My New Business Partner "Square"

Hi handmade friends,

I hope everyone is wrapped up in the Holiday spirit and ready for Christmas.  I have been working every day on completing custom orders for friends and for customers at craft shows.  Hands down word of mouth is the best advertising.  I have had so many referrals this season that I just can't believe it.  It's been busy, but great!

This little cutie patootie is my new "business partner"  this little guy Square allowed me to take credit cards this season at the holiday shows I participated in.  No more, I don't have any cash or I'll come back.

He comes packaged like this

He's all ready to go go go when you get him!!

He even comes with stickers with all the credit cards you can take. 

Here he is connected to my phone

You just enter the dollar amount and swipe the card - Wala "Approved"

Your customer actually signs the screen on your phone and you can email or text a receipt and they will receive it on their phone while they are standing there checking out.  You can even take a photo of the items(s) they are purchasing and that gets sent with the reciept! LOVE this feature!! You also get an email confirming the transaction.  It's only 2.75% for each swipe and for the convenience it's perfect, really no more than a paypal transaction via Etsy

Here is the link to get your very own little "Business Partner." 

Oh and the best part he's free!!

Square

Holiday Cookie Link Up

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Who has been busy holiday baking? I know I have! I love trying new recipes and perfecting old ones. Let's create a bit of a holiday cookie exchange here and link up your holiday cookie recipes! There are so many options- sugar, ginger bread, snicker doodle, chocolate and the list goes on and on. What's your favorite? The link up will be open until next Tuesday the 20th so spread the word and let's get lots of cookies linked up! 

Handmade Gift Link Up

If you are reading this I assume you survived Black Friday or avoided it all together! Today's link up is dedicated to helping one another get ideas for handmade gift ideas. Handmade gift ideas are thoughtful and are a great way to cross off co-workers, neighbors, and teachers from your Holiday list. So let's help one another out and link up some ideas. I know I have a few from even last year that I plan to link up. The more the merrier so link up as many as you'd like! 

Braided Scarf Tutorial

Salt Dough Favors

Ric Rac Rose Ring

Scatter Girl Of The Month (November): Melissa of So Chick!

This month Gina, Chrissy and myself are proud to announce that Melissa of So Chick handbags is our Scatter Girl of the Month! 

Melissa is an extremely talented seamstress that can be found sharing her talent in her shop, blogging, tweeting and Facebooking. Melissa's handbags are stunning and anytime she offers a giveaway you can be sure to see numerous entries and tons of ladies jumping at the bit to get their hands on a So Chick handbag. Melissa now also has adorable ruffle scarves in her shop that every lady needs for the colder weather. 

If you haven't already you need to take a look at Melissa's adorable shop and maybe pick up some Christmas gifts for yourself while you're there! Melissa is this month's Scatter Girl because of her incredible talent, her dedication to the handmade community, her willingness to help others and her fun loving attitude. We are pleased to have Melissa be a part of the Scatter Girl community. Courtesy of Andrea from Bubblewrapp'd Melissa will receive one of these adorable blocks for her craft room (make sure you check out Bubblewrapp'd for cute Holiday blocks!)...

Congrats to Melissa!

Do you know someone who would make a great Scatter Girl of the month? E-mail us at scattergirls@gmail.com to nominate someone. 

If you haven't already make sure you check out the link up for all the deals being offered for the Holidays, Black Friday and Cyber Monday from handmade shops RIGHT HERE at Scatter Girls and link up yours too! 

Handmade Black Friday Link Up

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Do you have a handmade shop? Are you offering Black Friday deals or Cyber Monday deals? The Scatter Girls want to encourage shopping handmade this holiday season so we are offering a link up for handmade shops to post their coupon deals and provide shoppers with a catalog for shopping handmade this holiday. Feel free to post you handmade shop's Black Friday, Cyber Monday or any Holiday Sale deals. Most importantly think about shopping handmade this holiday season. 

Thanksgiving Traditions

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Happy Thanksgiving to all the Scatter Girls! This week we want to know what sort of traditions do you have for Thanksgiving? We used to have Thanksgiving every year with two different families that we met through soccer. Both my Mom and Dad's family was located in Iowa and my sister and I went to year round school. Since we were on the track system we had just a few days off for Thanksgiving and it was much easier to stay in Colorado than to travel for Thanksgiving given the amount of time we had. The two soccer families we shared Thanksgiving with had similar situations so it made since that we would all spend Thanksgiving together. Each year we would rotate which family would host Thanksgiving. It was fun to have Thanksgiving with my friends and we continued this tradition until my sophomore year in college when all of the kids were located all around the country and it got to be too tough to get everyone together. This year will be my first year hosting Thanksgiving myself! My boyfriend and I will be hosting my family in Texas for Thanksgiving. 

