DELETSY needs help

Hey guys. I would love some sort of help with this blog. There is currently only one writer on this blog but I can add others who are interested in blogging here.

A couple things we are interested in seeing blog posts about are: Ideas you have for this team, & Local craft show info. Pretty much anything to keep us active.

Are you interested? Just comment and I'll add you to the list then you'll be able to blog here on this blog :)

Delaware Today Magazine

I just wanted to let everyone know that a DelEtsy member has a couple items featured in the December 08 issue of Delaware Today magazine!

It happens to be my scarflettes :)

Please comment and let me know what type of publications you've been in!

Oops! Flyers not working...

Please forgive me, my friends. I accidentally deleted all of the flyers!! If anyone has them saved on the computer please email me them so I can put them back up. I don't even have them saved.. :/

Email samanthamariie (@) gmail.com

Sorry!

FEATURED SELLER Drag0nflyDesigns

What is your etsy user name? Drag0nflyDesigns

Tell us a bit about yourself name, location, affiliations, personal stuff. My name is Katy, I live in Newark (obviously DE since I'm part of DelEtsy...) I have a wonderful boyfriend named Rick, and a great puppy named Maggie (a Jack Russell). I've lived in Delaware all my life- Raised in Townsend, moved to Newark when I was 20. And here I am still : )


Apart from creating things, what do you do? I work for a great company - Nixon Uniform Service and Medical Wear.. we supply patient apparel, sheets, towels, scrubs and labcoats for medical companies in NJ, PA, DE, and VA. I work in the call center taking calls from the customers when they have problems or need invoices, etc. It's a pretty easy job, but I love it (it is SOO much better than retail!! ... I worked at FYE for 4 years prior to this job..). Other than that- I play with my puppy, hang out with my boyfriend and friends... you know-the usual stuff.


What first made you want to become an artist? I have been creating things for as long as I can remember. My dad is a mechanic who owns his own business (Delaware Chassis Works) and he builds (and races) race cars. He has a bucket in his shop of spare screws, nuts, bolts, and lots of other strange pieces that I could not even tell you what they are actually called... anyway, I used to play in that bucket when I was a kid.. making what ever I could from those scraps. Plus I would rubberstamp, sew, crochet, draw, paint and actually do every craft thing I could get my hands on. My mom was very creative and she always influenced me to express myself in creative ways. The reason I started SELLING the stuff I make, is because of a bracelet that I made with an urn pendant (click here)That bracelet has some of my mom's ashes in it (well not the one in the picture.. the one I originally made..that I wear everyday..lol). I made it using a necklace pendant from Madelyn Company, I sent a picture of it to the woman who founded the Memorial Gallery website, and she got me into contact with Madelyn Co. Now I make those bracelet pieces for them. That was when I realized that I have potential to make money doing something I love.... so I started making jewelry and selling it on Etsy :o)

Please describe your creative process how, when, materials, etc. Well... I work my full time job M-F till 5... so my jewelry making usually begins after that during the week....or on the weekends. It all depends on my mood. Sometimes I'll be half asleep sitting on the couch at night and I'll have an idea-and I'll go to work. If the piece I have an idea for is a wire design (those are my favorite right now..) I always make a test one in copper or craft wire... (it's cheaper than messing up with silver or gold filled!!) If I come up with something I like.. I'll usually wear it and see if I get any compliments. Then I'll photograph (I usually do my photographing on a Saturday or Sunday) and list!

What handmade possession do you most cherish? My urn bracelet :)

Name your top five books, movies, songs/musical groups, and web sites besides Etsy. Books- Anything Chuck Palahniuk... Movies-The Departed, Lucky Number Slevin, Iron Man, Love Actually, Home for the Holidays (That was tough...I have too many favorites..) Musical Artists-Sara Bareilles, Jamie Cullum, Nizlopi, David Ford, Fiona Apple (Also have to many favorites there...) Websites- Rarebirdfinds.typepad.com, Cuteoverload.com, Google.com, Myspace.com (because I'm an addict..lol), and Cafepress.com

What advice would you give to artists who are new to Etsy? Pictures are really important.. make sure the pictures of your art are clear. I built a lightbox which helped me a LOT. These are the instructions I used.. only I used fabric for the background instead of poster board (but fabric collects a lot of debris so you have to use a lint roller before each photographing session - See here. The light box is really important, but so is having a tripod. Clear pictures depend on a steady camera. Other than that.. get involved in the community on Etsy.. forums, chats, groups, etc.

Share any ideas you have for our street team.. or plans, hopes.. I hope to be ready for a craft show soon! I think it would be really cool to be able to get everyone together for something like that. I hope to make new friends that share my passion for crafting! An idea I have- We should make up small flyers that we each can print and put in with any items that someone purchases from our shops.. that way it will get the group some more exposure and let people know that Delaware IS filled with artists!

