We would like to give a warm welcome to Jamie Harned (of the shop Sweet Baby Jamie) to our Wednesday Featured Artist post! Jamie is kind enough to offer free shipping for domestic orders for the whole month of December! Just enter the coupon code freeshipping. 


I am an avid crafter and fabric-a-holic! I absolutely LOVE fabric, I'm obsessed with it! I have always wanted to quilt, and finally took lessons when I was pregnant with my first child. That was 19 years ago! Since then I've been quilting away :)

My start on Etsy began in 2008. I found out about it through a friend…and haven't looked back!

My shop name came from my husbands favorite artist James Taylor! It is named after one of his songs Sweet Baby James….but with my name in place of James. It made sense because my passion is baby quilts! I love to make them. Nothing makes me happier to think about a sweet bundle of joy that will be cuddling up with one of my quilts.

Please welcome Isabel Liu from the shop Kawaii Amigurumi to our featured artist post! Isabel is offering a coupon code (AMIWX13) for 10% off $45 purchase! 


Introduction:
I'm a freelance graphic designer and always like cute furry stuffs. I couldn't imagine myself crochet or knit, it's just not my thing. One day, I found a cute Japanese website and learned what's "amigurumi" for the first time. 

I fell in love with the little cute plush that they made. Since it was way too expensive to purchase one ($200.00USD) so I learn how to crochet and maybe one day I can make one just like that.


 How did you get your start on Etsy? A friend told me about a website that sells handmade stuffs. After a successful fund-raising event from our church, I was encouraged to open my own store by brother and sisters at church.

 How did you choose your shop name? Ah, I'm very bad at choosing names....I select Kawaii (cute) Amigurumi (crochet stuffed animal) to be my shop name to add more Japanese flavor, because "amigurumi" IS from Japan originally.

 What does a typical day look like for you? I have a full time job and pick up my sister's kids at school. I usually start crochet after. Not a lot of times but at least I can work on my orders little by little. No crochet for me on Friday and Saturday, because church activities and I need a day off to just watch TV.

 If you could be anywhere in the world for one day, where would it be? I'd like to visit Japan. Visit one of Amigurumi master.

What is your favorite Bible verse? 1 Corinthians 13 (entire chapter)
 
 

What is your favorite Etsy item listing to feature? Amigurumi doll Momo
 URLs to where else we can find you on the internet:

I have both handmade stores and other general kawaii stores (not Etsy)
Blog: http://www.sirmaomao.com
Tumblr: http://sirmaomao.tumblr.com/
 Pinterest: http://sirmaomao.tumblr.com/
 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KawaiiAmigurumiCrochet   &  https://www.facebook.com/RuruVictoriaOnlineShop
 Instagram: http://instagram.com/marlinx
 Deviantart: http://ruruvictoria.deviantart.com/
 Twitter: @sirmaomao

Thanks Isabel for agreeing to be featured! Everyone go check out her shop and let her know what you think! 

Only a day late, we would like to welcome our Wednesday featured artist here! Her work is beautiful AND there is a giveaway-more about that lady. We'll get right into the interview:

Your name: Holly Ann Shaw

Your shop name(s): Haleighanna's Hands
-Give away item (optional, but it gets more visibility to your shop): Here's the giveawaywww.etsy.com/listing/110984218/flowers-of-spring-original-art

Introduce yourself!: (a little about yourself-bio): I am a Midwestern girl who decided to follow a dream and moved to Portland, Oregon. I left a corporate job so that I could work on getting to know myself better as an artist. I have been a Christ-follower for the last 15 years and have counseled adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse for the last five years, helping them to heal and grow closer to Christ.


How did you get your start on Etsy?: Etsy is a great platform for getting your work out into the marketplace. I love the fact that I can get my work out in front of people who are looking for handmade items.

How did you choose your shop name?: In college I had a friend who told me that I should start spelling my name as "Ha-leigh-anna" and it stuck. And since this is the work of my hands, I decided to call my store Haleighanna's Hands.

