Victoria is probably better known in the Blythe community as fruityblythe. She’s an illustrator by trade and I first found out about her new fabric designs on Flickr! She was open to doing an interview for the March Talent Showcase, as she’s new to the fabric designing world. I was ever so excited to interview her because I feel that it’s always important to talk about the different aspects of creativity that are in the Blythe community and she offers a look at one that not a lot of people venture into: fabric design.

Hi Victoria! What can you tell us about yourself and how you discovered Blythe?
I actually used to really dislike dolls as a child, but I saw this very cool looking doll on television for the Alexander McQueen for Target commercials. She was just so cute and wearing all of those Mcqueen fashions intrigued me. I searched for her on the internet and purchased my first girl on ebay.

How did the name of Pamplemousse come about?
Pamplemousse means Grapefruit in French. My boyfriend and I were shopping and he picked up a cologne bottle and the main ingredient was written on the front “Pamplemousse” we both thought this was a very funny sounding word. I took french for 3 years in high school so our running gag is that he mispronounces the word and I try to teach him to say it right.

What gave you the idea to start designing fabric?
I always used to like Lolita fashion brands like “Baby the Stars shine Bright” “France Lippe” My friend brought back this adorable dress her trip to japan and it had all of these illustrated little girls dancing around it with a very pretty pattern on the bottom of the dress. I’m an illustrator by trade, and I originally wanted to print fabric for real people, but then realized that nobody was making Lolita style fabrics scaled for dolls!

Where have you gotten your inspiration for fabric designs?
I love to look at Japanese characters from stationary! I think they are very cute and fun and I try to come up with my own characters that have a similar feel. I also like to think about things that make me laugh, I like to have a sense of humor in my designs. the next set I want to design is going to be called “Fat Unicorns”

Has being an illustrator by trade helped or hindered your designing process?
Definitely helped. I’ve had a ton of time playing with different mediums to try and get different looks with my fabrics. I just sent off a fabric I designed using watercolors! I think parlaying what you’re naturally good at into the doll hobby can be a powerful thing.

I understand that you’ve designed to make your fabric runs limited, can you explain your reasoning behind this?
I understand how I could easily become too satisfied with my own work and just keep reprinting the same fabric, but I want to challange myself. I want to keep making things that can make different and unique dresses! I will reproduce some popular ones, but never exactly the same. I may change the colors so that the first batch will remain unique.

Can you tell us what kind process you go through from the idea to the printed fabric?
I start by thinking about what I would like to see my dolls wear. I always like girly styles so I think about what they would enjoy doing. I imagine that they have likes and dislikes as well and I think about which of those things would make for cute or amusing fabric designs.

What would you say is one of the main things that sets your fabric apart from other fabric available in dolly-friendly sized prints?
I would say that my designs are different because of the attitude of the characters. My second print is called “Spoiled Princess” and unlike other fairy tale designs I have seen, these girls have major tude! Part of me thinks that we Western collectors are much more about the personalities of our dolls and like to see unique facets of them.

How have people in the Blythe community responded to your new fabric designs?
Well, we haven’t been open for very long, but so far the response has been very positive! I sold out of my first batch in a few hours and I’m excited to start selling more!

What has excited you the most about designing fabric?
I always loved crafting things for dolls, but I always find myself without any time to do it! I found that when I made fabric, I was able to craft for my dolls one step ahead of a final product, which is very exciting.

What kind of things do you have planned for the future for Pamplemousse?
More fun and funny fabrics for one! For another I would love to start to work with some designers for collaboration collections where I design fabric especially for them and their designs!

Thanks so much for doing this interview with me! What kind of advice would you give to someone who’s unsure about starting to sell things in the Blythe community?
Test your market first, do your research and see what things excite the community. I started Pamplemousse with only one yard in case it turned out my idea was a total flop, but people seemed excited about it so I’m continuing.

I also recommend making connections! Most of the time, friends of yours will be the best way to get the word out there about your products! Be active on Flickr, take an interest in other collectors, you’ll be a happier Blythe-er and more successful!

