Mermaids Are Still Available!

My lovely trio of mermaids are still waiting for their forever homes! They will be in my shop until the end of September then they they'll go in the holiday craft fair bin.

My shop link is: sassypackratstudios.com

I've been feeling a bit better, a bit more like myself but not really up to all the work needed to finish the seahorse pattern.

I took on a custom order and I'll be posting about that soon.

I did take a custom order though, hoping it would help me get back into the flow of things. I have a 2 part post about the making of that special doll for those who are interested in all the background design stuff.

Here's a peek at that doll.

Worktable Wednesday:Designing "The Look" Of My PDF's

I made an announcement last week that I'm going to be designing and selling PDF patterns. A lot of work goes into doing that and the Free patterns that I offer to you my blog readers and my email subscribers, so I thought I'd document the process. It's given me a whole new respect for designers who do this.

So to begin with I needed to design "the look" of my patterns. Yes that's a thing and I wanted a clean look that would work with all my patterns and be identifiable as a Sassy Packrat Studios Pattern.

I first picked the type font I'd use for my headers, which are the name of the pattern, and all titles, like Instructions, supplies etc. I chose the font I use in my logo, which I really love and made it a blue color that also come from my logo.

  All the secondary text will be in a medium gray color and the important copyright text will be in black. The red box above is where the beauty shot of the finished plush piece will go. I'm considering adding a few lines of a story about the plush character on this page. I also will add some snowflake graphics for this particular PDF.

  This second page is an introduction about making this piece and supplies/tools. I'm probably going to make this 2 pages with the supplies and tools on it's own page. There will be photos of the supplies and tools needed plus a written out list.

 The sewing instruction pages will have photos, graphics and written text explaining each step. All pages except the cover page will be numbered.

 This is an original design I used to make that was pretty popular, so I've chosen it for my first selling pattern. I'm re-designing it and it will look somewhat different than this, but it's a cute and easy to make pattern that doesn't require a lot of skill and will turn out well.

My goal is to have this pattern ready my the end of April. I'd love to have some pattern testers, is anyone interested? 

Here are the details: You get the pattern FREE to try, be willing to send me 3 photos of your finished piece and feedback on the pattern and process. After I've made tweaks I'll send you the final pattern for FREE as compensation for testing the pattern. I'll also keep you on my list for future testing. Sound good? Then email me with your interest. I'm Jennifer, sassypackrat(at)hotmail(dot)com. Thanks!

Working on Launching Collections

I've been taking some online creative business classes to learn more about marketing to social media.

Back in the day, 10 years ago, when I ran 2 businesses, one being an online stationery store, things were done differently than today. Now that I'm physically able to run a business again, I need to learn how it's done currently.

One lesson that I surprisingly already knew and used to do, but for some reason haven't really done recently is to Launch Collections. In my stationary days I did that all the time! Why I didn't transfer that to what I do now? I just don't know!

Well what this means is basically instead of making one thing and putting it in my shop, I'll be making a collection of things and offering those all together about every 3 to 4 months.

This gives my fans something to look forward to and eases the stress on me of having something, anything done. I'll keep me focused on task. Plus I hope this will enable me to take on more custom and commissioned work in the future.

So I'm announcing my first launch date. March 2, 2016. I'll be making bunnies for Easter/Spring.

I'll show wips of what I'm working on but not completed things until right before the launch. 

A couple of small bunny ornaments.

Sewing tiny noses.

 Little bunny smiles.

I need to still make the eggs for these guys.

Bunny doll.

 Designing ears.

Last Creative Piece Done

I had to set this piece aside for a while while dealing with the passing of Binks but I did finish this piece, finally

.

I added all the final stitching details and cut out a banner for his name.

 I embroidered his name in the same golden color of his eyes.

I then tucked in the ends to have a furled look. 

I sewed the banner down and stretched the piece over thick cardboard before placing it in a shadowbox frame. 

 I'm very pleased with how this came out and would love to do more.

PART 1 can be found here.

 Here's the REAL Harley. Such a beautiful dog.

Highs and Lows of This Week.

This was a crazy week! I spent several days watching live webnar classes about different business things. I learned so much and was happy I spent the time even though I was taking notes so couldn't really sew.

I've been working hard to get my facebook business page engagement up. I got about 20 new followers and have a posting schedule set up so I actually post things there instead of ignoring that page.

I have a rouge box of supplies that is in the wrong state but should have been delivered to me today.

Not much is happening on my website. I continue to get views but no sales. Not too surprising, I still need to do more work on things there, but at least the site is up.

I made my first Periscope video but it was a disaster! Mostly because Periscope and Androids don't work together. Wish I knew that ahead of time! My video turned out mostly upside down and mirrored and my internet connection went bad so part of the video was pixilated. Sigh! So for now I'm just making short videos and putting them on my Facebook Fan page.

The most amazing news is I got a commission for an awesome piece! My client doesn't follow my blog so I'm going to post wips here for you guys to see. She wanted just a few sneak peeks on social media and to be surprised by the final piece. I'll keep the final secret until she sees it.

