell items listed on Etsy but not through Etsy. It is only fair that they make some money off of the seller's profits because they host a website and help direct traffic to your shop.

Is Etsy safe and secure?

Etsy explains their privacy and security policies here. As a seller, when someone makes a purchase from me I do not see any personal credit card or PayPal information other than the buyer's name, shipping address and email address which is only available upon them purchasing an item. We need to see this information, obviously, so we know where to send it.

Both Etsy and PayPal are secure. I have not yet heard of anyone, buyers nor sellers, have a security issue and personal information compromised while using either of these two services.



In today's world, if you think about it, everything is stored on computers. Whether you are a computer programmer or someone who does not even have an email address, your bank, credit card companies, utility companies, and so on all store your personal information on computers. Even if you are not affiliated with them online, there is always a chance that someone can access your electronically stored information.

In my life, I have had two instances (that I know of) where my personal information was compromised. Ten years ago when I was looking at colleges to apply to, I requested information from several. There was one college I didn't even remember contacting for information that sent me a letter in the mail a couple years after I graduated from Marist. In the letter they explained that their computer system had been hacked into and that the person that had broken into the system may have accessed my social security number. Keep in mind, when I was looking at colleges, internet was just beginning to become huge but we did not even have dial-up in my house. I did not use the internet at all in my college search/application process, yet it was used to access my personal information that I had provided to a school I didn't apply to.

The second security breach I had was a few Christmases ago. I had done some Christmas shopping at a Marshall's store and made my purchase with a credit card. That very next day someone broke into the Marshall's/TJ Maxx computer system and got access to all the credit card numbers within a certain time frame. I was promptly issued a new card from my credit card company, and there were no suspicious charges made on my account. Like my first situation, I had done nothing online to allow this to happen.

My point is that these are secure sites, and there's always a chance your personal information can be accessed anywhere.

Stay tuned for the next chapter specifically on how to become a buyer and make purchases. In the mean time, if you have any questions you can contact me or check out some of these useful links:

General FAQ's about Etsy
DO's and DON'Ts of Etsy
Etsywiki (The Wikipedia of Etsy)
Etsy's Help Guides

The Many Names of Corin

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Corin, one of my Etsy buddies. Rinny, as she' s commonly known as has many talents. She's been involved in several forms of art throughout her life. She began crocheting at the age of 8, taught by her mom and grandmother. Her first project was crocheting a rose, and she's enjoyed working with yarn, particularly textured or unusual yarn, ever since. She's most popularly known on Etsy under the alias of Knotsntangles aka knots, or tangles as I like to call her. This shop features crocheted blankets, hats, scarves, and handbags.



Her love of graphic design, which she got involved in about 7 years ago and later chose that as her career path, inspired her to open a second Etsy shop called Kersplat. Here she sells her custom and pre-made avatars and banners, as well as photos. However, she still loves the traditional art form of pencil on paper!


When asked which shop she liks better she replied, "Oooh, tough question. I think I get a little more enjoyment in my crocheting, because I can do whatever I want, and it's very relaxing sometimes. I love my graphic design work, but sometimes you end up having to make something to someone else's specifications, and you don't always agree."



Shown here to the right is a picture link of her favorite item that she currently has for sale, the Fuschia Dream Bag. She says, "It's gotten a lot of great feedback and it was just something I tried one day. I wanted to make a really funky bag that stood out, and I think I achieved it. It's very soft and furry, hopefully it will have a home one day."




In the picture link to the left, Rinny's friend, Kim, models a crocheted hat titled Creamy Pink Hat. Kim makes several appearanecs in Rinny's Knots n Tangles shop. She also models a Very Berry Kerchief and the Navy Blue Hat.

Rinny's all time favorite project, however, was a not-for-profit piece she did. She crocheted a baby blanket as a donation for a mother and her newborn son as a special gift.


Her other baby is Kersplat where she sells things "for your design needs." Shown here is a custom made avatar that you could purchase for your own Etsy shop!






Enough business talk! Below is the rest of the interview, regarding what she does when she's not crafting:

Where do you live?
I live in New York, born here too, moved around a lot as a child, but ended up back in NY in the end. As much as I can't stand it here, I love it too!

Who do you live with?
I live with my fiance, we recently got engaged this past August and have been living together almost 3 years. We moved into a beautiful home a couple months ago, we live in the bottom portion while our landlords live in the top, and it's just fantastic, we really lucked out :)

Tell me about your family.
Ooooh, long story, so I'll sum up. Huge family, 28 first cousins just on my mother's side. I have 1 sister and 1 step sister and 3 step brothers, all great, and my step-dad is awesome too, just a great family. Great communication and my parents have been so helpful with advice and support over the years. K, enough of the mushy stuff, heh.

Do you have pets?
I have one beta fish named Lil' Jimmy, he's quite old but the little sucker is strong, cute little thing!

What is your regular non Etsy job?
I'm a full time graphic designer for a large company, I handle all print and web material.

What do you do when you are not crafting/designing, or at work?
I'm on the computer a lot, tv, books, friends house, dinner, movies, normal stuff I guess.

Thats about all I know about her! You can learn more by visiting her at:
http://knotsntangles.etsy.com/
http://kersplat.etsy.com/
http://knotsntangles.com/

My Mini Etsy

Below on my blog is my Mini Etsy. Clicking any item will bring you directly to it on my Etsy store. Once in my store, shop around!