What does a typical day look like for you?:
Most of day is spent in my studio, working with paper, paint and glue. The late afternoons I am cooking, or working on my blog, or social media. 

If you could be anywhere in the world for one day, where would it be?: Without a doubt, I would spend the day on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. Rich, deep colors mixed with incredible landscapes and solitude.

What is your favorite Bible verse?: 
Romans 8:38-39
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 
neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What is your favorite Etsy item listing to feature?


Where else can we find you online?
Blog: www.haleighannashands.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/HaleighannasHands
Twitter: @haleighannahand
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/haleighanna

ROSE of Sharon -- Stretch Ring -- Sterling Silver by LoriDelisle

The new team format is LIVE on Etsy as of yesterday and the CAST Team is in the process of "Migrating" members to the new format.

All members from the old CAST Team list on Etsy should have received an invitation to join the new team list. All you have to do is confirm that you wish to continue with the team.

If you have not received an invitation it may be because of several things. For instance, if you were one of the many shops with broken links on our old list you will not have received an invite. If you joined the team within the last month or so when Etsy was not adding new members to the old list due to the upcoming migration, you will not have received an invite. If you have more than one shop, you will have to sign into Etsy under all shop identities to receive your invite for each. If your convo notifications normally get sent to your junk e-mail folder you may have to check there.

If for any reason you have not received an invitation to migrate, simply go to our new CAST Team Home Page on Etsy, click the "Join This Team" button and then click the "Apply" button. It may take a few days to get you approved, but we no longer have to wait for Etsy to add members to our list so it should be much faster than before.

There are many benefits to the new format. We now have our own centralized location with our own homepage and our own discussions (forums) that we can mark as either public or private. Also, our Captain can now add new members to our team list without waiting for Etsy to add them. If you wish to leave CAST or any other Etsy team you may now remove yourself. The Team Captain and Leaders can now moderate our discussions instead of having Etsy do it. Individual posts can be removed without closing a thread entirely.

Please keep all of our discussion threads public this week so that those who are still finding us on the new format are not excluded.

Thanks!

Sue of SueRunyonDesigns

As you probably already know, CAST Team has a new Facebook Page and it's gaining new followers every day. With all the new followers I was able to shorten the url to:

http://www.facebook.com/castteametsy

You can bookmark the url to find it easily.

In my opinion, Facebook is always a little glitchy and that's proven to be the case with the set-up for the new page. It's been a learning process. I know that many of you have not been receiving updates on your own walls for the CAST page. I've investigated the cause of that and it seems that Facebook has mysterious algorithms that decide what they think you are going to want to see. It was news to me that not all the updates from all my friends and "likes" were coming through to my wall, but that's the case.

Judy from AngelsnEverlastings was very helpful in introducing me to some settings that you can tweak in order to allow more updates through to your news feed on your wall.

On your own personal Facebook home page, scroll to the bottom to the light blue bar where you normally click the link to see "Older Posts." On the right side of that there should be a link that says "Edit Options." Click it.

You will get a pop-up that has a little box where you can enter the "Number of Friends." You can set this as high as 5000 to allow the maximum number of updates to get through. This is especially necessary if you have a lot of friends and have "liked" a lot of pages.

Right under that box is a link for "View Recommended Friends." Click it.  All your friends and pages should pop up there. Scroll to the the CAST Team. Click CAST Team to highlight it in blue so that Facebook knows you want CAST posts on your wall. Save the settings. You will probably still only get the posts by Admin from CAST, but there doesn't seem to be anything we can do about that.

Also, it may be confusing to some that there are two admins and we are both named Sue ☺. We both have to post with the CAST Badge instead of our own personal profile pictures because that's the only way it works. Sue A of MYSAVIOR is the main admin and now that everything is pretty much set up she'll be the one posting updates.

by Sue of SueRunyonDesigns

If you haven't seen it already, the CAST Team has a new fan page on Facebook.  If you are on Facebook we'd love for you to come "Like" the page.

