Open Monday: My new best friend and a coupon code

First thing's first, we have a new coupon code today, #96. Eleanor from Oh Louise! is giving you a chance to receive free shipping on your next order. Just use code OLFRIFAVESJAN2012 before the month is up.

To learn more about Oh Louise! be sure to visit Eleanor's blog. And to say thank you to Eleanor for sharing this code with us I think we should all "like" her etsy shop and follow her blog.

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I have a new best friend. I just can't see how I could ever live without him now that he is in my life. He is the best thing that has happened to me (other than my beautiful baby girl of course) and my shop (other than all my wonderful customers of course). He keeps me focused and helps me manage my time, I just love him. What's his name? Hours Tracker! And he's an app for my iPhone! I bet you thought I had a new boyfriend huh? So whats so great about this app you ask? Well I'll tell you...

Being a full time student, full time mom and full time shop owner, staying focused, organized and finding balance can be a challenge but with Hour Tracker I can do all those things a little better and less stressful. I can create "jobs" and clock in whenever I want and use other apps on my phone at the same time without interfering with the tracker. And best of all, if I forget to clock out I can go back and manually enter the time I had stopped working. Which is great for when I have to stop everything and attend to my daughter or help my mom with something around the house. 

Before the tracker, I was trying to do everything. I was trying to finish an entire shop task in one day, along with doing homework, chores and taking care of my daughter. But now, I set a certain amount of hours to work in my shop in a day so that I have time to do other things that need to get done and being able to keep track of it has helped immensely!

There are a lot of similar apps out there, some of them are free but don't have has many features as the ones that you can purchase. My app cost me 4.99 and was worth every penny.

New Wednesday: Upcoming Products

Well, the weather here has been a bit gloomy but should be brightening up. And it's due to that gloomyness that I was unable to take photos of my latest ready-to-ship stationery set. Which makes me sad because they are incredibly cute.

Here's a brief description since I can't show them to you yet:
It consists of 5 A2 cards, they are blue and white. There's some paper lace and pretty ribbons involved. They are possibly my favorite ready-to-ship set yet. By the way, hot glue may be awesome, but it sure is stringy. I think I spent a good chunk of my time getting rid of glue strings while making these cute little beauties.

Also, be sure to tune in Monday morning for a bit of re-purposing.

See you guys later!

P.S.
I will be accepting orders until the end of this week, December 17th. Remember, I offer free gift wrap!

All Work, No Play

Well, sort of. I've actually been playing quite a bit lately since my niece and nephews have been visiting us for the past week and will be here all of next week; but my mind is always on my work, either telling me to stop goofing off and start creating or desperately trying to come up with new ideas as I sit and play Scrabble. Hmm... Maybe I'll make a Scrabble stationery set? Nah, not my style.

But I was able to take more photos and list two new items this week; one is a ready-to-ship set and the other is an old design in a new color.

Heart of Gold Stationery Set

This set has ten cards and ten envelopes. I hand embossed each heart individually and added a gold heart sticker in the bottom right corner. Because of limited supplies there will only be five of these sets available and once they're gone, they're gone. $11.40 at my Etsy shop

Many Thanks in Purple

I am now offering my Many Thanks set in purple, which I think is my favorite color for this card so far.

Still Plugging Away

Last week, I mentioned how badly I wanted to call it quits on my shop; but, I got it organized and created the codes I needed and am making a headway on photographs. Here is what I have so far. I stopped using the tabletop photo kit, I just wasn't happy with the way they were coming out and ended up using our dining room table and window light instead. I'm very happy with how they came out.

Benny

Elizabeth

Formal Monogram

Many Thanks

Many Thanks Black

Well that's all for now, there is more but I'm not going to show you all my secrets just yet ;)

Nickel Design

Tell us your name, the name of your shop and what it is that you do here on Etsy:
Mabel Iriberri, Nickel Design, I create personalized invitations for life's celebrations.

What is your family life like? (i.e. how many children, their ages, names, are you a single mom? Are they supportive of what they do and so forth?)
I've got 2 boys, affectionately called Thing 1 and Thing 2. When they are behaving, their names are Nicky (4 years old) and Daniel (2 years old). They are the reason I work as hard as I do. Not only do I want to be able to afford to send them to college, but I'd love to be able to afford all of the little things that will make them into well-rounded young men. Everything from music lessons to art classes to ice hockey (I have to include hockey or my husband will have a fit : )

Do you have another job outside of Etsy and outside of the home?
Outside of Etsy, I work from home as a freelance print graphic designer.

How do you balance home life, Etsy and work?
I'm very fortunate to be able to work from home. Working from home allows me to have an open schedule. While it's not exactly a glamorous fact that I have the freedom to book their dentist appointment any time of the day that I so desire, I do get a kick out of taking them to the park in the middle of the day. That being said, there are many nights that I'm up until midnight finishing work that should have been done earlier in the day. But every moment is worth it for my boys.
I'm also fortunate enough to have a great husband who comes home after work and kidnaps them from time to time to allow me to finish working without minimal bloodshed.

What made you decide to sell on Etsy?
I love Etsy. Etsy has allowed me to show my invitations to a wide audience. I get such a kick out of talking to my customers and hearing all of their party details. Etsy allows me to live vicariously - attending one party after another - I just wish I could get some cake out of this.

