Headband Holders

Selection of headband holders that I made for a recent craft fair. Headbands fit snugly around the padded base. Two ribbons for attaching hair clips. Lids remove for extra storage inside. Custom orders are currently on hold unless a canister can be provided.

I still have the black & white damask, blue & yellow argyle, and ladybug ones in stock. Have enough fabric to make one more of the rest, among other designs and colors. $25 (+tax in NY). $20 if a container is provided. Read a little more about them HERE.

1. Black & white damask 2. Blue & yellow argyle 3. Polka dots 4. Retro Round 5. Happi Medallions 6. Ladybug Graden 7. (No longer available).

(The purpose of this post was really to give Allison an opportunity to "pin" this to her Pinterest. :-) You can follow her on Pinterest. And while you're at it, follow me too!

Happy pinning!

New Headband Holder

I know that I haven't posted the survey results for the headband holders yet, but I wanted to share one that I made today. I wasn't really planning on starting these already, but I had received two requests through Facebook for one. Then I found out that there is an upcoming craft fair in town that I am trying to sign up for (waiting for the woman in charge to email me back). So I decided to make some of these earlier than planned in anticipation for the craft fair (on February 18th).

I prepared all of my materials the last night:

I had high aspirations of finishing two of these today.

And impatiently waited until naptime today to "whip" one up.

Here is the first one that I have made up (excluding my "mock-up" that was shared in the survey):

The blue fabric is for the next one.

This darn thing took me about TWO hours to finish! And that's not including the time that it took me to measure and cut the fabric and the batting the night before.

I'm not really sure if I like how this one turned out. The pom fringe doesn't really look how I had pictured it would, and I think it might be a little overkill once headbands and hair clips are added. There is a dark purple in the fabric, which coordinates with the ribbon and fringe, but it's a little difficult to see in this photo. There are two hair clip ribbons on this one (the consensus from the survey was to have two), and the padded lid removes for extra storage inside, for hairbrushes, combs, hair ties, etc.:

Tabs inside prevent it from falling inside the container.

I am still debating whether or not I want to try to track down some bases for these, as shown in the mock-up, using one of my votive bases:

What do you think, don't worry about a base, or definitely include one? Ditch the pom fringe, or keep it?

A Farewell to Bethany

It is with a heavy heart that I announce the loss of "Bethany", a beloved member of the Betty Bow Blue family.

You will be missed.

With one final snip of the scissors, Bethany was no more. She had a good run while it lasted, and was a favorite of many. Throughout her lifetime, Bethany was able to produce a pair of hair clips, two flower headbands, a flower pin, two pom pins, FOUR necklaces, and most recently, two pom rings. She was a bestseller.

If you are one of the unfortunate few who do not own a piece of Bethany, now's the time to act! One pom pin, and one pom ring (see photo below), are still available for purchase. Move quickly before she is gone completely!

For now, let's take a moment of silence to remember the best of Bethany:

And for the record, yes, I am fully aware that I am a dork. :-)

First Custom Order

Recently one of my sisters asked me to make a REAL custom order, (as opposed to asking me to make a duplicate of an item that I've already made). She wanted hair clips to match a dress that she bought as a Christmas gift for two sisters. Here is what the dress looks like:

From JCPenney

I was actually pretty excited about doing this, and I love how the matching hair clips turned out. The sisters are 5 and 2, so I made two different sized poms for the clips, (a little difficult to tell in this photo).

The greens matched better in real life, the blue ended up being a little off from the actual blue in the dress, but I blame that on the photo from JCPenney, since they appear to be the same on my screen. :-) My sister also asked me for two headbands for each girl, which proved to be a little more challenging than one might think, but only because the girls have red hair, so I had to make sure I made something that would look well with red. I already had a couple of headbands on hand, but also came up with two new headbands:

Rumor has it that the girls loved the headbands, and one of them HAD to wear hers the rest of the day. That's what I like to hear!

I have created two tutorials while I was making these items, so I'll be sharing those some time later.

Shop Update

My Etsy shop is up and running again after some price revamping for that market, but don't balk at those prices just yet! Yes, they are higher, but remember that those prices are going to be different than my local/craft fair prices (which have also had a slight price adjustment to reflect time and materials). Anyone who placed a custom order with me prior to this price change will still be charged the old price. Also, contacting and buying from me directly, (not through Etsy) will result in a discounted price (from the Etsy prices), as explained in my earlier pricing post. No more losing money for me!

Here's a look at things to come in the next month or two.

Rings: I am awaiting a shipment of ring bases to begin working on those. (Survey results coming soon). You can expect to see some of those in my shop by the end of the month. Update: Ring bases arrived yesterday!

