What is Etsy?

I'm updating things again! Starting with the ETSY SHOP. Are you looking to shop Shantastic Shine Sales but don't like to make "facebook transactions"? Don't forget you can also shop online via ETSY to get Shantastic Shine Creations. 

WHAT IS ETSY? I have tons of people ask me this as soon as I mention it. So don't worry you aren't the only one confused. But for me and millions of other Artists it is a better version of Ebay. 

Kinda like a Handmade Ebay. Where everything is vintage or handmade, or supplies to make something handmade. 

There are tons of awesome items on there not from just me but thousands of other shops. It provides a secure sale for people who aren't to internet savvy or up to date on the online shopping trends. That way if you need a refund , there is a third party there to secure it , not just a facebook message. 

So if you have a few moments take a peak. Warning though you may get lost for hours in awesome handmade items. 

I see nothing wrong with that though ;) Support your Artists friends. They need jobs too.

Click here to check it out

YAY it's FRIDAY , time to pack up shipping for the WEEKEND

**  Hey there I am Packing things up for my final shipping for the week! Any last minute orders should get places by noon so I can get them there by 1 ! 

Did you know Shantastic will ship up to 5 small items for jut $3.00?
AND it includes a tracking number/confirmation so you can watch your order?

Oh yeah AND if you are a first time Shantastic Shipper ( Online buyer) You will receive a freebie in your package! How awesome is that?

Please message me today if interested in anything :D




Etsy Shop

Awesome Heady Lanyard for a Custom Order.

This has been my project for the night. A heady lanyard for a custom rig attachment request via my Etsy shop!

 I'm pumped it's turning out very awesome. It will be a one of a kind sorry guys but defiantly use it for some inspiration for your own design. I'm making it so they are attachable to the E-cigs soon :D Whose excited? This girl!

Check out my etsy shop here:http://www.etsy.com/shop/ShantasticSales?ref=si_shop

Please feel free to contact me for a custom order :)

I LOVE happy Customers :D

I love when my customers are happy! Feedback is always VERY important to me, good or bad. I need to know how I am doing. It helps me perform better and keep a reality check on my work.

I was so happy to recieve these happy customer remarks just this month! It has been awesome I can't wait to fill more orders and make more people happy. You all mean the world to me.

 

They also left this comment in the feedback section:

This was from another happy customer and long lost friend who moved to good ol' Alabama!










Yes ladies, and gentlemen shopping SHANTASTIC is really THAT easy!

So take a peak through our products on FACEBOOK ( Add me of course)  or Shop via Etsy and if you have ANY questions please feel free to message me!



Have an AWESOME Monday everyone , what's left of it at least.

Today I did it.... Artfire will no longer be a part of Shantastic.

I have been debating the cancellation of my Artfire account for a long time, pretty much since I opened it.

I will try not to say terrible things about it because it truly may be a good service for some people, just not for me.  

I signed up when introduced by a friend who thought it may be the best way to go seeing as etsy had been raising their prices and changing things up back when I started looking at places to go. Well when I signed up they said I would have a $7 a month deal.... which somehow turned into $12 and then $15... and I wasn't doing, OR SELLING anything.   Then I slowly started receiving complaints about how customers couldn't check out or finish purchasing items.

I was starting to get discouraged.  I still kinda am with the Artfire interface. I haven't sold and item inm y Artfire shop in months nor received any feedback or interactions. It seems I may just not be able to grow on Artfire so I will now be doing my business through Etsy , Facebook, and soon my own ShantasticShop ( possibly through Shoplocket? hmmm maybe)

 So for now it's

BYE BYE ARTFIRE
Hello Etsy!

Click here to purchase items through the end of February via the Shantastic Artfire.

Thanks for understanding!

14 Days of Valentines... Day 5...... Love Knot Rings

It's february 5th, and Valentines day just keeps creeping up on us!

Good thing you still have a chance to place orders or requests I should be able to ship them in time. :)

My 5th Valentines gift idea ...and I must say is one of my favorites are love knot rings....

BUY ME HERE

Do you need a gift for your Mom or Sister? Maybe your girlfriend or your best friend? How about your Daughter? Or that special Aunt!

Love knot rings are awesome because you can get a set to match and make them an awesome gift for two special people. Whether they're for you and someone else , or two people that are special to you! They are bound to bring smiles to faces.

They can be made in generally any color. However, silver is my most common and favored color and style.


Order a set today for $25.00 with custom sizing! Includes Shipping.  

