Illustrations by Nancy C. Sampson

Archive for ‘October, 2014’

Exciting Secrets Revealed!

By on October 23, 2014

percival

Percival eating noodles… a Hanukkah card available in The Nancydraws Shop.

At last I may share details about the tools that I was testing when I participated in a small-scale market for employees only at Etsy HQ! That clever, crafty company now has their own credit card reader for in-person sales. The timing couldn’t be better for me, since I am just beginning to get out there to the craft shows with my illustrations and greeting cards. I can tell you from my experience that the tool works perfectly with the new Etsy Seller mobile app. When you have the reader attached and the app launched you are ready to take sales in person via credit card, or use it to record cash sales. A full list of your shop items are available and the app creates e-mail invoices for customers and (I love this part) adds buyers to your page’s list of followers so that they will receive updates when you post new products in your shop. There are many great features, and I’m very excited to receive mine in the mail… I ordered one today about 4 minutes after opening the announcement email!

etsy-reader

The Etsy card reader!

For more info and FAQ, click here to go to the Etsy site.

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Gifts

By on October 9, 2014

A Brooklyn sunset.

A Brooklyn sunset.

My yoga teacher shared something with me before class on Wednesday that really made my week! First, let me explain that earlier this year I came up with an experiment to leave copies of my artwork in public for strangers to find as a nice surprise. I printed my email address and website on the back in hopes that they’d also send me a note to say a little something about themselves or maybe even take an interest in this blog or my Etsy shop.

(You can read more about where I left my art work at this post: “Free Art! Turban Lady Edition.”) I also left copies of my Colson Patisserie artwork with the owner to give to random customers one day.

I didn’t have the highest hopes of getting any return on my gestures since I began with the concept of “giving back” and seeing if anything happened. If not, I was OK with the belief that someone found one and liked it.

So, this week my yoga instructor, Grace, said that after reading my blog post about the afternoon I met up with my friends to find hiding places for the artwork, she was inspired to give back in her own way and is planning a free yoga class in exchange for a food or other donation to a local community pantry. I just love knowing that my actions in some way helped someone else think of their own way to give back. I think this kind of action and reaction happens regardless of whether or not we know about it and more frequently than we realize, but knowing definitely brings me hope and reassurance!

Would you like to give back? How would you like to do it?

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September Craft Show Wrap-up Part 2

By on October 6, 2014

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It was all a mess when I began!

If you’ve read the first installment of my September Craft Show Wrap-up, you already know that I enjoyed my first craft show experience! I didn’t want that post to get too long so here is a second one to describe more about gathering and creating my table display.

When I was thinking about how to plan my craft show table for  The Nancydraws Shop my main goals were to make it inexpensive, lightweight, and eye-catching, so this is where my creative problem solving skills and online research came in handy.

I didn’t want my display pieces to be heavy because I thought I’d be able to carry everything by myself on the subway and save money on having to use a car service. (That didn’t happen, because of volume!)

At first I had no idea of my color scheme or even how I’d display any of my items until I purchased a couple of organizing bins at T. J. Maxx in a nice shade of green. I also had an antique gold card holder and since it can only display 6-8 cards I decided to look for some cardboard shelf-display boxes at the Park Slope Food Coop in order to have multiples available on the table. I found out that frozen burrito boxes were just the right size for my cards! I covered them with a matte gold wrapping paper that matched the antique gold card holder.

A week before the show I went into a dollar store near my day job and was lucky enough to find a sheet set with the perfect shade of purple printed with a fun but not-too-loud pattern for my table covering, and a couple of green metal buckets for some of my smaller items.

Testing out my display at home.

Testing out my display at home, before I added signs.

Towards the end of the end of my preparation process for each show, I added finishing touches; signs and price tags. I wanted to make all of the prices as easy as possible for shoppers to find so that they don’t need to ask.

By using a couple of things I already had at home and re-purposing the boxes I didn’t have to spend very much on the display itself, the total was less than $40. It was light (I needed 3-4 bags to transport it all along with the items I was selling) and as you can see, very pretty and inviting.

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