Personally designing/upcycling shoes

With my love of fashion i have decided to come across in adding something amazing to Kasha Designs. Iam up cycling my old shoes or shoes I can get a hold of. So yeah  you can say a shoe designer. One of a kind and a friend has even asked me to upcycle a pair of her old not so pretty shoes anymore. This is going to be so much fun as I can design an outfit with shoes and accessories and have a fully complete line now. This was the first part and they turned out great. I can not wait to get started with even more.

This is the shoe before. I have had these for some time and they were just too bland for me. Also the other shoe the strap broke and I did not just want to get rid of them.

After. My mind and hands went to work and I got this now vamped up wedge. All fabric was from what I had laying in my sewing room and rhinestones add some bling to it. I really love them and will look great this spring and summer.

 Not bad for my first attempt. I'm excited to do more and will be doing themed shoes as well. I may be doing a Nicki Minaj or Katy Perry inspired shoe : ) Every so often I'll find something themed to design the shoe around.

Krista
Kasha Designs
http://www.facebook.com/kashadesigns

How to be a vendor for Dare 2 Vogue

Here's a video that Jackie and I have put together to get information to businesses that want to learn about Dare 2 Vogue and how to become featured. So take a look and contact me when you would love to get started.



Krista
http://www.dare2vogue.webs.com
http://www.facebook.com/kashadesigns

Beauty & Fashion Companies all for the Beauty Box

I just wanted to take the time to give the link to where you can find the companies that will participating in future beauty boxes. We are always looking for more and past places can send in their items anytime telling us when they would like to participate. This is a very exciting journey for me, Dare 2 Vogue and my fashion business as well Kasha Designs. I know what it's like to be a at home business and still be living a full time life it's tough but I live and breath fashion and I know how hard it is to want to try new products but have no where to start... So let Dare 2 Vogue help you with the journey and at the same time support these home based and small business grow to their full potential...

 SEE THIS LINK OF BUSINESSES AND IF INTERESTED YOUR BUSINESS CAN BE HERE TOO
 http://dare2vogue.webs.com/apps/links/

Krista
http://www.dare2vogue.webs.com
http://www.facebook.com/kashadesigns

What has inspired you this summer?

I have noticed that so many things have been inspiring me this summer. I have also noticed I have been more inspired during spring/summer than I have been in fall an winter. Maybe it's because of the bright colors and blossoming flowers? Or the warm weather? I'm not sure but I have made some creative items that I am very happy to share and hopefully be able to pass on to another person to be inspired by my made creations.

What has inspired you this summer?

SHOP FOR ITEMS AT ETSY FOR KASHA FANPAGE

http://www.etsy.com/shop/KashaDsgns?ref=pr_shop

http://www.facebook.com/kashadesigns

Swarovski Crystal rings. Elegance at it's best

Kasha Designs is always keeping our fans and customers on their toes with new items and beautiful treasures. My mission was to start and run my own fashion business and I have done so and am very pleased. I have added more elegance and quality to Kasha Designs with a line of Swarovski crystal rings.
Each ring is wire wrapped with either all Swarovski crystals or accented with other beads. Each ring will glisten and sparkle and can be made from sizes 1-13. If you want quality, elegance and style Swarovski is the way to go.

"Swarovski (Austrian) Crystal is the finest quality, full-lead crystal made today. The crystals are faceted with tremendous precision, creating beautiful prisms. Brilliant colors and/or coatings are added to these crystals to create pendants, stones, and beads of dazzling beauty and tremendous variety of shapes and sizes. Swarovski Crystal is unmatched in quality and distinction."

SEE ALL RINGS AND MORE AT:
http://www.facebook.com/kashadesigns

Kasha Designs
kashadesigns@live.com
http://www.kashadesigns.webs.com

*FEATURED* butterfly candy dish

Thank you to junryglems via etsy for featuring a Kasha Designs product the butterfly candy dish : )

here is the treasury and place of feature.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/MTQyNDk1ODB8NDY2ODExNDIx/the-color-of-royalty-ejart-competition?utm_source=OpenGraph&utm_medium=PageTools&utm_campaign=Share

This is the color of royalty treasury and it has lots of beautiful items from many shops hand picked by jenryglems and I know we all thank you.