What are you doing for Thanksgiving? What dishes do you HAVE to have on your table? What traditions do you carry out year after year? Link up with us and visit a few other blogs while you have the chance : ) 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

What Are You Thankful For? Link Up Party

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For this week's linkup we would love to know what you are thankful for. Thanksgiving is just around the corner so it is a perfect time to reflect on what we are all thankful for. There is so much to be thankful for and sometimes we just need to stop and think about what it really is that we are thankful for. I know that I am thankful for meeting Chrissy and Gina. These two creative ladies continue to inspire and encourage me on a daily basis and I am so glad that we have collaborated on this Scatter Girls project. What are you thankful for?

Guest Post: Amy of Buffalo Roam

Today we would like to welcome Amy of Buffalo Roam to Scatter Girls. Amy's blog is fantastic and full of home renovation projects. Amy is sharing with all of us a fantastic church pew project today...


While at a flea market recently, I found this little church pew sitting at the end of a row of vendors, buried under some other random goods.  I wasn't even sure it was for sale, but when I tracked down the seller and he said he was asking $65, I said SOLD!  I loved the simple lines and pretty details, but the color didn't quite suit me, so I decided I would give it a little face lift.

(Please excuse my dog's butt.)


Much of the varnish was already worn off, so we started off with sanding as much of it as we could with both an electric sander, and just by hand in the harder-to-reach spots.

However, we weren't able to get all of it off in the more detailed areas.

So for that, we had to use some stripper and scrape.

Choosing the color of the new stain was no doubt the most difficult part of this process!  I do tend to gravitate toward darker colors, and my pew was no exception.  We went with RustOleum brand color of "Kona".  It looked very, very dark going on, and I was a tad nervous we'd over done it.

But looks are deceiving, and it wiped off much lighter than I would have guessed.  So much lighter, that we actually put on a second coat and are very pleased with the final results!

We wanted a bit of a worn and rustic feel, so we "wiped" a little harder in some areas, and left a thicker coat on others.

I am so pleased with how it turned out!  But I can rarely leave well enough alone, and am considering adding some sort of stencil on the back in either turquoise or gold flake...

What do you think??  "Yay", or "Nay"?



Thank you Amy for sharing your beautiful Pew with us! 

Costume Linkup

Did you dress up for Halloween? Did you kids dress up for Halloween? Did your pets dress up for Halloween? We want to see some Halloween costumes linked up here and then we can bookmark this post for next year and share it with all of you. 

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Customer Service

I want to share a great customer service story with you.  Many times when I shop there is a huge lack of customer service even down right rude associates and every now and again there is a shining light that surprises me.  

I ordered two shirts from Lands End Canvas about 4 weeks ago on line.  I even went out on the internet and googled for a coupon code, which I found for $10 off a $50 purchase and FREE shipping. My order totaled just over $45 with my discount.   It arrived and the shirts were just want I wanted, I washed them right away and wore both the first week.

THEN..............

This came in the mail 

REALLY a thank you note - and not just a thank you note but HANDWRITTEN for an internet order that I bought sale merchandise and used a coupon code for to further reduce what I spent.  I could not believe it, I was so impressed, I'm still impressed, so impressed that I saved the note for this post.  Not to mention the card was made of kraft paper and just fun!

Here's what Ms. Judy wrote!!!

Have you had a GREAT customer service experience?  

Please share your story so we can shop at those stores too!!

PS: Since the note I've ordered two more shirts, one for me and one for my daughter!!

Home Renovation Link Up

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Home renovation can be so rewarding and a bit frustrating at times. This week's link up is dedicated to all those projects you're currently in the process of, just finished up or even some great home renovations from the past. Our very own Chrissy has been getting her home renovation on lately. Chrissy is one motivated lady and tackling quite the project with some wallpaper removing...

I'm 100% positive that we are all going to be in awe over the "after" shots once Chrissy is finished. So let's link up those renovation projects and let Chrissy know she isn't alone! 

Insta-Friday

Since cell phones started having cameras in them, it has revolutionized what we take pictures of. Today we will snap pictures of our lunch, our pets, our kids making silly faces, what we are wearing or sneaky pictures of people to send to our friends when we think those people aren't looking. Cell phones have given a whole new meaning to the word, "snapshot". If you have an iPhone and aren't aware of the free Instagram app I suggest you stop reading go download it and then come back to finish reading. Instagram is a super fun app that allows you to share your photos with friends, family, followers, through social media and allows you to add fun filters to your photos to make them appear much cooler than they really are. I didn't download Instagram until a few months ago but since I downloaded I am hooked and look for things to take pictures of just so I can post them on Instagram. Through Instagram I can share my photos with my Instagram followers or chose to send my Instagram photos to Twitter, Facebook and even e-mail them. Since Instagram has grown the blog Life Rearranged started a weekly link up on Fridays for bloggers to share posts of all their Instagram photos. It is a fun post to write up and even more fun to hop around to the other blogs and check out their Instagram photos. So what are you waiting for? Download that Instagram app! Here are a few of my Instagram photos...