Photo Tents for Christmas

One massive issue for us as a start up has been photography.  Editors, Websites, Internet shops etc., all require high quality images.  There are two sorts, editorials and hero shots.  The hero shots almost always have to be on white backgrounds, of high resolution and crisp.

I say here and now - "I FAIL!"

Despite Carla's great photography my limited technical ability and impatience editing has turned fantastic photographs into a great big blob of blurry mess.   Despite great tools on the web such as PicMonkey for collages and Fotofuze for better definition or even the ever popular photobucket which allows me to write text and special effects - I've have usually come up no better in my photography than this:

Now this little shot may look adequate when only a small image but increase the size and you can rapidly see that the image is of poor quality, poor definition and the fact that I shake like a pneumatic drill hasn't helped the blurring of the bristles.  I've used photofuze to brighten the image but it lacks so much that is necessary for a good internet image.

Answer to these problems?  Well, there are many.  First and foremost - we need good lighting.  In Northern Ireland that in itself proves to be a major difficulty.  Not helped by the fact that we live in an old and typically dark fisherman's cottage.  Still on the right day, with a clear sky and some sun you can get good quality photos.  Secondly, A good camera is essential and we tend to be struggling with a little digital camera bought for Tobin's birth a couple of years ago.  The 3rd problem however was that of a clean white background.

So, without further ado - let me introduce you to one of Carla's Christmas presents.

The tent, with a clean white background and some tripod lights gives a much brighter feel to a drib and dab day as seen outside the window.  The photo of the "S" is as it is photographed in the tent without any touch-up.  (you can see the corner of the tent getting in the way a little on the right hand side.

Now, I am learning how to use photoshop and Gimp etc for photo editing and cropping but to demonstrate the difference the tent in itself makes to a photo I wanted to show you these - editing done in the same way as the apple - a little fotofuze.

How much better do they look.  They are crisp, clear and gorgeous!  How much better will a little photo editing help?

Craft Fairs, Stalls and Displays.

In the run up to Christmas we had been spending a little bit of time and money to enhance our presence at craft fairs and stalls.  I wish I could say that the investment paid off.  I confess, my belief in doing charity craft fairs has now ended.  The next person that can convince me to do a charity/community craft fair deserves high praise indeed.

That said 2014 will see us committing to St Georges Market in Belfast for a short period to see if we can increase our presence in Belfast as well as make more money from sales rather than solely from the internet.

So here is a little of what we have been up to...

It started with the crates.  We needed something that provided multiple layers to ensure we could get a wide variety of our lines out on display without it looking cluttered and difficult to differentiate.  We needed something that would be easy to pack and display, was visually eye-catching and offered us a way to keep changing the format so people wouldn't keep seeing the same old week in week out.  Something that didn't offer a blank canvas that the products would fade into but would instead enhance the appearance of the products.  We think we found the answer.  The white crates work perfectly to bring out the colour of the products whilst the blue ties in remarkably well with our brand colour.  The odd bit of blue in the display really draws the eye and the best bit is that we can carry much of our stock in the crates to and from the market.

Much better than a flat table and tablecloth!

Carla had a few ideas of how to develop the stands for craft fairs.  Some of which haven't materialised yet but one which has are the letters for ScENT.  Carla has been working with Little Roots to come up with some letters for the stall.  Here is a quick look at what they have been working on together...

Personally, I can't wait to see the rest of the letters.

Packaging, Branding, Logo Placements and Strap-lines.

We have been working for the guts of a year on a new website.  Thank goodness for the patience of saints! We have been blessed with great friends who have lovingly and patiently guided us through to what I think is going to be a great site that we can only aspire to do justice to.

The process has really challenged us to hone in on our logo, our branding, our strap-line and our packaging. Getting something that works across all platforms, epitomises who we are, what we are about and engages people in the story of what we are trying to do.

The business cards were ironically one of the first important things to get out of the way.  Getting it finalised, thanks to +Nigel Smith  we have managed to get the logo, the brand colour and a strap-line.

The scent, all lower case with the white 'c' emphasises the meaning to us as a business.  The angel encompasses our desire to be messengers of change and blessing and the strap-line adequately conveys the fact that we make cleaning products that are ethically made and guilt free.

