Front page success and a recipe

If you are reading this by way of my personal facebook page or the Tatted toppers facebook page then you may already know that one of my little toppers made the front page of Etsy this past week! I’m going to share my little victory tale and then I’ll share a delightful recipe. 

I was heading to my school last Monday when I received my favorite type of  push notification on my phone. It was Paypal ding dinging to tell me of a sale. Then, about 10 minutes later, another ding. Once at my school and working away in my classroom I heard another four dings and started to wonder what the heck was going on. By this point I had made about six sales in thirty minutes. Luckily, someone had sent me a convo (Etsy e-mail) congratulating me on making the front page of Etsy. If not for that sweet email I probably wouldn’t have ever figured it out.  Needless to say, I was beyond elated! The featured listings change every hour and boy am I thankful for that because I don’t think I could have handled any more orders than what I got in those 60 minutes. 


So I spent my last week of summer inside crocheting or at JoAnn buying yarn and buttons, but it was cool with me. I still don’t know how my hat made it to the front page, but I’m going to take it as a huge compliment. I am so blessed. 

Its always been one of my favorites.

Somehow, between all the crocheting and yarn buying trips, I managed to find the time to try out 2 new recipes. The first one I found on pinterest. It was not a success at all. I’m sure it could have been baker error, but either way I was very disappointed and had to try something else. The second recipe was actually my first attempt at altering a recipe before actually baking it.  It turned out pretty tasty!

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Muffins 

1/2 c butter

3/4 c sugar

1/4 c brown sugar

2 t baking powder

1/2 t salt

2 t vanilla
3/4 c cocoa powder

2 eggs

1/2 c milk

1 c plain yogurt

2 c whole wheat flour

12 oz chocolate chips 

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Beat together the first seven ingredients until fluffy. Beat in eggs. Stir in milk and yogurt just until combined. Add flour and mix until combined. Stir in chocolate chips by hand.

Fill each muffin cup to the top. I only did 3/4 and it was not enough. 

Pop them in the oven and set the timer for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes turn the oven down to 350 degrees and bake for about 20-25 more minutes, checking at 20. This is a little trick I learned that helps the muffins puff up and not over the tin. That's why you can fill to the top without the batter baking all over and getting stuck to the pan. They magically puff right up. 

They are delicious hot out of the oven or at room temp. They are a great morning treat because they aren't super, icky, sweet and make a great team with a cup of coffee.  

I heart foil liners. None of that sticking nonsense that usually happens with muffins. 

Not just any old package...

Let me start by sharing about the joy I think we all feel when receiving a package in the mail. Don't you remember that feeling you would get when you where a kid and your mom handed you a letter from the mailbox that actually had your name on it?? I know I do. Something about finding an envelope in the mailbox addressed to me seemed so important and made me feel like I was an adult. Now that I am an adult it's just not the same. I would guess the bills are to blame. However, as an adult, I still get that joyous feeling when I find something in the mailbox that doesn't fall into the bill, junk, or credit card offer categories. That's part of the reason of why I love Etsy. 

Etsy encourages their sellers to be creative when it comes to packaging and shipping handmade items. In fact, one of the first Etsy seller tips I read was about making the experience of buying from your shop memorable. At first I didn't really know how I could do this so I just wrapped my items up in some bright tissue paper, tied it up with some colorful yarn, and topped it off with a handwritten note. Simple and cute, but not exactly memorable. It wasn’t until I made one of my first purchases on Etsy that I realized I had to step up my game in the packaging department. I wish I had taken pictures of this beautifully wrapped necklace, but I was way too excited about getting the necklace around my neck to think of taking pictures. I felt like I was opening a present for myself. It was in a cute little box that was sporting a fantastic logo for the Etsy shop it came from and then the box was wrapped with a bow and a note from the seller. I just loved it! 

I had been challenged and I don't like to ignore challenges. The challenge was to create a cute, yet inexpensive, package that would give my buyers the feeling of opening a present. I mentioned my challenge to my mom (a.k.a. queen of creativity) and she started throwing out a few ideas. When she said something about a little keepsake bag or drawstring bag I immediately knew what I wanted, a muslin bag. Then, I decided if I could get a stamp of the Tatted toppers logo I could stamp the bags. Well, after several weeks of getting all those things in order, I was finally able to make my new packaging and send it off to my customers. 

So when you order an item from Tatted toppers, not only is the item handmade, but the packaging is handmade as well. Here is a quick glimpse into the process...

 Stamp, pigment ink, embossing powder, muslin bag, medium card stock tag 

Ink up the stamp with the pigment ink

Center the stamp, and press down. I used a book as a base under my little craft pillowcase.