Or order one for $10.00 + 3.00 S&H  Comes with heart Gift box while supplies last.

SHOP SHANTASTIC ON ETSY! 

 

14 days of Valentings ....Day Four ....Beaded Wire and Chain Necklaces

Red Hot Necklace
(can also be made in ANY color)
$12.00

What I love about these necklaces is that I can make them in ANY color or combination with TONS of different charms. So if the swallow bird charm is not your style you can just let me know what is!


This necklace features a chain with colored beads and a charm of choice. I choose the bird so that this necklace could be used for someones girlfriend, or their best friend. Not everything is about the Romance. It's about making someone feel special :) Even if it is yourself ;)

If you are interested in ordering a beaded necklace similar to this check it out on my etsy shop

-

14 Days of Valentines ...Day 2... Birds Nest Necklaces

BUY ME NOW - Custom ORDER

Now I know I just posted about some awesome custom mades birds nest a few days ago, but they totally deserve another feature.

These little nests can be made to represent so many things! I love it because that makes each of them special to whomever wears it specifically!

I have made ones to represent a Mother and her children's birth months, which are great for Mothers Day too!

I have also made them for a few Romeo type fellas who were smart enough to use it to represent the month of their first date, her birthday , his, and other special dates.

Okay so the guys may have had some help with the idea ;) But they were grateful for the rewards of giving their girl an AWESOME gift.

These necklaces can be made with ANY color combination , the eggs can be made of "cystals, Glass beads, pearls, or stones.

I can also make matching Earrings and bracelets to make a complete set for someone special.

You can purchase these NOW on ETSY or ARTFIRE( Amazon friendly)


Or take a peak at one I custom made for my aunt the other day:

14 Days of Valentines Ideas.... Day one... Rose Ring

Shantastic Style Rose Rings..... Simple but beautiful!

I always like creating "alternative" rings.... For those guys who want to buy a ring for their girlfriend... but are scared of the commitment of real Gold or Silver..... Well this is the perfect playful ring for the holiday then!

Not only that but they are cheap too! I am selling them on my etsy shop NOW! for only  $10.00!

I can make them in custom sizes and guess what????

I can also make them in pink,blue,or purple!

:) Order one today and be sure to get it for the Holiday.

Happy February Everyone!

LunaLove - I just realized I painted my night away.

I just realized I painted for about 6-7 hours..... I went down to the studio instead of cleaning like I said I would in my last post because it was a beautiful day outside and the sun felt awesome coming through the studio windows. I started painting and just got really into it. Then I realized the Sun disappeared  and I wondered why I felt kinda tired. I looked at the clock and the time had flew buy! I had facebook notifications and a new Etsy contact!

TIME FLEW... and now I realize I have a bad habit of hunching over my easel :/ however... I did create a pretty sweet looking moon piece.  Wanna see?:)

Luna Love is a 16x20 Acrylic Paintnig by Shannon Cook of Shantastic Spectrum
This piece is for sale and can be purchased -Here-

 I used my new paints with new brushed and a new canvas...... what an awesome feeling. That doesn't happen often.  Did I mention the studio was all cleaned up still? (Yes I am proud of myself. )

Here's to a good days work... Off to a relaxing evening of Pinterest "research"

Check out the new Section for Shantastic-Spectrum on my blog here:

ALL THE UPDATES coming your way.

Shantastic, is finally making some *LASTING* changes.  But not to the "name" like I had thought I would be doing.

Lately, I have been doing some soul searching and come to some decisions to help get some "structure" around here. I really desperately thought I needed a name change for my "brand". Though I had no idea what I wanted to do. I'm sure some of you have seen me toying with the banners and logos the past few weeks. Looking for what I just really like. I couldn't figure out what I wanted my "style" to be. So while searching and asking others for help I decided to put my mind elsewhere and started thinking of other things that needed organized as well.

I have been determined to get the house arranged, get to work in the studio, while keeping an updated blog. I have struggled to make the blog gender neutral to keep my guy fans around for updates on paintings and other things I do festy wise  but it has been pretty hard. I'm working on getting pages for different sections of my "artistic spectrum" of ideas all in an organized manner for my viewers to read and keep updated.... because that is my goal. To share all things art that I am doing or come across with whomever I can reach.

