The Ad, The Look, The Feel...The New

So....this is the ad that I submitted to Kim at the Faerie Magazine. She is the one that I originally wanted to advertise with but everything went haywire last year with her company after the sad passing of her mother. I have decided to spend my remaining advertising budget dollars with her in the hopes that she can get out a quality product. As this IS my target audience in the end I decided it is where I needed to be. I did look into advertising on-line with various newspapers across Alberta and BC but nothing just seemed to be working right. As well, I did look into advertising with a Canadian garden magazine but unfortunately they were all way out of my league as far as budgets go (1/8 b&w page ran over $5000.00!!!). 

I guess, I am asking everyone for their thoughts and opinions on the new look but in the end...the ad is already sent and the deadline has come and gone so I will be unable to make any further changes. I did make an arrangement with Kim for my second ad to be 50% off so if through suggestions, I can certainly change the look or feel come the next time around. The previous ad that Alyssa made for me was fantastic and showed everything that I made at the time which is how I needed people to know that I my company was out there. This new ad is more sleek, clean and hopefully mysterious enough that people will either scan the QR code or look up the website address due to the vagueness of the whole thing. 

Under the suggestions of all of us, Larry, Matthew and Brandi the stump island photo was developed (well, Matthew disagreed with the whole stump idea as he noted that I am not in the business of selling stumps...I commented back with...well not yet!!). The look we were hoping to achieve was one that showed a faerie door and perhaps if you looked you might be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a faerie in amongst the flowers and grasses. I think Schonee did an amazing job of capturing a mystical playground for the faeries. 

With the company ever evolving and changing, this ad will allow me to add and subtract products without changing the look and feel of the new backgrounds. The stump island photo is now on every banner for all 6 of my e-commerce sites as well as the website, Facebook and my blog page. All printed material is in the process of being changed over as well. We stayed with the original company colours of eggplant purple and green which means none of my packaging products will need to be changed which helped with expenses. 

Thanks for reading and please respond if you have any suggestions...

Faerie Amma (Emmanuelle)   :)

The Check List!

My Check List for this weekend seems to have gone POOF. And not POOF in a necessarily good way!!

Besides the basic household chores that need to be done on the weekend (might I add here, that I got all of them finished) but the company ones that you just really don't want to start on a week night when you only have those few precious hours.

1. paint trinket chest....hmmmm well, I now 12 lined up on the painting table :) That's a start right?? And hey, two of those actually have the hardware taken off of them ;)

2. hang new flowers/vines from the rafters.....hmmmm well, after fighting and almost stabbing myself in the eye by numerous wayward flying staples from the staple gun, I am happy to announce that this chore got DONE. So while standing tip top on top of the chair, I also hung the rest of the second order of crocheted humming birds that I ordered from Stefanie at Fayard Hand-made Crafts on Etsy. These little critters are so cute.....she puts wire in their wings so they look like they are in flight. I have them hanging everywhere from the flowers and green vines. I have another 20 on order somewhere on their way here in the mail.

3. put new mini's away.....DONE. Took another trip to the local Field's store to buy more little snap lid containers but my work table is once again cleaned off and ready for production to start.

4. other stuff.....

a) set up the new iMac....I think this stage now completed for the most part. My son is still tweaking        with the little things.

b) hang the birthday card I got from my boss...DONE This has got to be one of the most beautiful cards I have ever seen. Made by Reuben McHugh and titled: Dusty Blue Delphinium. This is a French Joyeux Anniversaire card that has a purple faerie kneeling on a pedestal covered in sparkly purple/blue delphiniums. And with the nursery being done in purples....how perfect could this card be. I was able to find his personal website but unfortunately he does not have my little card listed under his portfolio. If you care to do a search though, you can find her under images and looking for Fairies of Venice (I do not want to infringe on his copyright, so I will leave the search to you). His website is: The Fairies of Venice

c. finished off another good portion of the graphics that I needed Alyssa to complete. Now just to get them all printed.

d. brag about the new ad in the Faerie World Magazine :)  I was able to be chosen for a full page portfolio as well and they have been showing my ad through their Facebook page. Pretty cool to see you name live!


And that's about it for this weekend. Sure wanted to get a whole lot more done but oh well :)

Where has the time gone?

It seems like forever since I have sat down to write a new blog posting!!

I have now posted all of my products on Etsy. Wow, what an ordeal that has been. Between deciding how to do the photos, to pricing, to shipping, to descriptions, to, to, to, to.....it never seemed like it would end.

But success :)  Everything is posted, well everything that I have made in stock is posted. Figured if I put everything up, it would give me that inspirational boost to get my butt in gear to get more made.

Before I forget, a massive THANK YOU shout goes out to me Mom and my sister Deb for getting me all of the teacups they have so far. Sometimes living in a remote area has its downfalls and unfortunately, shopping is a major one!

Alyssa has submitted the ad campaign to the 'Faerie Magazine' for it's fall printing. I am so proud of the work she has done :) Once the magazine is out, I will scan a shot of the page and post here for you to see.

New product and inventory are arriving daily. My poor husband thinks that Canada Post has even forgotten what his name is....well except he does get the bills in the mail, so technically he is still receiving mail :) Thank goodness he is a good sport about it all and not only does he carry everything in the house for me, but he helps me open it too!!

My display units have also been arriving in the mail. I now has 5 glass pedestals containers to show off the Teacup Nurseries. I can't wait to get these assembled as I will have two of them here in town and the other three will be scattered across Alberta.

The new rubber stamps with the logo look fantastic. Just waiting now for the branding iron so we can burn the logo onto the backs of the wooden doors and the bottom of the trinket chests.

Again....thank you to Alyssa for taking a concept and turning it into my logo.