Wednesday, October 31, 2007

New Email and Blog editor !!

We have a new person incharge!! We are so happy to announce Melanie as our hostess with the CPV Village Blog and News Letters. You can read alittle about Melanie in our " About Us " page. So do not forget to join our new letter with crafty tips, wonderful quick prim meals for the crafter on the go and so much more.
We have a booth in the Prim Mart EZ craft show drop by and visit us by clicking on the banner !!!
We are offering great package deals with the CPV
Graphics
Craft Patterns
Come on in and join us for a wonderful holiday shopping experience! Shop from over 300 booths featuring awesome products and show specials. Join us in the chatroom where you can chat, play games, win prizes and have fun. All from the comfort of your own home! Our show is open 24 hours a day, Oct. 24th - Nov 7th, 2007 for your shopping convenience.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Spot Light Crafter Oct / Nov

Our spot light crafter for October and November is Robin Wiens she has two terrific websites to visit Prim Silicone Bulb Shoppe And Buttoneyed-Annie

Here is our special interview with Robin. We really enjoyed getting to know all about her. Thank you Robin.

How long have you been crafting and what kind of crafty items do you make?

I have been crafting for many years. As far back as I can remember
my sisters and I were always putting something together. Today. I
do alot of sewing and we dip our silicone bulbs and strands.


What is your favorite Medium when crafting?

I do alot of sewing and painting on fabric. I think sewing has to be my favorite thing to do. It's so fun to see what comes out of a bolt of muslin.

Who inspired you to start crafting and how old where you?

I would have to say my mother an my grandmother. My mother was always sewing us clothes or creating lil crafts for us to play with. My grandmother love to paint..When she wanted to change her decor, she would simply paint everything instead of buying new...lol

Name a few of your favorite Artist?

A few of my favorite artists are...Tonya of Back Porch Pickins,
Maureen of Sweet Meadows Farm & Karen of RkCreations. All 3 of
these ladies are extremely talented and often inspire me to create
and broaden my horizons.

What are a few of your favorite places to visit and shop online?

This is such an easy question. I visit PrimMart & Ebay. Several times a day...lol And then various craft sites.

What is your favorite Color?

Another easy question...butter yellow. I have loved this color since I was a child.

Interviewed by Judy ~Owner of CPV 8/07

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Marketing Your Website

Marketing Your Website

How to market your website these days can be very hard with all the new search engine rules. Where years ago you would just fill out a form in all these places and boom within a few weeks your site would be in the search engines. It now takes a lot of work and sometimes it can put a big dent in your pocketbook.
Here are a few ways to market your website for FREE and PAY it does take a lot of time on your part to do this but it does help to get your site known.
FREE Marketing ....

A ) Visit websites and post in their guest books leave your website name or URL to your site.
B ) Join Arts and Crafts related forums and be active in these forums so people can get to know you and about your website and product.
C ) Banner exchange with website is great but a short text description about your site in rich text is much better.
D ) Some forums offer "Prim Packs" this is were craft sites snail mail each other with small samples of product with a business card or flyer's with monthly specials. The other person then mails these out with every order they receive and you would do the same for them with their Prim Pack.
E ) You can find self submit areas on the net for free where you would enter all your info once your site is open and has keywords and meta tags. You would then go down the list they offer and hand type all your site info and submit to smaller search engines, directories, FFA's. This could take hours of work and a very long time in some places to have your site added.
F ) Join as many Top 100 sites or Webrings
G ) Do weekly or monthly news letters with updates about your website.
H ) Bloging with your website with craft related articles

Marketing that cost money....

A ) Join places like www.Crafterspeddlervillage.com who dedicate their website in advertising in arts-n-crafts and wham website all over the internet. They are set up to help your site get known through out the internet.
B ) Join forums who offer advertising with rotating banners on there forum pages such as www.primmart.com
C ) Advertise with talk radio channels on the internet such as www.primtalkradio.com
D ) Join an Co-Op Ad with a group of sites related to arts and crafts in major magazines.
E ) Join news letters who offer advertising to add your banner or text to advertise your site.
F ) Buy a promotion package from places like www.craftsitemedic.com they focus totally on craft related sites with submitting in search engines.
G ) Pay larger search engines per click advertising.
H ) Pay to place an Ad in craft related magazines.
I ) Always own your Domain this is very importune your domain will be picked up easier with search engines instead of having a sub-domain name.
J ) Join Internet Craft Shows that advertise a lot about the craft shows they hold.