Voila! 

The bag part is pretty simple, I just have to make sure to press hard and throughout the entire stamp. The middle tends to be the most difficult part to get a good solid image down.


I also use my stamp to create embossed tags. I tie the tags to the hat (or whatever item is ordered) and write a little note on the opposite side. I cannot even begin to express my love for embossing! It is such an easy and relatively fast way to make something look so fancy. I have used it mostly on invitations, but also to make some personalized stationary. Once you have the few essentials, you could literally go crazy embossing and creating all kinds of cool paper goods.

The essentials: Stamp, pigment ink, embossing powder, and whatever type of paper you are wanting to emboss. There is one more thing you need that is probably the most essential, but I'll get to that in a moment. 

First, ink up the stamp again using pigment ink and stamp the paper or tag or whatever.

Then, pour the embossing powder over the wet ink. It is important that the ink is still wet so that the powder sticks. Also, I like to keep a piece of paper underneath to catch the leftover powder. 

Next, pick up the stamped item and pour all the embossing powder off. A paint brush is helpful when getting rid of all those tiny pieces trying to hang on where they don't belong.

Here is the most essential and probably most fun part of the whole process. This little tool is what completes it all. It's about $20 at JO-ANN, but if you have a 40% off coupon then it isn't so bad. Just be careful, this sucker gets HOT

Turn on the heat tool and hold it over the image. Then, moving it around to the different parts, you will be able to see the powder magically turn shiny right before your eyes! Once the entire image has changed, turn off the heat tool and enjoy!

 

This entire process (bag-tag) surprisingly takes only about 5 mins. Of course, I usually do these in bulk, about 10+ at a time. 

Here are some of the first two orders that were sent out in the new packaging. 

Newborn Crowns

Flower Snap Clips

All packed up and ready to go! 

Now get out there and emboss something! 

Giving it a whirl...

For as long as I can remember, every once in a while I would get this hankering to just MAKE something. Whether it be an awesome display of Christmas lights in my bedroom when I was a kid or helping my grandma bake some of her delectable oatmeal cookies, I’ve always loved to create. Yeah, sure, sometimes I don’t finish a project, so what? At least I had fun dreaming it up, imagining how cool it would be when it was done, and feeling capable of conquering any craft as I check out at JO-ANNs. It’s the process that I love so much.

Baking was the first form of making that I really fell in love with. Everyone loves a tasty treat and I find great joy in being able to make and share tasty treats with everyone. Even though I am uber critical of my baking, I still love watching people’s eyes grow and smiles rise as I walk through the door with a plate of goodies. 

Fortunately/Unfortunately (you could look at it either way), even my love of baking wasn’t filling my “make tank” inside. So, I started searching for a new love. I’m not really sure how I fell upon that first cheesy “How to Crochet” YouTube video, but I do remember attempting to knit prior to crochet and despising every second of it. I kept thinking to myself as I practiced casting on, “There’s got to be a faster way!” Enter crochet. I tossed the knitting needles, picked up a crochet hook, turned on my computer, and away I went! My first project was a silvery gray scarf.  

 I cringed that I’m even displaying it for all to see, but everyone has to start somewhere, right? 

Over the next two years my crocheting skills improved and I was able to create a few gifts and fun things for myself. It was over this past Spring Break, when I was  stuck inside my house (while it rained cats and dogs all week long) and my itch to make was coming on strong that I really dove into this craft. I started searching crochet patterns online and made a couple baby hats. Then I found the best website of all time, Etsy. I showed my husband and he said "You need to sell your stuff on there!" I immediately thought, "That's sweet, but would never work" however the thought kept looming in my mind that maybe I could make and sell stuff online.

After contemplating a name, creating a simple banner and logo, and crocheting about 10 hats, I decided to try selling my makings on Etsy. April 16, 2011, Tatted toppers set up shop. I was a bit apprehensive at opening a shop because I just could not imagine why anyone would choose my stuff over the thousands, possibly millions, of other hats on this wonderful website. Trust me, I took a long time to study and size up my competition before giving it a go and I still wasn’t sure Tatted toppers would go anywhere. 

I started with a variety of hats and headbands...

and it only took one day to sell my first item. Granted this sale was to my sister-in-law, but hey, my niece was the perfect first customer! 

59 sales later and I’m loving every minute.  Of course, that desire to make is still going strong and I lay awake at night thinking of all the new things I want to crochet, bake, or make. There are many ideas in my head right now and I'm excited to share them with you in the coming days, week, months...dare I say, years? We'll see!