New Holiday Items

Thank you all for stopping by!

I just created some new Holiday goodies.  They are very small batches this year.

You can find my new goodies in my Zibbet shop

On the right side of the shop there is a Holiday section if you are searching for the Holiday only items.

The peppermints are actually one of the more challenging foods I make.  They are very fun, but very difficult to make perfect on both sides.   There is definitely a front and back on most of them.

The main green I use for the green peppermints was discontinued.  I use a mixture of greens, but any new batches I make will be a slightly different green.

My items can also be found at:
Blossom Beauty Lounge  in Redondo Beach, Ca.
Emerging Thoughts  an online boutique with creators from around the world
Two Elephants in Granada Hills, Ca.

Cookies And Cream Cake

Over the weekend I had a chance to make a brand new cake.  Here I have layers of chocolate and vanilla cake with dark chocolate icing.  I added a dab of vanilla frosting on top with chocolate sprinkles and topped it wit a wafer cookie.  

I like the colors so much, the I hope to make a cookies n cream ice cream, and perhaps even a matching cupcake. 

All my newest foods are available at my new shop.  My latest designs are the cookies and cream inspired cake, and a variety ice waffle cone ice creams. 

If you missed out on the Hotdogs or plain cheese burgers, I made new small batches of those items.

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Heather

Is Poaching Too Strong of a Word?

Just a quick warning, This particular post is meant more for documenting how Etsy has changed incoming traffic to listings.  I wanted to show other shop owners what is happening, and why their shops may have slowed down.
I just stumbled across a change Etsy made to incoming search results.  I often perform searches on google, to see if my items are showing up.  I am showing up on a number of google searches, but my views on Etsy have been plummeting.   If you are an Etsy shop owner that has built your business, only to find yourself struggling this may be the reason.

Here is the google shopping results for snow cone necklace today October 22, 2013.  My snow cone necklace is in the first slot top left.

 Once you click through to see the item this picture of the screen below is where you are taken.  An Etsy listing page.  The top is very different though, Notice that you don't even see the item.  You are shown other "similar" items.  Then you see the shop name next to some thumbnails of shop items.  You actually have to scroll down in order to find the item you clicked on.

How many people clicking through to find your item, will know to scroll down?
Sorry they are photos guys...  There were errors when I tried to post with actual screen shots
Heather

Here is another way Etsy is directing traffic away from your shop
 I search for chocolate cupcake charm then click on images.  Mine is the 6th in on the top

 Here is the screen after I click on the image.  Instead of saying my business name on Etsy, It says Popular items for cupcake charm on etsy

Then when you click on  to Etsy you are taken to a search page of many items.  The one you clicked on may or may not even be there

I deactivated my listings. My item was in the top row in the third slot.  There have been reports by other sellers that their item did but appear on the page at all, or it was towards the bottom of the page.

I don't want my images to lure people to directly competing items.  Amazon at least shows competing items on the bottom of the page.  This is not fair to the shops that spend countless hours researching SEO, taking the best pictures they can, only to have it used to promote their direct competitors items. 

To my wonderful buyers..  You can still contact me through Etsy for the time being, or find me here
This along with the allowing factory mass produced items to be called "hand made"  was the reason I took all my listings down on etsy.

Self Preservation

First I want to thank all of you for your support of my business. 

There have been a great deal of changes on Etsy that has me concerned about the future of my shop.  The latest one has me the most concerned.

Recently Etsy announced that Mass manufactured goods will be allowed on the site.  There has been many stores claiming that their

items are handmade, and drop shipping sales straight from manufacturers.

What this means for Sweet & Savory Trinkets

In the last month and a half, I have been emailed from manufacturers in China asking if they can produce my products for me.  I have also had some of my photos stolen and used on other sites.  

Since some manufacturers have already taken notice of my Etsy items, I will continue to sell them there for the time being. 

However all my new designs will be in my shop on Zibbet .  I am trying to make it harder for large manufacturing companies to find my items and copy them. 

 My promise to you! 
Every miniature food you buy from me, is hand made by me!  I am not going to mass produce my products.  When you are contacting me, calling me, or buying from me, I am the person that will be writing you back, making your items, packing your items, and shipping them to you. 

Your can find my items in my shop on Zibbet, and at least through the Holidays on Etsy.  My new designs will no longer be on Etsy though.

I will also be doing local fairs, and I am in a few retail locations.  Blossom Beauty Lounge  , Emerging Thoughts,  Two Elephants, There are two other locations that carried a limited selection of my work, once I have permission to link them here I will update the blog with live links. 

Things here have slowed down a great deal with the new changes on Etsy, so I have been unable to continue donating the 2.5% of sales to disaster relief at this time.  I am now putting it back into supplies for creating new items. 

Thank you again for your past support.  I do hope you will stop by my Zibbet shop, I am currently trying out a couple other handmade sites too to see what I think of them. 

Heather

Store Info

I just made a new batch of ice cream sandwiches.    I will be updating the blog later this week.










I making my way into retail stores, and will be updating this page soon

Two Elephants in Granada Hills

Marbling 1 Tutorial

Hello everyone :)

I just opened a secondary shop on etsy called Sweet & Savory Tutorials .  After many requests I decided to start offering tutorials.  They are made in document form with lots of photos.  Right now there are only a couple tutorials there, and I will add more as I am creating new batches of my miniatures.  I am starting with the easy ones.

Here on the blog I will occasionally have links to free tutorials on specific techniques I use.  The first one is Marbling 1 .  It is a very fun, and easy technique that I use all the time.

I tend to have cold hands, and it takes a long time for me to condition clay.  I use this technique to condition the clay for all my projects, I use it conditioning single colors, to mix colors until they are combined completely, and I use it to get a marbled or striped look.

 It is very subtle in my tea cups, but if you click on the image to enlarge it you can see the stripes in my cups and saucers.  I do marble them. :)

If you play with polymer clay, and don't marble yet, give it a try.  I hope you have fun with it!
Heather

Ready For Spring

I hope you are all having a wonderful New Year! 

A contagious bout of pneumonia hit the household.  All my items are cured at 275 degrees , and I managed not to get sick but pneumonia is not something to mess with and I did not want to take a chance I would be shipping any germs. 

I did not get to all the Valentines Day items I wanted to.  Your suggestions are still good, and I will be making more items.  The heart shaped sugar cookie was the first winning suggestion.

 




**** Two new contest themes****  
Since I am so behind in creating I wanted to announce the next two contest themes.  You can make suggestions for both now.  The first is Tea Party, and the second is Fair Food.  These two themes will be running till May.  I will announce winners at least once a month till then.

So far I have made a cup of tea, Battenburg cake, and sugar cubes.  I am making at least three more tea party foods, and for the fairs foods make I will be making a lot.


P.S.  peek at my store from time to time.  I post new items as I make them.  If you see I already made your suggestion, convo me :)  I can ship you your prize before I announce the winning suggestions here on the blog.

The last few donations I made have been going to disaster relief from Hurricane Sandy.  So far 688.00 from sales have been donated to disaster relief.  You can see the different disasters that we have donated to so far here .  

Thank you so much for continuing to tune in.
Here are some fun food holidays there are in February.  If you enjoy knowing about the food holidays let me know, and I will post them every month for you.    
February
14th: National Creme Filled Chocolates Day, 20th National Cherry Pie Day, 27th National Strawberry Day, 28th National Chocolate Soufle Day.  
There are many food holidays each month.  I can list them all each month if you would like.  Just let me know in the comment area if this is something you would like to see. :)

Thanks again,
Heather