All this is portrayed on a pale blue background which is clean, neither too feminine or masculine, and reminds us of water.

Having this has helped us in getting the right background colour palette for the website.  The colour themes for each product line/range will carry on to our packaging (eventually - when we have the money) and the angel and word "scent" are, as we speak being transferred into stamps which we can then use on our soaps. Thanks to +Luciana Teixeira Gomes and her new stamp-making business.

Which leads us to our packaging.  Its been long disputed and hours upon hours of my life have been spent on this one thing alone.  We have looked at paper, fabric, glass, wood, plastic, aluminium, cardboard, ribbon, scrap-booking.  I've pursued labelling companies, made my own boxes, cut glass bottles, talked to designers and still, we have been missing that essential ingredient.  I've considered boxes, parcels, bottles, jars, kilner jars, cosmetics jars, bamboo, banana leaf and starch packaging for that ever so evasive product that is natural, organic, sustainable, fairly traded, enironmentally freindly and yet crucially fit for purpose.  Don't believe me?  Take a look....

And, did I mention cheap?  Having own-brand products have been so incredibly expensive for a start up such as ours that we have had to come up with solutions without the important advice of designers and their help in personalising our packaging to suit our brand.

So, I am truly delighted to be looking at a possible end in site.  We may well have the solution....  Having got frustrated at paying too much for plastic boxes I eventually sought the courage to enquire about a direct supplier.  If I am able to standardise all our soaps into a limited array of packaging options I thought it might just be possible to purchase in large enough quantities to permit us buying from manufacturers.  Plastic boxes - sorted.

Next up was for the bars of soap and cosmetics.  This, is perhaps a much more difficult challenge as we need to ensure it ties in with our desire to reduce, reuse, recycle, be sustainable, environmentally friendly and ethically traded.  The cold process soaps don't sweat as much as glycerin - so we have opted for some fairly traded lokta paper from Nepal to cover the bar and the more and more I thought about the high-end luxury market, the more I started to fantasize about wood.  It is ink free, which paper packaging rarely is, sustainable, reusable if nice and virtually unheard of for a bar of soap.

Which leads me to introduce a possible new venture for us in 2014.  Now it is fair to say that it won't look much like these - the logo is all wrong and the angel image is in the wrong place but it does give an idea of where we are heading.  Subject to feedback and prices.  It may even be the appropriate time to look into a crowd funding venture as a way to finance it.  It is fair to say that I, Garreth am quite excited by this new little possibility.  The hope is for something that looks high-end, luxurious and ethical.  The thing for us to avoid is the pitfall of it becoming too tacky or unnecessary.

Time will tell.

Christmas Scrapbook Play-Time

Just a quicky as we run up to Christmas.  I thought I would show you a little of some of the scrapbooking Carla has been up to recently.

Okay, Okay,

I know.  BAD BLOGGER G!

I've been missing in action!

Truth is with the last CRAFTfest and Christmas Sales I suffered Blogger Overload.

Still, Back with a bang for the new year and what better way to continue than to bring to your wonderful attention some soaps to compliment our little old sheep.  This little best seller has been out on its own for far too long and we have been just waiting for the opportunity to find a way of adding a few friends.  We have finally suceeded!  The Cow, Pig, Goat and Horse were fairly obvious companions along with a few more exotic animals (such as the croc, the turtle and the little frog).

We have also wanted to expand our kiddies range for quite a while.  I, personally needed something to appease my all to eager desire to eat chocolates and sweets.  Rather than eat them.  I now get to bathe in them!  Now you can bath in your own soap mix of smarties, hard gums and fruit pastilles.

Next up on the kids range are some sports themed soaps - but more of that at a later date!

Happy New Year Everyone!

What can £5.00 get you

What can £5.00 get you these days?

I feel like I’ve just aged 40 years with immediate effect after that question – it is like something my grandmother would have said if she were here … but bear with me as I’ve just come out of recovery from my first CRAFTfest and am still bleary eyed with some RSI to boot!


It cost £5.00 in September to register to a glorified online chatroom called Creative Connections that bragged about some internet craft fair called CRAFTfest.


I paid up.


