Monday, September 20, 2010
Monday Treasury Challenge - Pumpkin
We had a lot of entries in last weeks challenge and the winner is RedLeafGallery's treasury! And what a coincidence because RedLeafGallery happens to have a beautiful photo that fits in perfectly with the Etsy Merchandising Desk themes for this month.
Anyone is welcome to come play but there are some simple rules that must be followed in order for your treasury to be considered as a finalist.
#1: Your treasury must include this photo made by RedLeafGallery. You can put them in any spot you like but they must be there somewhere. The theme can be anything you like as long as this photo is included.
#2: Your treasury must contain at least 8 new or undiscovered shops. Undiscovered shops have 20 sales or less. The Etsy Pounce function is good for discovering brand new shops and there is a thread in the Etsy forums here that is chock full of new and undiscovered shops.
#3: Your treasury must fill the remaining spots with Team Discovery members. The team members are listed here.
#4: Your treasury MUST be tagged "teamdiscovery", all one word, and "TDchallenge", all one word, without the quotes. Also, we recommend you fill every tag space that is appropriate for your treasury and use "new" 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 are unsure of what to say in your challenge treasury, feel free to use this:
#8: When you have completed your challenge treasury, come back here 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 evening. The winner will be announced next Monday.
Anyone is welcome to come play but there are some simple rules that must be followed in order for your treasury to be considered as a finalist.
#1: Your treasury must include this photo made by RedLeafGallery. You can put them in any spot you like but they must be there somewhere. The theme can be anything you like as long as this photo is included.
#2: Your treasury must contain at least 8 new or undiscovered shops. Undiscovered shops have 20 sales or less. The Etsy Pounce function is good for discovering brand new shops and there is a thread in the Etsy forums here that is chock full of new and undiscovered shops.
#3: Your treasury must fill the remaining spots with Team Discovery members. The team members are listed here.
#4: Your treasury MUST be tagged "teamdiscovery", all one word, and "TDchallenge", all one word, without the quotes. Also, we recommend you fill every tag space that is appropriate for your treasury and use "new" 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 are unsure of what to say in your challenge treasury, feel free to use this:
This is a Team Discovery challenge treasury made up of undiscovered shops (less than 20 sales) and team members. Anyone can join in this challenge. Details here:
http://etsyteamdiscovery.blogspot.com/2010/09/monday-treasury-challenge-pumpkin.html
#7: Your treasury must include "Treasury Challenge" somewhere in your title.
#8: When you have completed your challenge treasury, come back here 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 evening. The winner will be announced next Monday.
The winner of this challenge will be able to have one of THEIR OWN items featured for next week's challenge!
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Managing Friends on Facebook
by, Jennifer
Having 30 or 40 friends is not hard to keep track of. But when you have a few hundred friends, one can easily loose track of their friends. So, how to manage your friends? The easiest way would be to use lists. Create a list named Surfin' Buddies, Family, High School Friends or whatever is easy for you to know who those people are. Only you see your lists so no worries if you call a list "Enemies I am keeping close".
Where to start? Idealy, in the beginning is a good place to start but if you are like me, you created your facebook account and started adding friends. So start now. When you send or receive a friend request, add the person to a list by clicking on Add To List and selecting a list from the drop down. No lists? Simply type in a new list name and then send or accept the friend request.
Now, about those friends you already have. At the top right of any Facebook page, click on Account and click on Edit Friends from the pop-out menu.
Here you can manage your friends by adding them to a list, deleting them, moving them to another list, or just look for them.
To create a new list from Edit Friends, just click on Create New List and type a list name in the little box. Then you can scroll through the list in the pop-up box and click on each friend you want to add to that list. They will be highlighted blue if selected. To unselect, just click them again to remove the blue highlight. When you are finished, click Create List.
If you want, you can scroll through your list of friends and add each one to a list one friend at a time. Just locate the friend, click Add To List next to their name and click the list you want them to be added to.
Too many friends to scroll through? Looking for a particular friend? You can find your friends easily in 2 ways.
First, while you are on the edit friends page, you can type in the search box (on the left, not at the top) the first letters of their name. As you type, the list will reduce and show only friends with that combination of letters in their name.
Second, from any page of Facebook, you can type in the beginning of the name or page you are looking for in the search box at the top of the page. A pop-out box will show all pages, groups, friends, etc. that have those matching letters. Sometimes, it will show you even those you have not yet connected to.
Need to delete someone from your friends list? Yes, this happens that we picked the wrong person to network with. From the Edit Friends page, just find their name and click the X to the right of their name. A pop-up will ask you to confirm you really want to delete them.
And finally, now that you have your friends organized, where did those lists go? On the Edit Friends page, you will see the lists on the left hand side. Just click on the list you want to view, and only those added to that list will show up.