She wants a soft sculpture of her chihuahua with Day of the Dead designs on it! And she gave me free reign over the whole thing! That's my kind of client.

Here's about the 3rd prototype. This one's a keeper. It's made it pink felt cause it's a lower grade felt I use for pattern making. 

Now if only my supply box shows up so I can start the final!

Working on The Website and More!

I'm busy working away here in the studio this weekend. I managed to completely mess up my website, (I know just enough HTML to get myself in trouble!) throw it away and create a whole new one that works and looks like I want it to, finally! The walls were blue from my cussing Friday! Lol! I actually uploaded my site live and checked all my links, which all worked..squee! Then I took it back down since I don't have any products in it yet. But soon my pretties, soon!

Shopify has a built in blog you can use on your site but since I already had this blog I was able to link it to my website..whoo hoo! Quite honestly it took a while to figure out but once I did I was like "Duh". I had a lot of duh moments and can now see why people pay others to make their sites even on Shopify. It's possible to do it yourself, I did, but I have a graphics background which was super helpful on a lot of the design part, ie. making the header, footer and buttons match my logo colors. I went pretty simple and then customized from there but you could do simple just fine and use the preset default colors. Just go slow and ask for help from Shopify when needed, the have lots of help pages plus you can get one on one help when you first start.Shopify sent me an invite to a free webnar which showed the background basics and you could ask questions during and after. This was super helpful and then they sent me the video to watch whenever I wanted.

Once everything clicked, it was awesome! So I now have a website! My next steps are to finish my products, shoot photos, edit photos, write product descriptions and load everything on the site. Still lots of work and I'm kind of exhausted already, what with moving the studio and all.

Here's a workable peek from yesterday. I think he's foxy.

Oh yes the other big thing I did this weekend was go through all my social media and selling sites and make them all cohesive. I added my new logo everywhere I have a presence, changed colors and added my new tagline. If you know me other places then you'll notice a change.

I also added a link on my sidebar here to subscribe to my newsletter. So if you want to be the first to know when the website is launched, get free little diy plush and other designs to make, notices for giveaways and great things only for subscribers, you absolutely want to sign up.

Moved Into My New Studio Space!

So glad I'm done moving! It basically took a week since I did most of the moving of things on my own. My daughter helped me move her bed, dresser and nightstand out and my sewing/ computer table and display/ storage cabinet in before she called it quits. I moved my entire studio out of my bedroom, then cleaned everything thoroughly, cause wow have I been slacking in the dusting department!

I now have a lovely window I can see out of with a view of the acorn tree and my mom's bird feeders. Now I don't feel like I'm living in a dark cave! Natural light with sun streaming onto my work table is the best; I haven't had that since my studio in my son's old room at the old house over 5 years ago. It was a great space with hardwood floors and had lovely yellow walls...I really miss it.

I am going to show pics but bear with, me cause things are just placed right now so I can get back to work. Final placement, painting and decorating and investing in some new storage pieces won't happen until next Spring probably.

 So I broke this ugly ceiling fan moving a mattress. Completely and only my fault...sigh! At least the lights still work but won't be able to replace this until next year, hopefully.

 I've come to the realization that I need to sort and get rid of things I'm not going to use. Need to figure out how to have a supply sale. I have too much stuff and more just sitting in the garage which needs to fit in here somehow. My mom needs to have the car in the garage this winter, we can't have her falling again.

Maleficent is sitting in the corner and just fits on top of those storage cubes. Left side of my worktable.

 Right side of my worktable. Display/storage cabinet next to it but my printer cart is in front of it for now.

 Computer/sewing desk. Still wish I had a separate table just for my sewing machine, but well I don't yet.

 Giant file cabinet and desk that will be my shipping center. Still have to clean that out and organize it. To the right of that is a large closet that currently holds my daughter's clothes. She has enough clothes to clothe a village, it's really ridiculous. Her clothes have to stay for now but when they are gone I'm taking full use of that closet.

So yeah exciting and lovely it's not but roomy and sunny it is! I have enough room to set up my light box so I can shoot photos of my art! I can't keep it up for long periods of time but it'll work out great.

Anyway I'm super excited and I really need to get back to work so bye!

More Excitement!!!

If you are a long time reader of this blog, you'll know that when we moved 2 years ago I was supposed to get the dining room for my studio space and for various reasons that didn't happen.

Now my daughter who spends only one to two nights a week at home because she's always at her boyfriend's house has agreed to let me have her room for my studio. It's usually just a storage space for her clothes and since she doesn't pay rent, it's now mine!

I'm so excited to get the largest room I've ever had to run my business! Currently I'm squeezed into my bedroom and half my studio is still packed from the move and some stuff is still packed from when I gave up my studio room at our old house and took over the small dining room there. 

I finally feel like things are falling into place and all my struggles have been worth it.

So Flipping Excited!

After talking about having my own website, trying out different hosts and researching the heck out of the subject for so long, I finally started putting together the design for my very own site!

 I was able to purchase my old domain name. I stalked it forever to make sure it was available. But honesty who else would want it beside me?

