Our first Fund Raising

In our (Asian) culture, we were taught to be self-sufficient. Asking for money was not honorable. It is in fact, disgraceful. Well, here's the truth. We are not splitting hair over money and we are certainly not expecting to be paid for the ministry work that we do. No, that's the last thing on our mind. But having said that, ministry work cannot be done without costs involved. Travel expenses like transportation, accommodation and food are necessities and real cost and they can often work out to be a pretty decent amount. This is true for all those out there on the mission field, trusting God to provide these for them.

The question is then, do we set our money for daily expenses aside and spend it on one mission trip? Or, can we request for fellow believers to partner with us and contribute financially to the work we do, continue to survive and do many more trips that make a difference in the lives of others? An old chinese saying goes "有钱出钱，有力出力"，literally meaning "give financially OR physically as you are able". I guess it is true in many cases, especially in disaster relief, where most of us cannot be physically present but can most certainly help financially.

Those who know us personally, would know that we are thrifty with what we have, and we do not hesitate to work for a little more. That explains my little jewelry business, that has recently spun into bakery sale and soon to debut, needlecraft sale too. I consider all business sales as part of the financial blessings to us from God through each of my customers, whether they are believers in Christ or not.

Thus for our first mission trip to Costa Rica, we are raising funds for the first time. This trip is part of the travel class on the Book of Acts with Asbury Theological Seminary. The students will be imparting what they have learn in the class to the pastors there. Yes, you are right, I am not a student, but my husband is. Spouse are encouraged to participate as mission trips serves for spiritual growth for the couple too. We are also exploring our calling together, to serve in a different culture, and possibly providing multilingual ministry. Thus, we are glad for this opportunity.

Your prayers for us are greatly coveted. If God so impress upon your heart to give a free-will donation, it is most certainly welcomed. Gross earnings from my business till the end of this year will also contribute to this trip, so your patronage will be greatly appreciated too. Speaking of that, I made two sales yesterday right after we committed to putting the earnings to this trip. I have not had a sale since Independence Day craft fair, so I know this is God's go-ahead for our fund raiser.

Thank you for reading and keeping us in prayers. God bless you.

Feeling so bumped!

If you have read my post on Etsy or ArtFire?, I am back with the struggle a month later now. ArtFire has recently announced a change in suspending all Basic account and charge all sellers $9.95 a month. I have stopped using the word Pro seller, since you can only be a seller if you pay that fee. Not cool at all...

I have reopened my Etsy shop but since the listing expires once every four months, I am on the hunt for free sites to sell. Instead of trying to promote my Etsy store here, I am going to try to list some of these sites that I have found and hopefully explore them. If you have a site to recommend to those of us who cannot afford to run our own server, do leave a comment!

webs.com - Create your own free website and be able to sell up to 5 items at a time. This is what I use as my own website since the free URL is short enough and just right for the entourage of angels. No fees except Paypal and Google checkout fees as applicable. Good for the speciality of your shop that you would not want to incur listing fee with.

eCrater - Free to list and sell and you are only responsible for the fees to Paypal and/or Google checkout when you make a sale. Low traffic but I have managed to make a sale before. Low maintenance since the listing does not expire.

Handmade Craft Show - Pay to advertise for a minimum of $9 with 5 weeks exposure in the "aisle" with least traffic. It looks like you can use your Etsy mini in the craft show directly.

Zibbet - Free account with 50 items limit. Etsy and ArtFire importer included in the free account. I decided to set one up right away! The importers made migrating a breeze. It is awesome even just using it as an additional store. I will be able to use it to display items that I sold without worrying about the listing fees. Each listing is active for 180 days. Premium account ($9.95/mth or $69/yr) required to make coupons and use some other features. Very much like ArtFire Basic but I simply love the user interface.

madeitmyself - Feels like a pretty quiet market but it is free to list and sell. I don't like the idea of having to say how much it cost in retail and how much my listing cost though, because the item I made myself are not available in retail... Anyway, it cost $0.49 to feature the item, which I have not yet figure out what that means. My new listing was put on the front page and I was on the most active shop list. Anyway, you can definitely get away with selling without paying fees at all.

Three Sisters Marketplace - Free to list and free to sell, but you need to be juried and approved to sell. Sellers apparently have high quality items. Worth trying if you are confident of your products.

