Looks like everyone had fun with this week's challenge! Here are the top 4 picks, as chosen by ArtfulVintage and ImpossiblyAlice
chocolate treasures
D is for Day Hike
Biggest Strength
Things to Love
Use the voting poll on the right sidebar to pick your favorite. Thanks to all the participants, and good luck to the finalists! Don't forget to check back on Monday for a new treasury challenge.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
Monday Treasury Challenge! ArtfulVintage and ImpossiblyAlice
Congrats to ArtfulVintage for winning last week's treasury challenge - hooray!
Let's get them to the Front Page!
** Note that some of the rules for undiscovered shops & tagging have changed - please read carefully **
#2: Your treasury must contain at least 8 new or undiscovered shops. Undiscovered shops have 50 sales or less (previously 20 sales or less). The Etsy Pounce function is good for discovering brand new shops, or check out undiscovered shops featured in other Team Discovery treasuries. There is also an Etsy forum thread here that is chock full of new and undiscovered shops.
#3: Fill the remaining spots with Team Discovery members. The team members are listed here. You're also allowed 2 shops of your choice regardless of sales or team affiliation, if necessary, as long as you include at least 8 undiscovered shops.
#4: Your treasury MUST be tagged "teamdiscovery" (all one word, without the quotes) and "TDchallenge" (all one word, without the quotes). Also, we recommend you fill every tag space that is appropriate for your treasury and also use the tags "fresh shops" and "undiscovered"
#5: You must follow this blog.
#6: You MUST post the URL link to this blog in your treasury. This is important and is how the word gets out. If you're not sure of what to say, feel free to use this:
This is a Team Discovery challenge treasury made up of undiscovered shops (less than 50 sales) and team members. Anyone can join! Learn more by visiting the blog at http://etsyteamdiscovery.blogspot.com
#7: When you have completed your challenge treasury, come back and add the URL to that treasury here in the comments. You can create as many treasuries as you like and enter as many times as you like. This challenge will end Thursday at 6pm Eastern, and voting begins Friday.
The winner of this challenge will be able to have one of THEIR OWN items featured for next week's challenge!
Congrats to SpareBedroomStudio on a Team Front Page!
I completely love this front page from SpareBedroomStudio! Check out SpareBedroomStudio's store for origami mobiles, confetti, and other paper creations.
It's Art !This Team Discovery treasury is made up of mostly undiscovered shops (less than 50 sales)! Let's show them some Etsy love!
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| Bookish Crane Mobile by SpareBedroomStudio |
'It's More than Just Stuff !' by SpareBedroomStudio
It's Art !This Team Discovery treasury is made up of mostly undiscovered shops (less than 50 sales)! Let's show them some Etsy love!
 Cassette Tape Monst... $18.00 |  Vintage Wooden Lett... $ |  Crocoite in gold $50.00 |  Almeria. Earrings $10.00 |
 Porcelain ring with... $ |  girl BADGE / BROOCH... $5.50 |  HOLLY - Ring with V... $10.00 |  hot pink and floral... $20.00 |
 Copper Side Table $500.00 |  Original illustrati... $32.00 |  ecofriendly coconut... $5.00 |  Marta $65.00 |
 Hand Embroidered Bu... $22.00 |  Triple Loop Ribbed ... $90.00 |  Stealth Shelf $300.00 |  Mr. Man Memory Box ... $24.00 |
Friday, April 22, 2011
Vote For Your Favorite pumpkinandbutterfly & violetq Treasury!
Once again only 3 choices this week as both pumpkinandbutterfly and violetq chose one of the same finalists! Thanks to everyone who entered - the top 3 are....
Mix it up
Pretty Little Things
A Turquoise Tango
Take a look at all three beautiful selections and use the voting section to the right to pick your favorite - voting ends at 8PM (Eastern) on Sunday and a new challenge starts Monday.
Mix it up
Pretty Little Things
A Turquoise Tango
Take a look at all three beautiful selections and use the voting section to the right to pick your favorite - voting ends at 8PM (Eastern) on Sunday and a new challenge starts Monday.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Meet the Members! Sarah of WellCriated
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| Fawn Alpaca Felt Kit (with a real alpaca!) by WellCriated |
Michele, of Lolasjewels, recently interviewed Sarah of WellCriated to discover more about her Etsy business and found that the shop is truly a family affair. Keep reading to learn more about their unique alpaca products.
1. Tell us about yourself.
My name is Sarah! My parents (Robert and Debra) and I, have a small ranch in Olympia, WA. We have over 50 Alpacas, that are all like family.
My Mom (Debra) and I run the Well Criated Etsy shop together. I do most of the Social Media, Design, and Advertising/Marketing for our shop. My mom and I do all of the felting, photography, and artwork together. My Dad (Robert) does all of our logistical work with herd sales, purchasing, breeding, and genetics research.