Bracelets: I am getting ready to place my order for bracelet bases and as soon as I receive all of the supplies for these, I should be able to start on those right away and have those in my shop by the end of January or beginning of February.Update: Supplies for bracelets were purchased today!

Headband holders: I will probably start making these in February (unless you contact me earlier for a custom order), as I have already had some interest in them. Canisters are being collected and the kinks are being worked out now. I don't know that I will be listing these in my Etsy shop, or just offering them through Facebook and personal sales.

Headbands: I have had several questions about headbands for infants, so I am now going to start offering crochet head wraps along with the elastic and fabric-wrapped headbands. These will be available for fabric flowers, 3" poms, and the "coming-soon" felt flowers. The fabric-wrapped plastic headbands that I usually use are starting to get a little difficult to find in different colors. This may mean that they are on their way out and will need to be replaced by something else, (another reason why I now sell my fabric flowers by themselves).

Felt Flowers: I really love the one I made, so I will be making these within the next month or so too. They will be available as pins, clips, and headbands. Flower designs will include dahlias and sunflowers, with the possibility of others.

I think that may be it for updates right now. Starting next week, I will be working two days a week (baby-sitting on Tuesdays and subbing on Fridays), so that will help move things along, I hope.

The Power of Pricing

If anyone has happened to stop by my Etsy shop in the last day or so, you will notice that I am "On Vacation". I'm not really on vacation, (although after hearing the weather forecast for the rest of the week and weekend, I wish I were), I am making some much needed adjustments, and hopefully improvements, to my shop. Other than taking new photos using my photo box, I am also in the process of adjusting my prices. 

I have been told by several people that they were surprised at how low I have some of my items priced. I have also been told that I am undervaluing myself. I rolled my eyes at them at first, but then I sat down and actually did the math, and after figuring in the fees that Etsy and PayPal charged me, I realized that I ended up losing money on my Etsy sales! Obviously, this is no way to run a business (unless I'm trying to run it into the ground), so I needed to make some changes.

I enlisted the assistance of my fabulously helpful sister, and she directed me to what I will be referring to as the "Magic Pricing Worksheet", or MPW. Some brilliant person out there came up with an Excel worksheet (complete with formulas! No need for fingers and toes!) for dummies like me to help price their items. Prior to this, I was doing a lot of estimating, and basically pulling prices out of my tushy. Sure, I was looking around at similar items and what they were selling for, but basically my prices were guesstimates. (Side note, I find it interesting that Firefox does not recognize "tushy" as being a word, but it does "guesstimate").

Basically, what the MPW does is calculate different prices based on cost of materials, overhead (which for the purposes of my business, includes the cost of packaging, printing, materials that I cannot really estimate for, like glue and thread, etc.), and labor. It gives you four price figures: your total cost, wholesale price, retail price, and a "Safe Price Range" . I love that it does this, because these three different prices are perfect for the various places that I could sell my products: craft fairs/personal sales, online venues like Etsy, or a "brick and mortar" storefront that sells items from local artisans.

I don't know about other people who sell their crafts, but personally, I plan to have different prices for each venue. This may not sound fair, or the ideal way to conduct a business, but let me break down the reasons why. If I am selling my items at a local craft fair, then I need to be aware of who my customer is going to be, and most importantly, my location. Someone who is shopping around a craft fair in the boonies of Upstate New York is most likely going to spend less money on items than someone in New York City. Right? The typical craft fair visitor in my area is not going to be shelling out $30 for a felt flower headband, regardless of how well it is made or how much time has been put into it, (there are always some exceptions though). So ideally, my prices should reflect that if I want to make any sales and try to establish my business with "the locals", which I feel is an important thing to do when just starting out. As long as my prices are fair, and I'm still making money rather than losing money from these sales, then I see no reason why I can't sell them for less, using the wholesale price from the MPW.

Now let's take a look at selling on Etsy, or other online venues. In case you were unaware of this, listing items on these sites is not free, nor is it free to sell them. Etsy charges a fee for each item that you list. After a certain period of time, (a few months), if your item has not sold, then you can relist the item, paying the fee again. Etsy also charges a fee for each sale that you make. They will charge you a (very small) % of the purchase price of the item, (does not include tax or shipping). Unfortunately, the fees do not end there. If your customer is using PayPal to pay for their order, which they most likely are, then PayPal will charge a fee based on the full amount of money received (including tax and shipping). This is a small %, plus $.30 for each transaction. So, with all of that in mind, items that I list on Etsy should be priced higher to help cover those charges.

Another thing to consider when pricing these items is that Etsy has an International customer-base, which means a higher chance of reaching customers who will pay $30 for a felt flower headband (which they do). It would really be stupid of any seller not to take advantage of this, and this is where the middle "Safe Price" figure comes in handy.

