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

*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

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

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

Sorry for the delay NEW FACEBOOK FANPAGE!!

Wow have I missed out on some blogging... not like me. Very very sorry I've been MIA. I started up some new classes. I go to University of Phoenix and there were consuming me for some time.. but I did manage to get some new crafts done that I absolutely love. I'll have to show you a few.

 What I am ever so excited about is that I have officially been revamping the facebook fanpage for Kasha Designs which you can just find it under search and type in Kasha Designs or you can follow this link ; )       

https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Kasha-Designs/203336493022276            


I am in the middle of adding pictures as of right now, it was all over the place before and I think this structure is way better. Facebook is a little slow because I've been doing this since 11 this morning... yuck... but till then I will show you some items I have new and of course so much more on the way!!

 (DROP LEAF EARRING WITH RED FIRE POLISHED BEADS)

 (HAND COILED PINK AND BLACK ARTISTIC WIRE....thank you Coiling Gizmo)

 (BUTTERFLY CHARM RING...these are very popular with Kasha Designs)

(HELLO KITTY NECKLACE... recycled key chain : )  )

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

Another contraption to make jewelry making fun and original.

I have this fun new toy that I have to thank my mom for getting. She found the coiling gizmo at our local goodwill, just like she found my first beading set and that got me into my beading frenzy. THANKS MOM!! : )

Anyways. As you can see my new toy is called the coiling gizmo and what this does , it takes traditional hand wrapping and coiling and makes it so much easier. Easier on the hands and it shortens time in hand wrapping. I hand coiled ring and it took me an hour !! I made one then with the coiling gizmo.... Not even a min to get the band coiled!! I love this contraption.
I have found some through amazon and eBay the newer gizmos come with many more attachments but mine just came with two different size mandrels to wrap your wire, and a metal U shaped bar to assit in coiling. The yellow C clamp I got at walmart for $3

As you can see on the front of the box you can become very creative with this coiling gizmo and it takes atleast half the time down from doing it by hand. I have demonstrated on how you can even make your own beads by using beads!!! How AMAZING!!

I'm doing a patriotic line right now , hence the red, white and blue. GOD BLESS AMERICA. any who, I first count out the beads I want to coil, you don't have to but I'm OCD. : ) I leave my wire on my spool. Then I take the end of the wire and wrap it around the size of mandrel I want to use. I chose the smaller mandrel for these beads. You can either wrap towards you or away from you, which ever you like more.
I then just started to wrap. Depending on the length of the bead will determine how much coil you want to show before you start pushing up your beads.

Then I started to coil my seed beads into the coil bead I'm making making sure not to hold it too taught because the beads will break. After the seed beads are all coiled I coil the same amount on the end as I started with. Snip, tuck and smooth out and ....
Tada you have just coiled your own personal bead !!

My rating for the coiling gizmo is a very good one. I really like so far what I am able to do and I've Seen some great videos of what people have done and I am defiantly going to expand in making beads and coils with the gizmo and I will be offering them for supplies to others so keep a look out for that too.




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

Let's get patriotic. Show your support

($8 HAND PAINTED FLOWER ACCENT/CENTERPIECE)

($3 HAND COIL BEADED EARRINGS)

($4 HAND COIL BEADED BRACELET)

I am through this week and June to July pushing patriotic items. I have a few made and only have tons more to make. 

Patriotic accent pieces for your table when you have your memorial day or 4th of July parties.

Earrings with a matching bracelet. I personally hand coiled/wrapped the individual "beads" you see on the earrings and then on the bracelet. So it has even more extra love.

Stay tuned for more patriotic items I will be making to celebrate our independence and support our veterans and those in service still protecting us all.

God Bless America

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

I've been FEATURED!!!

I would like to thank Corky Crafts on etsy for featuring my purple butterfly candy dish to her shades of purple teeasury.

Here is the link so you can see mine and all of the great other products by crafters. Thank you again Corky Crafts

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4dc3fa0bf0896d91457b046e/shades-of-purple

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/

Small Business Bible

Yes you heard right. I bought The Small Business Bible by Steve D. Strauss.(2nd Edition) Some people think seriously you got a book about business but please don't knock it until you try it. I'm into the first chapter and so far it has some pointers that I never thought about and have put to use. I also got some websites to look at because yeah I think I am good at my art, but for now I am the one having to be the accountant, marketer, owner etc so I need to get a basis of each category and then some.

($10.98 at Amazon.com I have the direct link in my previous blog post of recommendations)I will read this book, write down pointers and try them. I am very serious about Kasha Designs and I want to meet, greet and experience so many things and people on my journey.

I am very excited about my read and I hope you at least look into this book or another one. Again look at my recommendation post, there are craft books and business books I posted.

Oh I'll be using my beaded cross key chain and bookmark for this book.

($5 key chain/bookmark cross. You get to see it first. It's not on the website.... Yet)








Have a great Earth Day and Good Friday!!

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

Great blog for entrepreneurs to read

This is a blog that I read on etsy.com It was so great that I just had to share it. I will be taking the advice that is given in this blog and put it towards Kasha Designs because I love what I am doing and only want to see it grow. I can say that I too have put myself in a job field that I thought I always wanted. I go there and now I see I need to stop pushing it and do what my heart is telling me.

Enjoy,
Krista - the link is below

"Quit Your day job: Snapcrafty"

http://www.etsy.com/storque/seller-handbook/quit-your-day-job-snapcrafty-12552/?ref=sell_blog_post


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