SOTW - MAD Design

If your like me I spend tons of time picking out that perfect card for that special day. Well look no further! This is a must book mark/heart it and add into your circle shop. The shop of the week (SOTW) is your paper goods destination shop. Mad Design is run by the lovely Marisa.

Marisa designs (through art) and makes the paper goods you see featured in the Mad Design shop. If you enjoy simple, modern design with a sense of whimsy then her shop is the perfect one for you on Etsy.

Did you know that she "began my career as a toy designer"? No? Well because of this background Marisa "likes to think that I have a strong sense, not only of basic design, but also of fun and whimsy and I want my products to make you smile." Her design and influence runs deeper from just toy making. It also comes from her "my high school art teacher who gave me the confidence to pursue art school and taught me that a little belief in myself can go a long way. Today I am very influenced by my husband, and fellow designer, who not only inspires me but also helps pull me out of my creative ruts."

What I love about Marisa is her heart of gold. We asked her If you had a million dollars to give away what would you do with it? She replied back with "I would give it to schools to preserve all arts programs. I just cringe when the arts are the first things cut when budget issues arise. The arts are beneficial in so many ways and are so critical to our development, culture, communities, even our economy. They should never be underestimated."

WOW!! How true this must be for Marisa and so many other talented artist.

Mad Design is

offering 20% off for the week.

Use coupon code ETTSOTW20

posted by Jen

Jenco13.etsy.com

SOTW -- SewDanish

This week, the Etsy Twitter team is proud to introduce you to Birgitte Hendricks, the artist behind SewDanish. Birgitte, who currently lives in Suffolk, England, is originally from Denmark. She makes an amazing variety of affordable woven and fiber art: beautiful baskets woven from an array of inventive materials, petite sewn origami pillow key rings, fabric covered boxes...and more! If you are looking for high quality, handmade textile or paper based items, SewDanish is a must-see. Most of Birgitte's items are one of a kind or made in very limited editions.

Birgitte is an exhibiting, Danish textile artist. While her shop currently has many exciting unique pieces, she plans to add a new level of merchandise: "I will...start listing fiber art/textile art pieces that have been exhibited around England. I make the majority of my own supplies.... My handmade supply section is the latest addition to my shop as I wanted to share my ‘surplus’ with you."

She has been known to teach some classes, too. We're hoping she'll be able to publish some eBook lessons for those of us who can't pop over to Suffolk.

Birgitte is definitely influenced by her heritage. She says "As a native Dane my fiber art is very much under influence of the Danish minimalistic approach to design and use of color. I tend to gravitate towards the lighter color scheme and use color quite sparingly. In my work I use a lot of recycled paper and fabric, as it is important for me to do my bit for the environment, and I love the unique broken in/worn feeling a one can achieve. Using recycled repurposed items is a wonderful challenge on its own."

As with many Etsy Twitter teammates, Birgitte has been influenced and supported in her artistic talents by her family: "The two most influential persons that at a very young age got me interested in crafting were my mother and my grandmother. My mother taught me to knit and crochet when I was 6 years old. My grandmother introduced me embroidery and dress making. I’m so grateful that they kept encouraging me, recognizing my huge interest in crafting and creating."

Later, fate stepped in and opened up more avenues of creativity: "After moving to England I was so fortunate to do 5 years of craft training in patchwork and quilting, art and design, free style machine embroidery and creative hand embroidery. A huge amount of assessments, but pure bliss! Loved every minute of it."

Birgitte feels that Twitter is a great tool for both networking and showcasing her art: "Tweet a mixture of ‘talk’ and links. Join teams (outside) twitter and then use twitter for networking with team members. Reply and re-tweet getting to know other tweeps. Have fun!"

Another (and surprising) side to Birgitte is medical--she is a trained RGN (Registered General Nurse)! For many years, she has worked in operating rooms performing mainly open heart surgery from North of the Arctic Circle in Norway all the way to the Middle Eastern desert! In fact, if she had $1 million to give away, it would go to the medical field: to cancer research. "Both my parents passed away way too young due to cancer. The more research into prevention and treatments the better."


