EtsyGreetings Handmade Cards: January 2010

Friday, January 29, 2010

EtsyGreetings Valentine's Day Promotion January 25th-31st

What could make your Valentine's Day more perfect? A one-of-a-kind, handmade greeting card from the members of the EtsyGreetings team! Each member has skillfully crafted a Valentine card just for your loved one, whether it's cute, fun, quirky or artistically refined, you'll certainly find the perfect card for anyone! Click on any of the items below to buy that perfect card and to see if there is a special offer in that shop as well.

Have Fun Shopping!

Friday Feature: Linkwritenow

1. Tell us about you and your shop.
My name is Tracey Selingo. I live and work in Shavertown, Pennsylvania. I have three wonderful boys ages 10, 11 and 42 (that's my husband), along with a crazy, card-eating, 7 month old puppy. I started my etsy shop in July of 2009: linkwritenow.etsy.com. The cards are written and designed to be fresh, modern and true. I write and design all the cards and then digitally print them on high quality cardstock.

2. How did you get started in your craft?
I started making cards for friends eight years ago...around the same time that I launched an advertising agency. I promised myself that I would choose one business by the time my youngest son headed off to school (that was five years ago). Needless to say, I'm still operating both. In fact, I officially launched my greeting card business, link write now, at the National Stationery Show in May of 2009. The cards on my website linkwritenow.com are selling in boutiques across the US.

3. What tool can you not live without?

I can't live without my thesaurus. I'm a copywriter, by trade, so I'm always thinking there's always a better word to use...

4. What inspires you?

I'm inspired by tiny little snippets of time that reveal human nature. That moment when my son belly laughs because his brother just burped. Or when a friend flashes a genuine smile of something that's said. I think as we continue to dive head first into digital-dom we continue to miss out what makes life so lovely.

5. Name one favorite item from your store.
I love this whole line of cards, but here's one of my favs:

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Tuesday Treasury

Elephants to Bring You Luck
Created by: Jemily

Elephant Note Cards - Jumping Jack Designs

Modern Elephant Baby Shower Invitation- Digital or Printed – Bean Sprout Studio

Handmade Gift Notes with Tags - Baby Boy and Girl FREE SHIPPING by Little b Bunny on etsy

Baby Elephant – Twiddlestix

SALE Custom Made Monogrammed Note Cards, Set of 3, Die Cut, ZOO Animals – Tricia16

Elephant Invitation or Announcement - Birthday or Baby – Lavender Greetings

5 Elephant Flat Notes – LeasLetters

So Stinkin' Cute Baby Elephant Card in Blue -- For a Boy -- C318 – AdorebyNat
'

Monday, January 25, 2010

Etsy Greetings Featured Sale Vive La France Design

Each week EtsyGreetings highlights a sale from one of our member shops. This week, we are excited to offer you special pricing from Vive La France Design

The Sale: I have many love notes that make perect Valentine's or for anytime. Can't forget your sweetheart the rest of the year. Buy 3 cards get a free art print card of my oil painting "white tulips." No code required.

Sale Dates: starts January 22, 2010 12:01 am EST and ends February 1, 2010 midnight EST.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Friday Feature: twiddlestix

1. Tell us about you and your shop.
My name is Heather, and I own a little card shop called "twiddlestix." I love paper, and tend to hoard it! To me, receiving handmade cards is fantastic, so that is why I started selling cards- and I love to make them!

2. How did you get started in your craft?
I have been into scrapbooking for quite some time, and a few years ago I started making cards. They are just little scrapbook pages!

3. What tool can you not live without?
I would have to say my paper cutter, although there are many things I cannot do with out.

4. What inspires you?
Many things inspire me. When I look at magazines, or other things around me, I am looking at color combinations, or fonts...anything I see just might be a part of a card I make someday!