We also live with my boyfriend, Andrew, who takes care of all the hard farm work for us, and is currently working on developing an Alpaca game for our (currently under construction, but hopefully up soon) website!
2. Where do you get your inspiration for your designs?
There must be thousands - maybe even millions - of things that inspire me! I'd have to say, that both my mom and I are particularly inspired by our Alpacas, the beautiful Washington (and Oregon) scenery, and the ranch lifestyle. With so much beauty around us, we find it difficult to NOT be inspired.... which sometimes works to our disadvantage, believe it or not!
We're on constant inspiration overload! Always dropping this and starting that! It can get pretty crazy around here. :)
3. Which item in your shop is your favorite and why?
I'd say (for both of us) our favorite would have to be our Owl Felt Kit. He's VERY special, because we took turns working on him, so he's a combination of both of our creative processes.
He was made for the NonTeam Treasury Challenge (we won a few weeks ago and wanted to provide an inspiration item that no one had seen before). But... it meant we had to whip him up in a day! So we took shifts at felting. :) And the result was incredible! He's our favorite feltie yet!
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| Great Horned Owl Felt Kit by WellCriated |
4. What are some other hobbies that you like to do?
My favorite hobby is my work! But other than that... Painting, photography, crocheting, sewing, any kind of arts or crafts really! Also love... going on walks in the rain, reading great novels, and Etsy shopping therapy!
And my mom (when she's not needle felting like crazy!) likes to do stippling, watercolor, and is now getting into weaving and wet felting too!!
5. What are your Summer goals for yourself and your shop?
One of our BIGGEST goals is to help promote the Alpaca fiber industry and the Alpaca community on a larger scale - so getting our 1000 Things Alpaca team and blog more active is VERY important to us.
We've started our blog and actually have several activities going on now, including member interviews and a weekly treasury challenge! Plus we're teaming up with the Handmade Movement team to do Sneak Attacks featuring Alpaca team members, once a month! So we really want to continue progress with the team and the blog - we have SO many more fun things planned! And I think they're going to have an amazing impact on the Alpaca and fiber communities on Etsy!
6. Where are you vacationing this year?
Does going to craft shows count? Haha. :)
I don't know if I can remember the last vacation we took! Luckily, living on a ranch with 50 gentle wonderful Alpacas, I can take a mini-vacation whenever I want! I just go for a stroll in the back pasture, or hang out and listen to them hum and laugh at the babies playing king of the hill.
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| "Don't Go" Large Greeting Card from WellCriated |
When we DO get time to go on a vacation - anywhere along the Washington coast, along the Puget Sound, or up in the San Juans, is ideal! We're a road-trip kind of family. Taking a drive up north, and seeing what little fun town we end up in, is the best!
7. Name one word that best describes you.
Clever!
8. What is your favorite late night snack?
Me - something with caffeine! I usually stay up late working. :) My mom - popcorn! She rarely stays up late, but when she does, it's usually watching movies (especially musicals)!
9. Name one thing on your bucket list.
Take a trip to Peru! My mom and I both want to go there sooo bad and visit the Alpacas!!
10. How did you choose the name for your shop?
It was easy!! The name of our Alpaca ranch is "Alpacas at the Well." My mom has always wanted to have her own Ranch-Resort and artist community, called the Well. That's what we're really working towards. When we decided on Alpacas, "Alpacas at the Well" seemed like a perfect fit!
And "Well Criated" is the name we chose for our product line! Created is spelled with an "i" because a baby Alpaca is called a "cria". So that's just our way of being cute and criative :)
Thank you to both WellCriated and Lolasjewels for putting this interview together!
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Undiscovered Tip - Set Up a Google Alert For Your Shop
Hi Team Discovery! This is Kam of Campfire Chic here to share with you a really useful (and free!) tool that should be in your crafty toolbox.
A little background: In November, I hosted a series of posts I called SEO Week/Optimizing Your Online Presence. Some of the posts are down for maintenance, but one of the posts I think is the most helpful is the one I'm sharing with you today.
My boyfriend (an SEO Specialist) calls this "Brand Reputation Management". He says it is a good tool to use if you want to follow a news story like a natural disaster, or find out what is being said about you and your brand.
How is this related to SEO? It goes along with building links. You may not know when you are "talked about" on another blog, so this will give you a heads up so you can check out the resource. Sometimes I only find out an item of mine was featured on a blog because I notice a significant amount of traffic coming from the source in my Google Analytics. With a Google Alert, I will know right away... or at least on a weekly basis... if an item is featured (and somebody mentions my keyword).
