New Facebook Page + Merry Christmas!!!

★:ﾟ*☆※＞o(´ｰ´*)Merry*Christmas(*´ｰ´)o＜※☆:ﾟ*★

I made a new facebook page for my etsy shop and I would appreciate if you'd like it!

http://www.facebook.com/kokoronosweets

I'm having a Holiday sale too! 25% OFF with coupon code (HOLIDAY12)

lol pink alpaca with a random santa hat

New cases galore: Rainbow colors!!!

All available on http://kokoronosweets.etsy.com

http://www.etsy.com/listing/118761122/pink-creepy-cute-decoden-iphone-44s-case

http://www.etsy.com/listing/118761375/yellow-and-black-decoden-iphone-44s-case

http://www.etsy.com/listing/118761645/green-decoden-iphone-44s-case

http://www.etsy.com/listing/118761739/blue-kawaii-decoden-iphone-44s-case

http://www.etsy.com/listing/118761793/purple-kawaii-decoden-iphone-44s-case

New deco jars

I love how I had enough extra cabochons for this!
I'll probably buy a block of red sculpey to make more strawberries.

Chocolate and sugar cookies! I ate all the peanut M&Ms in the jar by the time I took a pic.

Japonica Shopping Service Review: Arpakasso!

I finished finals last week with the news that my package from Japonica arrived while I was frantically studying for a Pathophysiology final exam... ^_^; And finally went home today after staying at my apartment this weekend and going to see The Hobbit with friends~

My current arpakasso collection!!! Guess which ones arrived via Japonica package?

What is Japonica?

Japonica is a shopping service that bids for you on Yahoo! Japan, Mbok, Japan Online Shopping Sites, etc. You pay a downpayment of how much you're willing to bid on an auction and they will bid for you. For example, I paid 2373 yen + paypal fees for this Mbok auction. If you didn't win the auction, they would refund 100% deposit within 24 hours by Paypal.

Total payment would be:

+ Auction/Shopping Subtotal ( Closing Price + Shipping Cost to their Office )

+ Commission (see chart, under ¥2500 purchase = ¥800 commission, paid ¥400 r/t 50% off deal?)

+ Shipping Cost to Your Home

+ PayPal international fee 3.2%+40yen of the Total

Kinda expensive, right? But it's the only shopping service that works with Mbok (that I know of)

Other Japanese Shopping Services?

• Tenso (great with Rakuten purchases!)
• FromJapan (Yahoo!Japan)

Review

• My experience started on November 20th by emailing & paying via paypal for the bid on Mbok
• I worked with someone named Yukiko, who replied to emails on a timely basis (within 1-2 days)
• WON THE AUCTION (Nov. 24th)
• Package from Mbok arrived at their office in 5 days (Nov. 29th)
• Paid for shipping and commission fees (Nov. 30th)
• Shipped Dec. 1st, arrived at home (Dec. 10th)
• COST: ¥5619 (converts to $66.87, but with paypal conversion $71.87 T_T)

PROS

• CHEAPER than buying on an English storefront (eg. arpakassoshophk)
• +$48 for the jumbo pink arpakasso
• +$42 for two 12cm baby arpakasso
• +$22 for the white arpakasso phone bag
• +$21.50 for shipping (usually free keychain)
• $133.50 TOTAL?! 
• THEREFORE: you save so much $$$ with Japonica/any SS if you bulk buy arpakasso
• Great customer service! (Fact: Japanese shops have AMAZING customer service)
• Find your perfect auction listing that you want to get!
• High chance that you will be paying for an authentic arpakasso (new pictures of arpakasso in a regular setting VS stock pictures)

CONS

• Longer waiting time from order to delivery (20 days for me)
• If you have a USA seller like MyMaido, shipping is max 7 days in USA)
• English is okay (feels slightly less professional with some capitalization errors, but it's like 100 times better than Bodyline communication that has horrible Engrish)
• You might not win the auction…
• Might not be BRAND NEW
• Paypal Exchange rate: 1 USD = 80.4062 JPY plus extra paypal fees

Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5 stars!)

Now onto the unwrapping pictures~

The box was sent from an Mbok seller so I didn't expect HQ new packaging 

Opened from the side 

Covered in bubble wrap and a plastic bag

Unpacked in all of the arpakasso glory!!!