The retail price would most likely apply to items being sold in stores. Although I currently don't do this, there are several local stores/venues that sell items for local artisans, kind of like a consignment shop. My sister does this, and if I remember correctly, she has to pay a fee each year for her space in the store, and they also collect a 30%-40% commission from the items that she sells there. Obviously, this means that she has to price accordingly if she wants to make any money at all, hence a higher retail price.

So with all of this in mind, last night I sat down with my receipts, (or at least the ones I had the foresight to save), and the MPW and got to work figuring out what I should be charging for my items. I calculated what it cost me to make each item, figured out how much time it took me to make each item, and plugged them into the MPW. Holy moly! What a difference in prices! I realized that the biggest difference in pricing my items was that I wasn't figuring in my time, the labor that it takes to make each item. Although, for some random reason I was doing this with my necklaces, but not my other items. Apparently I must think that 15 or 30 minutes of my time is worth less than one hour of it. In other cases, I underestimated how much it actually cost for the supplies to make certain items.

One of the tips that I see over and over again regarding pricing, is that pricing your items low (thinking that they will sell better) will actually hurt your sales. Apparently when people see a product that is priced low, they assume that it is cheaply made; they are more likely to buy a similar item at a higher price. This makes absolutely no sense to me because I always shop around and compare prices for the biggest bargain. I am all about finding the best way to save money, not spend more of it. But speaking of comparing prices, I also learned that it's best not to price your items based on what others are selling similar items for. The main reason for this is because you really have no way of knowing how those people are figuring out their prices. They may not have as much time invested, or as many material costs.

Overall, I think the biggest issue that I have to overcome is being able to appropriately value myself and my items. I often think, "Why would anyone pay that price for one of my items?". I guess I don't think that people actually consider the amount of time and work that I have invested in an item when looking at the price. They compare my products to similar items that they can find in the store, and think that I am overcharging for them. (I must assume that everyone is a bargain shopper like myself).  But here's the thing, yes, items in a store are going to be cheaper, there's no getting around that one. But in most cases, they are also cheaply made using cheaper products. I don't use prefabricated items for my products, (with the exception of the "hardware" like headbands and hair clips, but I challenge you to try to make those from scratch). I don't take a plastic or silk flower and simply glue it to a headband and resell it. I don't buy cabochons in bulk, glue them to a ring base that I have bought in bulk, and resell them. Each one of my flowers, each one of my poms, is unique. Each has been hand-cut, hand-sealed, and hand-assembled. I take my time with each piece, and put my best effort into making them look "perfect", and that extra care is worth something.

Coming Soon: Betty Bow Blue on Etsy!

I have decided that after my last craft fair of the holiday season this weekend, I will be posting some, if not the majority, of my items on Etsy. I am hoping to reach a broader "clientele" that way and see how things sell. I will still be accepting custom orders through email or personal correspondence, but most of my ready-made items will only be available to purchase through Etsy, (unless you know where I live and stop by my house).

I am excited about a few new designs that I have been working on, including headband "sliders". These are hand-stitched, felt headband pieces that are removable, interchangeable, and hopefully collectible! They will be making their debut at a craft fair that I am attending this weekend. I also kept getting annoyed after attaching a bow or pom on a headband, only to realize that when I tried it on, I had placed it in the wrong spot. I also noticed that the right position for my head is not necessarily the correct placement for smaller heads (I totally tested this on my sons). So from here on out, all of the bows and poms that I create for headbands will be sliders so they are positionable. And don't worry, they will not fall off the headband on their own.

Wish me luck for the craft fair this weekend and for the "Opening-Soon" Etsy shop!


P.S. If you take a look at the above tabs, you will notice that I now have a "Sold Items" tabs. This will help me keep the galleries of my on-hand inventory shorter, but also allow folks to see other items that can be made. 

New Headband Design: Bows

I spent three days, off and on, finishing this newest headband design:

Please excuse the poor photo quality; I took this at 11:30 last night.

I started by hand-stitching two pieces of fabric together to create each of the five bows. Then each bow was hand-sewn together and attached to a bright pink headband. Ribbon and a little bling are the finishing touches. I certainly will not be creating many of these, nor will they be custom orders, since they take a lot of time to make.

I would be lying if I said that this design was an original idea of mine. I was inspired by this headband from Ruche:

Found here

I'm still working on the pricing of mine, but it will be nowhere near the $32.99 price tag on the Ruche headband.

So, how do you think it turned out?

Christmas is Coming!

