✨start an art shop w/ me✨

[@GingerNinja007]

Hello from Waterloo, Ontario! I love that you took the leap into selling your art on Etsy and creating a video out of your journey. You will do so well, you have beautiful art!

[@averydow-kenny]

Thank you! 😊

[@josietorralba4686]

Oh without using cricut 😮. Thanks for sharing and inspiring us.

[@averydow-kenny]

it is tricky without cricut but not impossible! ☺ and you're very welcome, I'm glad to have inspired some people with my video!

[@josietorralba4686]

@@averydow-kenny i’m no artist but you do indeed very much inspire me and everyone else here i believe. So thank you.

[@averydow-kenny]

@@josietorralba4686 that’s very sweet of you to say, thank you 😊

[@BigBrainProductions-iz4ps]

Just like me I just resorted to the eco tank same exact one as well😭 let me tell you I was skeptical on how long it really last but trusted it and buy it last freaking forever and I’m printing a lot!

[@averydow-kenny]

It really is amazing! very glad I picked this one, it's treating me well so far

[@_the_little_mermaid_]

Thank you for sharing! I hope you can make a video about your process before printing your art since a lot of artists don't really talk in depth about how hard it actually is...

[@averydow-kenny]

Im not quite sure what you mean by my before printing process, do you mean my photoshop process and print settings?

[@XenaAndKin]

@@averydow-kenny As someone who has been selling homemade stickers for a bit, yes. Not a lot of people talk about how to create proper margins, digital artists who don't understand colour differences in print, how to set up cutting files, how to space stickers on a sheet, how to cut different materials and the setting differences, techniques to make stickers easy to peel etc.

[@averydow-kenny]

@@XenaAndKin ahh okay thank you for helping answer that for me! And I can definitely make a video on that down the line in a studio vlog/shop update video 😊 I also find it annoying that people don’t show all the little details but since I was experimenting I didn’t include it in this one. Now that I know what to do I’ll include it in a future video for sure!

[@MeredithHammett]

@@XenaAndKinTHIS! Or the few people who have tried to do tutorials on it, didn’t do it well enough to be understood and put to practice.

[@BigBrainProductions-iz4ps]

I made a mistake of not building up my following first I bought a circuit and an Epson, best of wishes to your business I love the video format as well it was very comforting and fun to watch! 💪🏽

[@averydow-kenny]

thank you, I'm glad you found it comforting! 😊

[@MeredithHammett]

Very inspiring video. Thank you! By the way, the newest cricut machine is way smaller than even I anticipated. My boss got me one for work mainly but he lets me bring it home when I need to use it for my personal little side hustle I’m trying to get going. Just wanted you to know, you can make the room I’m certain. The ONLY thing that I wasn’t quite prepared for was the amount of space that I needed left wide open, behind the desk where we put the cricut. I highly doubt this will be an issue for you if you’re just printing and cutting sticker sheets and smaller prints like that. But for work, the mat i use to print on has to be the largest one they make as we use it to print vinyl signs. They aren’t little signs, and often times even the cricut mat isn’t large enough. I’d have to print without a mat at all then use transfer paper to pull the vinyl. Not a fun process. You feed it through and there isn’t enough space behind the cricut, the vinyl will get jammed and crunched up in the machine. Not ideal. But if you’re doing things like this, little space is required. 😊

[@averydow-kenny]

Thank you for your comment and for letting me know about the cricut, I did not know there was a smaller version out now!

[@knitwitchcraftingpodcast]

omg i love the little green guys on your desk 😭🥰 (the things in frame when you're laminating)

[@averydow-kenny]

haha thank you I love them too! I have about a dozen scattered around my room. They're called Smiskis and they glow in the dark!

[@BrookeDarrow]

omg you have the coolest art style!!!!

[@averydow-kenny]

thank you so much!!! 😊

[@snowniel]

that's sooo hype!!

[@StephanLorse]

Best of luck with the store!!!

[@averydow-kenny]

Thank you!

[@aaliyahartspace]

New fellow artist here as well! Good luck on your journey! this is truly inspiring!!

[@averydow-kenny]

@@aaliyahartspace thank you! Good luck to you as well on your art journey!

[@Ironloss]

The content on your art store page looks so nice! :D

[@averydow-kenny]

thank you!

[@dannystargirl]

Good luck!!

[@averydow-kenny]

thank you!

[@spoookyelectric]

How thick are the avery lamination sheets? I may change to this type as the current lamination sheets I have are more like perspex and extremely thick. My Portrait 3 really struggles to cut through it and I'm worried about unnecessarily dulling the auto blade. Btw if you haven't already bought a dye cutting machine, I highly recommend Portrait as the cutting space is much larger than that of Cricut.

[@averydow-kenny]

the package doesn't say how thick they are unfortunately but it's the Avery Self-Adhesive Laminating Sheets 73601 sized 9x12 inches (i got them off amazon). They're fairly thin at least I think so :) And thank you for the machine recomendation! I have not bought one yet so I will look into that option as well

[@claborim]

omg thats so cool!!! good luck with the store :)✨

[@averydow-kenny]

Thank you! 😊

[@cheralynn4417]

Thanks so much for showing your process. I'm planning for my shop now. I was thinking of getting a similar printer but one that can make larger 13x19 prints. Do you find that only offering a standard size is a problem? Are you going to offer larger sizes eventually, maybe through print-on-demand? I'm wondering what to do about getting an affordable printer but not having too many limits. Absolutely love the red fish prints!

