The Creative Place

Today please welcome Suze and Luke of { applechampagne }. I love looking through their super cute shop - it's full of all sorts of things from beautiful jewelry, to art prints, to paper, to printable pdfs! :)

Tell us about yourself. Hi everyone! We’re Suze and Luke from { applechampagne }! Suze does the crafting and designing while Luke helps out with the business stuff. And we share the promoting and marketing job :) Some things we both ♥: broccoli cheese soup, sunny beaches, NCIS, Randy's glazed donuts, Drops of Jupiter, tiny little clementines, CSI:Vegas, paper plates, and Snoopy!

How long have you been creating things and what inspired you to begin creating things? Suze: Been a crafter probably since before I was even born! Luke: Never really been one :)

What is your shop name and what do you sell? Our shop’s name is { applechampagne } and we have quite a few different things for sale—from modern silver and acrylic jewelry to inspirational art prints and printable designer scrapbook papers and labels.

How long have you been selling online? Only since March of this year! We’re brand new Etsy babies but we did lots of research before that, so that we could hit the ground sprinting if not running. So far so good!

Describe your creative process: How, when, materials, etc. Suze: I’m always thinking, thinking, thinking—my brain’s very hyperactive! I could be doing sit-ups in the gym or watching a mindless TV show and an idea would suddenly pop up! Then I go from there. I source my materials online or in stores, and then start creating! Usually halfway through doing it I’d realize that it’s not as simple as I first imagined it to be :)

Do you promote your shop? How? Sure we do! We’re still new so we’re giving (almost!) everything a try to see which one works best for our store. So far, we like Twitter and Flickr, and being active in the forums, making treasuries, and generally being seen around Etsy is also an awesome way to be noticed by the community!

Do you sell your items anywhere else (such as boutiques, craft fairs, etc)? For the moment we’re just on Etsy but we’d love to someday open our own independent online store. Craft fairs are somewhere on our (very, very long) to-do list too so we’ll probably get there someday too!

What keeps your creative juices flowing? How or what are you inspired by? Living in the great, metropolitan, perpetually-sunny city of LA helps a LOT. There’s inspiration to be found in the vintage art prints hanging in the sweet little cupcake store in our neighborhood, the fabulous modern retail architecture along Rodeo Drive, the palm trees and the sunny beaches and the great white waves, and so many more! There’s always something new to see around here :)

How do you keep track of things that inspire you or ideas you have? Suze: By never being without my little idea journal! I’m always looking for small little notebooks with fabulous covers and very subtly-lined pages—that way it can multitask as both a notebook and a sketchbook all at once! I have too many things inside my overweight purse already; lugging two books everywhere is too much of a burden so I need multitaskers :)

What challenges do you sometimes face when creating? Suze: The challenges are not so much in the creating part of the process but in the post-creation part of it. I have so many craft and product ideas (too many sometimes) and there’s no space for them all in the store. So I have to keep thinking and thinking and basically picking my battles so we won’t be overwhelmed in the future.

What goals do you have for your shop? Plenty of sales and plenty of success! :)

What advice would you give to someone who is new to selling online? Be seen, be seen, BE SEEN! If nobody sees your store or knows about it, you won’t sell anything even if you have the most marvelous creations on earth! Also, read Etsy’s Seller Handbook thoroughly and go to the forums and read up on the successful sellers who post their tips and suggestions on what makes a fabulous and popular store—there is a TON of useful information in there!

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Recap: Shop: { applechampagne } Twitter: applechampagne Flickr: applechampagne