I chose Shopify to host my website. I've heard awesome things about them. They come highly recommended, their customer service is crazy good and I actually know people who have websites on their site. I had Shopify purchase my domain for me and link it to my site. It was quick, easy and the domain cost was the cheapest I've ever paid!

Also about an hour after I signed up a customer service guy for Shopify emailed me welcoming me and asking if I wanted to get together for a phone consultation to help me through any of the set up I needed help with. What!? Guys this is free! They are here to help...wow! They have all kinds of help pages too.

I worked most of Sunday setting up the back end of my site and starting my design.

The back end involves:taxes, shipping, how purchases are handled and all those business type things that make stuff work

I started my design by picking a theme. Themes are how your site looks. Shopify has a nice selection of free themes to start out with. I'm using a nice simple free theme now but next year I hope to graduate to a more featured theme that I'll pay for. One day in the future I'll hire a web designer to custom do a site for me, but that's a ways off...baby steps. 

My theme design is mostly done. I still have tweaking to do and I'll  have many sleepless nights trying to finish art to load into my shop.

I'll probably do a series on my website journey cause when I talk to my family their eyes just glaze over but someone reading this might be interested. I'm so flipping excited!

I added a signup box for my newsletter to my side bar, check it out! Or click HERE!
 

Worktable Thursday

I've got a lot going on and it's making tired and I feel overwhelmed. So of course I take on ANOTHER project! LOL! I joined another art swap group a while back cause some artist friends belong and it gives me more chances to interact with them. I just sort of followed along, too tired to actually do anything but did join a supply swap and on impulse joined a fantasy swap. Not sure why I do these things to myself but I do. Anyway my partner doesn't read my blog so I'll show more wips here than to the group. I want some elements to be a surprise to my partner until it's done.

Although it looks like a doll it's actually going to be a soft sculpture piece. She'll have large wings too, which I haven't figured the logistics to yet. She'll be sitting on some forest type thing and holding something. The swap ends May 15th, thank goodness cause I'll need every minute to get this done plus everything else I'm supposed to be doing.

Do any of you take on more than you know you should?

Do you want to know how she came out? Here is the post for the finished piece.

Final Logo Done

In the last post I showed glasses vs no glasses on the mouse/rat. I've been playing around with the size of glasses, color of glasses, eye position of mouse with no glasses and then eye position of mouse with glasses. Whew! I finally settled on 2 I liked. 

The mouse with no glasses is cute and has a cleaner look but I also felt that it made the whole logo too cutesy. I do make whimsical things but I didn't want my logo to represent something so very child-like. I am going to make some products for children but some are for adult collectors too. Quite honestly I could keep re-fining and designing forever and never be happy, so I set aside the no glasses mouse (sorry Cindi!) and am calling it done.

On the alternate logo I'm still undecided on the smaller mouse head vs the larger mouse head. See the choices never end! Anyway it is what it is for now.

So next steps will be to re-design this blog using the logo, colors etc. Order product tags (I currently make my own). Finish my packing design. Design my website. Shoot my product. Oh yeah and finish my product! Weeks and weeks of work to go, but my lists are keeping me focused and I'm not overwhelmed yet. Thanks to all who comment and are sharing this journey with me.

Want to see more about this? You can find Part 1 here and PART 2 here.

Glasses or No Glasses?

Well today I was going to post the logo design I decided on but I got a comment from a long time friend that got me thinking. She said she thought the glasses on the mouse/rat were distracting. The only reason I put them on was because I wear glasses and the mouse is me. But I decided to take the glasses off and see how it looked and I think she might have been right. I'm going back to the drawing board and playing around with the color and size of the glasses too...just to see. Well here's one of the 2 logos I picked with and without the glasses. What do you guys think?

Want to find out more about this? You can find PART 1 here and PART 3 here.

Starting From Scratch....

turning what was a hobby business into a real business. I was so ill for the last few years I wasn't able to run a proper business but now that I'm better health wise I'm eager to do this properly.

To start I need a real logo. Then I need to create a brand. I did some branding designs a few months ago but I wasn't happy with them and I still didn't have a logo. Here's one design, it was very specific for a certain kind of doll I was making at the time. Cute, but this doesn't solve any of my problems.

I really liked the color palette I originally had, it was whimsical and bright without being too childlike, so I decided to keep it. Since I'm starting a new venture with new dolls I flirted with the idea of changing my business name. I wondered if I'd outgrown it? If it was still me? I started on ebay with this name almost 10 years ago selling vintage toys. I did some research and discovered I have a really good google presence with this name so I decided to keep it but tweak it a little. My original name was four words which I found to be unwieldy, so I decided to make Packrat one word and it became cleaner and simpler, much easier to work with. 

So I dusted off my graphic design skills (such as they are after all this time) and sat down, thought, researched, sketched and came up with some ideas that I liked. Here are four versions of one design I thought had some potential.

The logo will need to cover a couple of different style of handmade dolls, plush and possibly some paper goods too. Once this is finished I can move on to doing a selling site (I'm leaving etsy), changing up my blog, business cards and other promotional materials. I may just be talking to myself at this point but if anyone finds any of this interesting leave a comment.

Want to read more about this? PART 2 and PART 3 can be found here.