Flikr Friday Embroiderey

When I was younger, I learnt to embroider, nothing fancy mind you just the basics on Binka, Do you remember it? it was a fabric a little like Hessian with little holes in so that you could follow them and make stitches mind you it  would fray just by looking at it, lol I remember I started to make a tray cover by the time I finished it was the size of a coaster, I loved this craft, I learnt all the stitches and all the different knots that went with it, I collected beautiful jewel coloured embroidery thread.
Sadly the days of embroidery left me  until recently I had some plain fabric that I acquired from
Mr D, I  knew as soon as I saw it  was to become cushions, It dawned on me that I need to get out my embroidery hoop and start embroidering, Being a tad rusty I thought I might just stick with cross stitch for now. I will share my project with you when it's finished until then here are 6 of my favourite embroidery pieces. Please remember these pictures belong to their various owners .
Maybe these will encourage you to pick up your embroider hoop, and buy some thread and embroider
xx

Flickr Friday Pretty Pressies

I chose for this week gift wrapping, its never just about a bit of paper, stiff ribbon, sticky bow and 3 metres of sticky tape, It should be a work of art, dramatic in some cases, rustic in others, have a look at these.....

Plain white pockets decorated with paper roses, leaves & cut outs

Brown paper stamped pink using the end of a celery stick (cut the bottom off ). White paper stamped, pretty ribbon

 

 

 

Simple brown paper bag ribbon, pretty paper, velum pocket and card, tag, tissue paper

 

 

Cream envelope, typed verse,  lace trim, strung pearl beads, tag, decorated with trim , fabric, gem 

 

 

 

Pretty pink paper or fabric, doilies, silk rose and ribbon, sheet music

 

Simples... brown fabric or paper, crotchet doilies  

 

 

 

cookie or sweet wrapping paper bag, coloured bakers twine, doilies, pretty bows and ribbon

 

 

pretty stamped paper, pink cord, ribbon, trim, crotchet flower

 

Aren't they gorgeous... I am in the midst of jotting down lots of ideas for gift wrapping, packaging, which will coincide with my Craft business blogs. Watch this space, Thank you for looking. These pictures still remain the property of their owners,

Branding (part 1)

• personality
• strong brand name and design
• powerful profile across various social media platforms
• professional images, stylish stationary and packaging

During this I would like to cover various aspects of branding from market research through to Avatar designing.

With this information you can build your brand so that it is easily recognisable, will attract new custom and keep loyal customers coming back for more.

The first thing to be considered when starting up a new business is to find out what's out there, what's not, what people want and what isn't popular. There may well be new products out that may bring in profits as well as success for an ongoing business.

We often think about market research as something large companies/organisations would do, a mysterious and complex project that is out of reach for a small craft business, in fact in its simplest form, looks at what products or services  people are willing to buy, in what quantity, to see if you can meet their requirements and still make money.

It is a smart way to research and evaluate your collected data, you will also discover whether you need to alter aspects of your business packaging, delivery and selling.

There are different ways to use this data collection you can either use it to create a craft business and marketing plan or to use it to measure your existing business success.

What is important when carrying out market research is that the right questions are asked to the right people in the right way.

Every business needs to know what products are wanted or needed, the target audience, the best way to offer goods to potential customers and keep existing.

Don't panic if the results are not what you expected- adapting is part of the process. Remember opinions change so it is worth repeating at different stages, PinkPeonyPetals usually collects data after a large event or celebration Christmas, Halloween, Easter,

What was popular what wasn't, customer feed back on delivery, packaging, what they would be interested in receiving in the future and more,

unique  business cards

  

There are 2 types of research...

Primary- information that you personally collect from people and then analyse. This is done through interviews, questionnaires, surveys, emails, social media, face to face.

Secondary- information already gathered by someone else and published as a report or article.

Before you jump in and spend your hard earned money and valuable time on market research there are basic mistakes to avoid

• using only secondary information
• using only the web resources
• surveying only people you know
• only listening to positive feedback about your craft business or brand idea, you also need to listen to those who are critical.

Questions to ask...

• what do you think about this craft
• would you be willing to buy this
• what would you be willing to pay for this
• have you brought something similar in the past
• if so where did you buy it

Things to consider...

are your craft products like hundreds of others out there if so how can you make yours stand out.

 Research your competition and plan how to make your craft stand out from the crowd.

Visit your national statistics or census website to find out info on everything from peoples spending habits to how price changes this is all free market data.