RSS Feed
NewsletterUpdating the Store
This week will be dedicated to updating my new Etsy store – or rather – adding items into the store! I am definitely a bit slow in the process and seem to have this issue of navigating to another page accidentally and losing the already entered information. Oops! Maybe all this coffee is giving me the jitters…eek!
Today I spent a large amount of time researching how sellers present digital stamp images for sale. I love making my own cards and general papercrafting and so when I discovered digital stamps – a whole new world opened up for me. Basically, you have your traditional rubber stamp sets out there. Digital stamps however, are images and designs in JPG or PNG files on your computer. With the black and white lined images, you can print them out and color them in to incorporate into your projects. The beauty is that you can print at many different sizes, you can digitally collage together multiple stamps and/or digitally color them as well – not to mention use directly for digital scrapbooking and cardmaking. I discovered it all this year and have so much fun joining in on challenges and designing my own work on backtopaper.com. It’s definitely a nice alternative for when you can’t afford new rubber stamp sets.
Now that I’ve opened a store for my artwork, I decided to add in digital stamp images for sale as well. I learned so much today about the presentation of products on Etsy or any store for that matter. What a difference presentation makes – or I hope it makes a difference?! I think often it can get overwhelming listing all of your work. You have to worry about your photography and getting all the photos taken, then editing them and sizing for upload – not to mention writing accurate descriptions and specifications. When I first started listing items I tried to get the best images possible and uploaded them on my Etsy listings with multiple views. It’s such a tiring process in comparison to actually creating art. Well, my listings can appear pretty darn plain and boring…especially for digital stamps that are black and white line illustrations. After researching the competition and thinking about what makes sense, I realized that I have to design the images I upload for the products. Duh, this coming a bit late for a graphic designer, I know. I have to treat the product images as pieces of graphic design work, not just a snapshot photo. So below is my digital stamp graphic layout for product images, tortagialla style :D I just finished this and used for my girl in ruffles saying hi stamp!
I still have a lot to learn, but there are so many nice people on Etsy helping me out in the forums and also my blog readers giving me encouragement and suggestions. What a nice feeling this is…perhaps it’s the holiday season and xmas cheer boosting the collective energy around us as well. This time of year always gets me a bit happy-jumpy and huggy-mushy.
Posted on December 2, 2009 at 8:00 pm | store, thoughts + discussion
Hello fellow explorers and creative minds! My name is Linda, aka tortagialla - a nickname my adorable husband dubbed me meaning "yellow cake" in Italian. I'm your not-so-typical Californian girl who took the plunge and moved to the Tuscan hills of Italy. Now I'm living my dream designing, illustrating and crafting full-time. You can contact me via email linda [!at] tortagialla [!dot] com
Oh, dear…at this time of year I cry at commercials….Little girl with ruffles is sweet. I have to look more into what you do so I understand it. You create original images I can purchase to use for myself, it seems?
Hi Lois! Thanks for your comment. And you are right that I just started created digital stamps. It’s like buying digital kits for scrapbooking or papers or designs, only digitally. You get the files and you can do what you want with them in your projects – as long as you don’t resell them! Let me know if you have any questions at all!
I am always amazed at how long it takes to get a listing ready for Etsy! {perhaps that is why I haven’t been able to get anything listed for a long, long time…}
With my jewelry, it takes me umpteen photos to get enough good ones so I can narrow it down to the five allowed. So many colors of beads are about impossible to photograph! And then like you mentioned—the photo editing. And the writing of the description.
But it is great fun and I sure hope to get my Etsy shop back up and running as soon as I can. I think you will enjoy it also—you have lots of drive, ideas and talent!
I like your twine photos! I somehow seem to have started collecting things like balls of twine, string, crochet thread. Weird, I know…..
I’m glad I’m not the only one who takes a while to list items. But yes it is fun to finally get it done and see your product there…so nice! Thank you for your encouragement…I hope I can keep it going strong. Oh yes, I take random photos and I have lots of random twine…not sure what I’ll do with it!
I am very into traditional rubber stamp sets!
But i think your digital stamp is just as cool and cute! I totally understand and could relate to what your saying here about having a shop and the time needed to take care of it. 
I am still learning as well and really enjoying the process. Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts here wirh us! Have a lovely merry happy day and love to you!
Hi Jacqueline! I also have traditional rubber stamp sets…they are too cute! But unfortunately I can’t afford to get them all the time…it can get pricey – or maybe it’s here in Italy but it costs quite a bit! I am glad there’s a bunch of us going through this Etsy process and learning…we can help each other! Thanks for stopping by and all the best to you!
Yay! Congrats on your etsy store! I know I signed up for my etsy shop and didn’t really get it up until 6 months later so you are doing great.
Thank you Lori! It’s taking more time than I thought to fill it up…eek!