BBC Sherlock and Watson Mouse

This pair of mice are based on Sherlock and Watson from the BBC drama Sherlock. Sherlock mouse has curly black hair, and wears his trademark coat with the collar turned up and his grey scarf. Watson Mouse has dark blond hair, and wears a chequered shirt, cardigan and black coat, in his paws he holds a mobile phone.

These mice were hand sewn using felt, silks, fimo, wire, beads, glue, card and monofilament. They are stuffed with polyfil and stand approximately 2.5inches tall (6.5cm)

Click HERE to see more photos

"Tis the season for FREE shipping!

Fa la la la laaaaa la la la laaa!

www.thehouseofmouse.etsy.com 

Black Friday SALE!

This weekend only we are having a SALE for 20% off EVERYTHING! Grab it while you can! 

Discount code valid at www.thehouseofmouse.etsy.com and www.thehouseofmouse.co.uk

Christopher Eccleston Doctor Who Mouse

This dark, brooding and vengeful, this regeneration of the doctor only survived for one season. He justifies his northern accent even though he's an alien with "lots of planets have a north". In his trademark dark leather clothes and green shirt he holds his blue topped sonic screwdriver in one paw.

Eccleston Mouse was hand sewn using felt, silks, ribbon, beads, glue, card and monofilament. He is stuffed with polyfil. He stands approximately 2.5inches tall (6.5cm) His costume is not removable.

Click HERE for more photos of him in our shop

Breaking News! The House of Mouse on the BBC!

The House of Mouse on the BBC News website!! I'm still in shock!! The artilce is about the spread of crafters like us because of the internet. It's a great read and we are so honoured to be the feature photograph for it!

Read the article here

Doctor Who Paul McGann Mouse Ornament

 Paul McGann's Doctor is a passionate, enthusiastic and eccentric character. This mousy version of him comes in long coat, gold waistcoat with buttons, old style lose tie and wavy brown hair. In his paw he holds a pocket watch. He is a perfect addition to any Doctor Who collection.

This little mouse is completely hand sewn and stands approximately 2.5inches / 6.5cm tall. His clothes and accessories are not removable. Click HERE to see more photos

The House of Mouse Giveaway!

We are running a Giveaway over on our Facebook Page. 

Can you guess how many of our handmade ornaments are in this shot? 

The closest guess wins ANY ornament of choice from our Etsy shop. 

Click HERE to Enter

(if you leave a comment on this blog post, you won't be entered. Only entries at the link are counted)

Zombie Wedding Mice

Creepy Cute Mr and Mrs Zombie mouse promise to love in sickness until Undead they do part. With silver lifeless eyes, nibbled ears and blood stained wedding clothes, these two mice are not to everyone's taste, but they sure do make us giggle here at The House of Mouse.

Each ornament is completely hand sewn and stuffed with polyfi and stand approximately 2.5inches / 6.5cm tall. Click HERE for more photos 

Freddy Krueger Mouse Feature

Our little Freddy Krueger Mouse has been featured on WeirdGifts.org Alongside all kinds of other weirdness. Freddy feels right at home next to Halloween snowglobes, plush zombie slippers and Gas Pump Liquor dispensers!  I had so much fun looking around this site! 

Click HERE to read the whole article

Field Hockey Mouse

Little Emily Mouse love hockey so much that she plays for 3 different teams, Racing around the pitch and scoring goals is one of her favourite things to do. She's the perfect mousy gift for any Field Hockey lover!

Emily is hand sewn using felt, silks, ribbon, beads and various other materials. She is stuffed with polyfi and stands approximately 2.5inches / 6.5cm tall.

Click here for more photos

Top Tips for New Etsy Sellers

I have been selling on Etsy for 5 years and in that time I have watched Etsy grow into the massive marketplace that it is today. There are many ways to succeed on Etsy and even more ways to fail. There is no fool-proof plan to Etsy success, but there are a few basic tips that will get you started in the right direction. Here are my top tips for New Etsy sellers


1: Sell a great product

• Love what you sell - By selling something that you believe in you already have a natural enthusiasm for your product, which will come across to your customers in your descriptions and promotions. Selling handmade, vintage or supplies is not always easy, a love for what you do also keeps you motivated to keep going through the tough patches.
• Fill a gap in the market - Have you found you needed something that you just couldn't find? Did you make it for yourself? This is one of the best ways to start a new business filling a gap in the market and promoting your products to others like yourself who would need it.
• Stand out - If your product is the same as many other sellers on Etsy, you will have a hard time getting sales. The more competition you have the harder it will be. Do some research and find a way to stand out from the others. Maybe you source your materials in an eco-friendly way, or you combined several skills to make your items, or your designs have a recognisable style or brand to them. If you are still stuck in how to make your product stand out, spend some more time experimenting with materials, skills or other aspects to find a way to innovate the design.