Storenvy - Compulsory use of Paypal for payment method, not a bad idea I guess. Much as we believe most people have Paypal account nowadays, we may potentially lose customers who don't. You are allowed to make coupon codes and each store comes with a Facebook app store. This is probably my favorite thing about the shop.

Silkfair - Different price tier to meet different selling needs. You can get the free account but there is still a transaction fee of 3% no matter which account you choose. Coupon function not available yet. I did not bother to set up an account.

ShopHandmade - You can choose to list for free with ad sponsorship or pay the 25 cents yourself. You can also choose how much commission to shophandmade.com. Therefore, you can totally get away with paying nothing to sell. I tried one product but I felt the user interface can be improved.

Concluding my online shop shopping experience, I liked Zibbet the best as it was totally painless to do migration, from both Etsy and ArtFire at that! You have the option to upgrade too, if 50 items limit or ability to create coupon is important to you. I would definitely take some time to set up my Three Sisters Marketplace as it seems to be a market of a different level. Storenvy might the only other shop I would maintain, based on its traffic and tools available. With all these options out there, I really do not think I would want to continue selling with ArtFire... If you have other great shop sites to recommend to those of us who are not able to run our own shopping sever, please throw your suggestions this way! 

Win a FREE Swarovski Crystal Angel!

Here's your chance to win a FREE Handmade Swarovski Crystal Angel, on any attachment of your choice!

I was wondering why my angels turn out quite different each time I design. So I took the opportunity to estimate the number of color combinations I can have, based on Wings, Hands, Heart and Crown COLOR, based on my inventory (I have currently removed the inventory of colors obviously). I am amazed and in shock.

Take a shot and guess the number by replying to the post on the FB page within the next 48 hrs. Up to 3 winners with the same closest answer will be picked randomly. Shipping charges applies as per normal and winners are more than welcomed to add on to their free package! 5% FB fan, 15% one-time discount for blog follower OR 10% VIP discount are applicable but are not to be used at the same time. Customer who leaves a review are entitled to additional 10% discount, on top of any other discounts.

The "correct answer" needs to be within 10% of the actual answer. Spread the word and have fun!

Etsy or ArtFire?

I had been struggling for a while with not putting items up on Etsy. Well, I cannot afford the time and money to keep re-listing my items since I only really get an order every once in a while. You may think that this is a chicken and egg problem, where it is necessary to spend on promoting before you will get traffic and sales. Honestly, who don't wish for more sales but realistically I may not be able to keep up with the cost. I have been on ArtFire, which is very much like Etsy, just without the fees, for a while (2 years) now. I have not yet paid a single cent to ArtFire but have used it successfully to display my inventory and made a little sales. Other tools I have used are website, Facebook page, eCrater and this blog of course. 

I did a little experiment last week by making a Treasury collection on Etsy and Curated collection on ArtFire using the same theme: Clowns that make you smile. Before I move on to the results of the experiment, I just wanted to thank the artists whom I have used in the collection. Clowns used to give me creeps but after I explored Grandma Phyllis' cupboard of clown collection, it opened up a whole new perspective for clowns for me. Their job is really to make their audience smile. They do it regardless of how they are really feeling. The professionalism of clowns are worth applauding and saluting, because they are artists in their own right. We have a musical clown, Happy, who sits on our TV and sings "It's a small world afterall" while rotating her head. She never fails to make me smile and I will always turn to her when I am feeling a little blue.

Back to the results of my little experiment, the collection was up on 1st June 2011. It has been 5 days and the number of views of the collection for Etsy and Artfire were 26 and 58 respectively. The number of comments I got were 2 and 7. Only 1 guest comment was recorded in the ArtFire collection. Apparently, I got a lot more traffic on ArtFire than on Etsy although most people swear by Etsy?! Maybe it is not a very popular theme but a direct comparison gave me the confidence that I can stick with ArtFire. Have you been struggling with the same issue as me? Share your experience with us!

While on the topic of being featured, I got curated again! : ) This is the second time Shower of Blessings got selected in a collection. Enjoy this Soft Summer's Day collection:

a soft summers day

  Curated By: starryhomecra...

