IT'S OFFICIAL - THE ETSY SHOP IS OPEN!

I'm proud to say that the Squareview Studios Etsy shop opened yesterday!  That said, it opened not with a bang, but a whimper whisper - pretty quietly and without fan fare.

You can find a direct link to the shop in the tab above if you're interested in taking a gander.

A few musings on the experience : 

• Writing shop policies is not easy.  In fact, it is pretty darn hard.  It took so much more time than I originally allotted.  Note to future shop owners, give yourself several hours to write, review, tweak, review again, edit & finalize your shop policies.  You'll thank me later.
• Writing an item description is a little easier but still took way longer than I expected.  Give yourself enough time to complete this task.
• Photography styling and post photography editing is super important.  Even with all my planning and prop gathering, I'm still not satisfied with my shop photos.  In all likelihood, you will see all new pics in the shop in less than a week. 
• It takes at least a couple dozen items (if not more) to make your shop look like it is not empty and I learned this the hard way.  After countless hours (months even) designing and perfecting the 13 items I have in the shop right now, I was so proud to get those listings live and couldn't wait to see everything come together. Once I completed everything and took a step back to take it all in, I have to say, I was left wanting (que wa waaa waaa sound effect). Never fear, I'm getting back to the drawing board and you should expect to see more listings ASAP.  In fact, I have 7 beautiful social stationery designs already photographed but I didn't post because I hadn't finalized my color choices yet.  Expect to see those listing shortly.  

Here is a sneak peak....

See what I mean about the photo editing?  All three of these cards were photographed on the exact same white background.  Even fiddling with the white balance on my camera, all three came out looking different from one another.  Ugh!  

I know I want to tell a story with the shop and consistency is the key to doing so.  Me thinks I'm in for a big day of re-shoots.  I'm looking for alternate solutions as I type this... Any suggestions would be MOST welcome!!

Onwards and upwards though as tonight I'm off to my first Etsy Community event!  I can't wait to tell you all more about it tomorrow.