Friday, January 29, 2010

"Love-ly" Greetings



HEART's A-FIRE with Red ROSE Flourish Handmade Card: a new item in the SalonD'Arte shoppe at Etsy.

Show your love with this hand-stamped card: 5 1/2" tall x 4" wide made with My Minds Eye patterned paper, featuring a hand-stamped embossed layered rose with flourish and finished off with satin ribbon. Inside is blank for adding personal message and comes with an envelope for mailing. **Each card is handmade; there may be slight variation in stamped image and patterned paper texturing.

Happy Valentine's Day everybody! I will be celebrating with my husband of 18 years by camping out on the sofa with snacks to watch the Daytona 500 & the return of Nascar racing ; )

Visiting with Wellspring Creations

EtsyTwitter Team's Shop of the Week!




The shop of the week for January 25-31 is from Northern California. When shopping in Wellspring Creations you will find beautiful pieces of jewelry that combine lovely stones or crystals with wire: necklaces, bracelets/cuffs, earrings, and rings.

Judy, owner and designer of Wellspring Creations, shows her love for taking a straight piece of wire and turning it into something unique. "With wire and a lovely stone, my imagination simply blooms and I get to play with symmetry, asymmetry, and geometric design."

She would like all of our readers to know that "I find unusual stones; sometimes beads (with a drilled hole) or cabochons (a flattened, polished stone with no hole). Many of my finds come from only one mine in the whole world! I consider the stone and how best to wrap it so that the stone is secure and the setting shows off the stone, rather than overwhelms it. I prefer using natural stones and high quality wire, mostly sterling silver, but often work with fine (nearly pure) silver, copper, and 14K gold filled wire. Since I put a lot of time and consideration into each piece, I prefer the components to be high quality, so they last well. I try to make every piece an heirloom." Her designs ship internationally so everyone can enjoy one of her beautiful pieces of work!

One of the things I love about Judy is that she is always tweeting about her team members sales and the EtsyTwitter Team's important information. She is always Direct Messaging her fellow tweeter's just to see how they are doing. When asked about how she uses twitter and her tricks she told me: "My followers are my Twitter friends. I follow people that I find interesting and engage in conversations. I think of Twitter as a cocktail party: I go to meet new people, touch bases with old friends and, occasionally, talk about my work. Most of my tweets are comments or responses to other people's tweets. I retweet when it's something I personally find interesting or think others would. I sometimes tweet about my work process--what movie I'm watching while I wrap a pendant; if the light/weather is good enough to photograph my work on a particular day; and a few times a week I tweet a link to an item in my shop. I probably tweet links to others' items a bit more than my own to provide some variety and introduce folks to other handmade artists in a gracious way."

Judy's new years resolution for her store is to work on her photographs so that they "look as good as the jewelry I'm trying to photograph! This is often reflected in feedback from clients delighted how much better their purchase looks in their hand than the picture they saw in the Etsy listing!"

Judy is offering a free handcrafted gift with any purchase from my Etsy shop during the week of January 25-31, 2010.

Use code: SOTW in the comments at checkout.

To learn more about Judy and Wellspring Creations please follow the links below:
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/WSCreations
Etsy Shop: http://www.wellspringcreations.etsy.com/
Facebook: http://www.artist.to/WellspringCreations
Blog: http://www.wellspringcreations.blogspot.com/

Thank you Judy for sharing all of this information with us. We wish you a very successful 2010!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Need to feed your SweetTooth?

Find your Fix at Sweetwater Inspirations -
EtsyTwitter Team's Shop of the Week:


In Sweetwater Inspirations , owner and designer Wendy Hamilton offers her customers distinctive hand-crafted jewelry of exceptional quality and value. Within her shop you can find gifts for men, women, brides, and teens. You can see that in every piece that Wendy makes she takes pride and is very meticulous with her workmanship to ensure a special pieces for each of her customers. Please see her shop for international shipping details and convo her if you need more information.


Wendy admits that "I love to work with metal wire (sterling, copper, brass) and love the sparkle and unique qualities found in glass, stone, and semi-precious beads. I choose materials of quality and pride myself on representing my materials and jewelry with integrity. I purchase my materials in small quantities, so I sell limited production or one of a kind pieces."

She explained to me that her inspirations really are not much of inspiration as it is an "Addiction. Really, my inspiration is as uncontrived as seeing something new to 'play' with, the interplay of color, or the hypnotic affect of sparkly things. Although my husband groans at stepping into a bead or craft store, he has learned to bring his Blackberry for company and is really very patient when my head starts spinning with possibilities."

Although Wendy is new to Twitter and Etsy (opened on 1/5/09: Happy One Year!!) she would like to share what she has learned on Twitter: "I’ve tried to develop a following for my business by tweeting new items in my shop; but I also like the camaraderie of tweeting with other business owners. I think that Twitter and especially the Etsy Twitter Team offer a great way for business owners to connect and help support each other. It’s amazing how a kind tweet or re-tweet has the ability to open each business to a whole new network of people."

Since her store just celebrated its first anniversary on Etsy, Wendy has taken on the following resolution for 2010: "Last year I put a lot of time into learning about e-commerce and developing the software I needed to make my business end run efficiently. This year I am taking courses to hone and expand my metalworking skills and will put more of my time into design development and building my portfolio."