2: Regularly add new items to your shop 

• Buyers like choice - Depending on what you sell, a range of products in various colours, and sizes is a good place to start. Variation and choice is great, both in product and in price. New items listed once a week or once a month will not only bring in new customers but will bring happy existing customers back for more. 
• Get found. Buyers are most likely to find your shop from an item listing — via Etsy search, treasuries etc. The more items you have, the more opportunities you have to be found and featured.
• How many items? Try to at least fill 2 pages of listings, unless of course your item is extremely time-intensive, then a smaller selection is understandable. A shop with 10 or more pages of items can be daunting for buyers, so if you have a lot of listings be sure that your shop categories are well organised and your listings have clear and helpful tags so that they can be found easily.
• Start with what you have. If you only have one item now, list it! Don’t wait to build up an inventory — consider adding more items and creating fresh merchandise an ongoing goal to work towards, not a prerequisite for getting started. Fresh items on a regular basis will keep buyers coming back to see what's new. 

3: Learn to Take Great Photos

• Product Photography is EVERYTHING when selling online. Think about looking through a catalogue or magazine, there is a reason their photographs are beautiful - because these images are what sell the product. Well lit, bright, clear and detailed photographs are a MUST if you want to succeed on Etsy.
• How clickable are you? Do an Etsy search for your item, and look at the other items on the page. Does your photo stand out and make you want to click it? Which do? What can you learn from them?
• Help your buyers see all angles of your item. Your buyer can’t touch or hold your item. Therefore, your photos must tell them all about it. Think about any time you are in a store and you like an item you see, you instantly reach out and tough it, turn it over and examine the details. Make sure your photographs take your buyers through a journey like this. How big is it? What is the texture? If it’s wearable, what does it look like on? What are the important details? What does the back look like? Showing these in the photos will give your buyer the info they need to make the purchase.
• Photographing small items? Check out this blog post tutorial on getting the most out of your photographs.

4: Get Found in Search

• Search suggestions. Find out what buyers are searching for by typing what you sell in the search bar with Handmade, Vintage, or Supplies selected. The terms that appear after your word are recent customer search terms. For example if you search for "jewelry" Etsy suggests : jewelry box, jewelry organizer, belly button jewelry, wedding jewelry etc... if your jewelery could be for weddings also, make sure to add this word to your listings tags.
• Improve your chances. Use all of your tag spaces with good keywords and phrases that buyers are likely to search for. Add plenty of accurate, descriptive words in your titles. Tagging is an art form and takes practice. Use your seller statistics to see which of your item title and tag words are used often and which are not. Keep on the pulse of what is popular to search for on Etsy to improve your chances to be found.

5: Do Your Research

• Read everything you can. There are so many resources out there already for Etsy sellers. Advice on anything and everything to do with running your online shop. There are tutorials on photography, setting up your policies and how to budget properly in the beginning.
• Take it one step at a time. Opening an Etsy shop can feel like a daunting task, so just take one step at a time as you build up inventory and get your shop looking great. It's an ongoing process even for long-running businesses there. Those that don't update and change quickly lose their edge and their sales. See the work as an ongoing process and you are many steps along the way towards success.

One last thing: Ship Internationally

• Sell all over the world. Etsy is an international community, we sell to customers from all over the world. so don't confine your customers to only one small part of it. Working out the shipping costs for other contries can be a long and tiring job, but it is really worth doing!
• Get found by more people. In order to appear in searches made by people in other countries, your item must ship to that country (this includes the destination “Everywhere Else”).

I love... scarves!

There is definitely a chill in the air as Autumn comes right on time.  A perfect moment to dig out my favourite scarves! This post has special meaning to me because of something lovely that happened earlier this month:

A few weeks ago I posted a link on my facebook profile to a fabulous handmade scarf by VitalTemptation simply saying "I wish I had the money for this", as money is tight for us right now it was not a wish I was expecting to come true, but I wanted to share the beauty of this handmade creation anyway. But that evening, my super-kind friend Apol - who I have known for years online but have never met in real life - took it upon herself to raise the money with our Etsy friends (and some I did not know!) to buy it for me. 11 people all donated $10 or more towards buying this scarf!

This selfless act of kindness simply to "make Anna smile" has touched me so deeply! Not only do I now have this amazing handmade scarf all the way from New York, but I also have a constant reminder of the love of my friends and the kindness of my fellow humans. Especially in this time of my life it means so much. I get comments every time I wear it. You can see from my face how happy it makes me to wear it!