I liken this to a more well-rounded and less messy version of checking your backlinks. From what I can tell so far, unlike backlink reports, Google Alerts does not report when you leave a comment on somebody's blog or website.
Why do I care? Think about all the blog comments we leave every day, heck for one giveaway I may leave 5 comments! I don't want an alert for each time I comment on a blog... I know I left a comment there. So Google Alert isn't looking for your hyperlink, it is looking for your search term. Nice.
Now that you know what Google Alerts offer, get the step-by-step directions and additional commentary by heading over to the original post on the Campfire Chic blog.
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Kam is a twenty-something-year-old living in Southern California with her boyfriend and many animals. She blogs about her outdoor adventures and love for crafts on Campfire Chic and sells camping-themed items in an online shop of the same name. She enjoys hiking, camping, reading, and eating tacos.
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| Adventure Bound Mini Notebook from CampfireChic |
A little background: In November, I hosted a series of posts I called SEO Week/Optimizing Your Online Presence. Some of the posts are down for maintenance, but one of the posts I think is the most helpful is the one I'm sharing with you today.
Who is Talking About You? Setting Up a Google Alert
My boyfriend (an SEO Specialist) calls this "Brand Reputation Management". He says it is a good tool to use if you want to follow a news story like a natural disaster, or find out what is being said about you and your brand.
How is this related to SEO? It goes along with building links. You may not know when you are "talked about" on another blog, so this will give you a heads up so you can check out the resource. Sometimes I only find out an item of mine was featured on a blog because I notice a significant amount of traffic coming from the source in my Google Analytics. With a Google Alert, I will know right away... or at least on a weekly basis... if an item is featured (and somebody mentions my keyword).
I liken this to a more well-rounded and less messy version of checking your backlinks. From what I can tell so far, unlike backlink reports, Google Alerts does not report when you leave a comment on somebody's blog or website.
Why do I care? Think about all the blog comments we leave every day, heck for one giveaway I may leave 5 comments! I don't want an alert for each time I comment on a blog... I know I left a comment there. So Google Alert isn't looking for your hyperlink, it is looking for your search term. Nice.
Now that you know what Google Alerts offer, get the step-by-step directions and additional commentary by heading over to the original post on the Campfire Chic blog.
------
Kam is a twenty-something-year-old living in Southern California with her boyfriend and many animals. She blogs about her outdoor adventures and love for crafts on Campfire Chic and sells camping-themed items in an online shop of the same name. She enjoys hiking, camping, reading, and eating tacos.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Congrats to riversongrapture for ANOTHER Team Front Page!
Wow! riversongrapture had not one but TWO Etsy front pages in the same night - congrats to everyone featured. Here's another beautiful example of the beautiful beads for sale in riversongrapture's shop....
a team discovery treasuryover half these shops have less than 50 sales, the rest are teamdiscovery members.
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| Moukaite Jasper beads by riversongrapture |
'A touch of blue sky on a gray day' by riversongrapture
a team discovery treasuryover half these shops have less than 50 sales, the rest are teamdiscovery members.
 Knitted necklace LU... $24.00 |  Womens Military Sco... $52.00 |  Serene bird rock pa... $15.00 |  Vintage European Co... $10.00 |
 handmade sailing ve... $1200.00 |  Deep Blue Sea Neckl... $38.00 |  Prettiest leather C... $15.00 |  C & C pop mug $15.00 |
 Add an Easel - For ... $3.00 |  Lavender Sachets ma... $14.00 |  Beauty in a Single ... $24.00 |  1950s Vintage Turqu... $145.00 |
 The Butterfly Summe... $32.00 |  Vintage Brooch Ster... $25.00 |  mini landscape jour... $34.00 |  Green Onion hand cu... $20.00 |
Congrats riversongrapture on a Team Front Page!
What a gorgeous Etsy Front Page from riversongrapture! Check out riversongrapture's store for beautiful, affordable beads.
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| Cultured Freshwater Pearls |
'geometrija' by riversongrapture
 Hand Embroidered Ne... $85.00 |  doe a dear embroide... $50.00 |  Confetti Leather Br... $28.00 |  geometrija $10.00 |
 SAIL: linear geome... $55.00 |  Yellow and Orange C... $30.00 |  Black and Mustard D... $16.00 |  square, navy blue d... $12.50 |
 Patchwork Fabric Wa... $30.00 |  no. 26 - tourmalina... $38.00 |  nu cola bloom no. 3... $42.00 |  LARGE OPEN PLAID Sm... $30.00 |
 Kalidoscope Marking... $29.99 |  Encaustic Triangles... $220.00 |  Ursa Major T-shirt-... $25.00 |  Ripple / Painted St... $75.00 |
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