How to Make Your Own Silicone Molds For Crafting

Hello Everyone! I know I have ignored this blog for a long time and I'm really sorry about that. To make up to you guys, I wanted to share a video tutorial I made on Youtube. It's a video of me showing you how to make your own silicone molds using liquid silicone. The process is simple and less messy compared to some other methods out there. I hope this video will be helpful for a lot of you! Thank you!

Etsy VS Storenvy

Thinking about opening your online shop but not sure whether to use Etsy or Storenvy? Here is a list of pros and cons for both stores that I came up with through my experience. Feel free to comment down below on your experience with these two stores. I hope this will help for those who can't decide!

Etsy:

Pros:

• Very well known for hand made crafts with lots of shoppers willing to pay good money for them. 
• Has a great community, networks and support from other sellers/members. ie: anyone can add your items to their favorites and treasury list to share with others. Great way to get your name/shop out there. 
• Option to promote your shop with a fee. (could be a con as well) However, you can decide on the amount you want to spend. For example, you give Etsy $5 limit to promote your shop for one week. 
• “sold” section for your shop so people can see what you have sold and what you have made in the past. 
• You can make shipping labels right from the etsy website and allows you to make first class international shipping labels. 
• Easy to use coupon code option 

Cons:

• 20 cent listing fee that lasts for 4 months. Need to keep repaying the listing fees if your items do not sell. 
• An additional 3.4% transaction fee when your item is sold. 
• Listing process is tedious. 
• Since it is well known, there are a lot of sellers selling similar things. That means, competition is HUGE. 
• If your shop is small, and if you’re not updating with new listings as often, you’re shop will get “buried” amongst other shops . 
• Customization is very limited. You can only customize your shop banner. 
• For coupon codes, you can’t limit to one time use 

Storenvy

Pros:

• It is new and growing! 
• absolutely NO listing fees and extra transaction fee. The only fee you have to worry about is the paypal transaction fee. 
• Totally customizable. 
• Upgrade option of $5/month where you can have your own URL with customizable coupon options. 
• Listing process is easy 
• Has a great community and networks similar to etsy. You can “envy” items and follow shops, which will be public on your main page. 

Cons:

• Not as well known for handmade crafts 
• There is a basic coupon option, and the problem with it is that the discount applies to each item purchased rather than the total amount. IF you upgrade $5/month, you have more options on the discount codes. 
• There is no “Sold” section in the store. Unless you make your own. 
• You can only create shipping labels through paypal with no option for first class international mail.
• There is a store rating system but it's not viewable to the public

NOTE: For both stores, you still have to market to sell your products. Don’t expect to open a shop and customers just pour in to buy your items. MARKET and PROMOTE! However, I do think if you just want to test the water in selling items online, storenvy is a good choice, so you're not investing too much money on it.

http://craftersdelights.com
https://www.etsy.com/shop/emiidesigns

Updated: 6/01/14

Resin Tutorial

I made a resin tutorial that comes in 4 parts. Anyone who is interested in it definitely should try. You don't have to make jewelry charms per se.  I've seen people use it in miniatures as well, since it resembles water. I go through step by step on how you mix the resin and how to cure it.  It's quite addicting once you get a hang of it. Enjoy!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Mermaid Jewelry Box

Hello everyone! I know I haven't been on here for a while, but I hope you are all doing well! I just wanted to share with you guys what I have been working on in terms of crafting. I recently finished making this mermaid jewelry box for a craft contest.

It was quite a process to make this. First I made a master of the box using casting resin and made a mold out of it using silicone. Then, I hand casted the box with epoxy resin which I also incased the mermaid image along with bunch of glitter, real sand, and sea shells.  I stained the lace with tea to make it look vintage and glued it around the box. Lastly, I added swarovski rhinestones for extra bling :) It was my first time making a resin box, so I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out. But, overall, I'm happy with the final product. I just love this vintage image of a mermaid holding a shoe.

Miniature Clay Bear Figurine

My very first polymer clay miniature figurine of this Japanese bear named "Rilakkuma". This took me around 1 hour to make, and it was quite challenging because of the tiny size! Especially when It came to painting all the details! My hands would not stop shaking and I felt like I was holding my breath the whole time. I still had a lot of fun making this and I'm very proud of it!

I hope you guys like it

A New Year!

 Hi everyone! First of all I want to wish everyone happy new year! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday with your family and friends. I just want to say I'm looking forward to another year full of crafting. I know I have not been very active here on my blog, since my Youtube channel is keeping me busy. If you really want to follow my crafting adventures, please subscribe to my channel! http://www.youtube.com/user/crafterzdelights

This year is going to be an exciting year for me!. 2013 will the year where my career will take off, so I'm very anxious. I will be doing my full time clinical as a student Physical therapy assistant and I will also be graduating in June. Also, I will be taking my national board exam in October to get my license, so there is going to be a lot of stuff happening in 2013 for me. I'm very nervous and excited at the same time!

I hope you guys are having an amazing year so far! What are you looking forward to in 2013?

Watch me Paint!

I'm proud I was able to edit this video! Enjoy

also I wanted to wish everyone...

 HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!