All of these suggestions we have made does not guarantee that your site will be on page 1 of Google or Yahoo but these are ways to help bring in more traffic , possible sales and getting your website on search engines. You need to make a few days a month on just doing some of these suggestions to better your website in being in more traffic.
I hate to say this but when you open your website your site is 1 in a few thousand out there selling the same product doing the same crafting related items in the internet. It is up to you on how much time you want to spend submitting or paying for advertising with your site. It can take 3 months, 6 months or even a year even before you receive any sales from your site. But the more you get your website name out there the higher traffic you will have which means good chance you will have sales from your website.

Merchant Accounts

Merchant Acct.
New website who are open or people who are thinking of opening a new website that sell product should not have to go pay high dollar amounts for merchant set up in your websites such as using your local bank for a merchant account system.
I would go with www.paypal.com to start off with just opening because this account does not require you to go apply for a DBA or Tax ID these fund can go directly into your personal checking account.
Once your sales reach $1000.00 per month then I would go set up an merchant account with www.ProPay.com or some other company such as Total Merchants apply for your DBA ( Doing Business As) and Tax ID then set up a new bank account for these sales from your website. TIP - (make sure your bank knows you have an outside merchant system. Sometimes they will try to sell you what they offer this does cost more money.) ProPay is also great because you can use this in your website, ebay sales, craft shows.
For Craft Shows - You can get the old fashion knuckle buster pay slips as a copy for your sales at the craft show and you can call in every card used with your cell phone with the sale right then to make sure the card is good and this will give you an Authorized # once it has gone through. The best part is you will have the card holders signature on the sales slip. This helps from getting a chargeback from the credit card company if this person called in to there credit card company saying they never did this charge at this craft show. Then you have the signature to prove you did this sale with this person.
Large Orders - Like Wholesales $100.00 or more in one sale with using a service like Propay they can call in, email you, mail in orders, fax orders, or from your merchant cart system from your website. Before mailing the order for the first few time you should require that they sign a sales slip (knuckle buster sales slip) that you mail to them and have it returned back to you before shipping. This is another way of getting a Chargeback if you have nothing signed with that charge.
This also helps you with your terms of service within your website on returns and refund policy which every website should have that does sales from. The merchant accounts and bank cards are on the credit card holders side if you do not have a sales slip signed by this person. If you have this signed slip then you can win this battle if there is a chargeback because you have there signature on a sales slip. Another bad thing is on any chargebacks it does count against you. Then sometimes the person you sold to may not send your product back if you have that signed slip for this sale it will protect you on these problems by proving the sale was signed for. This also protects you from fraud and stolen credit cards by calling in or going to the propay website and enter the sale in right then it will let you know if the card is accepted. By doing all of this it protects the card holder and also your self from all these problems.

Opening Your New Website

Owning your own domain is EZ you can buy domains at places like godaddy.com for as little 8.00 a year then find a website hosting company like www.primmart.com to host your domain with for as little as 20.00 a month. The DIY sites offer very easy to use building tools for you to learn on how to build your site with no knowledge of using HTML. If you opened your site with someone it is a #1 big NO NO to have them buy and own the domain name your going to use. Years ago I did this not knowing that if I decided to move my website they may keep the domain, site graphics and email as there own and then I would no longer be able to use that name, graphics and email. This was very upsetting because I had worked so hard with building this site and submitted my site to as many places found in the internet I had steady sales and was stuck in this hosting place or had to start all over again. So if you want your own site and OWN your domain name you need to go and set this all up then your ready to move to the next step of building your new site.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

September Spot Light Crafter

Denni is new aspiring pattern maker! Her dolls are so precious but prim.
Here is alittle about Denni.
How long have you been crafting?
Denni : about 4 years
What is your favorite Medium when crafting?
Denni : I love dolls
Who inspired you to start crafting and how old where you?
Denni : I have a good freind by the name of LeeAnn who got me into crafts. We still to this day craft together. I was about 22 when I got started. I became a stay at home mom then so I needed some sanity~~lol.
What is your favorite Color?
Denni : Green
What is your favorite Comfort Food?
Denni : Ice cream
If there was any place you would like to visit where would it be and why? Denni : I would love to visit the south. I think the plantations and things would be fun!! Then Hawaii
What do you see new for the up coming 2008 with crafting?
Denni : More dollies
What are a few of your favorite places to visit and shop online?
Denni : I love Shawnette's website!!~~it's cute!!! I like ebay to find deals on fabric and I love Sew Many Prims website for supplies and dollies.
Name a few of your favorite Artist?
Denni : Sew Many Prims, Imseeingraggedies, HomespunHugsand CalicoKisses, Between Friends I have alot of favorites
Where did you grown up?
Denni : Utah. I'm still here too!!~Maybe one day I will venture out!!~~lol.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