Ebay arpakasso has arrived!!!

Today I got a wonderful package in the mail~ A pink Lovely Berry alpaca plushie~ I bought from one of Christie's ebay auctions. She is the one in charge of Shop Tokyo or Arpakasso Online and is super sweet! She ships from Japan to explain the higher shipping price. Not a bad deal if I say so myself because it costs like $50 to buy one with USA shipping (classic version). The estimated delivery was 11/19 to 12/06 so I was SUPER HAPPY to get it on my birthday (November 16th)!!! ^_^

My ebay win!!!

It arrived in a 12"x12"cardboard box via SAL shipping...

Fits just right!!!

All safe in plastic wrap~

Now for the alpaca glam photos!

What a cutie!!! I dunno what to name her!!!

Closeup~ 

EVEN CLOSER!!! 

"Is this my good side?" 

As you see, the older Baby Alpacasso series (my new one on the left) does not have a cardboard bottom and firm legs.

This is closer to real life without as many photoshop filters~ I couldn't fit my white one in the photo...

Edit 11/29/12: added comparison pic to crosspost to Arpakasso forums, sorry that it's not centered

3 New Yummy Decoden Cases~

Added some sparkles! I used Alex Dap for these and the deco pieces are polymer clay or cold porcelain.

I made these a few weeks ago but took the pic with my crappy camera and didn't have my laptop nearby to edit the pics. These cases are way heavier than a silicone case because a) caulk/silicone mix b) not airdry clay deco pieces c) more things on it? Originally posted these iPhone cases on dA too~ (posting it now b/c nursing school is kicking my butt T_T)

These might be posted on Etsy once I glaze all of the pieces (b/c wet cold porcelain is a bad idea).

Here are some kirakira version of cases that haven't sold yet:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/107417417/hime-pearl-decoden-iphone-4-case

http://www.etsy.com/listing/112616811/sweet-decoden-rhinestone-iphone-4-case
http://www.etsy.com/listing/101964181/sweet-lolita-kawaii-sugary-carnival
http://www.etsy.com/listing/107417417/hime-pearl-decoden-iphone-4-case

*actual colors are darker than they appear in these images! For more accurate colors, view the listing on Etsy~

Giveaway prize from Cute in Korea!!!

Wallet, business cards, and face mask!!!

I recently got a mini-prize package from a giveaway from Cute in Korea for a wallet in one of her recent shopping trips! It looks super cool... I might give it to my brother as his Christmas present this year! Also, if you love learning about new cool places in Korea, I would recommend reading this blog! Elle is an American engaged to her Korean fiancee (they met in art school! how cute!!!) and she's a really good illustrator too! Please visit her blog if you like fashion, beauty, and culture~

Pink Candy Kids Arpakasso Review

So I kinda went on an arpakasso spree this month since I knew it's my birthday next month? So my dorm room has like 3 arpakasso on the bed now (besides the Chibi Amaterasu plushie). I'm on fall break because you deserve it for the going to a private university~

This time, I bought from penult aka Alpacasso & Fandom Sales on Storenvy [tumblr] [storenvy] [lj]. She is living in Japan and has great prices & customer service! A plus side is that she knows English very well (American?) However, the shipping dates may not be so consistent depending on when she can go to the post office. Mine arrived in a cardboard box with some wear and tear on it. I got the extra $5.25 shipping upgrade to E-packet Airmail w/Tracking (so it would arrive in a week to USA instead of 3-5 weeks). Additionally, it only cost about $41 for me with a discount code.

40cm Candy Kids Alpacasso Pink aka Momo-chan

HER FACE IS SO CUTE!!! 

I thought I bought the white one but now there are two... it's onee-san and imouto-san!!!

Btw, I've been watching Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! It's the hit of the fall anime season since it's like reminiscing on when I had such weeaboo moments in middle school. Chuunibyou means "eighth grade syndrome", basically meaning a short period of time when a person is heavily influenced by something (generally anime) and believe they are a mythical existence or have supernatural powers... I think a lot of people go through that stage too before they become pretty casual with showing their fannishness and end up channeling that energy online?

My Maido Arpakasso Review #2

OMGOMGOMG I GOT ARPAKASSO IN THE MAILLLLLLL >_<

55cm Jumbo White Macaron aka Shiro-kun & 11cm Pink Candy Kids aka Sakura-chan 

Purikura version!!!