To celebrate SOTW, SewDanish is offering
FREE shipping
February 28 through March 6, 2011
SewDanish happily ships worldwide from England
~~~~~~~~~
Etsy Shop: SewDanish.etsy.com
Twitter: twitter.com/sewdanish
Facebook: facebook.com/SewDanish
Blog: SewDanish.blogspot.com
LinkedIn: uk.linkedin.com/in/BirgitteHendricks

Written by Judy of WellspringCreations

Shop of the Week: SalonDArte

This weeks shop of the week is SalonDArte. Owned and run by the very talented Susan M. Brown {sbartist} from Fort Lauderdale, FL. Susan creates " paper-crafts mainly. Paper ornaments, lanterns, cards, collages, and mini books are my specialty. I paint, dabble in photography and other media, too. My items are quite different from knitting, crocheting and jewelry that many of my talented Etsy friends create. For my family and friends, they always get a special handmade gift from me - earrings or a bracelet - something special made just for them. Each item is hand made. A one-of-a-kind creation. Not machined, mass-produced or factory made - Handmade. Time and attention to detail is given to each piece and in many cases, I even make a custom package to give it a proper home. Even though the supplies may be the simple and small in nature, each piece comes to life with it's own character and special charm - making it something to treasure."

The favorite thing about my crafts is their simplicity and attention to detail. Being a graphic artist by trade, and a habitual perfectionist working in the printing industry, I focus on the little details - that one thing that is the finishing touch, the personality of the item. Especially with my ornaments. I have my own collection of personally chosen gems for my tree, and it's those details that always catch my eye.

I get inspiration from everywhere. Sometimes this could be a bad thing, because I am one who loves to dabble in many media - and I have many media at my disposal. A week ago Friday, I was standing in the Grand Canyon, what a beauty of nature, with so many juxtapositions of color and texture - so I was a photographer that day. Just this past Sunday I attended a clothing Swap-a-rama and ladies were altering clothes and silk screening on site at the event. A "Light bulb" went off over my head - collage my clothes...now I'm now off on another tangent! I have the luxury of using my Etsy shoppe for my alter-artistic ego. Lately I have been really into artfully recycling things, and giving things a crafty second life. I love making cards - they are a small canvas that can go in many directions. Also I love to teach, and I share my artistic, crafty knowledge with others, which is the greatest reward.

An insiders tip about how Etsians ship their handmade items..

"something about shipping. I think that many etsians would agree, we are in a quandry about shipping. We aren't in the business of selling shipping, just recouping the cost. Due to the odd size and shape of my items, the shipping may seem expensive. The ornaments and lanterns are made of paper & hollow inside - these have to be double boxed and have extra cushion to keep from being crushed in shipment. Honestly, shipping is a means of delivery, not profit. Many times the postage is more expensive than what I am charging to ship - it's more expensive than the item I'm selling in some cases. If it's not in an envelope and less than 13 ounces, the cost of shipping is getting pretty ridiculous. I prefer to use priority mail, they provide sturdy packaging, the service is pretty reliable and the less time it's being handled the better. I have a beautiful china doll my uncle sent me for my ninth birthday that was delivered via UPS. When I opened the box and picked her out of the packaging, her neck was broken in several pieces. My mom was able to super glue it, but it was never the same. Now the glue is aged and brown on the white porcelain. It's a constant reminder to me that when it comes to shipping precious cargo, one should never be to frugal. Please keep this in mind when shopping with your favorite etsy artisans."

Susan shared with me her :special events or plans do you have for your shop/business over the summer. Since this is my 1 year etsy-versary this month and that most of my items revolve around items for the holidays - I will be celebrating Christmas in July ALL month long. During July 5th through July 11th, I will be giving free US domestic first Class shipping for all items in my shop.

Special deals or coupons for the week and how they work/are redeemed if you have them: July 5th through July 11th, all items in my shop will have FREE US domestic first Class shipping. No coupon code necessary. The shipping cost will already be adjusted. For international shipping, please convo for invoice with shipping cost.

Etsy Shop: http://www.SalonDArte.etsy.com

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/SalonDArte

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/SalonDArte/103281492810

Blog: http://www.SalonDArte.blogspot.com

Written by

Etsy twitter team leader, Jen

Jenco13.etsy.com

http://twitter.com/jenco13

Shop of the Week: Uber Art

If you are in the market for a stunning hand-bound journal or guest book, look no further than UberArt.etsy.com. Beth’s work is to die for! Any paper lover would agree that her work would be a pleasure to create an art journal with. Your guests will also love to sign their names in her guest books, and these would make a great addition to any event, not just weddings. Wouldn’t it be fun to have a guest book from that backyard BBQ that was so fun last summer? You can have blank pages added to the back of Beth’s guest books for photos and mementos. A book like that would be cherished for years to come!

