Soon to be Cricut Crazy

I have a total of 24 Etsy listings that are for stickers.  I know many would think it is a waste of my time to make stickers but truth be told, I find the whole process fun.  From the design, the printing and even the cutting them out with scissors.  Well maybe not the cutting part so much.

I love taking my artwork and adapting it to fit onto different formats.  Another benefit is that I am able to have multiple Etsy listings and it has given my shop statistically a number of sales and good ratings.  That is a really good thing in the world of Etsy Shops.  I believe that it will eventually result in the increase of sales of my prints and original art.  Well at least that is my hope.

This year I have added several new items to my home studio and one of them is the addition of a Cricut Explore Air 2.  Of course I have no clue how to use it at the moment but I'm sure I will have fun learning the process.  I anticipate not only using it to cut out my stickers more quickly and professionally but I am anxious to create some new greeting card designs that feature not only my artwork but some fancy scroll cuts.  In 2018 I had $788 in greeting card sales and $104 in Sticker sales.  With the investment of cutting machine, I hope to at least triple my sales in both categories for 2019. 

Here are just a few of my stickers available on my Etsy Shop- Julie Townsend Studio on Etsy

Stickers really are a lot of fun.  They just brighten up any surface that you put them on.  This calf licking his nose is my number one sticker seller, followed closely by the little chickadee.

Marketing My Art with the Help of Some Mice

Working on my first post that I plan to boost on Facebook by purchasing some advertising.  The goal of course is to get more followers to my Studio Art Page.  So one of my marketing plans for 2019 is to have regular art giveaways and drawings to generate an excitement.  Here is my first drawing for 2019 and I'm super excited about it.  Hope over to my Facebook page and enter today.

Yummy Scripture

God is good all the time 
He put a song of praise in this heart of mine 
God is good, yes He is, all the time 
Through the darkest night, His light will shine (Dean McIntyre)

This verse is a call to action.  I can't be satisfied with my Bible just lying on my nightstand or hearing an occasional Sunday sermon.  God is calling us all to be more than being a passive observer but rather He wants us to come pull up a chair, grab a fork and "TASTE" that He is good!

Time to Get Rid of the Dust and Cobwebs

With the coming of a new year, there are lots of resolutions and commitments made to improve health, making new goals and promises to finally get organized.  There is just something uplifting and inspiring about new starts, new beginnings and new calendars.  It is also the perfect time to give your online presence a good cleaning up.

That is what I've been doing the past couple days.  It is important for me to maintain the branding I have already created for myself so I want to make sure that all my online platforms have a similar look.  I'm pretty happy with the changes I've made so far.

First, I'm still considering changing up my motto from "Telling Stories with my Paintbrush" to "Telling Paintbrush stories To Make You Smile".  I really like the idea of working the concept of the Smile into my motto.  From experience I have first hand observed over and over the reaction that my art causes when an individual steps into my booth or views my display and I can honestly say there is usually a smile involved. 

So let me show you what I've come up with for my website home page.  It is so important that the first impression you get is visually impacting.  You want your website landing pages to grab you and make you want to stay.  I'm hoping that from there the natural thing to to is to checkout the rest of my tabs and spend sometime in my gallery and not just immediately click on to the next site.

I've chosen Dancing Script as the font for my studio name and KG Be Still and Know as the second font.  It is really important that you stay consistent with the details.  I can make some adjustments with the layout of the artwork across the different platforms but the font needs to stay the same.

Here is an example of a page banner design that I created to use on my Facebook Studio page or on my Etsy Shop.  You can still see the theme remains the same.

business card front

Another extremely important marketing tool is that of your business card.  Here is currently the draft of what I have worked out for my new design.  I'm not quite ready to order cards yet so I will probably make a few adjustments.  I do have my phone number listed on the back of my card but covered it up here on my blog for privacy sake. 

business card back

So I encourage you to take some time to consider your website, Facebook Page or Blog and perhaps do some sprucing up of your own.    It is amazing how just a change of color palette, font choice or adding a few images can make such a difference.  If you don't have an online presence for your art or whatever creative outlet you do, then I encourage you to make that a goal for 2019.

Feel free to comment below or message me if you have questions about marketing.  Please consider following me on my Facebook Studio Page 

No Looking Back

My Julie Townsend Studio Verse of the Day.  Feel free to check out my Studio Facebook Page or follow me on Instagram @JulieTownsendStudio.  I post all my newest work there first.

Remember the Tortoise Wins

Here is my VERSE OF THE DAY!  My word for 2019 is FOCUS and what better to focus on than my relationship with Jesus.  Everything else will fall in line if we make living a life pleasing to Him our first priority.

Hold Your Horses and COWS...2019 is HERE

HAPPY NEW YEAR!   2019 came in with a bang...literally between the fireworks and the gun shots!  

Looking back at 2018 I can say it was a great year of growth that my little studio has seen in 2018 and I couldn't be more pleased. 

It has been my habit for the past few years to take a few minutes on January 1st to record specific marketing data on each of my social media accounts and on my Etsy Shop.  I do this so that I can make a comparison to the previous year.  My likes on my Facebook Studio Page  have doubled to 723 and on Instagram there has been a 35% growth in the number of those following my art. 

Here is something new I've decided to do.  I'm keeping a map of sales locations by state for 2019.  For 2018 I went back through my shipping records on Pirateship.com where I mail out all my package orders.  This is both Facebook, Ebay and Etsy sales.  It doesn't include local sales via galleries, art shows or personal sales deliveries here in the Las Vegas area.  This represent mostly sales of cowbells but there were some print orders included.  Now I didn't start using Pirateship.com until mid year so this is really a 6 month picture.  The purpose here was for me to see a visual of where my art is being collected.  I can see that I need to do some work to grow a fan base west of the Missouri River. I'm really anxious to start seeing the 2019 map fill up.   

One last thing I wanted to share with you this morning...I'm having a drawing on Facebook that I'm really excited about.  A few months ago I found a little set of 3 faux wooden books at the thrift store for $.50 and brought them home and painted little mice on them.  The set sold right away.  I decided I would try to find more of these little faux books to paint on.  That wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.  Apparently, these were made in the 80's and are not available for purchase online.  I managed to purchase one set on Etsy and another on Ebay so I have a total of 6 more I can paint on.  I'm hoping soon that my husband can make me up something scrap lumber that will duplicate them for the future. 

Because they turned out so cute, I thought it would be fun to have a little mousie faux book as a studio giveaway.  I decided to team up with my friend and distant cousin, Jolene Worm of Jolene's Gathering of Old Folks and add one of her cute as heck mouse dolls to make a "Mousie Duo". 

To enter the drawing isn't hard.  You must hop over and "LIKE", "SHARE" my Studio Facebook Page and "LEAVE A COMMENT'.  The drawing info is pinned to the top of my page.   If you don't have Facebook you can also enter by joining my Studio VIP list through my website.  It only takes a minute and you just might be the lucky winner!