ArtFire.com

Unique Gifts

Chocolate Cheescake - Pure Indulgence

Last week was a fruitful baking week. Tiring, but totally worth the effort when I hear the raving praise about the cakes I had made. There'll be no pictures for this post as there was simply no time to take one.

I mentioned in my last post about trying to bake a chocolate cheese cake. It was for the undergraduate's graduation party at Dr Perlin's place. I had baked my chocolate cheesecake based on a recipe from allrecipes.com. Opps, I just realized that there were 40 photos attached to the recipe to show what the cake would look like and mine was completely not like those because I refused to dump the chocolate chips on top of the cake. 

In an attempt to forge a perfect recipe, I ran through all the comments and tried to incorporate all that are suggested. Our love for nuts in baked goods also meant I had snuck walnuts and pecans into the crust. I had almost completely adulterated the recipe that the original chef who post the recipe may not want to claim this as hers. I would still gladly acknowledge Jessica as the originator of my recipe though. Everyone who dared to try it at the party did love it. If you do try this out, let me know what you think : )

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Ingredients:

1 cup ground vanilla wafer

1/2 cup walnut, grind

1/2 cup pecan, grind

1/3 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

3 8-oz cream cheese (leave at room temperature to soften)

1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk

3 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 tablespoons sour cream

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Tip: About shopping for ingredients, I again strongly advocate going for the best you can afford for the ingredients that really matters. For example, I used Philadelphia cream cheese, Ghirardelli chocolate chips and Hershey's special dark cocoa powder while all the other ingredients were house-brand goods. (I have a special Mexican vanilla extract though)

Directions:

1. Melt the chocolate chips completely and leave to cool.

Tip: I used a 16-oz glass measuring cup and place it in a medium saucepan, with the handle outside the pan. This allowed me to measure the chocolate chips into the cup, double boil in the saucepan to melt, with complete control over stirring and be able to remove the cup easily when it is done.

2. Preheat the oven to 300°F.

3. Mix well with hand, crushed vanilla wafer, walnut, pecan, sugar, butter and cocoa powder, until you obtain an evenly mixed "playdoh-like" dough.

4. Press thinly and firmly onto the bottom and up the sides of a 9-in springform pan. Set crust aside.

Tip: I had just found out that springform pans are leaky. Therefore the firm crust serves to keep the batter in the pan.


5. Beat cream cheese until smooth.

6. Gradually add condensed milk.

7. Add vanilla extract, eggs and sour cream, and beat until smooth.

8. Add cooled melted chocolate (lukewarm is fine) and mix until smooth.

9. Pour batter over crust.

10. Place a roasting pan filled with water on the lower rack of the oven and bake 1 hour.

11. Turn off the oven and leave the door shut for another 1 hour.

Tip: Step 10 and 11 are meant to prevent cracks. I managed to resist the temptation to open the door although the smell was overwhelming in the house. I still had small cracks along the edges but the center was beautiful.


12. Remove from the oven and cool completely.

Tip: Placing the pan on a wire rack helps with the cooling.


13. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight before enjoying it.
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I baked a second chocolate cheesecake on Sunday since I had other friends I had intended to share the cheesecake with. I also baked a chocolate oatmeal cake for Jinny's birthday. My criteria was that the cake must be able to be enjoyed as it is. It wasn't easy to find one that had unanimous good comments about it. The only thing I changed was to add an additional teaspoon of cocoa powder, as suggested by another user. This turned out to be a hit too.

If you enjoy whipping something together once in a while, do share it with the rest of us.

Seemingly disconnected but yet....

Angel Hope was featured in this week's ArtFire Member Curated Collection: Touched by an Angel. It is a beautiful collection and I have to say I had come across a few of them before when I was testing the search engine for pulling out my items. : ) I would like to thank the curator, Risen Phoenix Design for including Angel Hope in the collection.

Touched by an Angel

  Curated By: RisenPhoenixD...

ArtFire.com

Handmade Gifts

God always knows when to send an encouragement yeah? Of course He knows! : ) This Mother's Day week marks the 2nd anniversary of My Angel Now! I am constantly reminded of the fact that my mum is still in Singapore and I have not seen her for almost 2 years now. It may be another year before I get to say Happy Mother's Day to her in person. So, I honor her again on this occasion, since she was the first recipient of my handmade Swarovski Crystal Angel and that was essentially how the whole business started. If you following the clues, you would realize that there are three disconnected events and they are 2nd anniversary of My Angel Now!, Mother's Day and being featured this week. To me, they are most definitely closely linked.