Here are my 3 favourite scarves from listings on Etsy right now, for all those that love a really beautiful scarf like I do. (click on image for more information about each scarf) 

Blaze the Firefighter Mouse

Blaze is a brave firefighter mouse, trained to protect mice from fire, rescue babys from burning buildings and even rescue the local cat from the highest branch of a tree (although if he is honest he would rather be in a burning building than trying to carry a cat down a ladder). Blaze wears his firefighters uniform with luminous yellow stripes, he holds and axe in his paws and wears a red firemans hat with the number 6 on it.

Completely hand sewn using felt, silks, ribbon, beads and various other materials, he is stuffed with polyfi and stands approximately 2.5inches / 6.5cm tall.

Click here for more price and more photos

Giveaway Winner

Thank you to everyone that entered our very special 2000th Etsy Sale giveaway party! We had so much fun reading all your wonderful comments. It was a tough decision to make... the winner is... *drumroll*

moonsword

For bringing a "mouse-sized food truck called Nibbles and Gobbles To Go" which just made us giggle so much! Congratulations!! 

Sorry to those who didn't win this time, you all had such great comments it was very hard to choose a winner. Don't forget you still have a chance to win a Mouse in our July giveaway 

For the Love of Cute - rodica

 Little Home No 187

 This weeks For the Love of Cute post is about Rodis adorable little houses from her Etsy shop rodica. Here's what Rodi says about herself: "I'm Romanian living in France and having fun creating little silly happy things." We love your little silly happy things Rodi! :D

 Little Home No 128

 

 Little Italian Clay House and Two Trees

Monday Moodboard - Ombre

From top left:
Bib necklace turquoise by HunkiiDorii 
Linen ombre skirt by Bartinki 
Hand dyed summer scarf by LilacCadillac 
Little Home No 196 by rodica 

For more Monday Moodboards visit Star of the East Blog

Sunday Happy Stats

This week has been full of joys! Here are a few things that made me happy in the last 7 days :)

• I watched my 2.5 year old son complete his first term of baby gym. He recieved a medal and was so proud of himself for learning how to do a forward roll (with a little help from me) 
• The House of Mouse greetings card section swelled to include lots more designs. 
• Seeing the response this photograph of our stock go viral on Facebook. Bringing lots of new fans and comments. 
• Working on new custom orders I'm finding myself really enjoying the challenging designs again.

Wishing you a happy week ahead!

Anna x

Custom Queen Elizabeth I Mouse

When I got the request for this custom mouse, I must admit I was a little apprehensive. After all Queen Elizabeth the First lived in a time of grand and intricate costumes! I knew it was going to be a challenge.  I have to admit that I really enjoyed making her, the challenge was lovely too. I have been sewing mice for 4 and a half years and sometimes it can get a little repetitive, but this mouse really brought back the joy of a challenging piece for me. I hope you like her as much as her new owner does.

If you would like to order your own Queen Elizabeth I Mouse, please contact me for a price.

For the Love of Cute - MadAristocrat

 Miniature Candy Bunny Rabbit Set of Four

This weeks For the Love of Cute feature goes to Emi from MatAristocrat

All the adorable little creations in her shop are made with obvious skill and a passion for cuteness. 

Just my kind of store!  Enjoy :D

 Sakura Cherry Blossom White Dragon

Creepy Cute Purple and Green Tentacle Ring

If you would like to be featured in a For the Love of Cute post. 

Please leave a comment under this blog post with a link to your work. 

Your photographs must be high quality to be considered. We only feature handmade.

Custom Pilot Captain Mouse

After a break from making custom orders it has been so nice to get back into them again. This little guy is for a pilot captain who will be turning 70 later this month. I LOVED making him and adding all the little details. The buyer has been kind enough to give me permission to make him a regular in our store,we won't have any in stock for a couple more weeks but if you would like one I can make a reservation for you.

Overrun?

Today Naomi did the very important job of stock-checking at The House of Mouse. At this time of year that's a tricky job because I have been stocking up like mad since last Christmas. As you can see her whole house is overrun with our little mice and their friends. Here they all our laid out on her table! Below you can see them all stored away cosy and safe in their labelled boxes.

Don't forget to enter one of both of the giveaways we are running! Our monthly WIN a Mouse every MONTH giveaway and there are only a few days left of our special 2000th Etsy sale giveaway celebration. 