Kasha Designs
http://www.facebook.com/kashadesigns

New handmade hair clips

When you are a crafting you will start to evolve over time and fine new crafts that you are able to pick up. I sew, make jewelry, decorate home decor and now I've started making hair clips. It's fun an easy and another way to express myself. I have made large, small and mini clips. I only have a few done so I can see what people think about them. Check out our section on our fanpage

http://www.facebook.com/kashadesigns

There I have different folds and I think I have my favorites picked out. Check them out and give me some feedback, please and thank you!!

4th of July weekend Flea Market

Wow I must say this past month has gone by so fast that I did not even notice that the 4th of July weekend Flea Market that I signed up for in my home town is this weekend!!! Awwwkkk I need to make more items because our celebration brings crowds and crowds of people!! It makes me nervous lol I hope I can keep up.


  I'm thinking about making items while I sell.. I don't know if that is a good idea I mean I'll be sitting there from 9-5 the 2nd and the 4th oh and then I am doing another booth set up the 9th... wow my hands need to get to crafting lol
 
  I'm super excited and I'll take pics of the whole event both days and I'll let you know how Kasha Designs does!!

Kasha Designs
www.kashadesigns.webs.com
www.kashadsgns.etsy.com

Fruity Jewelry

This past weekend I had a fruity adventure. While I was going through all of my beads because I like to use everything I have and it turned out really great. Check out my new cherry earrings and lemon squeeze bracelet.


Check out all products on our fanpage

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kasha-Designs/203336493022276

Kasha Designs
www.kashadesigns.webs.com
www.kashadsgns.etsy.com
www.kashadesigns.Zibbet.com

Up coming YouTube review

Kasha Designs will be having a fantastic fan all the way up in Canada do a review on our jewelry for all to see and join in on the upcoming success that Kasha Designs hopes to have. Shaniqueka has a fashion vlog (video blog) where she shares tips, tricks and reviews of items that she buys from places she loves to shop.From make up, jewelry, clothes, purses, hair pieces. We will keep you posted when the vlog will be up and get information on how to enter a Kasha Designs giveaway for this special milestone!! Thank you Shaniqueka and all of our fans!!


Krista
Kasha Designs
www.kashadesigns.webs.com
www.kashadesigns.Zibbet.com

SALE craft supplies

I have finally buckled down and started going through and making what craft supplies I want to have for sale for my followers who craft and those who want to start crafting. It will all grow once I really get started but just another section to Kasha Designs to keep all of my customers happy and keeping their creative mind running.

    Here are a few of the hand coiled beads with seed and glass beads and artistic wire that I have made. They can be strung on stretch cord and, on eye pins and the ones with the bigger diameters can but placed on chain links.

 HAND COILED SEED BEADS ON BLUE ARTISTIC WIRE 5 FOR $4

PURPLE AND GREEN ARTISTIC WIRE HAND COILED BEAD 5 FOR $4

CHECK OUT THE FOR SALES SECTION OF THE KASHA FANPAGE ON FACEBOOK TO SEE MORE ITEMS AND PLENTY MORE TO COME!!! LINK IS BELOW AND DON'T FORGET TO LIKE OUR PAGE.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.217412994947959.54780.203336493022276

Kasha Designs

kashadesigns@live.com

www.kashadsgns.etsy.com

www.kashadesigns.webs.com

Zibbet vs. Etsy

So finally I looked into this semi new handmade craft selling page similar to Etsy and I'm giving it a try.
Zibbet is the site (www.zibbet.com) just like anywhere you sell it takes time to get a customer base and it takes self promotion and interacting in the groups and forums. This goes for Etsy and Zibbet.
For Zibbet, the good I found, free posting of items to sell, you can link your Etsy account to you Zibbet. That's very nice of them : )
For Zibbet, the not so good I found, if you want to have unlimited amount of items you can post to sell you have to pay for a account. Like a monthly fee, you still get 50 spots to post under a free account but many of us have way more than 50 items. Zibbet isn't as well known but it's in the rising if more of us let the world know about it. If you have more than one item of that one product you can't type in more than one quantity unless you have a paid account. I have just typed in the bottom of the description if I have more.
Now many of us know Etsy and how it works but I'll still go over it.
The good, it has great groups to meet people, learn new tips, self promote and to walk you through dos and don'ts and good etsy selling. Many people have turned etsy into their full time job so you can become successful.
There are a lot of jewelry selling so it can be difficult to gain jewelry sales , you have to pay 20cents per posting wich is not bad but if you are already hard on money that can become difficult. That starts to add up.