Personally, I liked the idea. I couldn’t quite imagine what it would look like but there was something about the idea of an online craft fair that floated my boat. I was intrigued and somewhat enchanted. It helped too that I didn’t have to pay big money for a table or worry about transport costs. And like everyone else out there – a few more sales would have been more than welcome!

CRAFTfest is run and managed by a number of crazy volunteers all of whom had been cajoled and hood-winked into servant-hood by the creative geniuses that are “The Crystal Lady” (AKA Anna, http://www.wowthankyou.co.uk/mystic-earth/) and “Sprinkles Sparkles” (AKA Avril, http://www.wowthankyou.co.uk/sprinkles-sparkles/).


I, like them, had no idea what I was letting myself in for!


For £5.00 I spent the guts of a working week (my choice – you can opt to do just 10 to 15 mins a day instead) promoting my own stall and items of the Lilac team (one of 6 teams to which we were assigned), led by the wonderful Flick of “Perfect Patchwork” fame. During the week I then Tweeted, Facebooked, Stumbled, Pinned and Wanelooed my work, my wife’s work and the work of many other stall holders.
Was it worth it?
Absolutely!


Did I sell?


I definitely covered the cost of registering but there is more to it than just the sales…


Take the long view and if you do – there will be many rewards. In fact I will give you more than 60,000 reasons (I won’t take too long – honest).


I’m assuming you have a WowThankYou shop that you try to sell from and promote as best you possibly can? You may even have a few online or physical shops to work from too. Why dedicate a week to promoting your work anymore? We are, after all, busy people trying to fit this in between jobs or work all hours to get our little business off the ground. Selfishly, we all ask “What will I get from it?” (Or is that just me?)


Let me ask you a question: Who actually knows about your WTY shop bar a few family and friends and visitors that Tracey has driven across to you? Forget the website’s SEO – how good is yours? That’s Search Engine Optimisation for those of you who are as technologically challenged as me. If people are looking for your product on Google – have you used the right tags in order for it to be discovered or do you need a little help?


Did you know that the more links you have to your shop and to your site the more seriously Google will take you and the higher up the rankings your products are likely to be in a search? By creating all the social links to your shop and having other people connect with you through these links you are increasing your chances of being found on search engines. If you create enough noise online you may even have the chance of getting something to go viral.


Herein lays the genius of CRAFTfest. The CRAFTfest community is about a market stall – but it is so much more than that. It is fundamentally a means of creating noise on the internet whereby we collectively work together to see hand-made products “trend” on social media and search engines.


What about your photos? Are they up to scratch? Have you managed to get online marketing and promoting down to a fine art? Do you schedule your posts on Facebook and Twitter? Do you know how to use HTML links? Have you realised the wonders of Fotofuze and Picmonkey yet? Did you know you can link your Pinterest account to Rebelmouse which carries the advantages of showing your tweets – with photos?
… Information overload anyone? And, if it’s any consolation – me too!


What about Kaboodle, Bizspeak and Pinspire for your items? No listing fees and free publicity with links straight back to your WTY shop? Or, the advantages of using Crowdboost, LFTT or Pinerly to monitor how many people see your posts, synchronise them and provide statistical feedback on their reach to your own followers.
I’m almost done …


What about the sheer joy and privilege of having around 200 people promoting your items to the 60,000 people they managed to bring in to the CRAFTfest online virtual stall. That’s right 60,000 people called in to the last CRAFTfest Market Stall in September and what’s even better is that our soaps were in the top 25 most visited stalls of the week! If that’s not 60,000 reasons to sign up then someone please let me know why not.
YOU CAN’T BUY THAT TYPE OF PUBLICITY FOR £5.00!


As a newcomer to the site in September I have learnt a massive amount of information – some of the above I did know but much of it I didn’t. Online I found computer whizz-kids and craft geniuses that guided me through the “ins and outs” of online selling.


Like anything, the more you put into the week the more you tend to get out of it. For ScENT we benefited from a magazine interview and a magazine feature – we were also featured in many blogs; each with their own groups of followers. We also had hundreds of tweets and re-tweets about our soaps.

Within a month I now have so many links to my little shop that Google can barely cope (well – in my ever so humble opinion). All thanks to the wonderful people over on Creative Connections (CRAFTfest). It has helped me create a brand awareness of products we believe deserve greater attention and which we hope will continue to grow in popularity.


