Crafts n' Things Magazine

 Here is a fun holiday how-to project we created for the December 2012 issue of Crafts n' things magazine. We supplied them the step-by-step text and the finished snowmen magnet pieces so the magazine could photograph them.  Here is how the how-to looked in the issue.

These pictures below are shots that we took ourselves to submit the how-to project for consideration in the holiday issue.  The idea behind this project came to us when our son would keep ripping out pictures and writing down all the new toys he wanted for Christmas and sticking them all over the house. With these wish list magnets it could help us organize all his requests in one spot. 

Happy Holidays!

Stitch Craft CREATE magazine feature...

WOW! This year sure did fly by quickly. We never had a chance to tell you about our Creative Business profile we did for this wonderful inspirational magazine; stitch | craft | create; that was on newsstands this Christmas. I believe you can still order a back issue online here.

Working with Shannon the editor and Jennifer who interview us for the story couldn't have been an easier process. We were able to supply all our own photos and we think the piece came out very nice. 

Shannon told us she was thrilled to profile polymer clay artist since they haven't had clay artist in the magazine before. 

Here is a our two two page spread profile:

 

How cute is the fun graphic of our name for the headline of the story.

If you haven't seen this magazine before, be sure to check out an issue next time you are at a book store.  This seasonal magazine is a fun, whimsical, beautifully designed inspirational read.

Meeting Author Kari Chapin

A few weeks back I was able to sneak out of the studio a little earlier (thanks to Lianne:) and head into Boston for a talk/signing event that I saw on Facebook with Author Kari Chapin. She wrote the perfect book for anyone who has a handmade business—the bestselling craft book of 2010: The Handmade Market place: How to sell Your Craft Locally, Globally and Online and her follow up Grow your Handmade Business.

It was held in a little cafe/bookstore on Newbury Street. Kari was very open and honest about her own creative endevours and shared lots of knowledge with the small crowd. These more intimate events are always so much better because you really get a lot more information and it's easier to talk and listen to others share their stories.

Check out Kari's blog for a run down of the nights events which she sums up so nicely. 

Lianne and myself are really looking forward to reading this book once we wrap up our holiday designs, so we can start 2013 with better knowledge on how to grow our swirly business to the next level.    

Here I am with Kari after she signed my book. Thanks Kari for such a fun event!

Promotion, promotion oh and more promotion

Who says running your own business was easy? You’re always working, even when you don't have actual work to do. You must always be thinking ahead and planning you next move.

For us being a seasonal company, we are always struggling to stay ahead of the coming season. Which can be a little tricky being that it’s only the two of us sketching, scuplting, painting, embellishing, website updating, blogging, mailings, shipping ......we could go on on on but you get the point.

We just wrapped up our Spring collection and now we are planning on launching a summer collection, (hopefully soon), as well as start designing a new Halloween and Christmas collection.

But these last few weeks we have had PROMOTION on the brain. That's a whole business in itself. It's so important for a small studio like us to really keep promoting to get our name out there.

Here are a few things we have been doing:
Getting more into social media with Twitter and our Facebook page (come like us).
This seems to be a great way to connect with others at no cost, other than our valuable time. We have made some wonderful contacts such as Polyform Products. This is the company that makes all the clay we use for our ornaments. After connecting with us on Facebook, we are now going to be collaborating with them on a project coming this fall. More to come later.

Getting the magazines to notice little old us.
Last year we were very fortunate and blessed with the media exposure we got. Swirly was in 3 magazines and 1 online magazine (click the magazine images on the right side of the blog).

To continue to reach out to get more PR we created this 3 page brochure PDF teaser to email to editors of some of our favorite magazines in hopes to peak their interest in our company. We will let you know if anything comes out of this promotion. We will also create a series of postcards to snail mail out for each holiday season.

Here is the cover image simple yet eye catching.


Inside: We share a brief run down of who we are and
what Swirly Designs does. Quick and simple.


And we end with this page. Our feeling is pictures speak a 1000 words, so showing more images tells the story versus us explaining everything. What are your thoughts on these pages?


And finally we are sharing some of our Swirly ornaments for someone's very special birthday event happening this June. The Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion workshop a weekend of crafting that happens to fall on the craft queen’s birthday! The event is sold out but anyone who is going is sure to get a swirly treat in their goody bags.

Hopefully by doing these few extra things now, it will help with the holiday season later on this year.

What do you do to promote your business?

Have a good rest of the week!
Lianne & Paul