Crafters in Waterford - Bonzie's Boudoir needs you!!!

Hi All

The fabulous Bonzie Boudoir in the heart of Waterford City is putting out a call to Irish Handcrafters.

They are looking for those who might be interested in consignment within their space. In particular items that compliment their brand and specifically have that olde worlde or romantic theme.

If anyone is interested please get in touch with Bonzie on info@bonziedesigns.com

Also they are having a launch party - here is the invite doesn't it look pretty!!!

Packaging Orders - Some Useful Tips

Hello
I would like to thank the lovely Ruth from Nice Day Designs for allowing me to republish some of her articles/tutorials - they are full of useful information and advice

Enjoy!

Packaging Orders

As much as possible I try to make systems for all of my work so that things run smoother. I'm not naturally inclined towards being organised so I've spent years training myself to do this to try to make running a business less stressful. When I first started selling on Etsy getting orders was both very exciting and hugely time consuming. The first few orders I got, I had to walk down town to buy packaging, then spend ages rooting out the Sellotape. Thankfully things have changed, now I have what I like to call my 'postal station', which has:
Pens
Markers
Envelopes of multiple sizes
Thank you notes (see my how-to here)
Business Flyer
Return Address labels
Wide Tape that never leaves this basket so I always know where it is.
Craft freebie magnets(see here)
Bubble wrap
Velvet gift bags
Zip lock bags

Having all these things easily to hand makes life so much easier, especially when I get a few orders in the same day. Also I've kept the colour scheme consistent with my logo, the blue is carried through from the flyer, thank you note, the sticker on the envelope with my logo, the logo on the promo magnet and even the blue in the return address labels. This is to reinforce my brand and also to give a slick professional appearance. I make sure to keep these extra touches to a minimum though so that it doesn't hike up my costs. I've bought lots of stuff on Etsy over the years and it really makes a difference, the shopping experience becomes even more special. Bonzie and Magpie and Button are two people who pop into my mind who went the extra step and really personalised their packaging. If this is a selling point in your pieces it wouldn't be a bad idea to put a photo of your wrapping/parceling in your last listing image like Balanced does. 

Balanced Beautiful Packaging

Thanks again to Ruth for allowing us to re-use her article - very informative!
If anyone else would like to share their knowledge, experience or advice with us please contact me through my Etsy Shop Cari Design.
Thanks
Caroline

Fresh 5 on Friday - Wedding Finds

[click to enlarge]

Today's Fresh 5 on Friday is brought to us by Nicola of NicsGifts.
She has collected some lovely finds for a wonderful, handmade touch to your wedding!

1. from bonzie - Bonzie Couture Silk Bridal Cape

2. from homespunireland - Custom Vintage Wedding Ring Pillow

3. from QueenofCuffs - Old New Borrowed Blue Bride Pendant Charm

4. from WhateverGetsYouTrue - Ivory Hair Piece with Pearls

5. from aroominthecottage - Vintage style TEA DYED LACE wedding bunting



If you would like to suggest or curate a Fresh Five on Friday collection of your own, just send me an Etsy convo :)

Crafty News Desk

Greetings from the Crafty News Desk

(this week's photo is of a surprise bed of blue bells I came across yesterday - nothing gives me a better feeling that Summer is on the way )

Well, this week its back to general news - bits and pieces that I hope will be of interest to you all.

Big congrats to BONZIE who was presented with a Designers Award last week in Dublin and who also designed the official gown for the Waterford City Mayor for the Formal Mayor's Ball.  She is going from strength to strength.  Its great to see a success story in this day and age.  Well done !!!

The latest listing of events have been posted on the Year of Craft website  YEAR OF CRAFT 

You can also add your own events directly to the website EVENT

There is a wealth of notices with crafting opportunities on the main Craft Council of Ireland website.  Well worth a visit  CCOI  also links to craft fairs/show here FAIRS  In fact if you trawl through all the pages on the website there is bound to be something of interest there for you.

Have you been to our Facebook page yet???  Loads happening there.... Last Friday we had a Showcase for all of our new work.  It was a great way to see what is coming next in a number of the shops.  You can also find details of giveaways and events.  Worth a look..... we now have over 1,000 followers on Facebook whoo hooo!!  Facebook

AND NOW FOR AN OPPORTUNITY FOR YOU.

How would you like to showcase your area on the weekly Crafty News???? 

Tell us what is happening Craftwise where you live.  

If you would like to bring your event or shop to the Crafty News let me know and I can feature you on one of the Monday slots. 