As a whole both places have great potential of anyone being successful. It just takes time, patience and you have to work at it just like anything else. I've had my first sell on Etsy after 1 month so I'm okay with that. I'll keep you posted on how Zibbet turns out.


Krista
Kasha Designs
http://www.kashadesigns.webs.com
http://www.kashadsgns.etsy.com
http://www.zibbet.com/KashaDesigns

Double your fun.

When making a craft that you plan on selling and making a business out of it is a good idea to make at least two of that one product. Now I would personally stop at making three because if you make 15 of one product then find out that it is not a hit you are out of money and stuck with all 15 of them. But if you make one and others are asking for them you may end up working even harder trying to keep up with orders.
There are some things you buy that come in packs of two or more like pendents in jewelry making take those and make two and see how those go. Or make two different variations of that one product.
The ending note is don't just offer your customers first come first serve unless that is all you have left or all you could get your hands on from the store.
Just a little something to keep in mind to keep customers happy when you have a product that is in demand.

Krista
Kasha Designs
www.kashadesigns.webs.com
www.kashadsgns.etsy.com

Chain Sta

It has finally arrived!! My Chain Sta from http://www.artbeads.com/ it did take a while to ship but I'm sure I'll be happy with it I'm the end. It's very easy to put together and can be used instantly. 

Once you get the Chain Sta together you can see I've already got my bracelet ready to go. You can use necklaces on here as well. It makes adding charms way easier.

I am very OCD and have to have things even so I am more into counting my links rather than measuring them out. I feel ten time better that way. So I wanted to had cross charms, I counted the links to where I wanted then and with my Chain Sta got them on my bracelet with ease!! : )

Now that all my designated charms are placed, I did that first because I know how I get. I would have forgotten by the time I got to that spot and the bracelet wouldn't Of had crosses at all lol, I continued to add my brown beads and my shells beads in the order that I wanted them. : )

And tada!! Here we have my bracelet I made with the Chain Sta. I feel like I went faster in making the bracelet by having that extra hand. Out of 10 stars I will give it a 8,( no 9 it took a long time to ship, no 10 because nothing is perfect)

                             (This bracelet if for sale at http://www.kashadsgns.etsy.com/)

Again I bought this from http://www.artbeads.com/free shipping in the U.S. With orders over $10.
They have great products at great prices and there always seems to be a coupon available right from the site.

Happy Monday.


Krista 
Kasha Designs
http://www.kashadesigns.webs.com/
http://www.kashadsgns.etsy.com/

What's your worth? Price your items right the 1st time.

Kasha Designs is my baby, so to speak. I love what I do and coming up with new and fun ideas. I want to give my items to new homes and have the customer love and enjoy them as much as I do. But I want them to love  the quality and love the price. I do not want to make items too high but I also need to think about how much time I took making the item and difficulty if any.
 When it comes to pricing many struggle and it's fully understandable. Some people look at their items and say what would I pay for it? Well that is okay to a certain extent, but not everyone will pay $20 for an okay necklace. Then there are the groups that take how much the product costs and then adds $2-$5 to make as their profit and does not take in anything else.
 
 So here is my method of pricing my items. Everything I buy I keep my reciept and log the price of items into an excel spread sheet and I take into account how many beads, pendents or what have you is on they strand. I price items per bead. So if there are 75 beads on a strand for $2 I take $2 and divide it by 75, and the solution I would round to .02 scents per bead. That sounds crazy but it really works.
  Well after getting a price per bead I have to take into account how long it took me to make the item and how much I am worth. Every artists takes time to make an item and we are all worth something by taking time out of our days to make these wonderful pieces. Are you worth $1 an hour? or $3 hour it's all up to your skill, quality, and devotion. Each person will determine his/her worth.


 So pricing my items I take bead/charm/material per cost, time, and worth and that is how I come up with my prices now. I have done this with items and I have gone down some $2-4 dollars because I was really over pricing it. I'm not saying I am not worth that much but what I put my worth at I am still making a profit, a profit to take Kasha Designs to the extreme that I want it to go. Some people raise prices to really make a killing, but I want to make money but I enjoy having happy customers and being happy myself. It's not about the money that I have started my own business its the joy I get in crafting and meeting other who enjoy and respect my work and networking with so many people in the same field. Hopefully the ones that are reading this now. Many people may shake their head but I've done the calculations yes I'm still making money and I have great customer service, without customers there is no business.