It's time to start your Christmas shopping, and Betty Bow Blue items will make great gifts for the ladies in your family. I have already received a few gift requests for both custom orders and in-stock items, so if you are interested in purchasing items for Christmas, now is the time to start ordering! I will be heading back to work (part-time) on Monday, so the sooner I receive your custom orders, the better the chance that they will be shipped in time for Christmas.

A few points about placing orders (as described in the "Policies" tab above):

• To place an order, please email me. If you are requesting a custom order, then include all details in your email. 
• I do require payment before shipping orders. Please read the Policies tab for further details.
• On most orders, please add $1.50 for shipping. If you are receiving several items, then I will let you know if the cost will be different.

Not sure if a Betty Bow Blue item will work for anyone on your list? Here are a few things to consider:

Hair clips are the right size for a stocking stuffer.

Headbands are a great idea as a last-minute gift for your daughter's best friends.

Order a custom-made pin for your child's teacher this year.

Holiday headbands and pins are ideal for family Christmas photos or parties.

Ditch the holiday sweaters this year. Poinsettia pins and Christmas-themed pom necklaces add a subtle touch of the Christmas spirit, perfect for the office or workplace.

Don't forget anyone on your Christmas list this year. Betty Bow Blue items are perfect for your:

• daughter/granddaughter
• mother/mother-in-law
• grandmother
• sister/sister-in-law
• wife/girlfriend
• aunt
• cousin
• niece
• teacher
• friend
• roommate
• co-worker

Check out the items that I currently have in-stock, or the fabrics available for custom items, and place your orders today!

New Headband Design

In my mad dash to build up a stock for my bomb of a craft fair this past weekend, I came up with this new design for a headband and whipped up four of them:

They are made using fabric, felt, ribbon, and embroidery thread. This design takes a little more time than my others because the fabric is hand-stitched together. It didn't turn out exactly as I had envisioned it to (do they ever?), but the headbands did receive some good "reviews" at the craft fair. Many women and girls commented on how cute they were, and how they haven't seen headbands like these before. Would you believe that one woman, after looking at these headbands, turned to the other one next to her and said, "These are so cute. I need to figure out how to make these myself. So and so would love this." Right in front of me. Seriously?!

Unfortunately, I had no sales with these items and I'm questioning whether I have them priced too high. I priced them at $12, mainly because they require different supplies than the others, and more time. What do you think? Is the pricing off?

First Craft Fair

My mom is attending a craft fair at the start of November and volunteered to take my items to sell along with hers. I would have liked to have gone myself, but it is too far away for me; I would have been gone all day and would have needed to find someone to watch the boys for the whole day. So this past weekend I packed up nearly my entire inventory (appx. 85 items!) and sent them home with my mom. I am hoping that she will be able to sell a good chunk of items, at least that way I will get a better idea as to what will be the more popular items and which ones I should spend less time on making. I am leaving up the listings of all items that she currently has in her possession, but will mark them "@CF". However, that does not mean that you cannot reserve an item to purchase. If you see something that you like, let me know and I will ask her to save it aside. I will update the listings after the craft fair is over.

I am also looking into attending a few local craft fairs within the next couple of months as well, which means that I need to start building a new inventory since my mom has all of my current stock! Wish me luck!

New Items: Headbands

I have recently completed a few new items that I am really excited about, meaning that they turned out a lot better than I had anticipated. Each of these items happens to be headbands, two 3-pom headbands, two flower bands. 


The first two 3-pom headbands that I made were actually just thrown together on a whim. (They can be viewed here and here). I really liked how they turned out and decided to make more. One of my favorites is the "Dorothy" print one. (See below). It features a blue and pink floral medium pom, and two small navy blue poms on either side. I used a bright pink ¼" headband to balance out the blue and bring out some of the pink shades in the print fabric. I really liked how it turned out and ended up making two of these.

"Dorothy"

The second 3-pom headband that came together nicely uses a new favorite color pairing, blue and yellow. The middle pom is made from the "Sweet Aida" print and the outside poms are a bold blue shade. They have been attached to a ¼" yellow headband. Only one of these is available.

"Sweet Aida"

The third headband that I feel came out beyond my expectations uses the "Larkin" print. This print has a great combination of pinks and purples, with touches of glitter here and there. I was hesitant to use this print at first because I thought that it felt rather "old-ladyish", but I bit the bullet and went ahead and made two flowers with it. They came out much better than I had expected and I ended up attaching them to a deep purple ¼" headband. Two of these are available.

"Larkin"

The final headband is a Holiday-themed one. It features the same poinsettias that I used for my poinsettia pins. They are made with a deep red and a dark green fabric and are embellished with hand-sewn gold beads. A ¼" red headband is used for this one. Two of these are available.

Poinsettia

All headbands can be found under the "Headbands" tab above.