Fabric fabric fabric!

Fabric.com is having one of their crazy sales again. Evil!

And they have lots of awesome prints:

Stripes!

damask!

plaid!

cupcakes!

Get 15% off orders $50-99.99 with coupon code: ZIP15
Get 20% off orders $100-149.99 with coupon code: BANG20
Get 25% off orders $150 and up with coupon code: POW25

How do you set yourself apart from the competition?

Today’s Crafty Business Advice Question comes from Krista of Kihten.

How do you anticipate what people want / will buy from the shop & how do you set yourself apart from other people who make essentially the same types of things that you do?

I tend to use my own taste to determine what I think people will want. I know if I stick to what I know and like, then at least I can be sure I’d buy it. Then again, sometimes I finish something and think, “Hmmm, I don’t know if I like this anymore,” and it’s gone 5 minutes after I list it. The bottom line is: be true to your own aesthetic.

 

I think the same answer applies to setting yourself apart from “the competition.” Design with your aesthetic in mind, and you’ll stand out all on your own.

I actually choose not to look at other handmade designers as competition, though. I think it tends to breed an unfriendly environment. I pity those handmade sellers that choose to knock other designers, because they’re missing a great opportunity to make friends and network with like-minded business people.

I can’t tell you how many referrals I’ve gotten from fellow sellers that I’m friendly with. Some of them make very similar items to mine, but since they don’t take custom work and they know I do, they send customers looking for custom orders my way. If I made snarky remarks about how crappy so-and-so’s shop is or how my stuff is so much better than the other garbage t-shirt reconstructions on Etsy, I don’t think I’d be getting those referrals.

The other reason networking with “the competition” is important is that the true competition is mass production, and it’s a lot easier to convince the masses of all that handmade has to offer when you can point them in the direction of not only YOUR shop, but also those of all the talented people you know.

Happy crafting!

-Lex

 

Do you have a crafty business question or just general crafty question you’d like to ask?

• Send your questions to what.the.craft[at]gmail.com with your question!
• Include your shop/blog/website URL with your question, and I’ll include it in the post if I choose to answer your question in the blog!
• (Unless you’d prefer to be anonymous. In that case, just tell me you’d prefer to not be credited!)

 

Silhouette SD digital cutter review

Today I finally sat down to play with my new Silhouette SD! I’ve been intrigued by the personal electronic cutting machines for a while now, and I’m ecstatic to finally have one of my own to play with!

I know you’re probably super jealous, but I’ve got good news for you.

Now through June 29th, you can get the Silhouette SD and 2 packages of temporary tattoo paper for $199! That’s $120 off!
Just use the Promo code “WHAT“
Also, all other Silhouette shop items are 25% off through the 29th!

So onto the review!

Setting up the machine and installing the software took ten minutes, tops. Super easy.

You get some cool designs with the machine. There are cakes, flowers, leaves, and hearts, along with a pattern for a box and patterns for a card and envelope combo. Right out of the box with just the included designs, you could make a custom gift box and matching card for a birthday, shower, Mother’s Day… That rocks.

I downloaded a few designs from the Silhouette Online Store, which was easy to navigate and has TONS of designs. I’m a Halloween fanatic, so I was excited to see that they have 26 pages of Halloween designs. I can NOT wait until Halloween. My house is going to be decked out.

My favorite items in the online stores were the 3D designs. They have tons of gift box patterns (as I mentioned before), but also 3 dimensional sculptures, baskets, and decorations you can cut out and assemble.

The designs are inexpensive and you get to choose the individual designs you want, a huge step up from the cartridge style machines where you have to buy a whole set even if you only want one of the designs. Oh yeah, the BEST part is that you can cut your OWN DESIGNS. That was the most important feature for me.

Okay, let’s get cutting!

I chose a poseable skeleton design that I downloaded. I cut this one on plain white printer paper just as a quick test. The Silhouette design software was very easy to use. Scaling, moving, and deleting parts of the design is simple and user friendly. It took about 4 minutes for the machine to cut the skeleton (and it made all sorts of adorable R2D2 style noises while it did so).

 

My next project is going to be cutting some appliques because this thing cuts fabric!  Awesome. They also have heat transfer materials available so you can make custom shirts, bags, etc, adhesive vinyl for stickers… so if you think the Silhouette SD is only for scrapbooking, you’re wrong!

Not crafty, but too rad not to share

We’ve been working furiously behind the scenes to unleash a monster of tremendous proportions… this is the music video for my band’s first single – a punk rock cover of Britney Spears’ “I Wanna Go”.

Animated by me. I also sing and play bass.

The Extreme Unicorns – I Wanna Go is available on iTunes here!

Spoonflower Custom Fabric Review

Custom fabric used to be a fantasy, unless you wanted to print it yourself. I did some research on the subject once and found that a “small run” of fabric would be something around a minimum of 500 to 1,000 yards, and most fabric printing houses won’t even do that small of a run. Even if it cost $1 a yard (and you can be assured it’d be more than that), you’d need to cough up $500-1000 all at once for one single print. My wallet laughed in my face.

Enter Spoonflower, offering completely custom fabric printing on a variety of fabric options. And you can order ONE YARD AT A TIME (they also have test swatches and fat quarters!).  Awesome! Amazing! I’m nearly wetting myself with excitement!

Not only can you order your own custom designed fabric, you can set up a little spoonflower shop and offer your fabric designs to the public! Every time your fabric sells, you get spoonflower credit!

About a year ago, Spoonflower had a free sample promotion, and I jumped at the chance to test it out. I could have ordered one of the thousands of awesome designs already available on their site, but I couldn’t resist the idea of designing my own fabric! So I did a little reconfiguring of the WhatTheCraft background, uploaded it, and ordered my free sample of WTC intarsia print fabric!

Crafty Intarsia print by smarmyclothes is available here.

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