Pamplemousse Fabric Giveaway!

One very lucky person will be winning some Pamplemousse fabrics! The designs include one piece each of Spoiled Princess Lolita Stripe, Ice Cream Lolita and Watercolor Tulips.

You can get up to sixteen (16) entries for this giveaway draw and you can enter until Saturday March 19th 2011 at 11:59pm PST. The draw will be held on Sunday March 20th 2011 and the winner will be announced on BlytheLife.com. Remember to use a valid email address for all comments. If you win, your email will be forwarded to Victoria for arranging shipment of the prize.

Please only use one email address per person, those using multiple email addresses for more entries will be disqualified.

Mandatory Entry: Comment below about the interview with Victoria! This is worth 1 entry into the giveaway.

Bonus Entry #1: Tweet about the contest! Please retweet the following once per day from your public Twitter account! (If you look below, there is a box for you to include your Twitter username, if you do, I can easily verify your bonus entry!) Each tweet is 1 entry into the giveaway for a maximum of 9 entries into the giveaway. Please comment below to tell me that you’ve been tweeting (1 comment per tweet!)

Check out the @blythelifecom interview with @fruityblythe for an awesome fabric giveaway! http://bit.ly/fVMIpp

Bonus Entry #2: Follow Victoria’s Twitter account, @fruityblythe! This is worth 1 entry. Comment below to let me know that you’ve followed her Twitter account!

Bonus Entry #3: Blog about the contest! Be sure to include some details about the contest and include links to BlytheLife.com, this interview/giveaway page and to the Pamplemousse shop! For 1 blog entry, this is worth 5 entries into the giveaway! You must comment below with the URL to your blog post.

There’s a lot of different sites where you can go and sell the things that you’ve made, that’s the beauty of the internet. You don’t need to know how to code anything yourself (although that would be an asset) and all you need to do is ensure that you input the correct payment information so you can receive the funds and make sure you ship things out in a timely manner. But with so many different site options, how can you tell which one is right for you?

I take a look at four popular options available online for your online selling needs and show the pro’s and con’s of each option. Some of them are free (!) while others have paid accounts and some just have the same price structure for everyone. It doesn’t matter if you know how to customize or code because not all of them even allow for customization, but they all have something in common: all four of the sites I’m talking about to you are sites where you can set up your own online shop.

Artfire
Artfire is a little bit newer than Etsy, which can be a good or a bad thing. Good thing is that there is less competition. The bad thing is that less people know about it. There is a ‘free/basic’ account and you can also pay to upgrade. Artfire does not have fees associated with making a listing or making a sale. Their “pro” account is $9.95 USD/mo (at the time of writing – this is mentioned on their site as a promotional price from the regular price of $20/mo) which includes more freedom in how you can run your online shop. With a paid-upgrade, you can get more images/listing, more customization abilities and the ability to create things like coupon/discount codes. If you don’t opt for their paid account, you can list things on Artfire for free, but you do have limitations as to what you can do with your account. The great thing is that there is a free account option, the bad thing is that there are limitations to free accounts (as always). Pro account price may be too expensive for some if you are unable to generate enough sales to cover the cost of your products and the cost of your shop.

Snippets of thoughts on Artfire:

• Basic accounts are free
• There are no fees associated with making a sale
• Pro accounts are $9.95 USD (current promotional price)
• There is less than a gazillion sellers on Artfire (in comparison with Etsy), but less than a gazillion sellers also translates to being less viewers on Artfire

Big Cartel
Big Cartel focuses on more than just handcrafted goods (like Artfire and Etsy) but also includes all branches of art, including music and various designers. Like Artfire, Big Cartel has a free/basic account option (only 5 listings at one time, 1 photo per listing, minimal customizing options) and goes up to various paid accounts from $9.99, $19.99 and $29.99 USD. The number of products you can list increase with each price tier, including the amount of control you have over customizations. The $29.99 USD allows for the most number of products listed at 300 (!) products and that’s apparently for a ‘small’ shop, the $9.99 USD option has a maximum of 25 listings. It allows for site-integration with your own blog that looks a lot more smooth that integration with the other options would be. I actually like how much customization options that you get with Big Cartel. The nice thing about Big Cartel is that there are no fees associated with any sales that you make.

