Octo Tuesday: A Walk on the Wild Side!

This week my husband and I went to the Cleveland Zoo! We had a lovely day and saw

 Flamingos

 Bears

 Camels

Giraffes

 Tortoises

 Red Pandas

 Me riding a camel

(Definitely not something you get to do everyday!) 

 Meerkats

 Lions

 (We even heard the king of the jungle roar!)

Koala Bears and More!

We had such a great time,
and it gave me some inspiration for Octo Tuesday!

Take a walk on the wild side with these limited edition zebra and cheetah print baby octos!
Each baby octo features it's favorite animal print, comes with a sticker pack, collector card and more!
Find them at www.ecofriendlyfun.com

*These will be released in two parts. Zebra octos on 7/17/12 and cheetah octos on 7/24/12

Be sure to catch your favorite before they are gone!

Receive free shipping on Order Total (orders above US $50.00)

Use Coupon Code:

FREESHIPPING-11

during checkout.

Needlecraft

Rainy Days collection on Artfire

Rainy Days

  Curated By: LiveDreamCrea...

ArtFire.com

Fine Art Paintings

Artfire so far

As I mentioned before in Testing new waters...Artfire, I opened a shop on Artfire.com LiveDreamCreate2. Since then, I have upgraded to "Pro", added all the items also listed in my Etsy shop, and checked out some (but not all) of the features Artfire has to offer.

Pro's:

• Artfire "pro" has a lot of really neat features that Etsy does not have. 
• I was able to import all of my Etsy items fairly easily without having to reload each picture, description and tag from scratch. I still had to enter categories and eventually fine tune everything, but instead of taking me an hour to do 4 items, I now have 55+ items in my shop in the same amount of time.
• I can alter and change the color of the header and text on my page to fit a lot better with my shop and banner.
• I can add free shipping, buy one/get one, on sale, free gift, and coupons to items and it will mark each item with a label to make them easier to spot.
• I can have coupons, free shipping, gift certificates, etc.
• Like Etsy, I can set up shipping profiles to make it easier when listing items.
• I can add up to 10 images per listing
• Item descriptions can be far more detailed, including inspiration, time invested, materials, tags, categories, shipping notes, promotions, etc.
• I can list an item quantity up to 999.
• I don't pay artfire to list each individual item, adjust quantities, or a percentage when an item sells.
• My items are available to more people, with potential to bring in more sales (I've decided I just can't give up my Etsy account.)
• Artfire offers almost all of the things we love about Etsy.

Con's:

• Far less views then Etsy. Items on Etsy that have 200+ views barely have 20 on Artfire. But remember, they haven't been listed on Artfire for nearly as long though.
• No sales as of yet from Artfire. I am just starting to promote BOTH of my shops, so hopefully this changes.
• There is so much to do, see and try on Artfire, I am still figuring stuff out! This isn't really a bad thing, because I keep learning new stuff, but I end up spending more time on the computer than I intend sometimes. ;)

All in all, I am going to try the Pro version of Artfire for a couple months, just to see if things pick up. If I don't make any sales, I can't afford to keep paying the $10 a month to keep it. I will then downgrade back to basic. I will keep both my Artfire and my Etsy shop open though! :)

GIVEAWAY! Win this...

Want to win this adorable yellow chick? Find out how!

Up to 5 ways to enter:

First Entry:

• Subscribe to and follow my blog: http://ilivedreamcreate.blogspot.com/ (If you are already a subscriber, just drop by and leave a comment saying you would like to participate.) 
• Visit my facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/LiveDreamCreate/173556846005338. "Like" my page. Leave a comment under the designated post. (+1 entry)

Additional Entries:

• Heart my Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Kklaus (+1 entry)
• Add my Artfire shop to your favorites: http://www.artfire.com/users/LiveDreamCreate2 (+1 entry) 
• Share a link to my Etsy or Artfire shop with friends (+1 entry)
• Be sure to come back to this page and leave a separate comment/link for each entry you complete!

Winner will be drawn at random on May 17, 2011.

Winner will be announced and contacted at this time.
Giveaway open to those in the USA.


http://www.online-sweepstakes.com

Testing new waters... Artfire

Anyone who is a frequent user of Etsy is starting to notice the controversial changes to our beloved site that is moving us from a respected selling venue to a new version of Facebook. Don't get me wrong, I still love Etsy, but at the same time, they are making me nervous. Sales have been way down, the site is getting less attractive to buyers only and the dependence on other sellers for sales is getting hard to handle. I have to spend too much time on the forums- I mean on the teams- to figure out what the heck is going on with changes to the site, blah blah blah. It takes up too much time fighting to get people to MY shop, to stay on MY pages, to view MY items and to buy from ME because there are circles and networks and teams and lions and tigers and bears, OH MY! It just makes my head hurt some days. So I am going to test out Artfire and see how it goes. I am going to start out basic, list the same items in my Etsy shop and see how things go. IF things pick up, then perhaps I will switch over to the pro program and ditch Etsy. I hate to do it because I spent all that time promoting my Etsy site, but I will if it comes down to it.

Things are rough around the edges right now, but feel free to stop by and check it out! And don't be afraid to leave some feedback/thoughts/ideas:

LiveDreamCreate2 Artisan Studio ArtFire Buy & Sell Handmade