So Shantastic Sales sounded too, un-appealing to me.... it sounds like I'm automatically trying to sell you something. That's not necessarily the case. I want to share the updates of my latest painting, talk to you about ideas, meet new people who are just generally interested, Or even help you find a gift for someone special or help you find an affordable way to spice up your living room.  I'm not all about the "sale" I'm about the Art... or the craft... or the easy "D.I.Y." behind the matter.

So I needed to take a step back. Figure out how to organize all my "ideas" or "projects" as Boyfriend calls them.

Here goes...


For my jewelry/accessories I realized I had two styles. Kinda different from each other. I had many "hemp" and "hippie" type necklaces, headbands, hair feathers, sandals, tye dyes, and more!  

BUT

I also had many unique , wire wrapped pieces, girlie earrings, childrens' hair flowers, glasses holders, broaches, hair clips, ect.  But they just didn't really look like they all went together. They appealed to people with very different styles.  So I have decided to desperate them into "Lines" and help promote them in different "sections" on my Etsy Shop

Shantastic is now introducing :

I also wanted to showcase my painting in it's own "section" To keep any updates for my "live paintings" or painting showcases I will have a new section called  Shantastic Spectrum

 

And then there will of course be a section for ShantasticInk Photography that helped kick out m bloggin' experiences :)

That left one thing... all my random D.I.Y.'s and Gift options I like to share.... well.... last but not least ( because I may come up with some other needed section very soon with all the upcoming changes!)  I will be hosting a section I would like to call 

Shantastic Solutions!

That being said I have come up with a nifty little schedule to help ensure I keep up with all sorts of updates!


Look forward to the upcoming:
Make something MONDAYS

Tutorial TUESDAYS

Wired up WEDNESDAYS

Take the paint out Thursdays

Fix it up FRIDAYS
Say Something Saturdays- Random Internet/Pinterests posts
Share something Sundays - Featured Posts , Items , Ect

  

I will also be working to bring viewers a :giveaway: or contest of some sort every month. :) I wanna make sure you have a reason to check back even if you don't want to buy something.... have a chance to win something... I'm not stingy I really do just want to share ;)

SO for the rest of January I will be finishing the RE-MODELING of the Shantastic! page.  Deciding to keep the Name as it is.... as  just     SHANTASTIC! ... as a whole..... I am Shannon.... but I have also felt more of a -Shantastic...... and that just seems to fit everything I am trying to do...... I kept searching for something spectacular ( Yes I even toyed with the idea of Shantastic Spectacular, and felt terribly silly) then I realized, I am special and  Shantastic is me..... I was upset that I couldn't get the web address Shantastic.com and I was upset to start thinking everyone else was starting to use it too... But simply put.... almost nothing in this world is just one persons anymore.... and I shouldn't have to change something that seems to fit me and that I have stuck with this long.... So Shantastic it is... and now it's time to get organized, and just stick with it.HOWEVER!
I do have one last thing I would like to announce.

WITH All of my changes I would also like to make one more rather LARGE update for me. I will be working on the last thing I wanted to call the Shantastic Shine..... A Newsletter for my dedicated fans that would like to get a brief update on ALL things shantastic but may not have time to check back to the site EVERYDAY.  I will start by making the Shantastic Shine newsletter once a month and if I get enough interest it may go weekly ( up to you guys I won't bother you that much unless I get peoples attentions)
But not only will the SHINE feature Shantastic... I would also like it to include links to others blogs, reviews, products, and more. It could be a great way to help spread the word to others.


Now I feel like I've introduced a lot here..... Hope I have a few readers that legitimately got through the full update.... If so... I thank you dearly.


Have an AWESOME! Day while I continue to make some last minute changes to kick off the start of new beginning. 

 

 

I now have those fancy social icons... and guess what I made them myself!

   

Time to pat myself on the back. I created all these pretty much from scratch in Photoshop in less than a half hour

AND gathered all the web addresses

AND created the HTML code
AND easily added them to my blog!

All in under 30 minutes...
Now that may not seem all that quick... but seeing as I have a bad habit of doing a million things at once and never doing one thing at a time and finishing quickly.... 
Well this time I did. so Boo-YA!

Now it's your turn... This is how... I did it.

I  needed a  coding refresher soooo I admit followed the blog on Sew Many Ways
Where  Karen nicely explains how she added social buttons from CarryLoves to her own blog so that even I could read through it quickly and understand.

Well I tried to use the buttons from Carry Loves but Photobucket was frozen and refused to let me sign in or sign up. So if you need some buttons, and have more patience to wait on photobucket than I did... hurry on over to  CarryLoves
and pick out one from her MANY colors to choose from. And while your there take a peak at her page too....

