First Items Sold at Easely Amused Consignment!!

You guys!! I got an email from the shop lady at Easely Amused and it's official!! I have sold items and I am out there!! Watch out Austin, here I come!!!!

First Consignment Display - Easely Amused

Last night, I went down to Easely Amused so that I could (finally) get my displays setup to try to sell in Bridget's shop for my consignment deal. I was so nervous that when I got there and started taking my displays and pieces out of my bag, I was shaking and probably talking too fast and even dropped things 3 times!! I was just so nervous about how she would react to my displays along with just the fact that I was finally getting a professional display in a local shop!!

That slowly eased however as each item I pulled out of my bag, whether it was actual merchandise or display, she loved! She ooh'd at my colorful clutches, she aah'd at my jewelry, she wow'd at my clutch display and she 'neat!'d my single necklace displays I painted. 

I'm not sure exactly what I expected, but I was very excited when she seemed to appreciate every little detail I'd been so particular about and had taken the time to do! From the hot glue on the back of the jewelry boards so she didn't poke herself handling them, to the butterflies I punched and used as my price tags, from the printed out inventory sheet we both got a copy of, to the bags I provided for her to put jewelry or clutches that were sold in with a business card in each one already!

Needless to say, I'm very happy I took the time to make it look as nice as I could as I'm sure if she loved it, anyone else who sees it should like how I set it all up too... right??

If anyone's in the Austin, TX area and likes painting or just having a good time with friends, you should totally check out Easely Amused on South Lamar:

Well, you tell me what you think, yeah? :)

Entire display as I left it and what it will stay for at least a week.

Close-up of bracelet and necklace display using painted art canvas flat board on a wooden art display easel.

Clutch display with the handmade display risers and business cards in their little holder.

Close-up of earring display using painted art canvas flat board on a wooden art display easel.

Main row I'd originally planned for with the exception of shelf change altogether.

Close-up of the colors I painted the single necklace displays.

I used a couple of wrought-iron looking single art display easels for these two.

Far left with necklaces, bracelets and 2 single piece displays above.

Middle display with all my clutches in the shop at the time.

Far right with earrings and 2 single piece displays above.

Card design I ended up going with and printed 230 of. I am plenty stocked!

The single displays before I pained the 3 layers of paint on front along with the paper bags with handles for bagging a sold clutch and chevron paper bags for jewelry sales. The flat canvas boards came in a set of 3 for about $8 and the 2 easel stands I got sitting next to them. The paper pack on the far left is what I used to punch my price tags for the jewelry and clutches as opposed to using those little pre-strung tags or using stickers.

What the canvas boards look like without jewelry and hooks covering. I completely forgot until I got there that her lobby furniture is about the yellow I used as the base layer!! I just got 1/4" screw hooks to screw into the board for hanging jewelry and where the screws stuck out the back, I just hot glued over and did a solid layer of green on the back to cover the print they come with.

For the clutch display, I used the basic idea from Senn & Sons:

I used a LOT of hot glue to make sure all the pieces stayed and were as sturdy as I could get them.

I added a lip to the front so hopefully it would keep a clutch (maybe 2?) from just sliding off the 'shelf'.

I added a bracer piece in the back to give it more stability. The only thing I might change would be adding a base so if I used this type of display at an outdoor show, I can put little beanbags in the bottom to keep it from knocking over.

My first attempt at covering didn't quite work out with some gray cotton... You can see the hot glue lines really easily and it looked bad, worse in person than in the picture.

Found some awesome soft fleece material I never used for its intended project and had enough to cover the front...

...cover the sides with adding a little folded flourish for aesthetics...

...and put a panel in the back to cover the hot glue and hide the secret of how I made this!! Also, this would be visible from the window side and I didn't want it to look messy!

 Well, there you have it. My displays and the entire setup!! What do you guys think?! I took so many pictures because I was just so darn excited about having a public setup that I maybe took too many pictures, but hey, gotta document my progress, right?? I wish I could have taken window pictures of how they'll look from the street, but her sign was up and I didn't want to take off too much of the duct tape she was using to keep it on out there. Maybe I can get some pictures next time I show up.

I'm pretty excited about the change of shelving though and the fact that she hasn't found vendors to fill the other shelves. That means I can at least put another couple clutches at the top of my display (the other shelves were only 15" tall and 4 clutches are 16" tall...) along with maybe making more displays for other pieces to put on the 2nd shelf, at least, until she finds other vendors to showcase. I told Bridget that I was looking into making tablet cases and clutches with a detachable wrist strap and a 2nd whole-side pocket so that you could put your phone or bigger items on the other side in the clutches and she seemed as excited as I am, so those may be next on the plan!!

Now I get to take a break tonight for a show bf and I are going to with friends and then I get back to work tomorrow on the last few clutches I cut fabric for last month and start planning what I want to do with the rest of the fabric I've bought since then. I also need to figure out what I want to put up in a friend's dojo who's going to make a shadowbox display box and I get half of it, 18"x36"!! I've also been advised to check out another local store about 15 minutes from my day job's location that does consignment of local vendors to see if I can setup a consignment deal with them too!! I will definitely keep you guys posted though!!

Craft ya laters!

