Coming Soon The Travels of Mr. Egg

EggTeam's June 2010 Etsy Featured Seller

Give a shout out to: Laura of Etsy Shop Zulamay

You can find her Etsyshop at: http//www.etsy.com/shop/zulamay

Zulamay is Laura's home decor shop specializing in creatively designed pillows aimed at bringing a splash of color and convenience to your home. The Book Nook pillow holds your latest read, your reading glasses and the TV remote. Story Time pillows and the custom pillows are hand-stamped and created with love. All of Zulamay's pillows are completely washable!

The winner of this month's giveaway will receive Zulamay's custom Alphabet Pillow. You can view it here: http//www.etsy.com/listing/48292410/alphabet-pillow

Laura currently operates her Etsy shop from Detroit, Michigan. She's a bit of a traveler having grown up in Peoria, Illinois, and Raleigh, North Carolina. Her adventuresome spirit took her to Spain after high school where she spent a couple of years living in Leon and Madrid. She then returned to the United States to attend Michigan State University. In just the last year, Laura has lived in Peoria, Minneapolis and Detroit!! In total, she has traveled to 10 countries and has actually lost count of how many states she's visited! Her stunning pillows are created at night following a full day working in the advertising business. Although she loves to travel, she call Detroit home for now and hopes to settle there for awhile. Laura hopes one day to return to Spain or possibly start a new adventure in Istanbul with her boyfriend.

When she is not working on items for her shop, Laura works full-time as a Planner at an ad agency. She tells us a planner is a bit of a jack-of-all-trades. Planners get that name because they "plan" a client's business future, working with everything from launching new products to maintaining current brands.

Laura has been interested in art and design as far back as she can remember and is the product of three generations of inspiring women. In fact her shop, Zulamay, is named after her grandmother, Zula. Not only did grandma Zula sew her own clothes, but she was a painter, as well. However, Laura's true inspiration comes from her mother, an art historian. As a result of her mom's work, Laura grew up with piles of art books around the house which covered everything from Greek to Modern artists. It is these family traditions that help Laura find her own inspiration and style in just about everything that crosses her path from books and magazines to television and art museums. She favors Impressionist painters--Degas, Monet, Cassat, and Matisse.

A self-admitted obsessive reader, Laura has been known to get in an elevator and read the emergency instructions "simply because I have twenty seconds of free time and there are words posted on the wall." Her favorite magazine is Marie Clare, because it blends beauty and brains. Laura never tires of reading about women who have big dreams for their lives and businesses. The last book she read was "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. It tops her list of favorite things. As for her other favorite things--food and chocolate--next to a good book is there really anything else?!?

Laura openned her Etsy shop, Zulamay, and became a member of the EggTeam in January 2010. She finds that the team is truly a team of friends who serve as each other's sounding boards, support network and promoters. She's grateful for all of her team members! Laura has these words of wisdom to share with other artists, "There will always be critics. There will always be people who tell you "No". The trick is to learn when to listen to them and when to ignore them. I think that just takes practice."

Some of her goals for the next five years are to grow her business and to start participating in local craft fairs. She has no plans to quit the advertising business any time soon as she truly enjoys the work and working with so many creative people. Laura's ultimate goal is to continue to be able to manage it all in her own unique style!

**In order to qualify for Laura's giveaway, you must comment on this post by telling us what your favorite item is in Zulamay's shop. Please include your email address in your post The deadline for qualifying is: June 30, 2010. Don't forget you can earn additional entries as detailed below.

Here's how to earn extra entries for the Featured Seller Giveaway (one additional entry is earned for EACH step that you complete:

• Go to the featured seller's shop & heart an item then come back here, link to it & tell us why you hearted that item
• Become a follower of this blog (just leave a comment if you're already a followe
• Blog about this giveaway--leave a separate comment with the blog link. Your blog post must link back to this giveaway post
• Tweet about this givewaway--leave a separate comment with the twittered link & your twitter username
• "Like" or "Comment" on this giveaway on Facebook & leave a link to your FB page in your comment.

Don't be shy! Here's your chance to get to know some of the most unique shops found on Etsy & to earn a great gift along the way!!!

And the Winner Is. . . .

lisajhoney from New Zealand!

Congratulations to Lisa, winner of the EggTeam 2010 May Featured Seller Giveaway!

She earned extra entries by tweeting about the giveaway, posting on facebook and on her own blog!

You can be a winner too! Check out the EggTeam's 2010 June Featured Seller, Zulamay and make sure to take advantage of all the extra ways to earn entries in the June seller giveaway. Good Luck to all!!

The Egg Team Presents The Diamond Hunt

It's time to hunt for diamonds with THE EGG TEAM!!

Win some awesome items donated from each of our participating member's shops.

 

The hunt begins May 27th and ends June 24th midnight eastern time.

It is open to all worldwide.

Participating shops cannot enter.

The rules are easy, first look at the list of participating shops and next to each one you will see a number, that number represent how many diamonds are hidden within that shop.

You will be looking for this picture in each shop:

You must find all the diamonds in each shop and then send them to etsygoodiegoodies@gmail.com and post here in the comments that you sent the email and who sent it just in case any of them should get lost this is who we can keep track of entries. 

Make sure the links are clickable in your emails so best thing to do would be to copy and paste the links exactly and make sure you send them from the email you want to be contacted at if you win and you have put the same name in the email as the one you put in your comment of who sent it.