5. Name one favorite item from your store.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Etsy Greetings Featured Sale WyNotArts

Each week EtsyGreetings highlights a sale from one of our member shops. This week, we are excited to offer you special pricing from WyNotArts

The Sale: All of my 2009 inventory will be 50% off and will be listed in a section entitled "2009 Inventory Clearance Sale" within my shop. All prices will be already marked down in the shop and will be 50% off the 2009 price for 10 day from January 21 through January 31st, 2010.

Only those items that were in my shop at midnight on January 31st , 2009 will be included in this sale. All items listed since then will be regular priced. All sales will be charged the normal shipping as listed. Multiple item shipping discounts will apply as listed.

EtsyGreetings Blog Giveaway

This 5 x 7 card is created with a textured aqua cardstock. The front is a Valentine patterned paper. There is another patterned strip which has Valentine ribbon across it. The focal point of the card is a love bug rubber stamp mounted on a scalloped round die cut, matted on a round die cut. There is also a painted chipboard heart which has Diamond Glaze and then sprinkled with glitter.

About the artist:
My love of handmade greeting cards began a few years ago when a friend sent me a handmade Christmas card. I marveled at how unique and beautiful it was. I commented about how I would probably never send out 40 handmade cards at Christmas, but I was soon hooked and have only sent one card that I haven't personally made in the past five years.

How To Enter: To enter just leave a comment here on the EtsyGreetings blog about which item you like best from PaperArtistry's shop. A winner will be picked from all the comments made on January 25th in the evening.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Tuesday Treasury

3D Flowers

Created By:KillamCreative

Whimsical Fairy By:Freshnfunkycards

Pot of Flowers By:EnchantedQuilling

Garden Fence Note Card By:CornerstoneLAE

Hi There By:AdorebyNat

Olivia Card By: Harmonia30

Two Roads By:ImCrafty

Thank You Very Much; Set/6 by:ajsdesigns

Thank You By:uniquegrabs

Friday, January 15, 2010

Friday Feature: Fish in the Attic Studio

1. Tell us about you and your shop.

My name is Karen Fisher, and I am a stay-at-home-mom of two beautiful girls, 7 and 15. I live on Long Island (NY), in a beautiful harbor village. I work out of my attic studio in a lovely Victorian, thus the "Fish In The Attic Studio" shop name! I've been selling on etsy for about 15 months now, currently focusing on cards, but I also create floral designs. My experience, with both buyers and sellers on Etsy, has been nothing short of amazing! What a great group of people!

2. How did you get started in your craft?
I always did some form of art as a kid, and today I can't go a day without creating something! I worked for 16 years, as an interior designer, before having kids. So, when a friend invited me to a stamping party, over ten years ago, I found an new creative outlet that I could do from home, and I was hooked!

My collection of rubber stamps has expanded to several thousand since then! Creating floral designs is an extension of my love of gardening.

3. What tool can you not live without?
The obvious for me, my stamps! They allow me to express so many different ideas, moods or feelings, from romantic vintage, to quirky retro, to adorable child themes. After that, my paper cutter!

4. What inspires you?
I'm inspired by a lot of different things!

I LOVE color! I have to live with a lot of color in my home, and I use a lot of color in my work. I love graphic patterns, an old lace design or a retro geometric! And, I love nature: flowers, leaf shapes, and even insects, like butterflies! I use all of these things in my work!

Currently, I'm loving 1950's vintage ads with beautiful illustrations of "Barbie-esque" women and "cherubic" children. I have an extensive collection of vintage ephemera, from both the 1900's and 1950's, and love encorporating these pieces into my work.

5. Name one favorite item from your store.

As I said, I'm currently loving the 50's retro thing, so I'd have to say my "I Love Lucy" card. It incorporates lots of color, patterned geometrics, and that vintage "Lucy" face! The Lucy stamp is from The Stampsmith.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Clean or Messy?

Yesterday was National Clean Off your Desk Day. That got me to thinking... Is it true that a messy desk is the sign of a cluttered unproductive worker? Does that hold true for we creative and artsy types? I wonder. I found several articles in business magazines that suggest a messy desk is equal to career suicide. Personal pictures...never. Stacks of papers...how could you. The best news I saw however was from Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman who had this GOOD thing to say about a messy desk.