Christian Artists Street Team on Etsy (CAST)

Sue of MYSAVIOR is the admin for the Facebook page.  Please contact her with ideas and offers of help.

Thanks,
Sue of SueRunyonDesigns

October Forum Thread

This is the fifth and last post in a series about how to get all the proper licenses and permissions for your home business.  To read the previous posts click the links:

Get Legit ! #1 Get your EIN#
Get Legit ! #2 Your neighborhood
Get Legit ! #3 Do your research
Get Legit ! # 4 Your State


If you've been following along in the series and taking the baby steps to get your business legally established, almost all the work is behind you and you'll soon have your home occupancy business permit. To celebrate this I'm scattering a few CAST items for your home throughout this post.

County:

At this point you will have contacted your county (or parish, burough, township, etc) and you'll know if you have to do anything at all for them. The most likely requirement at county level is to file a Fictitious Name Statement. See previous posts for more information about that.


City:

You will also now have the required forms to fill out for your city license. The good news is that with a few exceptions, they are much the same as your State forms and will most likely also use your State Business License and/or Sale Tax ID#.  The main difference will be in the area of City Planning and Zoning. If your city is small, the Business License Office will likely share space with the Planning and Zoning Offices and probably one application will handle both requirements. If you live in a larger city, you may have to obtain permission from Planning and Zoning before being approved for a business license.

This is where it may be beneficial to do some extra research by talking to the people at the offices to find out what the planning and zoning requirements are for a home business in your city. Different cities have very different laws and different neighborhoods have different zoning. In general, low profile home businesses are encouraged. Just think of all the home day care, piano teachers, tutors, designers, caterers, telecommuters and other individuals that work out of their homes in your area. Many of these have official home occupancy business permits.


Be aware that your City Planning and Zoning Commission will be interested in how your business will effect the community and will want to make sure it is legal and safe. They will be particularly interested in things like:

Will you have employees?
Will you have customers coming to your home? If so, how many per day?
If you will, where will they park?
Where will they enter? Is there a separate entrance for customers?
Will there be any signs?
What product do you manufacture?
What percentage of the area of your home will be devoted to your home business?
Will there be any additional noise from things such as power tools?
Will you be storing your inventory on site?
Do you use toxic chemicals?

It is helpful to know how your neighborhood is zoned before you make the decision to ask for permission to have customers on site. If you do have customers on site, you may be required to have a separate entrance, adequate parking and get a fire inspection.

My business license has the restrictions of :  No Employees, License Limited to Residents of the Home Only, and No Objectionable Traffic/Parking

Note that if you deal with food you will very likely be required to have (or rent space in) a certified catering kitchen and be subject to random inspections.

Bonnie of Tiggerbonn, our CAST Team Leader, convo'd me to ask me to let everyone know that after a long hiatus, the CAST Team Yahoo Group message feature has been reactivated.

If you were a former member of the CAST Team Yahoo Group you will probably have noticed that you have been receiving messages via e-mail from other members. If you aren't currently a member of the group you may go sign up.

If your e-mail inbox is being bombarded with CAST messages and would like to change your settings so you receive all the message in one daily digest instead of as they are written, you can click the CAST Team Yahoo Group link, sign into your Yahoo account and then click the "Edit Membership" link near the top to change your settings.

Even though it needs a little dusting off, some members prefer the Yahoo Group to the Etsy forums. If you participate there you will likely meet different CAST Members and find a great place to network. You can also post photos, post your links and find Facebook, Twitter and Blog links for other members.

Thanks,
Sue of SueRunyonDesigns

by Jennifer of mulberrylanefolkart


Hello all! I'm Jennifer Beers and I'm a member of Christian Artists Street Team. I'm here to share what I've been doing lately to promote my shop!