Don't forget to give your mum a big bear hug and and wish her "Happy Mother's Day". They are the angels of our lives!

Early Spring - Swarovski Crystal Earring Tutorial

Another 3 months have flown by. It must have been the most unproductive 3 months I've ever had with my hobbies, just because graduate workload has taken precedence and priority and all the time I had. I finally picked up my knitting again last weekend and am going to experiment making chocolate cheese cake this weekend. Thank you everybody who has stuck out with me and still supports me. I hope you will find today's blog worth the read.

I have thought to myself many times, why do I put so much thought and time towards designing each piece of jewelry but not want to make a few pieces of the "perfect design"? That way, I can probably sell more and think less. My motivation was to keep myself from the temptation of falling on typical designs and make for profit only. I wanted each piece of jewelry to "experience" an equal amount of effort and attention from me, as if they would be jealous of each other. I think I found another motivation recently.

Early Spring was one of my simplest and favorite design. When I first made it and placed it on sale at The Front Room, it was gone the very next time I went back to the shop to add other items to the shelf.  Last week, when I showed a fellow graduate student, Janhavi, my Artfire Studio, Early Spring caught her eyes immediately. She requested for a remake of the pair and specify for me to make it in time for her trip back to India at the end of this week. Gosh, I was proud and filled with joy! That's what makes the difference: when someone request for a remake, it is an encouragement and compliment that shouts, "The design is so awesome and I like it so much that I don't mind the fact that there is one other person who has it already!"

The teacher in me is creeping in again. So I would like to make use of this opportunity of remaking Early Spring, to write a simple tutorial for those who are interested in making your own jewelry. It is not hard to start at all, but you may find it difficult to stop : ) The tutorial is specific to this design but you can throw in any focal or accent findings you like for your very own design.

Being a scientist made me look at everything as an experiment. Be it cooking, knitting, crocheting or jewelry making, I will always have the "Materials Required", "Equipment/Tools Required", "Procedure" and a bunch of "Notes" in my mind. By putting these down in writing today, I hope you will find it useful as a quick project. Here we go:

Design Inspiration:


It was Spring 2010 and flowers were blooming everywhere. Butterflies are just one of the many insect pollinators but they are depicted to be beautiful and elegant. I'd like to put that picture on a pair of earring. Specific technical goal of this pair of earring was that it must be simple and not use any jump ring at all.

I looked through my photo album today and look what I found:

This picture was taken in "Jardin Botanique" in Montreal, Canada on the 3rd July 2010. Early Spring was designed before this picture was taken.

Materials Required

A pair of 16mm Rhodium French earring hook
2 x 4mm Fuchsia bicone (Article no. 5301, or upgraded 5308) Swarovski Crystal
2 x 10mm S-shaped linker
2 x 9mm by 11mm Butterfly charm
2 x 30mm (minimum length) metal tone eyepin

Note:

1. When selecting material, go for the best ones you can afford. Pure Rhodium earring hooks are not as well-known as 925 sterling silver, but they are comparable in price, hypoallergenic and tarnish-free. It is my hook of choice. Unfortunately, it is metal-tone in color, which you may want to reconsider if you are using sterling silver findings (bright white in color).
2. Buy Swarovski crystals in bulk from online suppliers, or else you may be paying 3-4 times the price in the shops. In my opinion, bicones are the most flexible for designing.
3. Not all Swarovski colors can stand on their own. Go to a shop to learn the colors you like before you purchase in bulk.
4. Size plays a big part in design, too. Very often, you need to put your focal items and accent items side by side to make sure they are balanced.
5. I am not associated to Swarovski in any way, but I have to mention that you do not want to settle for anything less. The difference is noticeable.

Tools Required:

Chain nose plier (Non-serrated preferred but serrated is ok for non-delicate metal)
Round nose plier (A full size pair is easier to work with)
Side wire cutter (Normal wire side cutter will do just fine)

As with material, go for the best you can afford but accumulate slowly. Getting the right tools for the job is important but these three basic tools are good for a start.

