Friday, December 30, 2016

Easy Painted Cork Table Runner

I needed to freshen up a display at my old store. I was brainstorming at JoAnn Fabrics when I came across long pieces of thin cork in their loose scrap book paper aisle. I bought a few and brought them home to think about it more.
I looked around my shop table at all the loose gems and what nots. I needed an Americana theme and these glued add ons were just too fancy or kitschy. I needed straight forward color or art. I decided to paint. When scrambling for a brush I came upon my wallpaper roller. Lightbulb!!! This could give me a tye dye feel. Something unique! Something cool!
I took a paper plate and loaded the acrylic colors in the format I wanted on the cork. I gently rolled the brush up and down in the color format. Next I started from the end of the cork and started rolling out the paint. To make more color variations put primary colors next to each to blend a secondary color!
**I would recommend laying out a thicker piece of paper first and use the roller and colors for a test run.
I used this as a mat under a jewelry display. I added more touches with a gold roller ball pen. I wrote USA and similar words for the American theme.
I have also made mats with seasonal ribbon glued around the edges. They make nice runners for a coffee table or under a candle scape.


Thursday, December 29, 2016

Twitter Tips For Newbies

I hope you find these basic tips helpful. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Twitter Tips For Newbies


If you don't RT people's products don't expect to be RTed.
The most successful Twitter Sellers engage their audience and are not on auto tweet.
Follow back and MUTE people who do not RT. Keeps your feed cleaned up. MUTING IS A POWERFUL TOOL. It keeps your feed focused on the content you want to see. The account WILL NOT BE NOTIFIED they have been muted.

Don't waste time following or tweeting people who are not your target audience unless their tweets hit 10,000+. Ex. If you don't ship to Australia then why are you seeking and following Australians??

Don't DM/direct message people for following you or send them spam. They followed you and know where to find you. A study showed people are annoyed by DMs and likely not to buy from you! I no longer check mine!

If you are in business then why are you using tweet validation? Do you want sales and followers or not? Don't hassle potential customers. It's just Twitter!

It's a gamble but, I do mute auto tweet companies like Round Team. Why? Because I was bombarded by Tweets not tweeted by a human decision. So I thought how many other tweeters actually mute this account and never see feed/products anyways? Twitter is an experience for me and also a tool to analyze trends. Auto tweets are the opposite of my mission.

Be careful creating list titles. When an account is added to your list they are notified. So if the title is, TWEETERS I Hate," expect backlash.
Be safe. Don't freely post personal information like where you live, where you are at minute by minute or personal photos etc. All these pieces can be put together by unscrupulous people.

Blocking an account should be used when a tweeter is harassing you or sending out offensive tweets. Sometimes muting or simply unfollowing is the best option. When you block someone they will find out if they try to RT you or look at your account. Twitter says they can still see your feed if they use a third party tool. Also don't forget they may have multiple Twitter accounts and may harass you from them due to blocking. 
More info: https://support.twitter.com/articles/117063  You can always report abusive users.