JenaLis Charms

Black Friday Sale - Save On All Merchandise

2010-11-15T12:24:00.000-08:00

Black Friday sale from 11/15/10 to 11/27/10. Stock up now for Christmas!!! Over 1500 Italian Charms to choose from plus starter bracelets, key chains and Italian charm tools.
http://jenalischarms.com

Environmental Issues - Earth and Nature

2010-10-28T13:42:00.000-07:00

I'm one of those people who is deeply concerned about our earth and it's natural resources. We need to do all we can to help save our planet from the devastating destruction that climate change and global warming are wrecking on all of our natural environments. We need to be conscious of what each one of us can do in small and large ways to stop the threat to our trees and plants, oceans and lakes, plateaus and mountains and animals.

We at JenaLis Charms have designed a new collection of "earth and nature" Italian Charms. Show your concern for our earth's environment by wearing one of these lovely charms on your Italian charm bracelet.

Earth and Nature Italian Charms

Your idea could win a $15.00 Gift Certificate!

2010-09-09T12:57:00.000-07:00

Creativity is a funny thing. It comes and goes like red and green traffic lights. There is no "yellow". Sometimes you have it - sometimes you don't. Right now I don't. That part of my brain that controls artistry and imagination is hiccupping and the space between hiccups is totally blank. I've been sitting here for a week now staring at a blank white box in photoshop with no idea whatever of what to put in it. After 2735 italian charm designs over the past 5 years -some of which didn't work - I need help! Not from a psychologist - my head has been shrunk enough by shrinks - but from all you artistic, creative, imaginative people out there whose brains are functioning properly.

What would you like to see on an Italian charm? Please send me your ideas!!! I'm desperate!! So desperate that all you lovely people who send in ideas will be entered into our Design Sweepstakes for a $15.00 Gift Certificate. The drawing will be held on September 30th and the winner will be announce here in our blog.

Please please leave your wonderful creative ideas in the comment section.

Catherine

New Personalized Name Italian Charms

2010-05-08T15:08:00.000-07:00

I was out walking the other day, enjoying the warm sun and light breeze, before the intense heat of summer desert makes such walks impossible. When I got home I wanted to make some new charm designs that reflect the beauty and serenity of the world that surrounds us every day. I wanted to capture the brightly colored spring flowers and the birds chirping in the trees. I came up with some lovely new personalized name Italian Charms. I hope you like them as much as I do.

Discount Available

2010-04-27T13:00:00.000-07:00

20% Discount on entire order when you purchase $35.00 or more.

2010-04-27T12:56:00.000-07:00

Italian Charm Sizes and Shapes

2010-04-27T12:44:00.000-07:00

There are many sizes and shapes of Italian Charms on the market today. We hope the explanations we have provided in our store help you in buying just the right size charm for your bracelet. http://jenalischarms.com/italiancharmsizes.html

Cleaning and Caring for your Italian Charm Bracelet

2010-04-27T12:42:00.001-07:00

Caring for your Italian charm bracelet is easy! By taking a few simple steps you can ensure a long life for your Italian charm collection. Learn how at http://www.jenalischarms.com/cleaningitaliancharms.html

2010-04-27T12:41:00.000-07:00

New Broadway Italialn Photo Charms

2010-04-25T12:07:00.000-07:00

Thanks to our wonderful customers we have added lots of new Broadway Charms to our collection. Take advantage of the 20% Discount and save some money purchasing your favorites!
http://jenalischarms.com/broadwaycharms.html

Make Your Own Assorted Note Card Box

2010-04-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

Why not keep some assorted cards on hand for those occasions that tend to sneak up? Always be prepared with JenaLis Notes and Cards boxed collections of Thank You, Birthday, Sympathy and Get Well Note Cards. http://www.jenalisnotesandcards.com/assortednotecards.html
Just decide which note cards you want - add them to the form and we'll send them to you in a nicely packaged box that you can keep them in.

Broadway Italian Charms

2010-04-25T11:56:00.000-07:00

Lisa and I wish to thank all of our customers who sent in ideas for Broadway Charms. We deeply appreciate the help!! A special thanks to Sarah who sends in so many ideas for Broadway and Famous People!!!

How and why we started making Italian Charms

2010-03-24T13:28:00.000-07:00

It all started in 2001 with 800 DJ Promo Disco Vinyl Records. We had them - how do we sell them?

Having been online since 1998 as a graphic designer I was not a newcomer to the internet nor of selling my talents. But selling a specific product was not something I had ever considered. Where do I sell these records? How much are they worth? Who would want them? How do I get started?

Online Shopping was just getting off the ground and Ecommerce was new and exciting to think about. Knowing nothing about Ecommerce I spend quite a lot of time reading whatever I could find to educate myself to its pros and cons. A friend told me about eBay which had been around since 1997. I had never been to eBay - had no idea what it was all about - but I pointed my browser to the site and never looked back.

Learing the ropes of eBay was not hard. Read all of the directions, learn how to list, open an eBay store and you are in business.

