Paper or Plastic?

You've finished and sold your latest masterpiece and now it's time to pack it up and ship it off to your eagerly awaiting customer. You want it to be secure but you also want it to say something about your product and that you care about your creation and your customer. Fortunately there are so many ways to send off your treasures safely AND with your own touch of flair. I'll outline a couple of great ideas and hopefully, you will add some of your own to the comments below as well!

Bags: So many choices! Try www.efavormart.com for a great selection of organza, satin and velvet bags. They come in many sizes and so can be used for almost anything. Paper bags can be adorable. You can write on them, stamp them, paint them, glitter them, add bows and ribbons...the possibilities are endless! Then of course there is plastic and cellophane, but personally, I prefer using the more eco-friendly packaging options of organza and paper. 

 
Stickers: Adding a "Thank You" sticker to your packaging somewhere always brings a smile to your customer's face. I've found a really great selection at very reasonable prices on www.zazzle.com. They come in a myriad of styles and colors and most are fully customizable! You can even add your website address to many of them. 

Tissue Paper: Wrapping up your bagged item in a swath of fluffy, pretty tissue paper gives your customers that "opening a present" feeling and who doesn't love that?!? Cost effective and colorful, it's a great way to make your packaging pretty and fun.

 Since I cannot personally smile and warmly thank many of my customers face to face, it's important to me to convey to them warmth and gratitude for their purchase and to let them know they are indeed appreciated and special to me. It's the small things that make the big differences.




What are your favorite ways to let your customers know you appreciate them and their business?  Please share them with the Zahoomi community, we'd love to hear your tips and tricks as we all grow together!

On with the adventure!   

Why Buy Handmade Part 2

Why Buy Handmade Part 2

The selection in the hand crafted scene has grown in leaps and bounds over the last few years. People are
beginning to realize the many advantages of buying from local and national artisans. My first thought when I heard the word "handmade" used to be of my Grandmother’s crocheted toilet paper covers that collected dust in the bathroom, God bless her. Today, "handmade" means SO much more to me and covers so many items and choices. If it can be made by hand, you can almost bet your Christmas fudge on it that you can find it online in a handmade marketplace like Zahoomi. 

In celebration and support of our wonderful artisans, I've listed some of my favorite reasons to buy hand crafted this season (Please add a few of your own to the comments too!) I hope it motivates everyone to consider buying handmade this year when they're thinking of all the gifts they need to buy. It's a win win situation! 

REASONS TO BUY HANDMADE THIS HOLIDAY SEASON (and all year round):

• Your purchase helps to keep a growing and wonderful industry alive insuring that every year, even more beautiful, unique and quality items are available next year.
• Hand crafted items don’t usually add to our environmental issues. They are environmentally friendly because they don’t depend on large factories, illegal labor, machines that produce and use tons of pollutants and harsh chemicals. There is a minimum of plastic packaging that will need to be disposed of in most cases as well.  
• You know you are, in most cases, supporting someone in our own backyard and not an over worked, underpaid and sometimes abused laborer in a factory in another country.
• Handcrafted items do not usually carry a huge markup. Most likely you will be receiving an amazing, unique item at a comparable if not hugely competitive price of something “similar”, but not as special, from your local department store.
• Your great taste will be evident to all and you may discover the next hot designer!
• No hunting for a parking place, fighting the crowds, dealing with overworked sales staff, and high prices for mass produced something you’re not even sure your gift receiver will even like.
• There’s a slim to none chance that someone else picked the same exact gift.
• There are many items and ways to add a custom and personal requests to your hand crafted item. You can request certain colors, a name to be added or some other special touch when ordering without paying an exorbitant price.
• You will have direct contact with the maker. You can’t say that with factory produced products!
• Hand crafted items create a connection that a mass produced item just can’t. Hand crafted items are made one at a time with care and love and imagination. This magical quality translates itself to us and makes it truly special. Isn’t this what we are really looking for when we shop for gifts for our loved ones?

Personally, I love the look someone gets on their face when they open a gift from me and discover something they know right away was not only chosen with love and care but was made with the same love and care. It’s just an entirely different feeling than watching them open yet another useless kitchen item, or set of hand towels from the huge housewares outlet in town or myriad of other mass-produced products that get gifted and yes, more than I want to know, regifted.

I haven't looked forward to Christmas shopping since I was a kid, if anything, I’ve dreaded it every year.  This year I am looking forward to doing most of my shopping from the comfort of my home, perusing the thousands of beautiful offerings of our local artisans and choosing some very special gifts for my friends and family and having them delivered right to my door! (And truthfully, I hope I receive a few of these wonderful gifts myself!! My secret plan is to keep buying handmade until it catches on with all my friends and then I can guarantee I will find some under my own tree with MY name on them! Yippee!!)

Do you plan to buy handcrafted items this year? How have your ideas of the word “handmade” changed over the last few years? What is your favorite hand crafted item to buy as a gift? What benefits do you enjoy buy when shopping your local and national artisans at fairs and online?

We love hearing your input! Thank you for shopping handmade!

Seller spotlight + New giveaway

Our spotlight today is on Wendy Cummins, owner of Friday Creek Farms. Wendy and Bill specialize in goat milk soap made in the Pacific Northwest. We were curious as to how they got into this business and got to talking with Wendy. 

Tell me a bit about yourself.

