Rainbow Cupcakes

Yes, I really mean rainbow cupcakes! A couple of days ago I found this post on rainbow cupcakes and had to take a stab at it!

Her cupcakes were photographed way better than mine, but I took my pictures at like 10pm before packing them up in plastic containers so they wouldn't go stale. Anyway, she suggested to only use white liners but since I didn't have any white I opted for my less than $1 after Halloween Hobby Lobby clearance liners!

After they finished baking I thought they looked pretty awesome with each skull showing the colors through but the black masking the rest. I totally lucked out!
While The Dainty Squid didn't give a frosting recipe, I will! I made an impromptu butter cream frosting that uses regular sugar rather than powdered because I was out.

Ingredients:
1 stick of room temp unsalted butter
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. whipping cream*
1/4 c. water*
1/4 - 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Add the sugar, whipping cream and water together in your mixer and turn on high until all the crystals dissolve. Add the stick of butter and cream until all the bumps have blended. Add the vanilla extract and blend. Finally, add the flour little by little to your liking.

*you can substitute 1/2 c. of milk for the cream and water but the frosting may not be as fluffy.

Note: I added flour to take a little bit of the sweetness away and add a little more volume because of the lack of *powdered* sugar. Also, cake mixes are way too sweet IMO so I wanted the frosting just to be not as sweet.

Heartsy, Revisited.

So, I did end up having my jewelry featured on Heartsy on April 6th. I wanted to write one last blog post about it comparing it to my first experience. Sorry about the long delay but right after my feature I got sick (for about 2.5 weeks!) and then was featured on Quite Unique (it's a cool site like heartsy except you don't discount your stuff, but they take 30% commission.)

Anyway, back to my jewelry heartsy deal. It was $19 for $40, so a lower percentage than my sewing stuff. I ended up selling 43 vouchers (compared to 25 with my sewing). Most people ended up buying over the voucher amount and in the end I made *slightly* less than if I sold my items for retail!

Shop stats for April 6th only (my feature date, though I did have increased stats the day after as well):
Shop hearts: 18
Item hearts: (will post later, craftcult is down)
Visits: 1,437
Pageviews: 9,851
Pages/visit: 6.86
Bounce rate: 26.10%
Avg. time on site: 00:03:26

For me, my stats were awesome. Though I have to say that heartsy fudged up again by telling me I would be featured on March 30th, then they changed it to April 4th and then finally April 6th. I have also heard others complain about having their feature dates shifting. Hopefully they aren't doing this anymore, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did.

As of today, April 27th I have had 22/25 sewing vouchers (from my March 11th feature) redeemed and 35/43 jewelry vouchers (from the April 6th feature) redeemed.

By the time I was featured for the second time they added one other person to their team (from two to three) and recently I found out they have a 4th team member. Hopefully this is keeping them more on track.

I can say though, the Heartsy team *is* looking to improve themselves. After my feature they asked me if I had any questions/comments/suggestions. Hopefully the suggestions I gave them will be implemented soon.

If you have any other questions or comments that you think I could answer for you, feel free to contact me via my comments or email (on my profile).

Sneak Peek

Well, it's been about a month since I submitted my 2nd shop (jewelry) to be featured on heartsy. I know I didn't have that much success with my sewn goods, but I'm hoping to rock this one to make up for the bags!

Just wanted to give a sneak peek of my deal that will be featured tomorrow, April 5th!
Go browse my SHOP and make a wish list for tomorrow :)

P.S. I'll also be running a special if you purchase over $60 before shipping, you will receive a free pair of earrings of your choice!