My first craft fair!

Today was the big day. Early this morning Yasu and I, each carrying two huge bags, found our way to his campus with public transportation during rush hour! We were so happy hundreds of stuffed animals and a dozen of baskets don't weigh a lot. And after about an hour of setting up those bags filled to the brim with eleventh monkey stuff turned into the eleventh monkey booth!!

I've been so excited these last two weeks preparing for this event, and I was even more excited to see it come together like it did today! I love the little Christmas trees covered in tiny owl ornaments, the huge vinyl logo banner, and all the baskets filled with neatly packaged products! 

As a little girl I always loved playing shop and now I got to do it for real, with real customers!

It was really satisfying to hear so much positive feedback from so many people, it was fun to answer questions about my shop name, my production process and what inspires me and it felt fantastic to sell so many creatures! This day over-exceeded my expectations! And the best thing is that I get to do all of it again tomorrow!

Clearance sale

As announced yesterday, the eleventh monkey is moving from Osaka to San Francisco this summer! So production in the eleventh monkey factory has currently stopped, to be resumed on the other side of the world a.s.a.p. And to reduce the amount of stuff in the two suitcases traveling with me across the world, I’m selling everything in my shop at bottom prices. 

Love skulls in brown, green and red and love skulls in white, purple and orange: $11 $5.50

Betty the Cow and Ulla the Cow: $28 $11

Naomi the Giraffe and Noel the Giraffe: $28 $11

Peggy the Monkey and Mel the Monkey: $11 $5.50

Albert the Albino Bird and George the Bird: $11 $5.50

Cecil the Cat, Grace the Cat and Erik the Cat: $25 $11

Patty the Ape, Bob the Ape, Hank the Ape and Gretchen the Ape: $25 $11

 Brad the Dog, Paddie the Dog, Roz the Dog and Frida the Dog: $25 $11

Hannah the Horse: $28 $11 Pia the Penguin: $8 $5.50 Peanut the Panda: $22 $11 Tommy the Butterfly: $22 $11

I also lowered the shipping for all items to $2.50 ($1.00 with another item) to anywhere in the world. And considering one creature  takes me 6 hours on average to sew, by hand, I feel like I'm giving my creatures away at these prices. But I just hope all my slightly awkward creatures will find a friendly new home before I’m moving to my new home!

A package from the eleventh monkey

So I’ve just used my new stamps for the first time on a package today! And I’ve started packaging my creatures and ornaments a little differently. Not just in plastic but with a little eleventh monkey banner on top.

I think it all looks really cool and professional! And it makes selling and packaging even more fun. I hope my customer likes it too!

Sale in the eleventh monkey shop!

Everything is 33% off for a whole month (sale ends December 14)! So all creatures originally priced at $22.00 are now selling for $14.74, and creatures originally priced at $11.00 are selling for $7.37! And I’m also giving away little presents handmade by me.

This is how the giveaway works:

The first buyer who leaves the codeword "aap" in the 'message to seller’ during checkout will receive a free gift with their purchase. And after that, every third buyer mentioning the codeword during checkout will also get a little handmade present. Happy shopping!

My 'first' sale

Since I’ve opened my shop on Etsy I’ve made a small number of sales, and my customers were all people I know, like family, friends and students. Of course I’m very happy they’re supporting my little shop and that they like my creatures enough to buy them, but I have been hoping for an unknown person to buy something. And tonight this finally happened! Yay!

A customer called Carley1 requested two custom giraffes at the beginning of the week and now I’ve just finished them and she’s purchased tonight. I’m so grateful that I’m including a small gift to my first ‘unknown’ customer. An eleventh monkey badge, I hope she likes it.

Minicards

Almost two weeks ago, I ordered some minicards from Moo.com, and they arrived this morning!

They look absolutely stunning and they are super sturdy. They will serve as super colorful business cards for my Etsy shop. I’m going to punch little bear-shaped holes in the cards and hang them around the necks of my creatures with a piece of ribbon.