September Crafter of the Month

New aspiring pattern maker! Very cute dolls!!! Be watching for new patterns coming soon.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Rusting Items


Rusting Items

This recipe will nicely rust safety pins, jingle bells, or anything else you want to 'age' for your primitive creations.The most important thing to remember about rusting, is that you will want to buy the cheap brand of pins, safety pins, bells..ect that you can find. The more expensive brands have a shellac coating on them that you will have to sand off before rusting. Makes sure they are NOT brass either -brass will not rust.Do this outside away from children and pets.....the fumes are terrible !

Ingredients:
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup bleach
1 teaspoon salt

Directions :Combine the ingredients in an old quart jar.Add items you want to rust and cover loosely - place in a safe spot and let set for at least 2 days.Line a tray with a couple of layers of paper towel and remove the items with an old fork from the mixture. place in the sunshine .......the items will begin to rust as they dry. Move them around so that they dry on all sides.Perfectly rusted bells, pins, and any other item you wish to rust.

Caution: do not throw the mixture down the sink- dispose of properly where no animal or child could come in contact with.

Written and submitted by Debbie- Two Old Crows

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

One of Our Grand Prize Winners

Pip Berry Place offer a line of prim and country Candles & prim lighting, needfuls and home decor, as well as scent ed items for the bath, the body, and the home . Each item is made with care for the individual shopper or for the person wishing to purchase items wholesale for their own shops. During the month of June they are offering $5.00 off on any order of $30.00 or more. So take a few minutes and stop by Pip Berry Place and see all the wonderful things they have.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Building a Terranium


While at my local nursery I wandered inside into the greenhouse where they keep all the indoor plants and found the neatest little rabbit foot's fern that I just couldn't resist . Wondering what I could do I remember a large clear bowl I had at home and decided to make a simple terranium to place on one of my bookcase shelves in the living room. I love terraniums because they take so little care and are so easy and simple to do. Here are the simple directions for what I did to make it.

1. Clean and dry the bowl completely
2. Place some clean rocks in the bottom, then add charcoal ( the charcoal stops mold from growing in this damp environment you create inside the bowl) then just enough potting soil for the plant.
3. Remove the fern from its plastic container and place into the soil.
4. Give just a bit of water and wipe the smudges off the bowl.

Thats all I did - most terraniums have a lid but this one wont so I will have to water more often- just be sure you dont over water !
Written and Submitted by Debbie- Two Old Crows

Grand Opening Prize Winners

We are happy to announce the winners of our Grand Opening Prizes:

Melizza Zoo was the winner of the Little Americana 07 donated by
Carmen of Shweet Potato Designs

Country Clutter Nancy was the winner of Pepper 07 donated by Carmen of Shweet Potato Designs

Njdo Rosalie was the winner of the salt dough ornies donated by Lee Anne of Homespun Country Designs

Mamawscreations Marie was the winner of the Americana Rag Doll donated by Shawnette of Im Seeing Raggedies

Dreamsicle Janice was the winner of the 3 patterns of her choice dontated by Shawnette of Im Seeing Raggedies

Studiodd Jeanette and Artchick Tina were both winners of the our free advertising package.

Congratulations to all the winner and thank you to all who entered . We will be having more great prize drawings and give-aways in the future so be sure to watch for them.

If you would like to donate a prize for the month of July please contact us. Website will receive mention on our website, blog and newsletter. So please contact us if you would like to donate and receive this exposure for your website.

Thursday, June 7, 2007

Grand Opening Prizes Drawn Tommorrow

Have you seen all the great Grand Opening Prizes we're giving away.
Just visit our
prize page at Crafters Peddlers Village and sign up today.
We draw for all these great prizes on June 8 so don't delay !

One Year Big Package Listing

Includes your banner / text listed in 12 categories of your choice in Crafters Peddler Village with your website, ebay listing, blog listing
PLUS 1 feature Ad Space on our front page.
You must link back to us to advertise with us and you must be 100% family friendly.
We have a very limited number of these !