Also, there is a SALE at The House of Mouse 

15% OFF EVERYTHING for the whole month of July in our Etsy Store

Monday Moodboard - Cream Tea

I'm one of those crazy people that loves Mondays. I love the beginning of a fresh new week and the possibilities that lay ahead. I think it comes from loving what I do :) 

Here are 4 items from Etsy that make me smile.

From top left: 

guardian angel bOwl by atelierOKER 

waldorf making supplies - Doll Body by LaFiabaRussa 

Two tone turban by missbelluk

Small Bag with chain strap by MyHouseOfDreams 

Wishing you all a wonderful week, 

Anna

Calligraphy Mouse Ornament

Penny the Calligrapher mouse has spent many years perfecting her penmanship, she loves to make party invites, cards and all kinds of beautiful written pieces. She would love to share her passion with other lovers of Calligraphy.

 Penny is available at The House of Mouse

Christmas in July SALE now on

For the entire month we are offering 15% OFF EVERYTHING in our Etsy store.
Simply input the code "THOMCIJ" in the coupon code box during checkout
to receive your special discount!

Offer ends July 31st.

For the Love of Cute - Cottonmonster

 Zerg Little Monster

I'll freely admit I have a monster obsession. And though many of you might disagree, I think monsters and cute together make a brilliant combination. I have loved so many awesome monsters! A new discovery for me has been this Etsy shop cottonmonster. I adore the creepy eyes, unsymmetrical limbs and sticky-outy-teeth.

 

 Iago Mini Bottomfeeder

Marci Medium Squidy

Visit cottonmonster store here

If you would like to be featured in a For the Love of Cute post. 

Please leave a comment under this blog post with a link to your work. 

Your photographs must be high quality to be considered. We only feature handmade.

2000th Sale Giveaway

Today we reached our 2000th Sale on Etsy! *happy happy dance* and we want to celebrate just with our fans on this special occasion. So even though we are already running our "Win a Mouse every Month" giveaway, we're going to give away another mouse, just for our fans. 

This giveaway is special because we won't advertise it outside of our fan circle (facebook fans, twitter followers and newsletter subscribers). Normally we advertise on other blogs and websites in order to encourage new people to look at our shop, but this giveaway is just for you. We won't ask you to tell your facebook friends about it or tweet a link to your twitter followers; It's not a marketing exercise, it's a genuine thank you to all of you who have supported and encouraged us, and to those who have been our friends over the last 4 and a half years on Etsy. 

We would like to invite you to our virtual party to celebrate 2000 Etsy sales! To enter this giveaway just tell us what you bring with you to the party and a fun way you will celebrate with us. The best answer will win an ornament of their choice from our store, plus a few extra surprise items in your parcel.

Thank you again to everyone! We hope you enjoy the party.

Anna, Naomi and all the Mice

Competition Closed.

For the Love of Cute - Felted Cat Beds

Every time I see these cat beds by vaivanat I get a warm fuzzy cozy feeling and start wishing they made these in human sizes. Better yet, I wish I was a cat! *goes in search of warm place to nap*

 

Click here to visit vauvanat's store

Olive and Vince Giveaway

Naomi and Nat over at Olive & Vince are having another giveaway! This time, you could WIN one of these awesome toddler arts and crafts smocks worth £20.

Five key features of our 100% cotton “shower proof” smocks include:
★ Elasticated three quarter length sleeves - clothing is kept tucked out of the way avoiding damp, uncomfortable cuffs.
★ A generous overall length so that laps are kept covered when seated.
★ The whole torso is covered from back to front without any gaps for yuck to sneak through.
★ Secured at the back of the neck with a substantial strip of velcro for quick and easy release when it’s time to clear up.
★ A nice high neck helps to prevent anything from dripping or slipping downwardly.

To enter, just click "like" on the Olive & Vince Facebook page and write your name in a comment on this blog post! For up to five extra entries, get your friends to "like" Olive & Vince on Facebook too and write their name AND your name in a comment on this blog post so that their vote for you can be verified and counted.

Entries will be accepted via comments on this blog post until Wednesday 18th July 2012 12:00PM BST.

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. 

Thanks to everyone who took part, the winner has been announced on the new Olive & Vince blog here.

For the Love of Cute - manartas

Welcome to my new weekly feature: For the Love of Cute. 

A little post once a week to celebrate the love of all things handmade and adorable. 

Our first feature goes to Etsy shop manartas I discovered this shop a few weeks ago and fell in love with these handmade animals from Lithuania. Those faces have such character!

Click here to visit manartas shop

Etsy Germany Press Day

Our little Wedding mice were included in the Etsy German Press day earlier last month. We were so thrilled to have been invited to lend mice for this occasion. The stunning photographs on the EtsyDE facebook page really capture the beauty of a handmade wedding.