All of Beth’s books are made with tender loving care, with superior workmanship, and great attention to detail. She is a self-professed super-perfectionist and if it doesn't pass her quality control, it doesn't leave her studio!


“My customers inspire me to create books that both of us love. Making something beautiful that will be cherished and loved is very rewarding for me. I love working with paper, collecting paper, coordinating papers, touching paper... and so on! Selling my books gives me an excuse to buy more paper!” says Beth about her work.

Beth has an undergraduate degree in studio art and a Masters in Art Therapy. She has studied everything from paper arts to jewelry design, collage and pottery. She is a self-taught book artist and has been making books since around 2003.

Recently she worked with the Grammy Award winning rock band, The Fray, to create a backstage guest book for their 2009 summer tour. You can view her portfolio at flickr.com/photos/uberart.

She ships internationally and is running a sale for this week: Mention "EtsyTwitter" in the Notes to Seller section for 10% off any item in her shop (expires Sunday 8/9/09).

Follow her on Twitter @UberArt
Read her blog: uberartshop.blogspot.com

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

Shop Of The Week: Glitzy Events

Kimberley Williams, of Glitzy Events has one mission: to provide high quality products and personalized service to her clients. Whether working with brides-to-be, or those planning graduation, anniversary or other celebrations, Glitzy Events is a one-stop source for everything from gorgeous, fully customized invitations to products such as unity & memorial candles, place cards, menus, programs, etc.

Born out of Kimberley's frustrations while planning her own wedding, Glitzy Events is happy to design something unique for a customer. "We can take any design in our shop and customize it completely for our clients. If a client loves our work but wants something a little different we will work with them until we can come up with a design that they love. We don’t charge any additional design fees as we feel that this is part of the custom process." Located in New York, the shop currently ships to the US, Canada, Australia, and the UK and is always happy to provide shipping quotes for other International customers.

With a full service website as well as an Etsy location, Kim's always looking for ways to save time and has found Twitter to be very useful in reaching new clients.

"Twitterfeed.com has been an extremely helpful tool. As I list new items they are posted to my twitter account automatically within 30 minutes which then results in immediate views for my products. Using this tool saves me a lot of time and allows my products to be seen by hundreds of people almost instantly. This has helped me to connect with other professionals within and outside of my industry. These connections lead to referrals which lead to sales."

Glitzy Events is offering two specials this week: Become a Fan of their Facebook Page (http://facebook.com/GlitzyEvents), leave a comment on their Wall, and receive 5% off your full

invitation order

AND

Order 2 or more INVITATION samples and get free shipping...refund to be issued via Paypal.

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

Shop Of The Week: RoseBush Designs

Beth Wietrzykowski is the guiding light ( and hand! ) behind RoseBush Designs' beautiful cards, gift bags, journals and accessories. Beth's designs ship internationally as well as in the US, and offer the beauty and individuality of a hand-crafted card for any occasion, something many of us wish for when confronted by racks of mass-produced cards.

"All of what I make is something I would give to someone myself. I cut, stamp, color and put all these together by hand. I do not have any kind of printing machine or mass produce cards (wouldn't it be nice though!). All of my products are available in multiples and I'm happy to do custom orders or change colors if desired. "

A stay-at-home mom to two boys, Beth finds creating an outlet for her inner girl.

"Most of the time, we are playing outside getting sweaty and dirty so being able to play with ribbons and glitter is a nice treat for me.

My inspirations come from anywhere! I get ideas from nature, magazines, friends, anywhere really. I'm still learning every day about new techniques, ways to make my product better, ways to photograph and edit my pictures as well as new crafting products. It's a never ending lesson for me and I think that is what keeps me going and excited about my craft. "

Beth also has great tips for using Twitter as a means of promoting your work:

"I try to engage. I see it as a big room full of people who want to chat. When I see something that is funny, sad, inspirational, odd or whatever, I comment on it. I try to be fun and lighthearted. I don't see twitter as a forum to air my, or anyone else's, dirty laundry. I promote items that I buy, items I want, my fellow twits on the team and my own items. "

Follow Beth on Twitter @RoseBushDesigns
Read More on her Blog: http://rosebushdesigns.blogspot.com/

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

Bridal Daze: Great Gifts!!

Family and friends of the bride and groom can go handmade for the wedding, too! There are so many items that need to be purchased for a wedding from gifts for the bride and groom to thanks you gifts for the bridal party. The Etsy Twitter Team has some awesome gifts ideas for the big day!

Scrap With Style