How do you promote your work? Word of mouth, myspace.com, myjambi.com, the forums/chats on Etsy. Ecrater.com, shophandmade.com, wearing my pieces/business cards, craigslist.org, flickr.com, facebook.com, that's all I can think of right now...lol


In ten years I'd like to be... Living in a house with my boyfriend (hopefully husband by then) and dog and possibly child? (10 years is a long time from now....) I also hope to be a graphic designer/jewelry designer with my own business. (Not necessarily my own store...but just business- a lot can be done through the internet this day in age). And of course I hope by then I will have paid of my student loans, etc. :0)


{Featured seller's shop is temporarily deactivated due to her moving. She will have it back up soon and shop mini will go here - Samantha}

Nudge

Just a nudge to get you folks to submit a featured artist profile for this blog. I haven't received any yet...

Featured Artist

Hey! A new layout is featured on the blog today. Also added was more instructions on how to add our link to your site (in post before this one.)

Guess what! We will now be featuring Delaware Artists on this blog. Their shop's "mini etsy" will also be featured until the next artist is featured in one week.

We'll just make it easy and take the questions from Etsy's featured seller, and have the featured artist's answers here, as well as their mini etsy shop.


HOW TO BECOME A DELAWARE STREET TEAM FEATURED ARTIST:


ITS SIMPLE! Please send your answers to samanthamariie @ gmail.com to the following survey. All I ask is that you answer with honesty, and well thought out, helpful answers. Please do not post answers in the comments.

What is your etsy user name?

Tell us a bit about yourself name, location, affiliations, personal stuff.

Apart from creating things, what do you do?

What first made you want to become an artist?

Please describe your creative process how, when, materials, etc.

What handmade possession do you most cherish?

Name your top five books, movies, songs/musical groups, and web sites besides Etsy.

What advice would you give to artists who are new to Etsy?

Share any ideas you have for our street team.. or plans, hopes..

How do you promote your work?

In ten years I'd like to be...

{Please send a picture of you, your work, something to put at the top! Thanks!}

Add us to your blog!

Here is a little link to add to your blog/site to advertise us. If you'd like to make more images for us, please do! Email them to samanthamariie @ gmail.com





Here is the code to copy and paste:

<a href="http://destreet.blogspot.com"><img border="0" src="http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii148/nestinbloom/dest.jpg"/></a>

P.s. Per request I am posting more info as to how to add this type of thing to your blog.

For blogger (blogspot) you go into your blog's "layout" by clicking on the layout tab when you go to your blog's dashboard {or to post a new blog}. Let the page load fully, and you will then see boxes in the form of a layout for your blog/page. At the top of that page it says "Add and Arrange Page Elements. Click and drag to rearrange page elements on your blog." So, here you can move around the things on your sidebar and even add things under where you write. To add our link to your sidebar (side of your blog) click "Add a gadget" that is on the side. If you'd like to put our link under you blog, click "Add a gadget" that is wide and under the box that says 'Blog Posts'. After you click "ADD A GADGET" You find the one that says "HTML/JavaScript Add
Add third-party functionality or other code to your blog." And when that one pops up, put in the HTML coding that you found in the beginning of this post under the image. Then, click SAVE and then click SAVE on that layout page also. From there you could always drag and move things around.

If you're using wordpress or other types of blogs, you will usually find the way to add a widget, or edit your sidebar.php All you need to do is copy and paste that code :)

P.s. Please feel free to post directions in other blog sites. Thanks!

Flyer.. is that how you spell it? lol!

Hi folks. I have made a flyer for everyone to print out and display. Above is the example! I've made them rippy or not rippy. You know what I mean - at the bottoms. For those you'd be expected to cut along so folks can rip off the web site name and keep for remembering the sites. I also made them color and not color.

Click the link to download the PDF. (If you need a different type of file, let me know)

Rip-able flyer with no color


Rip-able flyer with orange color


No cut/ripping flyer with no color


No cut/ripping flyer with orange color


Places to put a flyer:

Grocery Stores
Art shops/galleries with boards
University of Delaware boards
Around local art schools
Artists are everywhere, so anywhere legal will do!


Also, online. If you'd like to help by posting to places online like craigslist, u of d classifieds.. you can take this .jpg image: 800 x 640 jpg. image flyer


It would be GREAT if you'd comment and let us know where you posted your flyers in this particular post's comments so we all don't waste time going to go post these and find they are already posted! So just keep us updated :) THANKS!

P.s. This is fun.

About the first meeting

Thanks to the lovely folks who were able to be a part of our first chat meeting! It lasted about an hour and we talked a lot about the steps to growth and having our own show!