[@averydow-kenny]

Since I haven’t built up a big traction yet I haven’t found a problem with the standard size since I can easily go smaller and it does allow you to print on longer paper just not wider. I opted for this size printer mainly for price and the space I have available right now, but in the future I would love to print bigger works. I’d have to do more research on printers or print on demand, but I think if I’m not going to be making loads of big products then I would probably opt for print on demand services, however again that would take more research so I can’t suggest any at the moment. I hope that helped a little. Good luck with your shop planning! 😊

[@cheralynn4417]

@@averydow-kenny yes that helps. Thanks so much!

[@averydow-kenny]

@@cheralynn4417 you’re very welcome! Happy to help

[@Foreveryoung17693]

But those are cuteeee, I luuvvvvv it😍😍

[@averydow-kenny]

thank you!

[@aexlart]

I‘m curious about the settings on your ecotank and the paper you are printing the designs on. I also have one but mine doesn’t print the colours right…they are more blueish and red isn’t very bright :/

[@averydow-kenny]

I didn’t do any setting changes on my actual printer, I did lots of colour correcting in photoshop and I print straight from photoshop which helps a lot. As for the exact settings, it took me a lot of testing to figure out and it’ll be different for everyone’s preferences but I will definitely include a more in depth video on my process leading up to printing in a future video as someone else commented that! It’s hard to say if your specific colour problem is a printer issue, something that needs to be tweaked in photoshop, or a simple print setting alteration unfortunately. As for the paper, for prints I use Epson premium presentation paper matte and for stickers I use Betckey full sheet sticker paper for inkjet printers (both off Amazon). I hope that helps!

[@aexlart]

@@averydow-kenny thank you so much for your answer! I’m looking forward your printing process video☺️

[@alinatr2693]

I know It's 2 months late,but there's shiny stickerpaper you can print your stickers on,so you don't have to laminate them😅

[@averydow-kenny]

@@alinatr2693thank you for the comment haha I had originally wanted to do matte stickers but then realized for some I would want them to be at least a little waterproof hence the laminating. But once I run out of the current supplies I will definitely look into shiny sticker paper options!😊

[@Ok_Zucchini3258]

hi! you're so inspiring! I have a question because i want to start a sticker shop as well. I see you're selling the pears as a sticker. I love them! But have you consider who your target audience is? For example people who likes pears or fruits in general? I'm asking because I saw another girl selling a pear sticker and I was just wondering how your strategy is to "stand out" yk? I love your artwork and I hope to start a shop as well some day, that's why I'm asking!!!!

[@averydow-kenny]

Thank you for your question! Ive never wanted to be someone who makes art I don’t love just because it would sell well, because that drains me creatively. What I did for this shop opening was make products out of some of my favourite pieces I’ve created personally in hopes other people will love them too enough to buy them. I know that’s not the greatest marketing or business strategy haha but that’s what I wanted to do for my opening at the very least (it also helps you gage the tastes of your customers seeing what they put in their basket and not). For future drops I’ll definitely lean towards what I think other people will want to buy while also staying true to what I love to create. Because if I don’t love what I’m doing then it’s just not fun, and that’s the main goal for me is to enjoy every step of the process 🙂 and as for standing out, not every idea you have is going to be “original” especially when it comes to things like fruits haha, but it’s okay to lean with the trends every now and then too in your own way :)

[@Ok_Zucchini3258]

@@averydow-kenny Thanks for the long answer! So you basically just putting things out there atm to see what people like and then later make more of what people like? For example I wouldn’t want to draw apples for the rest of my life, even though let’s say I would make a full-time living of it. Maybe I would if I only had to do it once a week and then get to spend 6 days creating art for myself, then it would be worth drawings apples. Haha dumb example, i hope you understand how i resonate though, because I think I will consider making art that’s not 100% enjoyable if I would be making lots of money from it, maybe it’s only 70% enjoyable though. But in opposite of going to a 9-5 job that’s minus-10000% enjoyable, then creating art that’s 70% enjoyable is still worth it in comparison. But as long as I love it it’s worth it!

[@averydow-kenny]

@@Ok_Zucchini3258 yeah that’s pretty much the idea of it 🙂 always make time to do art for yourself, but also dedicate some time to making things that will sell. And when those two categories cross over, well that just makes it all that much better!

[@alskarmode]

00:48 What scanner do you use?

[@averydow-kenny]

That scanner is the one at my university computer lab and I believe it’s the Epson Expression 10000XL. It’s very good quality in my experience (when other students haven’t put scratches on the screen). But I’ve used the scanner on the printer I got in this video and it’s also very good quality for the price tag :)

[@ShaiJadieIDV]

best of luck to your journey! new subbie :>

[@averydow-kenny]

Thank you! 😊