I ordered via email <info@mymaido.com> from My Maido, a stationary store located in San Francisco, California. It also has locations in San Jose, CA and inside Kinokuniya stores (Seattle, NYC, LA) [tumblr] [website]

Shipping: If you order above $25, you get free shipping in the US! (So if you buy two 11cm/5in arpakasso ($15 each) or a 55cm/22in jumbo sized arpakasso ($50), you'll have 3 day to 2 week shipping)

Customer Service: They respond pretty quickly (in a few days) and are super nice! The items arrive quickly since I got it within 3 days of payment with tracking. My package arrived in one of those bags that you can ship stuff in, and the Jumbo arpakasso was much, much bigger than expected?! (that's what she said)

Quality: They're a legit seller of Arpakasso. The tags were still on the arpakasso and although their faces were derpy as alpaca goes, it was quite cute! My only complaint would be that they might have been mad that I sent out the payment late after the order, and they sent the available jumbo one that had a slight stitching error under it's mouth (the white stitching or fluff is kinda falling out and I'm picky)... ^_^;

Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5 stars)

I also got a fake alpaca pouch in the mail (yes, the quality is not great but it was on the cheap end!!!) The funny part was that I was looking through a lolita ebay store and it was labeled everything except "alpaca"!!! XD

It's kinda washed out in this pic but it's the same shade as Sakura-chan, the pink candy one.

10 Tips for Storenvy CSS Tutorial

Hey guys, I opened up anther storefront on Storenvy: Oh My Kokoro!!!

It was a great idea because a)listings last forever, b)customizable look, c)more profit per item since there isn't a listing charge of $0.20 and 3.5% sale price fee from Etsy. I do believe that Etsy brings in a lot of traffic for those looking for the type of things that I make, is SUPER EASY when you need to duplicate listings, and feedback system (which you need to link externally on Storenvy).

One of the major things that bothered me was although there was a customizable shop with decent layout, there was only ONE option as a layout!!! It took me 3 days worth of working on CSS to get to the decent quality as it is now. I'll be sharing the things that I learned about CSS during this process!

1. When at a loss, search "CSS" or "html" in Storenvy's forums! There are always a few friendly and helpful people there.
2. COPY&PASTE STORENVY CSS: 
   http://www.storenvy.com/themes/default/stylesheets/styles.css OR edit the one that you're given (otherwise, you'll be stuck with the basic layout) ♥♥♥
3. If you want your background to show through your header, save your header image as a png file! It allows transparency while keeping a high image quality!
4. The holy grail of customizing Storenvy: http://www.assault.it/2009/12/29/tutorial-how-to-create-an-online-storefront-with-storenvy/ (here is the less helpful Storenvy customizing guide too: http://www.storenvy.com/help/store-customization)
5. Learn what certain codes are: http://www.w3schools.com/ (I have very limited knowledge of html but know #FFFFFF, image properties, and linking)
6. If you have Chrome, highlight some words and right click to bring up "Inspect Element" to lead you to a customizing panel where you can try out colors before you finally put them in your CSS.
7. Want to use custom fonts? Use http://www.google.com/webfonts to pick out a font/typeface and embed it into your shop... easy directions at the link! :D
8. LABELING: /*: blahblahblah :*/ allows you to label an aspect that you want to customize, such as button or sidebar color AND it will show up on Easy Mode. [NOTE: Storenvy didn't really have everything that could be labeled as a label (for beginner's sake). Add the extra labels yourself so you can just Ctrl+F/Cmd+F the color (just figured it out now when I was writing this ^_^').]
9. Most common "fixes": Product Slider, Collections in Sidebar instead of top, Removing the main border, get rid of sidebar line <hr>, Stopping & Starting HTML Marquees
10. Finally, when you're at a loss, look at your favorite Storenvy shop and right click "View Page Source" to see what they did RIGHT in customization!!!

Please post in the Storenvy forums with CSS in the topic if you have any questions about CSS.