It all started just last Wednesday. I was talking to my sister, Julie, and she told me that Birds & Blooms Magazine has a Facebook page and I might try posting there about my birdhouses, which I immediately did! B & B's facebook has over 24,000 followers! So I posted this:

Jennifer Beers Birds & Blooms Magazine: Love Birds and Blooms! I've been making birdhouses you can see at mulberrylanefolkart.etsy.com

And I put a picture of one of my birdhouses. I got 5 likes and one nice comment-- "Pretty! You're quite talented!" Well! That was nice! So, I posted a few more times with different birdhouses. B & B's page fills up quickly so I would wait until my post was at the bottom or into older posts. Anyway, on Thursday I posted this...Here's my new birdhouse this week! See this and more here...http://www.etsy.com/listing/54297153/back-to-school-birdhouse

and I got this comment...Wow, I'll take several of these as I'm a teaching assistant and have many teacher and asst. friends I could give this to! Going to your web site right now!!!  I saw this at my sisters house on her computer and when I got home I saw I had sold the School Birdhouse,and 3 other birdhouses!, so I went and relisted -Quanity of 2, and the lady on facebook bought them both!

In order to help be more personable I try to post sometimes without selling (such as on Birds & Blooms I posted pictures of butterflies in my garden). I feel they will trust me in a more friendly way.

Long story short, I started looking for other magazines on facebook that would be prospects for my items. I found:

Country Living

Better Homes and Gardens

Parents - I posted my Noah's ark- http://www.etsy.com/listing/53484559/noahs-ark
And my Bows and Headbands Holder- http://www.etsy.com/listing/54160398/hair-bows-barrettes-and-headband-holder

Horse and Rider I posted my Horseshoe Birdhouse I said--Here's a birdhouse I made for horse lovers!

They Posted this comment Horse & Rider Magazine:  Love this, Jennifer. We have a birdhouse collector on our staff, she says yours is adorable! (Aw, shucks, blush)

Reminisce ( Here I posted-- I used to love playing checkers with my dad! Now I make checkerboards! See them here... http://www.etsy.com/shop/mulberrylanefolkart?section_id=6621919)

Some of these sites only allow downloaded pictures with posts so you paste your link in your post and add a picture. Others allow a link with your post. Some business facebooks don't allow posts--only they post and you can just comment.

I'm still searching other facebook pages to promo on and today I found:

Daily Bible Scripture (they only allow posts- no pictures or links) and posted--I paint Bible verse plaques in calligraphy with illustrations or decorative borders. You can see them here... http://www.etsy.com/shop/mulberrylanefolkart?section_id=6760215

Here are some others:

Craft magazine

Paper Crafts Magazine

Creating Keepsakes magazine

MyHomeIdeas.com

Many of us have blogs where we post about favorite recipes and you could post those on these food facebook sites which takes them to your blog and your Etsy links there!

Taste of Home Magazine

Southern Living

Food Network

You want to find places that have lots of followers.

I'm only sharing this here because I am a little reluctant to spread the word too far. There are so many Etsy sellers that they might flood these facebook pages and some of them may stop allowing this kind of posts. I try not to post too often so I won't be thought of as a pest.

I hope some of you may get a little help from this, and may God bless all our efforts to create and promote our sales on etsy!

Jennifer

by Jennifer of mulberrylanefolkart

P.S.

Here's an example of one of my posts on Birds & Blooms with comments:



*Jennifer Beers Here is my fun Back To School Birdhouse! See more details here...
http://www.etsy.com/listing/54358662/back-to-school-birdhouse
(Inserted picture of School Birdhouse)

* Beth (Last name)- likes this.

* Melissa - I bought two of them and they're awesome!!!

*Jennifer Beers-I'm so glad you like them Melissa! (Melissa is the customer who saw my Post last week end and bought!)

Jennifer's Facebook
Jennifer's Blog

Hi CAST members.