Monthly All Girls Craft Group - July 2013

This month's craft day was small due to a lot of stuff going on for people. Airon had homework and projects to do for her classes, Michelle's working on getting their house ready to show/sell and lots of other types of things.

We did have one though, even if it was just my mom, Sarah and me. 

Sarah was working on some cross-stitch type Kleenex boxes and a jeans casing for her chain link belt she wears when she takes walks to encourage a little more cardio burn (didn't get pictures unfortunately).

My mom wanted to make another badge lanyard for herself:

The only part I did for her was to finish it off with a crimp bead, thread protector and crimp cover! Looks good!!

I haven't been able to get all my displays done and pricing and all that for my consignment deal yet so that's what I was working on some more. I got the rest of my price tags strung (punched cardstock with a couple of punches I have, will show you guys those later ;) ) but also painted the single necklace displays:

I had painted a couple of flat canvases yellow and then swirled green and blue on the background to add a little flair and measured out and drilled holes for the hooks sometime last week. Saturday I went ahead and got all the screw hooks in the boards and hung the jewelry I plan on giving her on them:

Once I get my whole setup done, I will show you guys the finished products as well as what the display looks like all setup in the Easely Amused shop! 

I can't wait to finish these guys and get to the next item(s) on my list!!
This was definitely a smaller group this time around, but it meant that we got to sit there and chit chat the whole time. 

Here's to next time!!

Craft ya laters!

Monthly All Girls Craft Group - June 2013

We had our June All Girls Craft Day on 6/22/13. It was a little small with attendance being 5 gals, one of whom couldn't stay long, but we still got a bit done!

Sarah was able to get a bracelet and 2 pairs of earrings done (one pair pictured, the other with black beads instead of blue):

Anne had a little more fun with the needle felting and made an awesomely cute little duck!!

I got another clutch done for a friend at work, but unfortunately the neon green was unexpected and has asked for another one with a darker, more true green. That's ok, that just means I can use this one for my consignment shop stock!

And last but not least, we had Airon taking her first big stab and making something on a sewing machine (whirrrrr):

And voila! She made the cutest little bow-front, zippered, wrist strap clutch!! 

Great job as always all!!

Craft ya laters!!

Monthly All Girls Craft Group - March 2013

March was much more productive for all that showed, even me!! w00t!!

Airon didn't have to work on a paper (Yay!!) and after looking up a little last minute advice on best way to do it..

She was able to finally get her project finished she'd been dreaming about for a few months!!

Inspiration came from the lovely and talented Kristi Linauer at Addicted2Decorating.com only, in a much smaller scale than what she presented in her post.


Leena worked on a necklace:

 

As well as a very cute baby announcement/card for a friend:

After some discussion and brainstorming about supplies for other projects...

 And some playing with one of the pet attendants...

I was able to make some necklaces!!

As well as one that we mocked from a necklace Michelle had already and modeled by the lovely "Airon's neck"...

Michelle was working on a necklace for her soon-to-be sister-in-law:

Which was pretty enough as it was, then she had to top herself and make more for the bride and bridesmaids to choose from!!

All in all, this craft day was pretty good in terms of projects worked on/finished but again, was just great to see the gals and have a little wine and gossip!!

Craft ya laters!!

Monthly All Girls Craft Group - January 2013

Yesterday was the first monthly all girls craft group we had and it was soooo much fun!!! And from what I heard from the ladies, everyone had a blast! This will definitely have to turn into a regular thing! ;)

We had it at my bff's house and had 2 long tables and 1 card table set up... There were 9 of us total, and everyone pretty much had their own things going on from playing with clay to learn new techniques...

I love all the pieces she made!! Especially the first attempt at the faux knit technique!! Isn't it fantastic?! And that owl is just so cute!!!

There was some work done with perler beads:

Scrapbooking was getting done. Yay for getting baby books worked on!!:

There was teaching even when Airon wanted to learn crocheting from Sarah since neither one of us can figure out how to get past that first chain stitch row!! (She's gonna have to teach me that later ;)):

And of course, like any good woman now-a-days, we can multi-task!!:

Airon ironing her perler bead flowers while having a beer. Definitely my kind of crafting!! ;)

Here's the few things I managed to get done myself. The left shows the 2 handwarmers/wrist wrests for using a mouse and the right picture shows the hand stitch closing. The pink was first so a little messy, but I feel the white is a little less conspicuous.

The next 2 pictures are the corners of the neckwarmer/wrist wrest for using a keyboard. I decided to try an all-around stitch so I could make it look a little more professional and to also not have to hand stitch the open end closed!! What do you think?? Can you tell that's what I did? ;)

 I did get a bunch of other pieces cut to just sit down and sew/fill later, so that's good at least.

With me trying to get some of my scraps used up, the other thing I decided to do when I couldn't cut the bigger pieces anymore is to cut 3" squares and set them aside so when I've got a good supply of those, I can make a sort of patchwork piece to cut other patterns out of for other projects. I'm actually a little excited to do that and see what it looks like and what I can make out of it... ;)

All in all though, this is definitely going to have be a regular thing!! Thanks to everyone who came out and hope to see you next time as well as some new faces!!