My partner and I spend hours and hours searching for information about vinyl records, We learned how to grade them, what genre each record fell into, and histories of the artists.

We took pictures of the records to be uploaded to our eBay store and listened to every records so we could grade it accurately. We researched each record to learn everything we could about the artist, the lable, the producer. Finally we felt qualified to start listing on eBay.

Oh, the thrill of that first sale!! We were hooked. During the next two years we listed records on a non stop basis. We sold almost all of them and made a very good profit. When we ran out of records to sell we started looking around the house for things to list. We sold off collectibles, dishes, clothes, shoes, and whatever else we could find that we didn't want anymore. Finally we just ran out of stuff to sell.

A friend of ours said she had started making Italian charms. Well, frankly,I had no idea at all what Italian Charms were!! I checked them out online and found out that they are small rectangular interchangeable charms featuring a design on the face of them. I determined that if she could make them so could I.

I thought my backgound as a graphic designer would come in handy in designing for these little charms. It never crossed my mind to just buy ready made enamel and laser charms to resell - I wanted to make something different and unique.

I started making designs of butterflies, flowers, animals, places, etc. After many trials and errors we learned how to affix them to the base stainless steel charm and cover them with a clear, waterproof acryllic coating. We listed them on eBay and to our utter amazement they sold!!

Most of our time from then on was taken up by creating designs and making the charms. The nice thing about all of this is that we didn't need to make the charms until they were ordered so there was no inventory to keep except the raw materials needed. And, we loved making them!

After another year we decided to branch out and get our own website. We put up one page and redirected it to our eBay store. We soon decided that it was time to get out of eBay and concentrate on building up our website.

I knew absolutely nothing about shopping carts. That was an adventure in itself but I read and researched and finally had a rudimentary understanding of what they were all about.

I started building our webstore. Since I was a graphic designer and had built quite a few personal websites for other people I figured I knew what I was doing. I did not use one of the ecommerce hosting sites. I used a private host and had to implement everything myself. Page by page it began to emerge right before my eyes until I had over 400 pages of Italian Charms.

Putting up a website is the easy part - learning how to successfully sell your product is not. Since I was used to Paypal from my days on eBay and I signed up for their Website Payment Pro service and used a shopping card that was intergrated with Paypal. It took me well over a week to configure the shopping cart for my use but when I was done adding the html code to each and every charm I had an online webstore. I notified all of my former eBay customers that we had opened out store and waited for the orders to rush in. And waited. And waited.

Ok, now what? I had never heard of SEO, keywords, optimization, css style sheets or anything else a successful online business needs to know.. So I researched again. I read everything I could find - all the while adding more and more charms to the store. I learned how to optimize for search engines, how to use meta tags, and how to promote my business. I used adword campaigns, email newsletters and gave discounts for customers. I added a site search engine, advertised when my budget allowed and kept adding charms to the store.

Today our store, JenaLis Charms, is thriving. We carry over 1500 custom and personalized Italian charms and accessories and, as always, I just keep adding more and more charms. My word to anyone starting out? Research, know your product and don't be afraid to take that first step. You will be amazed at what you can accomplish if you put your mind to it and really want to succeed.

Revamped JenaLis Notes and Cards

2010-02-23T10:45:00.000-08:00

I've been busy at work revamping our JenaLis Notes and Cards webstore. There are a lot of new collections and designs to choose from. I try to create diverse designs and patterns that will appeal to everyone from the whimsical to exquisite to funny. Here's a preview of some of our new creations. All of these samples are part of separate collections. You can find all of these at http://jenalisnotesandcards.com/

Planning My Strategy

Beauty in Flight

Blue Daisy Personalized Note Card

Faith Inspirational Note Card

Second Please Dog Note Card

Nature Surrounds us with Beauty

Daisy Chain Get Well Soon

Flower Basket Angel Note Card

Robins in Spring

We have also added many new Social Callng Cards and Business Cards. Many of our Note Cards have matching calling or business cards.

Purchase a set of our Note Cards and receive a free set of matching return address labels.

Making Memories with Italian Charms

2010-01-21T10:20:00.000-08:00

Everyone is into scrapbooking today. Putting their memories of places, events and people into a bound book to look back through the years and remember what they did, where they have been and the people who have been important in their lives.

You can do the same with Italian Charms - put together and worn as a bracelet or kept separate in a box they can make up a miniature scrapbook of memories.

Just about anything can be put on an Italian Charm.

How about a Memory Photo Bracelet with photos of your children as they grow through the years or a favorite picture of your spouse, grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles or pets. Maybe your best friend or special people who have come into your life. How marvelous it is to capture that favorite photo of your baby or your parents when they were children and have it immortalized on an Italian charm!!

Remember those that have passed with an In Memory Italian Charm. Whether it be a family member, friend or your beloved pet. Everytime you look at the charm you will have fresh memories of your time with them.