Procedure:

Before you begin, find a conducive workspace where you can have white light over your work, a comfortable seating position and a surface lined with felt or velvet type material to keep your beads from rolling off the table. A beading tray is ideal but not absolutely necessary. Lay out all the materials you need.


1. Take one 30mm eyepin and insert the 4mm bicone bead.

2. Make a 90° bend against the bead using the chain nose plier. 

Note the direction of bend.

3. Leaving about a quarter to a third of an inch from the right angle bend, cut the wire with the side cutter. The length of the "wire tail" determines how big your loop is going to be.

I like to use my index figure as the gauge for length because feeling it is more consistent than looking at it for me. That's provided you have a fleshy finger like mine : )

4. Repeat Step 1 to 3 on the other eyepin to ensure you have a consistent length of "wire tail" for making the loop. 


5. Hold the round nose plier with turned-out wrist and grab the end of the "wire tail".

This is the most difficult step for ALL beginners because you need to gauge the size of the loop by the position of the round nose plier you use. The nearer to the tip you are, the smaller the loop you will get. Insert the plier into the loop that is already made on the eyepin to have an idea of which part of the round nose to use. 


5. Roll the "wire tail" towards yourself, applying pressure on your supporting index figure and righting your wrist at the same time. 

You can break the motion down by going back to the turnout wrist position, or make smaller turns from a less turn-out position. You may be able to achieve a nicer loop that way. All you need is practice, so don't give up just yet.

6. Adjust the loop with the chain nose and round nose plier so that it sits directly above your crystal (makes a perfect 8 around the crystal) and are in the same plane of angle.

There are few ways to check the loop. Insert either loop into your round nose plier and let it hang to check for balance. Visually the end of the loop should be centered and makes a perfect circle. The loop reveals the skills of the artist. I take this step very seriously. If you are unhappy with it, it is better to start over than to live with it.

7. You are now ready to assemble. Push the loop on the earring hook open by pushing one half of the loop away or toward you.

Do not open the loop like you are opening a coconut. You will spoil the wire.

8. Insert the S-shape linker and close the loop on the earring hook.

9. Open one loop on the eyepin with crystal in the same way and insert the other end of the S-linker.

10. Open the other end of the loop and insert the butterfly charm.

11. Do the same with the other side and there you have a pair of beautiful casual earring ready for Spring!

Enjoy the earrings! Yes, the organza bag comes with every purchase.

Disclaimer: I did not paint my nails for the purpose of the tutorial photos. It was purely coincidental that I had my nails painted.

Catching up with the new year

Where did all the time go? 

I finished exams and classes and had a really nice long break with my hubby. With the inspiration to teach one of my labmate, Jinny, to crochet, I got hooked on needlework all over again. From then till now, I have finished a knitted scarf for my hubby, a crochet baby blanket for Missy's baby (born yesterday!), a bunch of crochet Christmas ornaments, doilies & coasters, a crochet baby bib for another baby shower, a knitted beret for whom I have found a deserving recipient after realizing my head is too big for it and a knitted pig in need of stuffing. I have also taught Janhavi how to knit. I have to say it has been a fruitful 3 months.

Anyway, I actually forgot all about repairing Richa's necklace?! So here I am, unpacking all my barang-barang (stuff) again. Here's a quick blog for the repair that I did. The sterling silver necklace had a soldered jump ring and for whatever reason, it has disappeared. So, I added a 2mm crimp bead to the free end of the necklace using the standard crimper tool to create an artificial protrusion. Next, I used a side open crimp (like Charlotte but opens on the side) to cover it. Before closing it, I added enough hypocement to cover the excess volume. Finally, I added a jump ring and the necklace should be good to be worn again. Here the final product.

Since I have unpacked my stuff, I wanted to make something for Valentine's. Not much inspiration running through unfortunately. I came upon my beautiful 3mm Swarovski Light Siam bicone and decided to make a puffy heart. Well, as all wise crafter would do, google "puffy heart beading instruction". I came upon forum after forum, mainly promoting their own pattern for sale or a bunch of dead links. May I point you to this instructional video, which I could basically follow through alongside and made a puffy heart I am proud of. I used Japanese 15/0 white seed beads for the bail instead. I have not decided what to do with yet though : )

Thanks for reading and I hope you have had a good start to the year too!