Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Hi! 
I have a fun thing to share!  I did a poll on my blog to create the People's Bear!  I asked a series of 12 questions, and visitors to my blog answered them one at a time, and then I challenged myself to make THAT bear.  So it ends up I had to make a pink, BOY bunny with short arms, long legs, a long, fat body and so on.  It was SOO fun to do!  If you want to check it out, you can see the original set of questions and answeres here:
http://missyballance.typepad.com/crafty … s_cho.html

And you can see the finished bunny here:
http://missyballance.typepad.com/crafty … s_bun.html

It was really fun!
Missy

awww Thank Karen!  I do find myself taking pics of things I never would have taken pics of before, so I can BLOG it!  LOL!  But you can do it!  If you ever have any questions, I'm always happy to help!
Thanks again!  That was very sweet of you

Ooopss... one more thing and then I'm off my soap box!  Everyone should have their own name as a domain name   You'll want it someday, and you definately don't want someone else to have it when your big and famous right!?  If you register a domain name at godaddy.com, it's about $8 year more or less, and you can point it for FREE!  (pointing it means when someone types it in, it can go to where you are telling it to go... so for example, I have missyballance.com pointed to my blog.  The real address to my blog is http://missyballance.typepad.crafty_carnival or something like that.... and it's hard to remember and long, so I pointed missyballance.com there, and now that's what I print on my biz cards, and that's what I tell my friends, and it's easy to remember and gets them where they need to go!!!!!  AND you can point as many domain names as you want to the same place! in case you want to use your business name too!)  K... off my soapbox... I'm sorry so long winded, I just really love this stuff!  LOL!
Missy

Hey Jennifer!
I really think you should consider a blog!  Especially for your style!  It totally goes along with the anime type collectibles.  A lot of gals who blog, link their blog to an etsy shop.  Etsy is only 20 cents to list ea item and it stays on until it sells... or a really long time anyway.  It's one click shopping for your customers too.  I just recently started blogging and today alone, I had 500 hits on my blog.  My website is lucky to get 50, and it's established.  I've had it for 5 years and marketed it heavily! 
If any of you gals want to look into blogging, I read a book called blogwild! and it's awesome.  It really gives you some great tips about how to make your blog GREAT and market your wares using it.   The cost is depending on what you go with.  You can blog for free, but not have your own cute banners and such, or you can pay 10-15 bucks a month for the ability to customize it.  It also is a really easy way to have galleries or archives of your work.... so don't write that off just yet!!!! 
And as far as blogging all day... nobody expects your blog to be updated every minute... your readers only wanna see the really good stuff anyway, so I try to blog about once a week... that way I can edit out what I did that wasn't worth reading about
So definately do a blog or a site, or both.... it'll be worth your while   You are a very talented bear artist!  I love your little bears! 
Good luck, and LMK if there is anything I can help you with
and if you wanna see my blog to see what I'm talking about for archiving pics and stuff it's http://missyballance.com  I promise that's not a shameless plug... just a sample of what you can do
Missy

Thanks for looking you guys   It's been a really fun little adventure... and it's been keeping me motivated to do more and branch out.  So that's nice   Thanks again!

I added a tutorial to my blog todya, and if you like the anime style, you might enjoy making this... for a little break from dealing with fur :)
Missy
http://missyballance.typepad.com/crafty_carnival/

HI Heather!  I just added yours to mine!  And I'd like to offer the same   Anyone who wants to swap with me, just shoot me and email and I'll add yours!
Thanks!

I'm new here but I'm just gonna jump in :)
I started a business making dolls and have only recently started making teddies.  My BF and I both made dolls and we OFTEN collaberated on designs (we live 8 hours apart, so we would trade pictures and pattern pieces via email and fax.) and I thought it had lots of PROS!
First, it kept us on our toes... it was so inspiring to see what each other did.  So I might design the doll, and then her the clothes, or the face, and we would both contribute that way.  And it would often lead to many more designs based on the ideas we generated from the first one.
We turned the designs into patterns, and then we both put the patterns on our website and whoever sold it kept it.  We figured it would all just come out in the wash.  The dolls we made we mostly couldn't part with... so no money issue there... LOL!
Our collectors loved it, because we used to share a booth and they would come in and want something from both of us, and this was a way to get it and only buy one item (Good for them, bad for us!  LOL!)
We don't really think anyone in the doll world really "got" that we were just very inspirational to each other and this was a creative outlet for us... but we didn't really care either!  It was just fun!

We've stopped doing shows because they just stopped being lucrative after dealing with travel expenses and all, and I personally stopped making dolls because I got very jaded by the imports and related issues.  I started making bears after happening on a bear show, and finding pink mohair... I didn't even know they made it, and now I'm hooked.  So since then we've been talking about making a doll bear combo!  So who knows!  Maybe!  :)

Wow... that was long... did I put you to sleep!  LOL!

I uploaded a pic to the gallery.  I've been lurking for awhile but thought it might be time to jump in   I did a little red and pink bear, and I was going to make her an envelope that said "Dear Santa" on one side, and then Sealed with a Kiss on the other... so you could flip it over and keep her out for Valentine's Day... but I didn't feel like makin an envelope after puttin' all that thought into it!  LOL!   So I made her a little green bunny to make her more Christmassy
Missy