Having 30 or 40 friends is not hard to keep track of. But when you have a few hundred friends, one can easily loose track of their friends. So, how to manage your friends? The easiest way would be to use lists. Create a list named Surfin' Buddies, Family, High School Friends or whatever is easy for you to know who those people are. Only you see your lists so no worries if you call a list "Enemies I am keeping close".
Where to start? Idealy, in the beginning is a good place to start but if you are like me, you created your facebook account and started adding friends. So start now. When you send or receive a friend request, add the person to a list by clicking on Add To List and selecting a list from the drop down. No lists? Simply type in a new list name and then send or accept the friend request.
Now, about those friends you already have. At the top right of any Facebook page, click on Account and click on Edit Friends from the pop-out menu.
Here you can manage your friends by adding them to a list, deleting them, moving them to another list, or just look for them.
To create a new list from Edit Friends, just click on Create New List and type a list name in the little box. Then you can scroll through the list in the pop-up box and click on each friend you want to add to that list. They will be highlighted blue if selected. To unselect, just click them again to remove the blue highlight. When you are finished, click Create List.
If you want, you can scroll through your list of friends and add each one to a list one friend at a time. Just locate the friend, click Add To List next to their name and click the list you want them to be added to.
Too many friends to scroll through? Looking for a particular friend? You can find your friends easily in 2 ways.
First, while you are on the edit friends page, you can type in the search box (on the left, not at the top) the first letters of their name. As you type, the list will reduce and show only friends with that combination of letters in their name.
Second, from any page of Facebook, you can type in the beginning of the name or page you are looking for in the search box at the top of the page. A pop-out box will show all pages, groups, friends, etc. that have those matching letters. Sometimes, it will show you even those you have not yet connected to.
Need to delete someone from your friends list? Yes, this happens that we picked the wrong person to network with. From the Edit Friends page, just find their name and click the X to the right of their name. A pop-up will ask you to confirm you really want to delete them.
And finally, now that you have your friends organized, where did those lists go? On the Edit Friends page, you will see the lists on the left hand side. Just click on the list you want to view, and only those added to that list will show up.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Congrats withaflourish! Another FP Treasury!
Congrats OonaJamesStudio! Another FP Treasury!
I woke up this morning to hear we had another FP team treasury! Congrats to OonaJamesStudio and everyone in this treasury. Way to get the word out about undiscovered shops!
View the Sand & Stone treasury here.
View the Sand & Stone treasury here.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Creative Minds: [taking you behind the scenes]
Mixed Media Art with the talented Cindy Columbia
Hey Cindy..thanks for letting us step behind the scenes of Mixed Media Art. This interview forms part of the collection of Team Discovery member interviews, where we delve deeper into the creative minds of our members and showcase the handmade goodness that is available.
I was first drawn to your paintings by your bold colour palette. Your unique paintings entice with the splashes of colour dancing on the canvas.
What did you want to be when you were growing up and have you always had a passion for art?
Would you believe me if I told you there was no other thing I wanted to be but an artist? I started drawing at a very young age. My mom was an artist and to keep me entertained and out of her hair she would give me a piece of paper and charcoal pencil and let me have at it.
Could you please write a few lines that capture your journey thus far…
Mom nixed my plans for art school, as she wanted me to be a trial lawyer, which I had no desire to be. So I got married instead at only 19, which really should be illegal! After my divorce I was a single mom for 14 years and life was pretty much about supporting my son and myself. I did manage to get an interior decorating job after hounding the store for a year and that is what got me back into using my creativity for fun. I remarried and had my youngest and was a SAHM for 12 years. Last year I decided to dabble in paints again but this time I was not going to do what I used to do which was realism and portraits. I wanted fun so did abstracts. Then in May I opened my Etsy shop.
You describe your paintings as whimsical folk art. Folk art is commonly described as drawing inspiration from life experiences and cultural backgrounds. Would this be an accurate description for your paintings and do you relate to any of the characters that you paint?
I guess the answer would be yes and no. Yes there is a side of me that is totally down to earth, loves nature and the simple life. There is also a side of me that likes bling! So how do I mesh these two things? That is what I am trying to find out. As far as the characters I create, you noticed I do a lot of people. I LOVE people. I love knowing what makes a person tick. I love abstract and folk art because you can totally exaggerate something about a person to make it stand out and be noticed. Many times I start off drawing someone and have no particular person in mind, but all of a sudden someone I know shows up on my canvas and I am like WOW hey there :)
Where do you draw inspiration from for your artwork?
Tough question. It is never the same thing. Sometimes there is a color palette I want to try and so I figure out what I can create using those colors. Other times I will meet a person who is just so animated or such a character that I decide I need to recreate them. Often though history is my inspiration.