Do you feel pretty successful in your Etsy shop or is there room to grow? If you feel successful is there a secret you'd like to share with us?
Successful - not yet. But I'm working on it! There is definitely room to grow. I love it when someone asks me to design something custom for them. I'm not always in touch with what is popular so it's nice to hear new ideas for parties.

What do you feel makes your shop special and unique?
My shop is unique because I offer a product that you can't buy in a store. My invitations not only welcome someone to a party, but they offer a sneak preview of the celebration and encourage someone to attend.


As Mom's, things get chaotic and find it hard to stay focused, how do you stay focused and motivated?
I stay focused because I have a client that needs something by a certain date. Deadlines are key motivators for me : ) Also, I have to be able to afford to keep the house fully stocked with pull-ups, the consequences of running out are big motivators.

Is there anything else you'd like the readers to know?
Thank you so much for reading about my little shop! I promise not to bore you with toddler stories when you convo me!

Ooooh, whats going on (whats going on)

Last week I ordered a bunch of new supplies (mostly rubber stamps-my fave) which all came in at the same time yesterday; poor mail man, always delivering something to my door. Soon, I'll begin designing Christmas card sets and baby announcements, new thank you cards and blank stationery sets as well. But first, with my new handy-dandy (Ha! I almost said notebook) table top photo studio, I will be spending the week retaking photos of my current items and editing them; on second thought, that may take two weeks.

This past week, while waiting on the edge of my seat for my new supplies, I've been spending time creating spreadsheets, pricing guides, codes, inventory and supply lists and I even made a supply wishlist (among that list is colored paper, ink pads and new stamps for new products I'll be offering). I'll be going back to school soon and I need to try and keep everything as organized as possible as I find time to study and take care of my daughter.

I am currently making changes to my blog as well. You may have noticed the new banner up top which is much better than the old one. The logo part "LMC"  was designed by my brother, I think he did a great job, while I created the banner part. I am quite proud. I'd like to hear what you guys think of the blog make over so far, keep in mind it's not finished.

Coming soon

My most popular

I don't have any new items to show you today but, hopefully by the end of this week I will have new supplies so I can create more beautiful stationery sets just for you. That includes two new colors for paper, new stamps and new embossing techniques.

Speaking of new colors, which two would you prefer to see for my stationery?

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Do you guys remember Sick and Thrifted? This Etsy shop was recently featured on our last Friday's Faves. For our #71 follower you can use coupon code BLOGGER to receive 10% off at Sick and Thrifted.

New Stuff and some changes

I've added a new stationery set to my shop! I'm really excited about it. In the past, I only did monogrammed stationery sets, with this set you can have an entire name or word stamped on it as long as it's no more than ten characters, including spaces. Isn't it pretty? I'm really proud of it.

You can have your name or word of choice printed in pink, black, blue, teal or purple. I used a white card stock which I cut and folded myself  and then I had stamped each letter. To showcase your name or word, I hand embossed a very lovely, ornate design around it. I just love it. This is probably one of my favorites.

Also, you guys may have noticed a new tab up at the top of my blog marked "Charity." That's because I will now be 10% of all sales to Calvary Assembly of God, my home church. You can read more here. 

Don't forget! I offer free shipping to anywhere in the world on orders over 30$. You can see my other items here.

I have new coupon code for you! This is for #67! Use coupon code LMC15 at Dancing Mooney for 15% off and runs through May 31st, better get shopping! This sweet heart even posted her on her own blog about my Coupon Code Extravaganza! n_n

Some new stuff for ya!

I've got some new items this week, as promised.

First up, is my new thank you card set, "Many Thanks." I think this one is my favorite so far. It's available in teal, black, blue and pink and I will soon be offering it in purple!

 

 In addition to that, I'm also now offering my original Thank You set in the same colors, you can view them here
Teal
Black
Blue

I also created a new monogram set. It's very simple. If your not fond of the heart I can replace it with a circle or square. The monogram can be done in teal, black, blue or pink, so it can be really customized.

And for Mother's Day, I created a beautiful green card with "Happy Mother's Day" stamped in gold. In each corner I embossed a flower design and I added a ribbon as that final touch. I will be adding more Mother's Day cards soon and then it's on to Father's Day!

I would really like your opinion!

This is one of the Thank You sets I already offer

So, I have this idea, well I have a few actually... But anyway, once I'm able to come up with more designs for stationery sets, I thought it might be a good idea to make up a sample set for those who can't decide on what set to buy. I also want to do this with different thank you cards as well. I wouldn't charge much for them, like if there were five different cards in one set, I would only charge, maybe, $3.75. That would cover the cost to make and any paypal fees and the Etsy listing fee. And of course I would have to charge shipping and handling. But what do you think? I think it's a good idea and as far as I know no one else is doing it with cards (Please don't steal my idea!) Also, I'm debating on weather or not I should include any envelopes in the sample set; should include five, one for each card? Just one envelope so they can see how it looks? Or maybe just have them request the envelopes?

I don't know, but I'm excited about my idea. I really want your opinion, would you buy a sample set?