TallTayl

http://www.couronneco.com Lots of recycled glass in a rainbow of colors. I love them.

I use either Picasa or GIMP. picasa is easy to learn, but not as full featured as GIMP. Cropping, white balance, straightening, etc are a snap. GIMP is a knockoff of photoshop and is feature heavy. Has a steep learning curve to go along with it, but the possibilities (like creating transparent backgrounds to photos and logos and such) are excellent.

Because those simple programs have some very real limitations. I like rich, unique, complex designs that free software simply cannot create. I like to tie in the labels with my production software so any changes (batch numbers and ingredients, for instance) are instantaneous and do not require a whole label redesign to accomplish. To each their own. It all depends on how much time and effort the person at the keyboard wishes to invest creating their branding.

Can you carefully carve away a tiny bit of that part of the otterbox. That's what i ended up doing.

Check some place like OnlineLabels or labelsByTheSheet for similarly sized and placed labels on the page. LabelsByTheSheet provides downloads to great templates that Word can use and PDF versions.

I am an oddball, using mostly (really old versions) of Microsoft products for desktop publishing. Some artwork is created or manipulated in PowerPoint, photos in Picasa. GIMP if i need to create the transparent background. labels are constructed in either Access (for stock items) or Word for one-off. If you understand the pieces, you can make simple or very complex layered work easily and (mostly) free.

What kind of wax and what size?

If you choose eo's make sure they are labeled FCC (Food Chemicals Codex). Not all essential oils are handled the same, so even if, say tangerine essential oil, may be lip safe, the bottle of tangerine essential oil on your shelf may NOT be because of how it was made, bottled, transported, etc. really do your homework on what you choose. I use several different essential oils in my lip blends. No flavor oil can compare to the depth and complexity i can achieve using appropriate essential oils.

I am with the guild too. After shopping around when i opened my business it made the most sense. I did not want to scrimp on a local policy that did not have experience with the products I make. Brower ended up very close to the guild costs after all the details were addressed. Also looked into the Indie Business Network. It is a little higher per year, but they do offer conference call type classes for small businesses. The membership benefits to the guild are tangible. Discounts in the form of contract prices for things i use (toner, paper, etc) at places like Office Depot and UPS just about cover my annual costs. At one time the guild offered substantial discounts at Sprint PCS which cut the cell bill substantially. When choosing, it pays to look at all of the benefits and not just the amount due at signing. The guild cost dropped by $20 last year, then just jumped $40 (effective Oct i believe). It may make sense to renew before the due date to save that $40!

Does Brower cover candles? Did you check into the Guild or RLI too? Some seem cheap, until all of the essential components are added together.

Same holds true for fragrance copies.

Never tried NS. TKB had always had the colors i need, in final form and as blenders, and then some. I will cry when my stockpile of POPs is exhausted. The neons i have from TKB work excellently (is that a word) in my CP. Have used Conservatorie, but with continual outages i gave up. plus the cosmo purple and orange morphed and faded. Boooo. How about those at Mad Oils? BFF has tried several and likes the colors, packaging, etc. purple and celery green for her have stayed vibrant. Another source that has micas with photos of performance in CP is Aromahaven/Rustic Escentuals. Little tip for packaging micas: PET Boston Round bottles with a disc cap. Makes storage and portioning a breeze. Plus if they drop on the floor, no mess

Looks like an Air pocket around the wick. The pic makes it look like there were a few, even showing a couple shadows of more. Many waxes need relief holes poked around the wick as it cools to remove them. Did the flame get relatively tall for a while as it was burning?

I have both etsy shops and my own sites. Like Vicky, i'd never send my own hard earned customers to Etsy. It is too easy to lose them once they start browsing around other shops. Though, my own earned customers have no desire to go over to Etsy. Etsy customers like to stay on Etsy. I have built a really nice customer base of Etsians that otherwise would never have discovered my products. If you're good at tagging, identifying your target customer, and appeal to etsy customers it can be very lucrative. Competition is tough everywhere, but itis possible to make a nice chunk of change on etsy.

Natrasorb,in my formula, made the product more prone to humidity problems, i prefer dendritic salt.

Consignment, in my experience, was not worth it. The store owner has no incentive to sell, promote or even care for your things. Your inventory is tied up without necessarily generating income for you, aging and becoming shop worn. Consignment is a great deal for the shop owner, who gets free stuff to fill their shop, but not always so much for the manufacturer. Everyone does consignment at least once, learns what lessons the experience carries and moves on from there. Some, i hear, do very well. Personally, i prefer wholesale.

Love feather palm!!! Those are so pretty.

Candlewic is having a 1/3 off shipping sale. Code SeptShip2014

As can some fragrances.

The fatty acid profile of your overall formula is the biggest factor to prevent DOS. A combined Lineoleic and Linolenic acid fatty acid total of under 15 generally staves off the dreaded DOS. I SF at 8% or more for every single batch. Some soap i have that is 6 or so years old with that SF is still as pristine as the day it was made.

I have never had a company contact me when an item was changed, discontinued, sold out or whatever if i had something sitting in my cart. Dealing with micas myself directly from manufacturers, the prices fluctuate, sometimes wildly in the same week depending on many factors. I could get a quote on Moday, cut a purchase order on Weds and the price can double or triple. I can't possibly hold Mad Oils, a reseller, responsible for that, and surely would not be upset with them for changing sizes. Had you purchased the 4 oz when you put them in your cart you would have scored a deal. You snooze, you lose sometimes.

Wait, you were building a cart, left the site, came back and it was emptied? Or were adding things, and they disappeared in the same session?

There was a topic not long ago. Here is where the salt started in that thread: http://www.craftserver.com/topic/104452-i-need-new-ideas-for-room-fresheners/?p=981021 The salt soaks up fragrance easily. Any old salt seems to work, but i like the large crystal just because it is pretty. Can be colored and heated/warmed on a wax or l warmer just fine.

Did you call or email to see if the cart is just not calculating those small items correctly?

I prefer salt to both.