Please choose two pieces of your own artwork and allow us to explore behind the scenes…
There are two pieces of work that I consider "serious art". They are both abstract in nature but the sentiment behind both of them is very important to me. "The Twin" was one of the first paintings I did when I started a year and a half ago. My reading of Hitler's Europe during the Holocaust is the inspiration behind the piece. I was so moved by reading books by survivors that I felt I had to make something permanent to express my feelings about the tragedy. One book in particular "Children of The Flames" tore deep into my soul and I felt I had to do something so I painted The Twin. It depicts the surviving twin who was part of Dr Mengele's experiments. When one twin died they called for the other to come forward, they killed him immediately so they could autopsy them both at the same time of death. This painting has my soul in it. It has evolved from an almost cartoon character to what it is today. It is impossible to describe for you what that process was for me as there is just not enough space or time to do so. I have a before pic and an after pic of him (painting thumbnails are in order below).
This painting will never be sold. If anything it will be donated to an appropriate venue. It is currently being proposed to be shown at Yad Vashem the Holocaust authority in Israel. I do not know if it will be accepted because they have never shown any artwork by anyone other then a survivor or one of their children. Just the thought of it being considered is a very humbling thing to me. Of all the work I do, none will ever be as important to me as that piece. It has been shown to survivors living in Israel and it has brought them to tears not because of the sadness of what happened but because someone decades later, myself, was so touched by their story that I felt the need to remember them. I completed that painting and dedicated it on Holocaust Remembrance Day 2010.
Aside from your Etsy store, Mixed Media Art , do you sell your artwork through other means?
I have sold artwork at another online store as well as on EBay. I am only now focusing on creating a local following. I know some wonderful folks who are willing to allow me to set up displays in their brick and mortar shops. I am also planning on doing some local shows this fall and see how that goes.
Any sneak peaks into what items will appear in the future in your Etsy store?
I have been making a transition from regular acrylic painting to mixed media painting. I am currently stocking up on supplies to bring my work into yet another dimension, which is, altered art. One of my favorite things to do when I was a kid was make collages. My walls were plastered with little vignettes I had put together. The rise in popularity in altered art thrills me because it will allow me to go back in time and pick up where I left off 30 years ago. This time I will be approaching it from an adult perspective so I am very excited about it!
What item in your wardrobe have you held onto that has come back around in fashion?
Funny you mention this. I have a pair of black wing tip patent leather shoes that I used to LOVE to wear that I got in the 80's. I am a pants person and love oversized sweaters and wool jackets. I wore them long after I guess I was not supposed to simply because I liked them. Recently I was out and about and came across a pair of women's patent leather men's looking loafers! I almost bought them but thought wow I have those other ones at home and they are worn in perfectly!
A place that you have visited, anywhere in the world, that has blown you away and why?
Cancun. The water blew me away totally. I have been down to several beaches in southern states and of course many northern shorelines but they don't hold a candle to Cancun. Perfect color, perfect temperature, and total visibility. I am a water sign (Scorpio) so water and my close proximity to it is important. I could live the rest of my life on a beach there, own nothing but what I need to survive, and be blissfully happy.
How do you decorate your home? Is there an abundance of artwork? Bursts of colour?
LOL not at all. As I mentioned before there are two sides to me. One is down to earth the other is bling. I love the juxtaposition of old and new and things that really should not be put together, put together. My house is totally monochromatic. A palette of black, gray and brown. Cream leather, metal, French hand carved wood casegoods, IKEA dark wood modern mixed in there. I like unusual things displayed uniquely. I love high contrast and drama. If I were to have to describe my decorative style it would be Art Deco slamming into Traditional while yanking some Modern in for the ride. Very eclectic yet classic.
Thank you Cindy for allowing us to peep through the keyhole into your creative mind.
Interview by Belle of down the alley
Hey Cindy..thanks for letting us step behind the scenes of Mixed Media Art. This interview forms part of the collection of Team Discovery member interviews, where we delve deeper into the creative minds of our members and showcase the handmade goodness that is available.
I was first drawn to your paintings by your bold colour palette. Your unique paintings entice with the splashes of colour dancing on the canvas.
What did you want to be when you were growing up and have you always had a passion for art?
Would you believe me if I told you there was no other thing I wanted to be but an artist? I started drawing at a very young age. My mom was an artist and to keep me entertained and out of her hair she would give me a piece of paper and charcoal pencil and let me have at it.
Could you please write a few lines that capture your journey thus far…
Mom nixed my plans for art school, as she wanted me to be a trial lawyer, which I had no desire to be. So I got married instead at only 19, which really should be illegal! After my divorce I was a single mom for 14 years and life was pretty much about supporting my son and myself. I did manage to get an interior decorating job after hounding the store for a year and that is what got me back into using my creativity for fun. I remarried and had my youngest and was a SAHM for 12 years. Last year I decided to dabble in paints again but this time I was not going to do what I used to do which was realism and portraits. I wanted fun so did abstracts. Then in May I opened my Etsy shop.