Monday, June 4, 2007

Grand Opening Today

*** GRAND OPENING SPECIAL ***
As a Grand Opening Special we are offering
buy 1 month and get one month free
on all banner and text ad's
(This offer good until June 30th)



Visit us for more information

Crafters Peddler Village



Submitted by Debbie- Two Old Crows

Saturday, June 2, 2007

Grand Opening Prize


Lee Anne of Homespun Country Designs was kind enough to donate this wonderful set of salt dough ornies for our Grand Opening. All you have to do is go to Crafter's Peddlers Village and sign up for our mailing list and you might just be the lucky winner !

Grand Opening Prize




Carmen of Shweet Potato Designs was kind enough to donate these great graphics for our Grand Opening Drawing. All you have to do is go to Crafter's Peddlers Village and sign up for our mailing list and you might just be the lucky winner !

Friday, June 1, 2007

Meet the Staff- Shawnette


Shawnette lives in the great state of Texas, is happily married and has 6 children. How she ever gets the time to create all that she does is simply amazing. She has been crafting for many years and started making her adorable rag dolls in 2003. Other doll makers pleaded with her for help and she came out with a line of patterns in 2006 that has expandable past rag dolls to include the cutest critters you have ever seen. She sells her original creations on Ebay and her website Im Seeing Raggedies. Her patterns can be found on Pattern Mart.

Submitted by Debbie- Two Old Crows

Thursday, May 31, 2007

This Could Be Yours



Have you ever seen anything cuter than this and it could be yours ! Shawnette of Im Seeing Raggedies has donated this wonderful raggedy ann as one of the prizes for our grand opening. All you have to do is go to Crafter's Peddlers Village and sign up for our mailing list and you might just be the lucky winner !

Meet the Staff- Judy


Judy has been professionally crafting for too many years to mention and selling her handcrafted products on the internet since 1997. Working in various mediums her she found a niche she loved in creating dolls, patterns, stitchery and handpainted pillows which she sold both retail and wholesale. In the past four years she has concentrated on creating one of a kind dolls and pillows for retail sale. During the the past year Judy ventured into tart and candle making and has found a product line she loves creating and sells on her website Mudpie Primitives. Crafters Peddlers Village is the reality of a dream she has had for many years to help other crafters and artist advertise and find resources for presenting their products on the internet. Judy lives in Texaas with her two sons, an army husband and her golden retrievers (sometimes we wonder which she loves the most -just ask her about her dogs).

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Meet the Staff - Debbie


Debbie loves to scour flea markets, auctions and estate sales for antiques, primitives and vintage collectibles throughout the St Louis Missouri area where she lives. Some of these found and salvage items she sell "as is" while others she hand paints turning them into one of a kind treasures. As a creator and former teacher of American folk art she enjoys sharing the knowledge and information gathered over the last thirty years. In the hope of sparking your imagination and creativity she the offer crafting tips and techniques both on her website Two Old Crows that she co-own with Dean and on her crafting blog Two Old Crows Folk Art Tips and Techniques She is a contributing editor to Primitive Times Magazine and can be heard weekly on Prim Talk Radio. She has two grown children Aimee and Hubble and three wonderful grandsons Nicholas, Kalib and Wyatt. When not crafting she enjoys gardening but often has a problem in this area due to her large Airedale Roxie.

Debbie's folk art, antiques and vintage collectibles can be purchased at her website Two Old Crows

Submitted by Debbie - Two Old Crows

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Banner Advertising

Our banner advertising offers affordable advertising that saves you time and money. Crafters Peddler's Village helps country, primitive, craft and WAHM type websites promote their businesses and attract more visitors to their websites. We actively promote bringing in more traffic through search engine submissions, topsites, link exchanges, banner ads, crafty searches and other off the web advertising. Many search engines even rank websites by the number of links they have to their websites. If this sounds like something you would like to be a part of please click info for more information !

Submitted by Debbie- Two Old Crows

Newsletter

Be sure to sign up for our newsletter so you dont miss out ! Our newsletter contains monthly giveaways, sales announcements, our feature crafter of the month, craft tips and recipes. So take a few moments and sign up for mailing list so that you won't miss out on anything happening at Crafter's Peddler Village

Submitted by Debbie - Two Old Crows

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Welcome

Welcome to Crafters Peddler Village Blog !

Submitted by Debbie - Two Old Crows