Special events can be recorded on these miniature works of art. Your vacations to far flung exotic places or the nearby beach, broadway shows that mesmerized you and took you to another place, destinations you dream of going to. Conferences you have attended, seminars you spoke at. If you took a picture it can be put on a photo charm.

Collect charms of Movies or TV shows that have made you laugh or cry or smile and you watch over and over again.

Add pictures of Actresses and Actors who inspire you and famous people you admire.

Take photos of your prize winning flowers or that cake or pie that took 1st place and save them forever on an Italian charm.

Collect charms that show your favorite animals, sea creatures, flowers, places, people, sayings or quotes. Add to your collection charms that show your patriotism, causes, medical alerts, religious beliefs and health issues. Show off your occupation or profession, your hobbies or crafts that you like. Have a charm especially made for you with your school logo.

Italian Charms can hold your memories just as a Scrapbook does and can be either worn as a bracelet or necklace or stored and they take up very little storage space. Photos affixed to a stainless steel charm and covered with a clear, water and sun proof acryllic coating do not fade over time. The photo and colors stay as crisp and clear as the day the charm was made. Why not start collecting Italian Charms today?

Christmas Charms

2009-12-07T13:22:00.000-08:00

We've got some lovely Christmas Italian Charms on sale right now. Get 25% Discount - coupon code all25

http://jenalischarms.com/

Order before 12/15 for arrival in time for Christmas

Our New Webstore

2009-11-12T21:47:00.000-08:00

Just finished uploading our new webstore JenaLis Notes and Cards We have notecards for all occasions plus social calling cards and business cards. All of our cards are designed by me and Lisa and I handmake every one of them.

Be sure to check out our wonderful selection of Christmas Cards.

If you visit during the month of November please take 30% off your order. Use coupon code all30 during checkout.

Share Your Stories

2009-11-09T16:17:00.001-08:00

All of us have various reasons for purchasing specific charms. Why not share your story here? For instance - I made an In Memory Charm with my sister's name and dates on it so that everytime I look at my bracelet I remember her.

Thoughts on Italian Charms

2009-11-09T11:26:00.000-08:00

When Lisa and I decided to go into the Italian Charm business we know absolutely nothing about them. Frankly, I didn't even know what they were!! A friend of ours told us that they were the "in thing" in fashion jewelry right now and we should try it. So, we researched and learned all we could about these bracelets.

I noticed as I checked out Italian Charm sites online that while a few of them did custom photo charms (for about $30 each) the majority of them purchased enamel or laser charm from a wholesaler for resell. We did not want to do this. We wanted to be different, unique and original. As a graphic designer I decided that I could use those skills for creating our own brand of photo italian charms.

I started designing and quickly found out that creating images and designs for the small size was not as easy as I thought it would be but with time, effort and a whole lot of patience I learned how to do it. It became a challenge to me to come up with new and unique designs and patterns to display on what I now called "miniature works of art". For to me that is just what they are. I create designs and patterns with the consummer in mind using myself as a baseline. I love beautiful things - so I try create beauty in every one of my designs. Whether it is a "cute" design or an "inspirational" design it has to say something to me. Painter's create their own styles on canvas - I create mine on stainless steel. The result is the same - a piece of art.

Christmas is Coming!

2009-11-08T12:45:00.000-08:00

Italian Charms make wonderful Christmas Gifts. We have over 1500 different designs to choose from including personalized name and custom photo charms. Give Grandma an Italian Charm bracelet with pictures of her grandchildren!! Be sure to order before December 15th to insure delivery by Christmas.

25% Discount on Everything

2009-10-11T10:45:00.000-07:00

Use Coupon Code all25 and take 25% off your entire order!!! Offer good until 12/1/09. Stock up on your favorites!!!!

New Article Release

2009-10-01T09:13:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have ever wanted to sell online or just curious about it read my article "Venturing into the Exciting World of ECommerce at http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=2033122

October is Breast Cancer Month

2009-09-25T19:03:00.000-07:00

All of our 9mm Breast Cancer charms on all sale for $4.99 - that's a savings of $3.00 a charm!!
If you purchase a breast cancer Italian charm during our sale you can get another breast cancer charm absolutely free to give to someone you know or for yourself. Just specify the name and product ID # of the charm in the "Instructions to Seller" section during checkout. 5% of the proceeds from our October sales will be donated to the American Cancer Society

Our 9mm Personalized Breast Cancer charms on also on sale for 6.99 - a savings of $3.00 a charm!!!

Pink Ribbon Personalized Italian Charms

Breast Cancer Survivor Personalized Italian Charms

Pink Ribbon Personalized Italian Charms

Pink Ribbon In Memory Italian Charms

Welcome to JenaLils Blog

2009-09-20T13:54:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our new blog!! If you have any questions or need information about our webstores JenaLis Charms or Expressions by JenaLis please post them here.

We will be blogging about new information on both of our sites, giving you valuable information about our products, letting you know about special discounts available, and answering any question you might have.

Thank you for visiting and Happy Blogging!!