I am also looking for some Guest News Reports to take the blog entry when I am on hols in May.  So please get in touch through my shop HUGGLEKNITS  and we can take it from there.

So thats it for this week - short and hopefully sweet.

Keep the news coming in - See you next week

Cheers

Mo

Handmade Spark Blog Feature is Live

Thanks a million to everyone who took part & to everyone who voted. Our top two from each category were submitted to Handmade Spark and here is the link to the feature, so please go comment & share the love :)

Smokin Lily Boutique

Gals we are delighted to have an opportunity to share our most recent venture with you guys as it's on home soil. We have been busy working away from our etsy online store http://www.bonzie.etsy.com/ and have always been excited about the prospects of selling our designs closer to home. Well we have great news to share with you as we are now stocking our bonzie design label at a gorgeous new boutique in Kilkenny City at Smoking Lily's on Kieran St, Kilkenny.

Shona the proprietor has just opened her doors and it's truly a treasure trove of vintage goodies, consignment lovelies and Irish Designers/Milliners/Interiors. In fact Shona would love to hear from all you stylish gals who would like to consign your previously loved fashion items. Smoking Lily is a Fashion Exchange boutique, taking in your special pieces that you no longer wear or need and will sell them on for you, leaving you with the 'fundolas' to reinvest in your wardrobe! A Win Win situation for fashionistas in recessionary times.

Here are all the details you need to keep abreast of Smoking Lily's developments and updates aswell as our "bonzie" collections and additions. Shona is looking forward to hearing from you all!

Smoking Lily Boutique

Kieran's St

Kilkenny City

phone: 0860621602

Facebook: Smoking Lily Boutique

Hooray for Prudence!

Six wonderfully talented team members are featured in the May/June issue of Prudence magazine in a feature called 'Which Craft'.

The article showcases the creativity and vibrancy of Fiona from PatchworkDelights and Suzanne from LittleWhiteDog:


Bridget from BridBird and Ger & Bonzie from Bonzie:


and finally Bee from BeeliciousCrafts and Monika from BagNoir.


You'll have to go and buy a copy if you want to read it all! Congratulations to you all and wonderful to see the Crafty Ireland Etsy team in action and in print.

May all your sales explode exponentially through the roof!

I'll Show You Mine

Hi guys,
We are absolutely chuffed to be contributing to the Etsy Ireland Blog, it's a really exciting development having sold on etsy for a couple of years now to see the Irish Etsy community growing. My name is Yvonne and my Aunties name is Ger and together we make up the etsy design duo "bonzie". We came upon the Irish Team recently and jumped at the chance to join in the fun, we are looking forward to meeting you guys at one of the next meet ups and hopefully contributing in whatever way we can to help the team! We are excited to begin with a studio tour on the blog, and hope that you enjoy our creative space.

Above is a recent book cover in the US by Jo Packham and Jenny Doh where our wee Irish studio was featured, we were contributing artists in the book and have been over the moon to reach the cover too!

Here's Ger at work on one of our "coquette" scarves, I'm a little camera shy so poor Ger ends up in most of the pics! lol

The walls of the studio are adorned with antiquated bits and bobs, I like to collect trinkets and flippery and create a nice environment to work in, we feel a bit more inspired if the area is full of interesting bits and bobs.

Here's the shelved area for all of the fabric storage, truth be known its never quite this tidy and I'm not sure it will ever be that tidy again! I also collect vintage sewing machines, I think they look really pretty and you can see a couple here amongst the shelving.

Here's a picture of the cutting table. My father made this from scratch and it's by far my most treasured studio item. I love that we are creating with our hands on something that my father created for us by hand!

The studio itself is a large wooden cabin style shed, we gave it a wee makeover to take the shed look off it. Flooring, some cosmetic work, insulation the works. However, that been said its still a little chilly in our Irish Winters as you all well know!!

I love to find objects or pieces of furniture and do them up to suit the space. Both of the french looking dressers here were finds that have been shabby chic'd up to suit the studio decor. The taller dresser is covered in vintage pattern paper to give it an antique look. I really enjoy the freedom in the studio to do whatever one wants! Not sure I would get away with that kind of tom foolery in my house aswell! lol

It's been a pleasure showing you all our studio, we are looking forward to getting to know you guys and also seeing into your creative spaces too. :)

Thanks to Ruth and Alex for introducing us to the blog and helping us set up our membership, we are truly proud to be Irish Etsy Team Members now and look forward to our future together. ( insert olé, olé, olé here! lol)

All our Love

Yvonne and Ger

http://www.bonzie.etsy.com/