But even for the hobbyist out there – I am sure you want your items to be seen by the largest possible audience. By collectively working together to make some noise – we might just do that! Selfishly – I would love you to join in – as I’d love to engage with the people you have engaged with just as I will let you engage with mine.
Why is WowThankYou involved in CRAFTfest?


I was a CRAFTfester that got involved in WowThankYou relatively recently – but now it’s your turn as a WTY shop owner to transfer over to CRAFTfest. WTY sponsors the site because Tracey knows the great benefits that such networking can bring to us, the sellers and subsequently create stronger brand awareness for WTY. It also brings a social side to WTY that may otherwise get missed. It makes you feel part of something bigger.


Oh… and did I mention the banter? Always good to network – there are some great people online at Creative Connections!


The next CRAFTfest takes place between 24 November and 1 December 2012. Stalls are filling fast and now is a great time to join and start setting up at your own pace; people are online to help you throughout the process. It’s fun, and it’s only a fiver! To find out more visit www.craftfest-events.com. Join up – it’s Christmas! x

Pinterest Fever - Anyone?

A few months ago I was introduced to Pinterest.  Yet another dreaded social networking site but this time with a focus on images.  

I like photos - so I thought, "sweet".

Thing is the site is more than a little addictive.  You go on and see some of the most amazing locations in the world that you want to visit.  There are oodles of things that you would like to purchase and even more images that convey a lifestyle that you just want to emulate.

With regards to marketing though - the jury was out.  Will it work for promotion or not?  In one sense it is free so, "nothing ventured - nothing gained" was very much the old adage attached to me pursuing it.  On the other hand it is very time-consuming and the potential of converting likes, pins or comments into sales was something I wasn't sure about.

I was not however aware of the sheer effort one would have to go to in order to get noticed.  People pin in their thousands within just a few minutes so it is just all to easy to get lost in the midst of the photo flood that meets your world as you click on "feed".

Bring on an invitation to join pinerly - an app that follows how viral your images are on pinterest (ie. how many people show interest in your items).  

Further.  They give advice on things such as times of the day to post, the types of descriptions you should be writing, portrait vs landscape, writing on top of photos to grab attention and many other helpful tips.

I saw the need to photoshop - some think I haven't ever really tried.  And this is what I cam up with... 

Now it is by no means perfect - but it is me making a start in my journey of understanding the power of the image.

On shop sites there is a need for high quality, high definition and great colour/lighting to enable a possible purchaser to make an educated choice about the product they see in the image.

There are blog photos which tend to be more of a behind the scenes type of photograph.  The products as they sit in the studio, us taking the photos, or indeed how we make the soaps.

Then there are the promo photo.  Photos that attract attention.  Photos that demonstrate our core values with very few words attached to them.  Photos that convey a message - but realistically can't be used to sell the item as it fails to convey shape, colour or texture.

Time will tell,  I'm going to schedule my posts for peak times in the hope of gaining some attention to twitter, blog and shop.  In the meantime though anyone can pin the images as found in photobucket and facebook.  If you'd like to promote our work just click on the links and pin away.  I'd appreciate that!

And that's it from me.

Garreth.

Careful now- next up might be a review on Twitter, and then there is Stumble Upon, Pinspire, IFTTT, Delicious, Craftjuice and countless others.

Go go Lilac Team

I've mentioned elsewhere that we will be taking part in Craft fest this coming Sept. It is effectively an online social network trying to sell their wares together at an internet craft-fair. A couple of weeks are allocated each year, we pay a small fee to register and then do our best to promote as best we possibly can other crafters in our teams. With Craftfest rapidly approaching I thought I should make a start of it and stick close to home with my own team until we get up and running

Not an easy task when there are so many wonderful things out there. But without further ado. Lets bring on the Lilacs!

It just so happens that there seems to be a lot of jewellery in the team at the minute and, as much as I hate to admit worthy competition: some wonderful soaps!

I've included the links and a slide show of their soon to be craftfest stall.