The plan that we made is pretty much as follows:

I will soon be posting a downloadable flyer that you can print that will be advertising our team, etsy, and our plans. We are looking to grow and have more people but they have to be on etsy and they have to be in Delaware {or really close}.

We are advertising etsy because we want artists and crafters alike to know about it. It's a great site for not only selling your art, but a place for people like us to gather and support each other.

Also we are looking into local places to rent for our own craft show! If you know of any places, please let us know in the comments!

Reminder

http://www.etsy.com/chat_main.php Click on our chatroom, passworld deletsy

Online Chat Meeting

Our first online chat meeting will be Thursday the 25th at 6pm. Please make note of that, put a post-it on your computer :) We'll be in the etsy chat room that I will make private for us. The password will be deletsy so make sure to add that to your note!

We will talk about local craft shows, our first local meetings, ideas and lots more. Be prepared to tell us any ideas you have!

Hope to see you all there!


Thursday September 25th @ 6pm
http://www.etsy.com/chat_main.php Click on our chatroom, passworld deletsy

Please comment and let me know you read this and let me know if you'll be there (or what would be a good time for you!)

We need growth

DELAWARE ETSY STREET TEAM DOESN'T NEED A BE A SMALL WONDER...

Hello Delestys..


Right now we are a small team and we need more members. Do you have friends on etsy? Please invite them to the group. There is nothing they have to do other than agree to be a part of us. Let me explain everything that I want to do with the Delaware Esty Team..

I need "right hand men". Right now I am the founder of this group but I don't want to be the only one in charge. I need people from Northern, Middle, and Southern Delaware. I need a few people who will step up and be willing to spend some time helping me expand and educate Delaware artists on etsy and this group. I need folks who are also outgoing and motivated to become a part of something larger than simply their etsy shop. Please e-mail if you are interested in being a larger part of our team: samanthamariie@gmail.com

Expand. We need to expand our group to feature many different types and aesthetics. We need more artists, and more types of art. Expanding our team will broaden our horizons! Meaning, the more people we have, the larger we are known, and therefore the more we can promote ourselves and etsy.com

Have meetings. It would be fun to get together and promote! This could be meeting in a local diner or city park, chatting with each other to talk about the group or go around your town and post stickers and fliers for etsy and our team. I would like to grow a little before we do this, but when the time comes it'll be a blast. Meetings will understandably be in lots of DE locations at different times because obviously we aren't all in the same town.

Online meetings. We will have times set up where we Deletsy's meet in an etsy chatroom that is all our own and password protected.

Have shows. With enough team members and a broader group of artists with different mediums, we could host our own craft gallery and show. More about this idea was in the last blog post. Etsy will sponsor us, but we need to grow more and be more active in Delaware... which we are excited about doing!

Promote in local papers. When we are a larger group we can get etsy to sponsor ads for our group and shops in local papers. This will generate sales and interest by other artists more members.

Delaware Etsy Street Team Art Show

Hey guys! Samantha here. I've been really wanting to put together/have an art show in the Wilmington area for us Delaware etsy artists. I have a location in mind (The Greenbank Mill) and that's about it. If you're in Wilmington and know of a nice place we could rent out, let me know by commenting, please.

This is what we'll need:

1. To rent a location. This means we will need everyone to pitch in on cost. It is normal to have to rent a booth at an art show, and this is what I mean.

2. Marketing. I will design a flyer that everyone can print out, and invitations that everyone can send out.

3. There will have to be tickets. This will have to be a ticketed event because there is a limited amount of people allowed in a lot of rentable locations due to the fire marshal's standards. The greenbank mill holds like 200 people I believe. Tickets will be extremely cheap, and door prizes will be given.

4. Door prizes will be things that us etsy artists give away, but in a basket together looking nice. So everyone will be expected to give (or make to give) just some small trinkets or gift certificates to their shop, etc. This will help bring the people in, so it's a good investment.

5. I am thinking we could possibly get etsy to sponsor our show and provide stickers and give away things. They do offer this to large group activities that promote their web site. So if we plan on enough of an outcome, we can get their support.




We need artists! I am going to make up an application that you can submit along with your booth/rental fee. Please let your etsy friends know so that we can have a good time together and sell our beautiful crafts :)

PLEASE COMMENT and let me know your thoughts!

Delaware Etsy Street Team Blog

Hi team members! Just to introduce myself, I am Samantha Bird, the founder of this street team. I live in northern Delaware.

My shop is missesbird.etsy.com
My portfolio/business is at nestinbloom.com
And my email is missesbird@gmail.com, samanthamariie@gmail.com

Please leave a comment with your etsy shop and introduce yourself! Thanks!