BUT  don't forget to stop back at Simply Shantastic ;)
----ANYWAYS---
Instead, I played in photoshop and created my own :D

 

IF photobucket ever lets me create an account or if I get a flickr later tonight I will share the codes for you to use my buttons for your blogs as well. :)


Oh yeah the shopping cart is for my ARTFIRE store ... because they don't have their own buttons.... I may have to close this shop soon their traffic seems to be lacking... So be sure to keep checking out that shop because I may be posting some sales before I close it but you could easily use the shopping button for any store website you may have to link too.


Now I have some more bloggin' matience to tend to. Trying to get all organized and acceible for you guys :)

Until then try taking a peak at the Etsy Shop :)


Happy Crafting!

Candy Cups : An easy gift for the guys, or sweet tooth in your life!

This was the perfect gift for my Uncle Joe , who is terribly hard to buy for!

 Holidays may have come and gone , but gift ideas are needed YEAR ROUND!

I had seen many of these little candy bouquets in passing on pinterest and other blogs. They seem to have grown pretty popular!  

My uncles birthday falls on Christmas (Poor guy he always gets jipped on celebrating) So I try to give him a birthday present as well as a Christmas gift. 

 Since he turned 50 a few years ago I had always tried to do an "old fart" gift as kind of a joke, which I also did this year ( I will post later it was pretty cute ) but   anyways!  I spend maybe  $6 bucks on this awesome little gift. 

Things I used: 

 Larger Snickers and Mr. Good bars (because those are his favorite.) 
Mini Candies  ( Which I had enough of to make a candy bag for Benj when he came from Alabama with Kay)

Styrofoam Ball (From an old floral arrangement)
Coffee Mug (I used it for a base because I have a running joke of getting him one every year since I can remember)
Tissue paper (For decoration and to hide the ugly Styrofoam)
Shishcabob (< Is that how that is spelled lol?)  Sticks (could probably use any kind of rods or Popsicle sticks)

Hot glue gun  / SUPER tape

SOOO NOW......

Step one : All I did was Hot glue the candies to the shishcabob sticks , you could probably use SUPER strong tape if you are making this with children or are glue gun-less.

 Step Two : Pushed styrofoam into the coffee mug tightly so it wouldn't come loose

Step Three: Attempted to arrange candies nicely so that all could be seen , similar to a floaral arrangement 

Step Four: arranged tissue paper to cover any ugly glue or Styrofoam

And WAA-LA

That was Easy :)

Please exscuse my terrible photo, I DIDN'T take it . My loveley boyfriend insisted he take the photos of me handing out gifts to my family so it's a bit blurry. Oh, and don't let my uncle's startled face confuss you. He really LOVED it after he got it all out of the gift bag.  He loves anything sweet like me :P

 

 

Happy Crafting

Tree Branch Necklace.

I made this one for my best friend Kayla and sent it home with her to good ol' Alabama.... Now I can't wait to make more.

Hope she shares it with all her awesome friends down there.
I love how it turned out for a first try.

  It is a rather large piece that lays over the chest.  But it can be arranged a bit to lay how you like.


 It can also be customized with whatever color  "leaves or blossoms" you would like as well.


 I want to make a copper one with brown or fall colored leaves soon. :) I will for sure post some awesome pictures.

 

My aunt said it reminded her of lighting.... Hmmmmm maybe that will be of some use. Sounds like some good inspiration.


I will post photos of my next one Asap!

Until then ,

Happy Crafting

Snow Snow Go Away, You don't need to come back some other day...

Don't get me wrong I love me a nice snow day! Especially when it snowed on Christmas Eve just enough to give us a nice white Christmas. But now, it's starting to give me some EXTREME cabin fever!

Being stuck inside all day I worked on a few new pendants for the SHOP. Which needed some much needed new inventory.

I stocked up on some wire the last time I went out to the craft store so I've been practicing a couple of things and got some satisfying new pieces to share. :) 

Hope you enjoy!

BUY ME HERE

BUY ME HERE

BUY ME HERE

BUY ME HERE

BUY ME HERE

BUY ME HERE

I will be working on more pendants and wire wrapping styles through the evening. Please feel free to comment on pendants , send links to interesting tutorials. Or just leave feedback.

- I just got back from taking photos in the snow! Time to cuddle up and drink some hot chocolate with the boys...


Happy Crafting :)