Snippets of thoughts on Big Cartel:

• Basic accounts are free and can have up to 5 listings
• There are no fees associated with making a sale
• Pro accounts go from $9.99-29.99 USD
• Great options for customizations (with paid accounts), good options for integration

Etsy
Etsy is incredibly popular, which is both a good and a bad thing. A good thing is that it’s been tried over and over again by other crafters. The bad thing is that you need to be able to stand out among all the other crafters on Etsy in order to get sales (unless someone is specifically looking you up, in which case less effort is required). Etsy has a lot of page views per day, a lot of visitors, a lot of shops and a lot of activity going on their forums. There are a lot of resources available on Etsy for first-time or veteran online sellers. People discuss techniques as well as sourcing out materials or promotional tips on the forums.

You are charged on a per-item, per-listing basis and a percentage is deducted from each sale after you make one, based on the listing price. Each listing lasts for 4 months. Costs for listing are billed to you via a valid credit card or a Paypal account. Crafters under the age of 18 are permitted to have an Etsy shop provided that the actual store owner is their parent or legal guardian.

Snippets of thoughts on Etsy:

• To list one item, it costs $0.20 USD
• Each listing can last up to 4 months before it expires (unless someone buys it before 4 months is up)
• There is a 3.5% fee per sale that you make on Etsy
• There’s about a gazillion* other Etsy sellers on Etsy to compete with.

* May be an exaggeration, but it seems that way.

Storenvy
I haven’t found very many sites that use Storenvy yet, but it seems like a fun and interesting option. According to their website, a store is completely free. There are no limits to the number of products that you can list for sale, there are no fees associated with any sale that you make (beyond what Paypal themselves take). They also have full customization, for those who are code-savvy and have a lot of free features. For those wondering, Storenvy makes their money from their affiliate/sister site, which prints custom t-shirts for people who want to sell shirts via Storenvy. There is a social media feel to the website, which was one of the goals of Storenvy – people can ‘like’/heart your products and write comments directly about your shop and products on your profile (which doesn’t appear on your storefront).

Snippets of thoughts on Storenvy:

• Only one account level and it’s free
• There are no fees associated with making a sale
• Great options for customization (and by the looks of things, you can make it look just like the rest of your site!)
• Social media feel to the whole site with the liking and followers options.

– – – – –

For those that are current online shop owners and selling your Blythe/dolly clothing or shoes or pullrings or anything else that you can think of: what online shopping site do you use? What do you like or dislike about it?

Whichever host you decided to use during Part 2 of Doll Blogging: Names & Hosts, you should learn some basics in HTML!

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language and it is what is used online for writing coding. While I won’t be going everything there is to know about coding, I feel that most bloggers should know the basics for it. Even if you feel as if you can rely on text editors all the time, it’s still a good idea to know the basics and to understand how to write your own basic coding for your blog entries. I’m splitting up this article into a few different sections: text, images and links.

Text

To make your text bold:

<strong>text to make bold here</strong>

To make your text italicized:

<em>text to make italicized here</em>

To make your text crossed out:

<span style=”text-decoration: line-through;”>text to make crossed out here</span>

To make your text underlined:

<span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>text to make underlined here</span>

To make your text smaller:

<small>text to make small here</small>

Images

Let’s take this image for example (http://blythelife.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/html-sampleimage.jpg):

In order for any image to show up on your blog, you need this code:

<img src=”URL” />

To make the image above show up, the coding looked like this:

<img src=”http://blythelife.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/html-sampleimage.jpg” />

Links

Linking text to a website address:

<a href=”URL”>text to show up here</a>

If you wanted to link to BlytheLife.com’s URL (http://blythelife.com) the coding would look like this:

<a href=”http://blythelife.com”>BlytheLife.com</a>

Linking text to an email address:

<a href=”mailto:emailaddress”>text to show up here</a>

If you wanted to link to BlytheLife’s email address (blythelife@gmail.com), the coding would look like this:

