I finished posting three new Easter basket tags, and now I’m working on 15-20 new ornaments. I’m designing new memorial ornaments, Mother’s Day ornaments, and teacher’s gifts. The last two categories I haven’t tried before, so I’m curious to see how they do. I get swamped with orders at Christmas, and I’m looking for ways to increase my year around sales.

I wish I had a fun, witty story about where I get my inspiration, but the truth is the creative process is the hardest part for me. Staring at an empty blank intimidates me. All that space with so much potential. Where do I start?

This idea came from a customer who ordered a tag to put on a pair of booties she knitted for a miscarriage ornament for her friend.

I start with you! Some of my best-selling ornaments are inspired by custom orders and personalizations. My customers have great ideas, and when I get one, I tweak it a bit and create a listing. Custom orders give me an idea of trends and the types of things my customers are looking for. I’ve discovered major design flaws in my ornaments this way, and some of my poor selling ornaments took off with a couple of tweaks.

I also get my ideas from looking at all types of ornaments, not just the hand stamped ones. When I was first learning to hand stamp, I studied a lot of the competition’s ornaments, making notes of what I liked and didn’t like. This helped me learn how hand stampers think and how to make the best use of space on the blanks. Now that I have my own shop and know what I’m doing, I try to make ornaments different from what I see on Etsy. I glance at the competition to get an idea of what they did, see if I notice any trends, then launch my own ideas from there. I am always amazed at the skill and creativity of my competition. Etsy sellers are passionate about their work, and that’s one of the reasons I love Etsy.

Lately, I get my ideas from playing around. I look up quotes on the internet I like, think about what shape and font they’d look best in, and start hammering. My final product is often completely different from how I originally pictured it.

This best seller came about because I like the way the font looked with the heart design stamp.

Sometimes I have an idea of what I want to do, but I can’t get it to look right when I stamp it. I rely on friends and family to tell me what they like and don’t like about my designs. I may like the way something looks, but my customers may like something different. Ultimately, my customers get the final say because it’s your ornament, your milestone, your loved one, your experience, and I want your way of remembering it to be just as unique and special as you!

Cari
http://www.etsy.com/shop/embervalley
embervalley@hotmail.com