But now since I've had a sentimental moment lol here is an ebook (FREE) on pricing and value called an Artists guide to Pricing by blogger Brandi Girl. This is free so please download it and reference to it until you get comfortable pricing your items.

http://www.brandigirlblog.com/2011/03/artists-guide-to-pricing.html


I hope to service you soon with Kasha Designs products we always have stock and plenty more in the works. Have a great weekend!!


Krista
Kasha Designs
http://www.kashadesigns.webs.com/

Web referral program

THIS JUST IN KASHA DESIGNS IS HAVING A WEB REFERRAL PROGRAM!!!

If you shop at Kasha Designs website tell your friends/family and you can get 10% off of your order. If you tell three people and they shop online you will get 3 10% off transactions. * One per transaction* Make sure they tell me your name so I know you are a returning customer.


Krista
Kasha Designs
http://www.kashadesigns.webs.com/
http://www.kashadsgns.etsy.com/

Versatile baby/toddler blanket (boy)

Versitile baby/toddler blanket (boy) - Kasha Designs- handmade accessories
(CLICK ON THE LINK)
This is the versatile baby/toddler blanket I have made. This one is for a boy, but you dont have to get it for a boy; girls like blue too. It is 27" x 36" with a checkered print of stripes, white, puppy dogs and polka dots with green, brown and blue on the various squares. I have trimmed it with brown blanket bindind and on the back side of the blanket it is a navy blue finish.


I will be making the one for girls this week so it will be up soon. I have a few new projects I have been working on. Some home decor items, hand panting and decorating vases to use for flowers, decorations, or a holder to hold pens, scissors or your ring mandrel it's versatile too.


You can find this blanket on the website along with many other items and many more are coming soon.



Krista
Kasha Designs
http://www.kashadesigns.webs.com/
http://www.kashadsgns.etsy.com/

New Product COMING SOON!!

I am so excited to share this amazing website I found today. It is www.artbeads.com, this is next to Hobby Lobby the mother of art stores, well for me at least ; ) I have come to announce that I have some new items coming in that I want to show and then when they come in, trust me you will hear all about it: ) I PROMISE.


Well first off I am getting from artbeads.com a Chain Stä,
As you can see from the picture it holds chain links for you. May it be bracelets or necklaces when you are trying to add charms with head pins, eye pins, loops etc I always seem to wish I had a third hand and with the Chain Stä I can have that third hand. While the chain is hung on the stand I can add charms and pendents straight to the chain link and even do wraps way easier.

(www.artbeads.com Chain Stä $12.07 it will be free shipping over $10 :) )




Then I have bought some watch faces that support breast cancer with the pink ribbon in the middle. I'm really excited to get those made because I have been running a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society and % of proceeds each month have been going to them. My brother is running for them in the Chicago Marathon so wish him luck!!!

(Martell in the Chicago Marathon 10-10-10 twitter @MartellCBolden)


While I am trying with all of my might to hold my containment I am going to go make some baby/toddler blanket sets I have been dreaming about for days See you later in the blog.




p.s. If you shop at artbeads.com I was given this code to get 10% to share with my friends so have fun. ZZ-FRIEND10


Krista
Kasha Designs
http://www.kashadesigns.webs.com/
http://www.kashadsgns.etsy.com/

Pricing your items guide

I just read this great blog, I mean it's fantastic for those who are looking to make their crafts a real business. You want to make a profit off of it but you also want to get paid what you are worth. If you do just make crafts as a hobby and just make a few extra dollars besided covering for the supplies that is fine. But read this blog, subsrcibe to the blog and download the free ebook that is offered on pricing you itmes. it's a great read and helpful for your business

Art Bead Scene Blog
"Pricing & Value"

http://artbeadscene.blogspot.com/2011/04/pricing-and-value.html



Kasha Designs
http://www.kashadesigns.webs.com/
http://www.kashadsgns.etsy.com/

Recommendations on books for business and crafts

Here are a few links to some books that I love and recommend for running/starting a small business and keeping up on your craft. If jewelry making and sewing is not your craft. Go to my previous blog post and click on the amazon link and search for your craft. Eitehr way I recommend finding atleast 1-2 good books to read up on.









DONT FORGET CHECK OUT KASHA DESIGNS WEBSITE AT www.kashadesigns.webs.com