Specializes in scrapbooking needs for many occasions. "I love scrapbooking and I'm excited to share these wonderful scrapbooking products with you! I have lots of page kits, coordinating papers, ribbons, albums, chipboard, rub-ons, and other embellishments!" This is a great shop to help your happy couple create memories to treasure!

12" x 12" Scrapbook Page Kit: Timeless Love

This page kit is "timeless" with pretty floral and black and white images, plus I love the touches of red! Great for couples, engagements, love, wedding and even family photos!

Chipboard Layered Album Kit: Our Story

This kit includes everything you need to create an album similar to the sample I've shown here. I love the colors and textures in this kit and I love chipboard!!

I Love You Printed Ribbon: 1/2 inch wide

Super cute ribbon to add to your scrapbooking!

Special Offer: 15% discount in this shop this week -- enter code "Bridal Daze" in Message to Seller at checkout and receive a refund of the discount via PayPal!

Wayside Violet

Many brides have chosen to have Wayside Violet make custom coffee cozies for the bridal party. Personalize the cozies with the bride's wedding colors or other colors of your choice. These make great thank you gifts for the coffee lovers in your life!

Sale: Free shipping on bridal orders!! To redeem type "Bridal Daze" in message to seller at checkout.

Purple Lemon Designs

Monogram address stamps are great bridesmaid's or groomsman's gifts or gifts for the happy couple!




Threepeats

Do you need unique, handmade gifts or favors for the special women involved in your BIG Event? Are you into recycling? This shop is for you!!



All pairs of long, light, dangle earrings (made from recycled vintage beads, chain and ribbon) will be $2.00 off during the Bridal Daze Event (a 25% discount!). Refunds will be posted to your Paypal account after purchase.

Soap Rehab

Made-from-scratch cold process soaps, lotions and other bath and body products... time-honored methods but with a modern kick. Natural yet effective ingredients are used to create products that are detergent free and paraben free. Now you can get clean and feel good about it, too. Bath and body gifts are a special way to say you care about someone!

Pink Champagne Heart Glycerin Soap

Sereni-Tea Shea Body Butter

Blackberry Lemon Drop Pedicure Duo


Fat Daddy Sweets

These would be perfect as favors for a summer wedding! White Chocolate flavored with fresh lemon, just the right amount of tartness and sweetness, reminiscent of sitting on the porch on a warm summer afternoon enjoying an ice cold glass of lemonade. You'll be hard pressed to eat only one at a time!


I hope you have found some new ideas for gifting handmade! Anyone of these gifts would be perfect for almost anyone!

Don't forget... we have a giveaway going on for a Prize Package including a Wayside Violet coffee cozy, beautiful jewelry, and gift certificates and coupons to Etsy Twitter Team Shops. Leave a comment to enter! Commenting closes Sunday, June 14th at midnight!

See all the posts about Bridal Daze!

Bridal Daze Is Here!

In an effort to cure brides, grooms, and their families and friends of the impending "Bridal Daze" that usually occurs during wedding planning, the Etsy Twitter Team is embarking on a week-long journey to help all those affected by that “glazed over” expression when faced with so many choices.

On our blog this week you will find everything from handmade “Save the Date” cards and invitations, jewelry for the bride and attendants, candles, guest books, scrapbooks, gifts, a little food to tide you over, and thank you and note cards. It’s the one-stop-shopping location you dreamed of when you were a little girl dreaming about your wedding. (Ha! Like all of us girls did that, right?!)

After you have chosen your location and date for the wedding you will need two things: “Save the Date” cards and invitations to the big day. Here are some really great ideas for going handmade for your paper goods!!

Purple Lemon Designs

This shop has many choices for the handmade wedding. They carry personal stationery and handmade invitations as well as "Save the Date" stamps to create your own cards.

Check out Purple Lemon Designs' Wedding Stamps and Stationery shop section.

Glitzy Events

Glitzy Events specializes in customized wedding invitations. They offer a creative and affordable alternative for your special day.

Special offer: 5% off any full invitation order, must mention "Etsy Twitter" to qualify. Refund to be issued via PayPal.

Invites by Jen

This shop specializes in paper goods for your whole event, from "Save the Date" cards to programs for the ceremony.

All couples that place their deposit in June to book their wedding stationery for their future date will receive an additional 10% off their entire order. Mention "Etsy Twitter" to receive the discount. This special is on top of all the regular discounts she offers: if you order 150+ invitation sets you receive 10% off your invitation order and if you order your invitations through her you receive 10% off all additional stationery such as menus and programs.

A GRAND GIVEAWAY!!

In addition to the invaluable wedding information you will find this week on the Etsy Twitter Team blog, we are having a contest for all of you! Our team members have put together a lovely prize basket that one lucky commenter will win at the end of the week. Some of the prizes include stunning jewelry, a coffee cozy, and shop discount coupons!