You describe your paintings as whimsical folk art. Folk art is commonly described as drawing inspiration from life experiences and cultural backgrounds. Would this be an accurate description for your paintings and do you relate to any of the characters that you paint?
I guess the answer would be yes and no. Yes there is a side of me that is totally down to earth, loves nature and the simple life. There is also a side of me that likes bling! So how do I mesh these two things? That is what I am trying to find out. As far as the characters I create, you noticed I do a lot of people. I LOVE people. I love knowing what makes a person tick. I love abstract and folk art because you can totally exaggerate something about a person to make it stand out and be noticed. Many times I start off drawing someone and have no particular person in mind, but all of a sudden someone I know shows up on my canvas and I am like WOW hey there :)
Where do you draw inspiration from for your artwork?
Tough question. It is never the same thing. Sometimes there is a color palette I want to try and so I figure out what I can create using those colors. Other times I will meet a person who is just so animated or such a character that I decide I need to recreate them. Often though history is my inspiration.
Please choose two pieces of your own artwork and allow us to explore behind the scenes…
There are two pieces of work that I consider "serious art". They are both abstract in nature but the sentiment behind both of them is very important to me. "The Twin" was one of the first paintings I did when I started a year and a half ago. My reading of Hitler's Europe during the Holocaust is the inspiration behind the piece. I was so moved by reading books by survivors that I felt I had to make something permanent to express my feelings about the tragedy. One book in particular "Children of The Flames" tore deep into my soul and I felt I had to do something so I painted The Twin. It depicts the surviving twin who was part of Dr Mengele's experiments. When one twin died they called for the other to come forward, they killed him immediately so they could autopsy them both at the same time of death. This painting has my soul in it. It has evolved from an almost cartoon character to what it is today. It is impossible to describe for you what that process was for me as there is just not enough space or time to do so. I have a before pic and an after pic of him (painting thumbnails are in order below).
This painting will never be sold. If anything it will be donated to an appropriate venue. It is currently being proposed to be shown at Yad Vashem the Holocaust authority in Israel. I do not know if it will be accepted because they have never shown any artwork by anyone other then a survivor or one of their children. Just the thought of it being considered is a very humbling thing to me. Of all the work I do, none will ever be as important to me as that piece. It has been shown to survivors living in Israel and it has brought them to tears not because of the sadness of what happened but because someone decades later, myself, was so touched by their story that I felt the need to remember them. I completed that painting and dedicated it on Holocaust Remembrance Day 2010.
Aside from your Etsy store, Mixed Media Art , do you sell your artwork through other means?
I have sold artwork at another online store as well as on EBay. I am only now focusing on creating a local following. I know some wonderful folks who are willing to allow me to set up displays in their brick and mortar shops. I am also planning on doing some local shows this fall and see how that goes.
Any sneak peaks into what items will appear in the future in your Etsy store?
I have been making a transition from regular acrylic painting to mixed media painting. I am currently stocking up on supplies to bring my work into yet another dimension, which is, altered art. One of my favorite things to do when I was a kid was make collages. My walls were plastered with little vignettes I had put together. The rise in popularity in altered art thrills me because it will allow me to go back in time and pick up where I left off 30 years ago. This time I will be approaching it from an adult perspective so I am very excited about it!
What item in your wardrobe have you held onto that has come back around in fashion?
Funny you mention this. I have a pair of black wing tip patent leather shoes that I used to LOVE to wear that I got in the 80's. I am a pants person and love oversized sweaters and wool jackets. I wore them long after I guess I was not supposed to simply because I liked them. Recently I was out and about and came across a pair of women's patent leather men's looking loafers! I almost bought them but thought wow I have those other ones at home and they are worn in perfectly!
A place that you have visited, anywhere in the world, that has blown you away and why?
Cancun. The water blew me away totally. I have been down to several beaches in southern states and of course many northern shorelines but they don't hold a candle to Cancun. Perfect color, perfect temperature, and total visibility. I am a water sign (Scorpio) so water and my close proximity to it is important. I could live the rest of my life on a beach there, own nothing but what I need to survive, and be blissfully happy.
How do you decorate your home? Is there an abundance of artwork? Bursts of colour?
LOL not at all. As I mentioned before there are two sides to me. One is down to earth the other is bling. I love the juxtaposition of old and new and things that really should not be put together, put together. My house is totally monochromatic. A palette of black, gray and brown. Cream leather, metal, French hand carved wood casegoods, IKEA dark wood modern mixed in there. I like unusual things displayed uniquely. I love high contrast and drama. If I were to have to describe my decorative style it would be Art Deco slamming into Traditional while yanking some Modern in for the ride. Very eclectic yet classic.
Thank you Cindy for allowing us to peep through the keyhole into your creative mind.
Interview by Belle of down the alley
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