We are Bill and Wendy Cummins, owners of Friday Creek Farm in Burlington, WA.  We began raising goats about 11 years ago.  Our herd is mostly Boer and Boer cross goats but we do have a few Nubian dairy goats.  We keep the Nubians for those times when we have bottle kids to feed but we were ending up with a lot of excess milk.

                                     

What made you start this business?

We began looking for something that we could make with the extra milk and possibly sell, without having to jump through too many regulatory hoops.  We knew milk and cheese sales were out but we soon met a woman who was making soap with her extra goat milk.  So, about 8 years ago, we started making goat milk soap.

                                                

Check out the complete seller spotlight and giveaway here

Thanks from Zahoomi!

Thank you all for supporting Zahoomi and being with us from the beginning. As a token of our appreciation, I am giving out $5 Starbucks card* for those shopping on Zahoomi. To take advantage of this offer, just purchase your favorite handmade item and you will receive the e-card by mail! Go ahead and enjoy!

* Limited time offer

Handmade VS Mass-produced

There's a restaurant down the street from me, let's call it Ronnie's for now. They have a really good breakfast deal, you can get tri-tip, ham, bacon, kielbasa sausage, 2 eggs, toast and hash browns for about $10. I know, what a deal right? It's so much food that my fiance and I split it because there's no way either of us could eat all of that alone! The restaurant is trendy, done in modern + vintage 50's style deco. The wait staff is reasonably nice and all in all, it's an ok place to get breakfast. Oh and the food is pretty good. We order, eat and leave. Nothing spectacular, we were hungry, and now we're not and we didn't spend an arm and a leg. Mission accomplished.

Further down the road about 8 miles is another 
place, let's call it The Sunny Cafe . It's small and cozy. We find ourselves to whatever table may be available and then the bus boy comes over to say hello, get our drink order and pours the coffee usually asking how we've been and seems happy to see us. He keeps our coffee fresh and hot all through breakfast. The server (who's been there for about 15 yrs) knows us by name, and has since our second time there. She pretty much knows exactly what we'll order. She makes us feel so welcome and taken care of. We get our breakfast, and sit and talk and enjoy it. We leave feeling not just full, but kind of warm inside, almost like we just had breakfast at mom's.  

Comparing these two the other day made me think of the difference between mass-produced products offered in huge quantities and low prices at the big superstores and the original, hand-crafted items offered by sites like Zahoomi. Looking at a necklace hanging on a rack in the store, at first glance may look like something similar being offered by a hand-made jewelry artisan, but is it really?



Cosmic Blue Bracelet from Jolly Stones
and Glass on Zahoomi

Do you find yourself enjoying things made by hand and heart better than things you get from the bigger restaraunts, stores and outlets? Do you sense a definate difference? If you do, what do you think that difference is? I'd love to hear your comments and perspectives on this!

Please leave comments below because this blog isn't complete without your participation! I love hearing all of the different thoughts, ideas and feedback.

Thank you!

Summer

I can't believe it is mid-August already! I hope you have all been enjoying the summer so far. As for me I really don't know where my summer went this year! It is already time for back to school shopping and starting to look for books and backpacks and pens and pencils and clothes that actually fit!

I'd love to hear from you all about where you do most of your shopping? Where do most of you go for school stuff? Is Target really cheaper than Fred-Meyer? How about clothes? I always run into the issue of too-loose-at-the-waist issue when buying pants for my son? Do you run into this too?

Would love to hear your thoughts and advice! Go ahead and let me know what you do.

In a Pinch Lightbox

In a Pinch 
-Lightbox








I wanted my photos to have that pretty, bright professional look I would see everywhere so I did a little research. I found out about "Light boxes" and I also found I could spend anywhere from$25-$200 for simple to full on kits with lots of bells and whistles! Reading about the function of a light box, I realized that most important is that it has a light matte background and that it reflects light well.  After playing around a bit with a few household items I found something that works great in a pinch! Isn't it awesome that our imaginations can be used for so much more than just making pretty things?

Basically all you need is what is pictured above in the title picture. I've used a small box about 18"x 12" x 4" here. Next, take plain paper and wrap scotch tape to make it "double-sided" and tape to back of paper so it doesn't show and lay in back of box. 

Then, do this for all sides of the box, doing your best to cover  by laying paper in ways that make neat seams. Pictures below will show you what I mean. 

Now as you can see, this is by no means perfect. BUT, with a little adjusting of the bottom paper (which I don't tape down) and of the camera angle I'm able to capture a clean, bright picture and I did it all with what I already had laying around the house!

Above is a picture taken in the box I just put together for this article. Not a seam in sight and it's got that bright look I need! I took it outside in the noonday light, but not in the direct sunlight, and snapped it in one shot. Well two, the first came out blurry. Voila!

When you have a little more time to put into making a great picture box I suggest buying foam or poster board and measuring and cutting to exact dimensions to cover the inside of your box. This way you can use boxes that are big enough or small enough for your needs. You can get different colors to use for back or bottom for accent when you like too! Below there is a link to a great video on how to make a light box from tissue paper and cardboard with a little tape for those of us who do not have access to great natural light.  

It's wonderful that with all of the information on the internet we can find ways to do things that work, without spending a lot of money! I'd much rather spend my money on MORE BEADS!! 

If you have a helpful trick or suggestion to make pictures really pop, please share your experience below! Also, let us know if you have any questions, we are here to help!! 

Link to great light box video: http://youtu.be/--wO67tpj8I