I Got My First DD!

I've only been a member on deviantArt for only a month, and this one (photo above) got me my first Daily Deviation!

At first I thought it was just a glitched on the deviantArt's system after seeing messages by the thousands! And then I read messages giving me kudos on my DD!

Heck, I didn't even know what a DD (or Daily Deviation) is! LOL! :p

According to deviantArt, The Daily Deviation is a daily feature chosen from the galleries on deviantART.

A small assortment of submissions are chosen each day by a select group of staff/volunteer members who wish to showcase an image which they found impressive or otherwise interesting enough to deserve being brought to the attention of the community-at-large.

The staff/volunteer members responsible for selecting submissions for the daily feature often are open to suggestions and individual community members may direct their attention by noting the appropriate gallery moderator or staff member with a direct link to the deviation which you are suggesting and a brief description about why you think the work in question should be featured.

So I guess, those faux cupcakes of mine were interesting enough to be featured on Daily Deviation. Hehe!

So there, my first DD! Yay, me! :)

And since I got a DD last April 23, my DD is included in this month's feature news article Artisan Crafts DDs for April 2009. Yay, me again! Hehe! :)

Super thanks to oliverat for her suggestion!

And super thanks also to Kitten-of-Woe for DD feature!

A Poor Man's Makeshift Studio

Yes, I am poor. I don't have a fancy studio which I still dream of having one someday. I only own a lousy, obsolete model, point and shoot digital camera. I do own a manual Nikon camera which I still love...but in this day and age, we need to work fast. And digital is the answer! ...plus it'll save us more money since there is no need to buy film and have it processed. I wanted to buy a new Nikon digital camera, and I am drooling over D90. But school will open again in a few months and I have to pay for my son's tuition fee. (I'm not just poor, but also a single mom trying to make ends meet! :p)

So here is my setup:

- colored vellum sheet to use as a background
- desk lamp
- white tissue (japanese) paper to diffuse the light from the desk lamp
- styrofoam board to bounce some light
- sturdy table
- a wall (...ehehe) to stick the vellum onto
- scotch tape (...ehehe) to stick the vellum on the wall
- metal ruler to use as a weight on the vellum, because it keeps on curling! LOL!
- and a digital camera :)

...I'm pretty amazed with the ouput! It's not that bad at all! =D (click on the images to enlarge!)

Coolest Kitchen: Le Patisserie Style!

This is the coolest kitchen I've ever seen so far. My eyes just went big with envy watching this on TV.

I've been meaning to post this after seeing this on Rachel Ray...but I got caught up with some orders that I needed to finish.

Anyways, this kitchen was featured on Rachel Ray Show's America's Coolest Kitchens. And the kitchen's theme...Le Patisserie. The whole kitchen is painted in yummy colors of pink, brown and white. And everything screams "FRENCH"! Faux or fake cakes were even used to accessorize the kitchen.

I would love to do something like this on my craft/work space! :) ....if I have the budget! :p




To watch the whole segment on Rachel Ray Show, here's the link: America's Coolest Kitchens: Le Patisserie

Freshly Faked...Now Available!

Here are some of my freshly bakes...errr... fakes!

Now available on my Etsy shop.

Please feel free to visit my shop.

Etsy Buy Handmade CreativeAbubot

Freshly Faked!

Here's a peek at my freshly faked cupcakes. These are just pics of my new faux cupcake bases, no frostings and decorations yet.

They look more realistic now, and comes in three flavors...errr...colors! LOL!

Butter, Red Velvet, and Dark Chocolate.

My New Faux Cupcakes, Coming Soon on my Etsy shop!

For Crafters: Tools To Help You Price Your Handmade Products

I'm not a business person and I've always hated dealing with numbers...perhaps that's one reason why I took Arts! :p I love crafting and last year I've decided to sell some of my handmade faux cupcakes online. It was hard for me, as I don't know how to price my items. I asked around my friends on how should I price my work, and they would just reply "just double the material cost!" I would cringed by thought of it, I worked hard for one faux cupcake and then..."just double the material cost!?" :p What about my labor of love? I worked hard for it didn't I? :p

So, yeah, I still sold each for just twice the cost of all my material costings and totally forgetting the labor cost, indirect/overhead cost, the Etsy listing fee, transaction fee, PayPal fees, handling fee, etc. I know I'm such a terrible business person. I barely made profit from my first few sales. But I'm very much thankful for them because they gave me my first positive feedbacks, which gave me some more sales! ;)

It took me a while to fix my pricing. I had to calculate everything right (materials, labor, tranction fees, etc.) Once I got my price, I compared it to others who sell the same items. I pretty much have the same price (some even have higher). So, I guess I calculated right. :)

For other crafters out there who don't want to get all crazy getting you pricing right, here are some free tools to help you get them right:

Free Spreadsheets for Pricing your Work by a great jewelry designer/maker Chris Parry

Etsy Seller Inventory Worksheet - this is and Excel Spreadsheet which helps Etsy sellers track down their inventory and profit.

Make sure that the price is right! ;)

Coming Soon!

I'm pretty happy with my faux cupcakes. I guess I can say that I'm 99% satisfied with the way they look....but there's still this 1% to fill. So, I made some changes!

I change the way I make my fake cupcake bases. A lot more work, but they are now more realistic...and yummier!

I also experimented in using other different materials to embellish my faux cupcakes.

There's also a change in my packaging!

I'll be posting them on my Etsy shop really soon! ...so watch out!!!

P.S. ...yeah, that's a new faux cupcake I made on the photo above.