<a href=”mailto:blythelife@gmail.com”>email BlytheLife.com</a>

Linking an image to a website address:

<a href=”URL”><img src=”IMAGE URL” /></a>

If you wanted to link to an image (eg. blythe.jpg) and link it to BlytheLife.com, the coding would look like this:

<a href=”http://blythelife.com”><img src=”blythe.jpg” /></a>

If you haven’t already, be sure to read part one (The Introduction) and part two (Names & Hosts). In two weeks, on March 21, 2011, Part 4 (Themes, Templates & Designs) will be posted.

• Part 1: The Introduction
• Part 2: Names & Hosts
• Part 3: HTML
• Part 4: Themes, Templates & Design (March 21, 2011)
• Part 5: Promoting Your Site (April 4, 2011)

As part of the March Talent Showcase, I had the pleasure of interviewing the sisterly duo behind AnneArchy, a fun Etsy shop that sells things for Blythe as well as things for other human companions and things for people! Susan and Anne are the two lovely sisters behind AnneArchy and they were gracious to answer some questions that I had for them!

Hi Anne and Susan! What can you tell us about yourselves and how you discovered Blythe?
Susan: I’ve always been pretty crafty. I learned to sew at a young age from our Mom and always enjoyed it. I love making things and having a product to show people when I’m done. I like that handmade items aren’t necessarily perfect and that it shows the love that was put into making it. I discovered Blythe though Anne and was fascinated by her look and her large following of super crafty people.

Anne: Like my sister, I’ve always been pretty crafty. I was in 4H when I was a kid, and our group was called Busy Bobbins. We did sewing and related crafts and it helped me develop an appreciation for my ability to create something useful or wearable. That feeling is so satisfying! I now like to sew and knit, as well as general crafting, and I’m hoping to teach myself some more advanced embroidery techniques in 2011. I discovered Blythe through Morganannie, who I know professionally (she and I have similar day jobs: we’re both librarians in Michigan), and the more I saw her beautiful creations, the more I knew that I needed to try it myself.

When and why did you decide to start making things to sell for Blythe?
Susan: While looking around at Blythe online I saw a lot of the awesome handmade items that other people were making and wanted it try it myself. My very first attempts at sewing over 20 years ago were stuffed animals and clothes for them, so it felt very natural.

Anne: Like I mentioned, Morgan got me hooked, and as soon as I got my first Blythe (a Prima Dolly Ashlette, who I call Willow), I jumped right in and started sewing for her. It was in November of 2009 that I got Willow, and I sold my first dresses later that month! Susan and I already had the AnneArchy shop on Etsy, so we just expanded our offerings to include stuff for Blythe.

What kind of places do you draw inspiration from for your crafts?
Susan: I find a lot of inspiration looking at fabric, at the fabric store, online, or in my stash. I also look at colors and patterns in daily life and think about how that might translate into an outfit. One of my favorite dresses was inspired by a dress worn by the daughter of a high school friend.

Anne: Susan and I are pretty similar here – looking at the raw materials provides a lot of inspiration for me, too. The feeling of being at a fabric store and having all that awesome pattern and color around you – who wouldn’t be inspired? I also get excited by looking for little doodads and embellishments that I could use on clothing for Blythe. Sometimes you can find things in unexpected places (tiny flowers at the dollar store? perfect!). I also get inspired by the dolls themselves. Each Blythe has her own personality, and it’s fun to create clothing that suits a girl.

What would you say sets your things for Blythe apart from all the other things on Etsy?
Susan: Anne’s sweaters, hands down. They are amazing! From form fitted to comfy oversized, they are perfect. Plus with the custom listings you can create your own color combinations, how cool is that? Love them.

Anne: *blushing from flattery from the sistrah* I’d say that we really take a lot of care to make sure that our items are detailed and well-made. We both craft for the fun of it and we take pride in our work, so we end up with quality items to offer to other Blythe enthusiasts. Not that everything else on Etsy isn’t quality, of course! I just think we do a darn good job.