Good luck Wendy! We look forward to seeing your new metal work and designs in 2010!

From January 18th-24th Wendy is offering the following discount in her shop:

FREE US SHIPPING on all items in her Etsy shop
- PLUS a 10% discount on purchases totaling $50 or more* ·
Discount will be refunded to PayPal after payment or you may convo her before payment for a revised invoice. Texas residents - applicable purchase of $50 is calculated before sales tax. International shipping is not included in applicable minimum purchase and discount does not apply to shipping.


Wow! What a great idea to tell our DH and family members to do while we shop for the things we love the most! Thanks for the amazing tips Wendy about your shop and about your how you work on Twitter.

To learn more about Sweetwater Inspirations please visit Wendy's shop at:
http://sweetwatergifts.etsy.com/

Use the links below to follow Sweetwater's latest information:

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/SweetwaterGifts
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sweetwater-Inspirations/115542896770


Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade
SweetwaterGifts.etsy.com

EtsyTwitter Team has found...

the Lost Mitten: ETT Shop of the Week



When stepping into this week's Shop of the Week, LostMitten.etsy.com, you can feel Lauren Y.'s love for all things that come from video games. Lauren's shop includes handmade crafts, Perler Bead goods for your office and home, needlepoint creations, Nintendo DS cases, and more. In addition to video games, she loves to knit and crochet! You have to check out these amazing fingerless gloves and awesome hats! A perfect gift for this chilly season (and I do mean chilly)! Lost Mitten is also known for a variety of pinback buttons.

Lauren's shop ships internationally and is located in Brantford, Ontario, Canada (near Hamilton, Toronto, London). Lauren would like all of her customers to know that "Each item in the Lost Mitten Etsy Shop is lovingly handmade by me. The designs and concepts for the creations are a collaboration between myself and my fiancé, Paul. My shop has been open since September 2006."


Here at the Etsy Twitter Team we love to share our tricks and favorite ways to use Twitter. Lauren has told me that she just "loves to tweet about my handmade creations and anything else that happens in day-to-day life. I have met some awesome people through my tweets, so I feel that it is important to make these connections and friendships for an improved Twitter experience. I think it is important to establish a balance between tweeting for your business and tweeting about yourself because people don't want to feel like they are being advertised to all of the time. They want to hear about your interests and other interesting things, too!"

So true Lauren and we love to read your tweets about what’s going on in your Etsy store and your day-to-day life!

Lauren's favorite part of her craft is when she finds out that one of her items have made a wonderful gift for anyone or themselves. Her favorite items to make are the Perler Bead items that she started to make in 2006 when her shop opened on Etsy. Lauren also enjoys taking on new challenges in her craft. (Please convo her for custom made items.)

Since it is the beginning of 2010, we have challenged all of our members to take on a New Year’s Resolution. Lauren admits (like most of us here at ETT) that Etsy becomes addicting. She hopes to spend more time creating this year as a part-time job. We wish you tons of luck, Lauren, in this new resolution and want to say congratulations to you and Paul on planning your wedding.

Follow her on Twitter: @lostmitten
Fan her Facebook Pages: http://www.facebook.com/lostmittenetsy
http://www.facebook.com/lostmitten
Read her blog: http://lostmittenblog.blogspot.com

This week ONLY (ends January 17, 2010):
10% off all items for anyone who mentions this article! Mention "Etsy Twitter Team" in comments at checkout and after payment is received via PayPal she will refund you for the amount of the discount.


Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade
lostmitten.etsy.com

Scrapping the New Year in Style

EtsyTwitter Team's Shop Of The Week:
Scrap With Style


If you're always on the lookout for unique papers and embellishments, Scrap With Style is a dream come true.

As owner Janelle Jones says, "I have papers, ribbons, rub-ons, embellishments, cardstock, scrapbook albums, fun things that can bring family photographs to life! I also make some premade scrapbook albums (paper-bag, recycled CD style and others) and put together page kits and cut paper packs too."


A stay-at-home/work-at-home mom with two little girls, Janelle finds inspiration " in the tons of pictures I take of my two girls. Those pictures are what got me into scrapbooking and making photo projects! I really love displaying family photos."


She also loves the fact that the business allows her to work at home alongside her girls, ages 2 and 4. "My 4 year old particularly likes to help with packing the orders and ribbons!"

From a business perspective, Janelle finds Twitter great for connecting with fellow crafters. "I love to meet people and I really enjoy the social aspect of twitter. It's fun to meet other crafty people and share tricks and tips about papercrafting!"

The shop happily ships both across the country and internationally.

For more information about ScrapWithStyle:

http://www.twitter.com/scrapwithstyle
http://facebook.com/scrapwithstyle
http://janellescraps.com/
http://scrapwithstyle.com/

For this week, Janelle is offering the following great discounts:

10% off orders of $5 or more, 15% off orders of $10 or more, and 20% off orders of $20 or more just put "SOTW" in msg to seller @ checkout. Refunds made via paypal or you can request an updated invoice before payment.


Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade
scrapwithstyle.etsy.com
Blog Widget by LinkWithin