In order to enter you must leave a comment on the blog about Bridal Daze. That comment must include a way to get a hold of you either through your user name link to your blog profile page or if you don’t have a blog you can email your info to etsytwitterteam@gmail.com. (Please be sure to include your comment in the email.) You may enter once per day. No Etsy Twitter Team members are allowed to win. At the end of the week I will draw a random winner from all the comments. If you know someone who is getting married soon, tell him or her about this contest so they can get in on the action! Good luck! Commenting closes Sunday, June 14th at midnight!

See all the posts about Bridal Daze!

Team Treasuries

This Treasury was created by Jenco13.etsy.com and features shops from our team who have had less than 15 sales.
Go give it some clickety click love and check out these great shops!
(Treasury expires May 30th.)

Created by InMyHeadStudios.etsy.com!
Expires May 30th.

Shop of the Week: A Cagey Bee

I like the creative name for this Etsy shop. The artist is Kris G. Brownlee – or KGB = A Cagey Bee! Very clever!

“I'm a painter, so my first love is creating the actual paintings - from sketching to swirling the paint around my canvas. But because I know a lot of us can't afford to buy original work, I try to offer a variety of lower cost reproductions: prints, notecards, and even little pendants with my characters!

I want my customers to know how much heart and soul and pure joy is poured into my work. I think most of my customers *do* know this, but it's not always easy to get a sense of who someone is via the internet. I was a very quiet, shy child and spent years creating elaborate stories for my imaginary friends. It's really no wonder that I've started to bring some of them to life in my paintings. The idea that I get to share that with my customers? That new friends from all over the world look at my girls and smile? I couldn't have dreamed up a better possibility for my life. :)”


What inspires you to create? “Everything! Favorite storybooks, movies, lyrics to songs, interesting characters I meet in real life... my biggest fear is that I'll never have enough time to paint all of the things I want to paint. If I ever run out of ideas, I can just walk out my front door and almost always see *something* interesting. There's this one woman in my neighborhood that I see every so often who I've been itching to paint since the first time I laid eyes on her. She walks this pack of 6 or 7 dogs - those giant long haired Afghan hounds! It looks like a scene straight out of a cartoon with their hair swishing and bouncing and swirling along!”

What are your Twitter tricks of the trade? “My newest favorite Twitter trick is installing Friendbar. It adds a toolbar to your browser so you don't have to load the Twitter page to tweet plus it makes it really easy to just click 1 button & tweet about the page you're currently viewing, including an already shortened URL. You can set it to update your Facebook status too. Very handy!”

Read her blog at www.acageybee.com
Follow her at Twitter: twitter.com/acageybee

As a special thank you to her Twitter pals, all prints in her shop are 2 for the price of 1 this week. Buy one print and simply enter the name of the second print you'd like in the notes to seller box. Double the cuteness!

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

All photos copyright to Kris Brownlee/A Cagey Bee

Shop of the Week: Emmakat

As I sit down to write the Shop of the Week article this week (admittedly a bit late), I’m again struck by how diverse our team members are. I love getting to know our teammates!

Emma Kate Nolan, from Emmakat.etsy.com, is this week’s Shop of the Week. Emma has a background in Architecture and you can see that style come through in her work with beaded jewelry and paper goods. About this she says, “I think you will see the influence of my education in architecture in most of my items, I'm drawn to simple and bold patterns and forms. I like to think up unusual ways of putting things together. I suppose this ends up meaning I'm drawn to asymmetry, circles and black!

I've been making beaded jewelry since elementary school, but I think you'd see a pretty big difference in what I did before architecture school and after, both in style and craftsmanship. I'm also a member of Cruelty Free Etsy and I avoid animal products in my work. Pendants are strung on waxed cotton cord, and I don't work with pearls or shells, for example. I've been a vegetarian for 7 or 8 years now, and avoiding animal products comes pretty naturally at this point.

I'm not really happy unless I'm making something! I try to keep a sketchbook around for ideas. I tend to have more ideas than I have time to create. They're not always great ideas, as I find out sometimes when I try to make them, but it's so satisfying when something works out like you envisioned.”


About Twitter: “I just try to have fun with it. It's nice to see a bump in views when you promote something on Twitter, but I mainly try to enjoy it as an outlet for some random thoughts and for reading other people's tweets. Right now I need to spend some time organizing my TweetDeck better. It's a neat tool, but I haven't had time to take full advantage of it yet. It's actually been a few days since I've had time to mess with Twitter! But I think that's natural, some times you have more time for this sort of thing.” Follow Emma at Twitter! She is blogging here.

Emmakat is offering a storewide 10% discount (including sale items) for readers. Just leave a note to seller mentioning “EtsyTwitter Shop of the Week” and wait for a revised invoice from her before paying.

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