"Mess isn't necessarily the absence of order," Abrhamson and Freedman claim.
"A messy desk can be a highly effective prioritizing and accessing system.
In general, on a messy desk, the more important, urgent work tends to stay
close by and near the top of the clutter, while the safely ignorable stuff
tends to get buried to the bottom or near the back, which makes perfect
sense. The various piles on a messy desk can represent a surprisingly sophisticated informal filing system that offer far more efficiency and flexibility than a filing cabinet could possibly provide."

Abrahamson and Freedman wrote the book "A Perfect Mess" which claims to reveal the hidden benefits of being unorganized and cluttered.

Balance that then with information from the University of Texas study that shows that people with messy offices are les

s efficient, less organized and less imaginative then people with clean offices. Even the FBI has known for decades that you can judge people by their workspace, which is why the FBI has special investigators who visit the offices of criminals, apparently just to see how messy their desks are. Does this mean that if my desk is messy I'm more likely to be a criminal? I found that particularly ironic in light of the article I found on Martha Stewarts website about uncluttering your desk....nuff said.

What I want is to hear from you my fellow artisians....do you fall under the clean or messy desk club? No judgements...just curiousity.
As for me, basically I'm a paper stacker/pile maker kind of desk person, who looks longingly at those clean desk photos and says, "That's SO NOT reality!" by: aplusastudio

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

The First Giveaway for 2010 is from Bliss Think Ink

To start EtsyGreeting's Blog giveaway off to a great 2010 start Bliss Think Ink is offering this wonderful mini correspondence collection. Below are three of the cards that you could win. See here for more being offered in this collection.

Bliss Think Ink handcrafts cards made with 80-120 lb. coverstock, raised embellishments, and recycled, vintage, and sustainable materials that meet our precision standards. Many of our miniature artworks are one of a kind, so we welcome inquiries for further product details and custom orders any time.

To Enter: All you have to do to enter is answer three questions. Please leave a comment here on the blog with the answers.

1. What are the three primary occasions you use greeting cards for in a given year (i.e. Thank You, Birthday, Specific Holiday)?
2. What is the average price you pay per card for these three primary occasions?
3. How many do you give each year?

A winner will be picked and notified from all the comments left on the evening of January 16th. Please make sure you leave a way for you to be contacted should you be the winner.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Tuesday Treasury

Created By: LiSoCards

Dinosaur Birthday card By:JumpingJackDesigns

Happy Birthday Says The Owl To The Bird - Handmade Birthday Greeting Card By:matdi123

POP Birthday Card Bespoke Custom Order By:digtheearth

Wish card - pink By:ViveLaFranceDesign

50th Birthday Slice Card By:collectiveelements

Birthday Card for Him - Fibers By:pinkpursecreative

Friday, January 8, 2010

Friday Feature: The Art of Joy

1. Tell us about you and your shop.

My name is Joy Charde and my shop is TheArtOfJoy.etsy.com. Currently, I reside with my family in the freezing cold Upstate New York (I say "currently" because I'm hoping to convince my husband to move somewhere warm in the future).

My husband and I have a little roly-poly guy who is turning one this coming January.

I work full time at a public library... so between work, baby and my etsy shop, I stay pretty busy. I'm still trying to find that balance in all the things happening in my life - no luck yet, but I'm hopeful!

2. How did you get started in your craft?
Well, I've been doodling forever (I used to get in so much trouble for it during school), but I switched to painting in 2004 - www.art.joycharde.com. After the baby was born, I decided to hang up my brushes and put away my toxic paints and get back to my doodles.

3. What tool can you not live without?

My favorite tool right now is my paper punch! I was cutting out all of my stickers before and that took years! Now with my paper punch, life has a new meaning...

4. What inspires you?

My husband is a wonderful source of inspiration! He is always giving me ideas on what item would be great for my shop, etc.

Also, I love typography! For some reason, words written in a certain way gives me that "Wow" feeling.

5. Name one favorite item from your store.