EDIT 2/10/13: Here are some examples of my favorite shops:

• http://juby.storenvy.com/ - prints for sale, nice background and few modifications
• http://shilin.storenvy.com/ - prints and GN for sale, advanced modifications
• http://lunabowtique.storenvy.com/ - bows for sale, simple and clean, few modifications
• http://catscratch.storenvy.com/ - acrylic charms for sale, big header image, few modifications
• http://bowkuma.storenvy.com/ - bows and cute things for sale, heavily modified CSS
• http://store.kumacrafts.com/ - Sailor Moon jewelry, heavily modified CSS

WIP: Ice Cream Scoops

Somebody kindly PMed me on Etsy about making an extra blue ice cream scoop ring to add to a possible listing, so I made it out of Delight air dry clay. Btw, it's super lightweight and blending it with acrylic or craft paints made it slightly sticky.

Fail on the rainbow sherbet since I made the "red" look like it was bright red with too much paint. 

Last month, I also got Sailor Moon Vol. 6 and Age Called Blue (by Est Em)!!! Also got a jewelry box that I need to fill up. I never uploaded the pic from my camera until now. I didn't realize how much of the Sailor Moon canon got mixed up with the anime... like Haruka was portrayed as a guy for like half of the book, while in the anime, it's implied that she's a girl with the appearance of Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus right away.

Taken as I was moving stuff into my apartment...

PS I am planning on opening a Storenvy shop as another storefront to promote my Etsy. I will be putting up my expired listings from Etsy up there and now I'm customizing CSS to make it look nice and shiny~ It's a pain in the butt to learn but I'll be putting up a How to Customize Storenvy for Beginners tutorial after I open up the shop.

NEW Hime Decoden Iphone Case!!!

Yesterday night when I was packing up a case to ship off, I decided to do a new decoden iPhone case!!! It's time that I used the pearls that I bought a while ago~

Whoo, isn't it beautiful~ Time that I used that Louis Vuitton cabochon too!

This is on sale at my etsy: http://www.etsy.com/listing/107417417/hime-pearl-decoden-iphone-4-case

Pink Decoden Box

Looks lovely~ All the cabochons were handmade!
On dA: http://phamalama.deviantart.com/art/Pink-Decoden-Box-322243008

I also made chocolate with spare cold porcelain from the batch that I made from the cold porcelain post... it really lasts a long time! But it should definitely be used within a few weeks of making it!

This was edited on Pixlr, an online photo-editor with photoshop-lite qualities! It has layers, gradients, levels, vibrance, adjust size, crop, etc. I add a lot of stuff to my photoshop on my macbook so it loads really slowly (especially if you install tons of fonts!). Sometimes pixlr works much better for quick photograph edits~

Also, someone PMed me on dA saying that they wanted to use my photographs to make stuff and sell it??? Just a reminder that I do NOT allow it and watermarks are there for a reason~ 

Luna Bowtique Review~

I'm back from a week of vacation in Austin, TX! I had a lot of fun visiting my grandma and eating pho and other Vietnamese food with my mom's friends. It's really weird going around the city since the gas stations are always different in various parts of the USA and that HEBs populate every surrounding area instead of Walmarts! I love the fact that Asian food is easier to find there. I stuck out like a sore thumb with my midwestern accent!!! I don't travel by plane much so getting past security and barely boarding our flight on time on the way back was a challenge! (ps use fastpass parking to save money when going on trips!)

Boy, I was super happy to get some packages in the mail~

Hello Kitty swap from swap-bot.com!!! We sent $4+ worth of HK stuff to one partner! It was my first package swap so I hope everything got to my partner in Argentina... idk how long mail takes to get there!

My next package was from Luna Bowtique, a bow store! I actually didn't buy a bow but instead went for the Swimmer Alpaca comb/mirror~ I am so obsessed with alpaca right now! They also had a deal that if you spent a certain amount of money, you got a free bow! Make sure to visit their tumblr for promotions, updates, and customer photos~

Added some cute deco tape to outer package~ 

Ooh, extras!!!

I'm guessing they bought it directly from Swimmer bc just look at that SUPER CUTE sticker!!!

The heart sticker is PRECIOUS!!! 

All of my items~ Loved the extra memo sheets!

Up close and personal! Please visit my alpaca blog: http://macaronchan.tumblr.com for more cute pics!

I would rate this a 5/5 for easy online shopping, good communication, EXTRAS, and quick shipping in USA. I would buy from this seller again (if I wore bows that often! Thanks for selling this hard-to-find item!)