How does it make you feel when you see photos of your dollywares on other people’s dolls online?
Susan: I get super excited…every time. I love seeing pictures from customers, and I show everyone! That feeling hasn’t diminished, selling each dress is extremely validating that someone thought my product, the thing I made, was pretty and their special gal would like to wear it! Biggest warm fuzzy ever. I am amazed and gratified all over again every time a dress sells and it makes me antsy to get back into CraftyTown.

Anne: Oh, yes! I love it! It is SO neat to see how people put our items together with clothing from their existing wardrobes, and to see how an item we’ve made can suit a Blythe so well! I get excited about it every time, too.

What kind of process do you go through when making new things (from start to finish)?
Susan: I often start with a fabric that I’m really digging that day, sometimes its a color (the other day I made 5 different dresses all of the fabrics were some shade of blue). Then usually decide what dress style would go with that fabric and if a contrast color might be nice. Every now and then, its the embellishment I fall in love with and I find a fabric that I think would highlight it. Then I sew. I tend toward doing one dress start to finish before moving on to the next one.

Anne: For me it really varies on my mood and which craft I’m doing. For sewing, I usually spend some time staring at the fabrics and embellishments I have in my stash,and then at a certain point I’ll start matching them up. I like to do things in batches most of the time, so I’ll usually match up some fabrics and embellishments, cut out a bunch of them to the size pieces I need, and then sew. I usually do my Blythe knitting on my lunch hours, so I have a little knitting bag in my purse that I take out to a quiet spot and then knit while I listen to an audiobook on my iPod. I almost always have an idea in mind when I pick out the yarn, so I usually start by knitting a bit and seeing what happens – I have some basic patterns I’ve created and I’ll play with one to see if I can change it to get the effect that I’m hoping for, and see if it turns out. I sometimes don’t like what happens and rip it out and start over, but with Blythe stuff, it doesn’t take long to figure that out so it’s not much time spent re-doing things. When I’ve finished knitting the item, I’ll weave in the ends and do any other finishing stuff that needs doing. Then later when I’m at home, I’ll sew on snaps or embellishments or whatever, and I usually am inspired to take a photo of it right away. I love to see how things look on Blythe once they’re finished!

How much time do the two of you spend on AnneArchy in, say, a week or a month?
Susan: I’d have to say I probably spend at least 10 hours a week, but it does vary with what the rest of life throws around.

Anne: I work full-time (sometimes more than that), so I don’t have a ton of time to devote on workdays. I can usually count on 3 or 4 lunch hours per week, but that varies with how busy work is and whether I have any work-related lunch appointments. I try to make at least an hour or two on my days off, so I’m probably somewhere around 6-8 hours per week, and more if I’m lucky! I do try to carve out an extra day here or there that I can take off as vacation or personal time when I can really devote myself to working on Blythe stuff all day. That is so much fun, but it only happens every few months.

How has running an Etsy shop changed the way you view other Blythe-related Etsy shop owners in the community?
Susan: I think it makes me appreciate the items that others make. Knowing everything that goes into making them, from finding the time to craft, the imagination for ideas, to the execution of some seriously amazing stuff. Every time I look around Etsy for items for my own gal I’m always finding tons of things and more often whole stores I add to my wishlist!

Anne: Susan really summed this one up well. It is so neat to really understand what it takes to make something, and see all the effort that others have put into making items for Blythe. It’s also really cool to see all the creativity people show in their creations.

How has working together made your sibling relationship change, if it has?
Susan: I think its made our relationship stronger. I moved across the country a short time before we started our Etsy shop and I struggled with the separation from family and friends. Having this shop and all the awesome items she is always coming up with gives us more excuses to call each other or chat online. Plus having someone to share ideas and problems with is invaluable, she’s always encouraging me and pushing me to do more.

Anne: Again, I agree! When Susan moved to Florida, it seemed like the hugest distance from Michigan! It’s so neat to have a common interest and endeavor that we can share like this. I’m so happy that I encouraged Susan to get into Blythe, too!