First up: Beadedbazaar
http://creative-connections.ning.com/photo/albums/beadedbazaar-s-craftfest-stall



Find more photos like this on Creative Connections


Next in line is Carrie Freeman with those worthy soaps and lip-balms (and I really like the tins)...

http://creative-connections.ning.com/photo/albums/craftfest-products-september-2012



Find more photos like this on Creative Connections


Now, getting back to the jewellry with KK Marie's seleciton of beautiful jewellry

http://creative-connections.ning.com/photo/albums/kk-marie-s-craftfest-stall



Find more photos like this on Creative Connections


Or, perhaps D&D designs...

http://creative-connections.ning.com/photo/albums/d-d-designs-hand-crafted-beaded-jewellery



Find more photos like this on Creative Connections

Scented or unScented soap?

I think we have to agree that God was very generous when shared with us the gift of creativity.
As I go creating some of our products I'm inspired by his own art work and get so passionate by them. Take as an example the dried flowers, nuts, spices and other incredible ingredients we are adding to the soaps that not only give the natural, rustic and beautiful look to the soap and cosmetics but also pour goodness to the skin ...just overwhelming!

I have to confess that every time I add a new raw material to the soaps a new world open just in front of me: smells, colors and touch...so beautiful.
I made a little cupcake using some glycerin left over and added a little bit of Chamomile flowers on top of it...my goodness...the dried flowers changed completely the scent of the soap...that little experience encouraged me to make some scent and color FREE soaps which will be indicated to people with very sensitive skin and can't tolerate fragrance or coloring in a product.
My first one was an Exfoliating mini loaf bar made with finally grated star anise and the end result was a gorgeous liquorice smell in a soap that people can slice at their heart content or share with guests and friends. I also added in this soap some Vitamin E Oil to help with skin healing.

Then I made a very moisturising and healing soap (which I'm using now!) with Powdered Vanilla pod and Shea butter. I mixed it all into a base with Goat's milk powder...owwwww... That's a very creamy and delightful soap.

The Vanilla make it looks so beautiful and if your sense of smell is very sharp you will be able to get some faint scent of vanilla. The Shea butter moisturise, protects and heals the skin and Goat's milk has acids which acts as a natural AHA, exfoliating dead skin cells and balancing the pH of the new, healthy skin underneath.
These little loaves are great to share with friend, slice and give as gifts or keep all for your self...they are that good!
Visit our Webpage to see the other unscented and scented versions:
www.scentcosmetics.com

So what exactly goes into a craft fair?

We did a craft fair in aid of a cancer charity at the weekend.  Generally we tend to avoid working on a Saturday but on the odd occasion we do accept an invitation.

This one seemed like something we would be keen to get involved in.

I must say though - craft fairs take work - lots of work and I can't truly say that it pays off.

One example of this is the set up...

We generally like to know the size of the table that we are going to be using.  It means we can then go about marking out the size of the table and rehearse a stalls appearance at home.

We then take a few photos, and upon arriving at the stall we can set up as we think best in a much shorter amount of time than arriving with a lot of stock and finding a place to put it.

This one was Carla's design.  And, as is usual in the crafty department.  She trumps me every time!

New stuff!!!

So.
My sister will have a baby coming end of April and it is a tradition in Brasil to give people a "birth favor" when they come to visit. She themed the room of her baby with sheep to remember their love and connection with Ireland and decided to ask us for 50 sheep to be sent to Brasil as gifts to her friends and our family. It took us a while to get them ready but finaly they are ready and boxed...now postage is another matter!

Sheep getting out f the mould

Ready to get the eyes hand painted

Here we are working hard again to bring something different and exciting into the soapy world.
We got some new moulds from Canada and start to make lovely little eggs inside of a nest (all made of soap!)  which can be a lovely gift alternative this easter. We also have a lovely china cup (we got on the local vintage shop) with rose petals bathed in soap base which is scented with tea rose fragrance. I'm sure some mothers and grannys will love it!

Little eggs in a nest

Tea rose soap petals in china cup

The eggs are scented with a blend of a fresh, sea fragrance and peppermint essential oil with dried mint leaves all over it! Beautiful and smell gorgeous. We added some cocoa powder to naturaly color the nest and it releases a faint and lovely chocolate smell!

The cutest of all our soaps is this little guy! We handpainted the face and make it smell grapefruit and raspberry with a touch of ginger! The teddy is so cute that once I finished I wanted to cuddle!

I hope you enjoy our new things and we are happy to take orders and spread the scent!
See ya