If you are looking for the new August Forum Thread here it is:

CAST forum thread for August

Remember, please don't discuss or link to anything of a political nature on the public forum thread as per our Team Leader, Bonnie.

I would love to share this story with you because I have been so blessed by it, and I think others will be too.

I am new to Etsy and on-line social networking. After 12 years of being in the corporate world, God closed that door early this year. I have experienced all the emotions that come with leaving a job: fear, anger, insecurity, as well as some freedom to rediscover who God made me to be.

One of the first items I made for my Etsy shop were little needle felted sheep. I wanted to convey how comforting it is to live in the care of The Great Shepherd. As sheep we often daily wander away, and we need the Shepherd to help lead us back into His fold. With this, one of my favorite Shepherd verses is: Isaiah 40:11. "He will feed His flock like a shepherd, He will gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those who are with young."

It was one of these sheep that I made that was featured on an Etsy Treasury where a wonderful godly women found my shop. Her name is Jennifer. God led Jennifer to my shop and to purchase one of my sheep. I received such joy from this, and since then we've be communicating off and on.

Jennifer shared with me her passion for the country of Latvia and how she heard of a family from my home town that I know of through my children; that would be traveling for a missions trip to Latvia. Jennifer knew that the family needed to raise money for their trip, so God led her to donate everything out of her shop to the Petrick family to help raise money for their trip.

I was able to meet Nichole Petrick (the mother who will be taking her 3 small children to Latvia), at a restaurant where she was our waitress! I shared with her our mutual connection of Jennifer, a woman we have only met on-line. She broke into tears right at our table and shared with me how blessed and overjoyed she is to be a recipient of such generosity. Everyone at the table got teary-eyed as we reveled in God's abundance. How small acts of faithfulness are being turned into tremendous acts because God is behind all of them. So now, I have a connection with Jennifer and with Nichole as we share this common story. When we feel overwhelmed, or like we are not be "useful" for the Kingdom of God, we recall this story of God's faithful leading and weaving of our lives together for His greater purposes.

The story, I'm sure will continue to unfold as the Petrick Family goes to Latvia in a few weeks; but I just had to share as their prayer letter and photo card card came home from church today to be placed on my "prayer wall" (refrigerator)...the verse that is leading them???


Praise be to God for His mercies that are new everyday!

by Jan of PearCreekCottage

The day after my husband and I were conversing about this, friends of ours came over. We were to have a meeting, planning our youth camps for the year. We normally have a short devotional before starting our meetings. So we did. We read out of the book of Job.

I began to think...

"I have it all planned out-plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for." Jeremiah 29:11

Let me share this short story with you:

As the father wakes to a blazing fire in his home, he realized his young son is upstairs. The fire is so bad it's hard to see through the flames and smoke. He hears his son screaming for him. The father realizes he is unable to get him, the flames have engulfed the stairs.
As the young boy stand at the top of the stairs unable to see his father standing below, his father yells, "Son, just jump! I can see you. I will catch you!" The son replies, "But dad, I can't see you. I'm scared!" His father again replies, "Son, don't worry! Trust me! I can see you. Jump!"
Although scared, and unable to see his father, he jumps. Only to fall into his fathers arms and out to safety.

Sometimes, we have a hard time trusting Him when we can't see what we were anticipating. We doubt. Always remember He is at times just simply waiting on us to be faithful and have complete trust in Him. Once we let go of our doubts and fears and JUST JUMP, we will realize we will be falling into His arms and taken onto HIS purpose and plans.

If you don't remember anything else from this, remember this...

I hope you have enjoyed this and today's faith driven finds.

In His Love,

Ana

Have you ever used Etsy's Pounce feature?

It's fun to use, but it's also a useful business tool. Instead of searching Etsy to see what's for sale, you can use Pounce to see what people are actually BUYING. You can also use it to find successful shops so you can visit them to see what they are doing right. It's an amusing way to do market research.

Give it a try!

by Sue of SueRunyonDesigns