What kind of marvelous things can we expect to see from AnneArchy in the future?
Susan: More designs, different fabrics and trims, all showing off the awesomeness that is Blythe!

Anne: I hope that I’m going to continue to expand the types of knitted items that I make for Blythe, and also to different types of sewn items, too. I’d like to make more hats, and to perfect a skirt pattern that I’ve been working on. I’m more of a separates gal in my own wardrobe, and I’d like to make more separates for Blythe, too.

Thank you so much to the both of you for doing this interview with me! What kind of advice would you give to someone who’s new to the Blythe hobby?
Susan: Sharing this hobby with other people who also like Blythe is super fun and there are so many places to find kindred spirits with a love of Blythe. So I would encourage folks to find some fellow Blythe peeps. Join forums, investigate a meetup, share the Blythe! And for those considering making things for their gal, go for it!

Anne: Again I’m going to echo what Susan said – just go for it! There’s no shame in making something that doesn’t turn out exactly how you’d hoped – if nothing else, you learned something! And that in itself makes it a success. It’s really neat to form friendships with other Blythe enthusiasts. There are people from all over with so many other interests as well. I’d also say that joining swaps is a really great way to share the love of Blythe with others. You get the fun of picking out items for someone else, and then the treat of seeing what your swap partner chose for you!

You can find Anne and Susan on:

• Etsy at AnneArchy
• On Flickr (Anne, Susan)
• On their blogs (Anne, Susan)

I’ve talked about participating in organized/group swaps before, but a great way to get something new is to find someone to do a personal swap with! You will need to be able to offer up something of equal or seemingly equal value, of course, because that’s the way that swaps work. But done right, a personal swap can be very rewarding to both parties.

What the cost is to you:

• Things that you already own (and therefore expenses have already been paid for)
• Things that you can make (and make customized for your swap buddy) – Keep costs low by using what you have available
• Cost of postage (with or without tracking and insurance – be sure to discuss how your swap partner will be sending your things to you!)

I know, it’s great! You could be getting a few great new clothing items or a few pairs of shoes without having money needing to trade hands (beyond shipping costs). But you first need to find someone to swap with. Who should you consider?

• Someone who runs an Etsy/Artfire shop if you happen to run one as well (makes the trade value easier to figure out)
• Someone that you have talked to in the past (eg. online friend)
• Someone that you’ve met in person before (like at a Blythe Meet)

When initiating the idea of having a personal swap with someone, remember to be polite and courteous! The worst that someone can say is no and don’t be offended if they do – it may be because they don’t think that they have the time to devote to going through their dolly things or time to craft or they have other priorities to deal with first. It does help if you’ve spoken to them before, or they at least know who you are! Don’t just become friends with someone for the purpose of wanting to trade things with them – it can be a little perk that comes up later, but no one wants to be friends with someone who just wants things from them.

I find that personal swaps are a great way to get something new or “new” while honing my own crafting skills without hoarding everything that I make for myself (and my dolls are thankful too that they get to wear something made by someone else!).

The Personal Swap Do’s Round-Up:

• Be polite and courteous when asking someone if they want to do a swap with you.
• Try to match the swap items with them (by number of items and/or overall perceived monetary value).
• Discuss shipping details ahead of time – if you both decide to use tracking, then pay for tracking.
• Let your swap partner know when you’ve received your package.

The Personal Swap Dont’s Round-Up:

• Don’t be cheap! While it may be fun to get new things for not a whole lot of money, it’s not fun for your swap partner if you don’t actually send them something that would be fun for them. So don’t send things with rips or tears or stains unless you’ve mentioned it to them first (and they’re okay with it!).
• Don’t ignore the agreement between the two of you. If you said you would ship by a certain date, you should follow that. If you said you would ship with insurance and tracking, then do so.
• Don’t forget to let them know when you’ve shipped out the package, they may not be home when the package arrives otherwise or not even know to expect one.
• Don’t feel pressured into going through with the swap. If neither of you have sent your packages yet and there’s suddenly a reason why you cannot fulfill your swap package (either by emergency or conflicts), let your swap partner know! Communicate at all times to let them know.