 

There are a total of 18 diamonds you must find.

You must be at least 18 years of age to enter!!

At the end of the hunt a winner will be choosen by random generator and contacted by email. If for any reason we cannot contact the winner a second drawing will be done.  We will announce the winner here on our blog on or around June 24-26th.

Only one winner for this hunt will be choosen. 

The prizes consist of an upcycled skirt drawstring bag by reducereuserepurpose, a lovely sent of skull wrist warmers by flowergurlcrafts, two awesome magnetic photo bookmarks by TheHappySoul, a pendant and keychain made from antique sliverware by sliverWARES, a burpcloth and wallet by InMy2Hands, a beautiful rock a billy scrabble tile skull necklace in it's own skull tin and upcycled domino keychain by islandgirlzjewelry, a mini pillow book nook by zulamay and a wonder pampering set of a tummy oatmeal heatpack, three stress relief eucalptyus mint soaps and two bags of soothing bath soak in honey almond scent by soapaddicts.

 

List of participating shops:

reducereuserepurpose 2

zulamay 2

soapaddicts 2

silverWARES 2

InMy2hands 2

islandgirlzjewelry 3

flowergurlcrafts 1

TheHappySoul 4

EggTeam's Etsy Featured Seller Giveaway

Join the fun with the EggTeam's Featured Seller Giveaway! Each month you'll find an Etsy seller featured here on the EggTeam blog. The featured seller will identify a task that will earn you one entry to the giveaway for that month. One additional entry is offered for completing another one or more of the following five options for up to 5 additional entries:

1. Go to the featured seller's shop & heart an item in the shop. Come back here, link to it and tell us why you hearted that item.
2. Become a follower of this blog (just leave a comment if you are already a follower).
3. Blog about this giveaway--leave a separate comment with the blog link. Your blog post must link back to this giveaway post.
4. Tweet about this giveaway--leave a separate comment with the twittered link and your twitter username.
5. "Like" or "Comment" on this giveaway on Facebook and leave a link to your FB page in your comment.

Don't be shy! Here's your chance to get to know some of the best shops found on Etsy and to earn some great gifts along the way!!

May 2010 Etsy Featured Seller

Meet Melanie! She has two active shops on Etsy which are:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/soapaddicts

http://www.etsy.com/shop/reducereuserepurpose

Soapaddicts is her shop specializing in handmade soaps and assorted bath and body products. Reducereuserepurpose is Melanie's second shop, dedicated to saving the earth by recycling, repurposing and reusing all manner of things into upcycled goodies. The winner of this month's giveaway will have their pick of one item from Soapaddicts AND a set of color therapy dolls & complete set of Recipe Files from Reducereuserepurpose. Deadline for qualifying entries is: May 30, 2010. Winner will be notified on or before June 5, 2010.

Melanie operates her Etsy shops from Orlando, Florida. She's only been in the "Sunshine State" for about five years and is actually a native New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent. She is a swapaholic and loves to join in tea swaps as a member of swapbot.com. When she is not working on items for her shop, Melanie can be found working on an online degree for medical billing and coding, spending time with her boyfriend or reading. Her other interests include: music, writing, flea markets, rummage/yard sales and farmer's markets. She loves animals, especially dogs and is the proud owner of three beagles. Some of her favorite things include: chocolate, ancient Roman and Egyptian architecture, the Harry Potter books & movies, her own bacon ranch mashed potatoes, modpodgerocks.blogspot.com, history in general, and listening to other people.

For as long as she can remember, Melanie has been making things, drawing and writing. Her artistic talents were a gift from her birth parents. When she lived in New York city she would spend hours at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Natural History and the Guggenheim Museum and was greatly inspired by collections found in those institutions. But she also finds inspiration for her art in people, places and things that surround her everyday. When working on an upcycled project, it is the recycled object itself that speaks to her of its new possibilities. New soap and bath & body products are often inspired by her moods.

Melanie is the founder and team leader for the EggTeam, aka the Etsy Goodie Goodies Street Team. Her desire to do good things, no matter what they are or how big or small, was her motivation for creating the EggTeam. Etsy officially recognized the team on February 1, 2010, and it's been full steam ahead ever since. The EggTeam is actively seeking new members and currently includes Etsy members from around the globe. The team is about having fun, supporting each other, helping promote each other's shops and doing good deeds overall. The team's latest joint venture was to provide handmade blankets for the dogs and cats of the New York SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). But as Melanie says, "We don't only do good deeds in a huge team way, but in little spurts as well. For example, I go around the (Etsy) forums and help where I can--when I see a question I can answer or post a link to information someone is looking to find. . . .So you see, doing good deeds does not need to be an activity, but just being a good-hearted person overall." Way to go Mel!!

An Etsy member since 2006, Melanie has these words of wisdom to share with other artists, "Do NOT give up! Keep pushing yourself to be the best that you can and if you're selling online keep giving it your all." As Melanie sees it--you can't expect the money to come rolling in overnight, but you can expect a sense of satisfaction when you've made that first sale and get that first piece of awesome feedback!

Melanie sees herself having a flourishing business over the next five years--a business that has name recognition and that will help her be self-supporting. Less stress, a larger home, a trip to the European continent and Egypt and someone to share it all with, are also on her agenda. Success is sure to be just around the corner for determined shop owner, Melanie!

**In order to qualify for Melanie's giveaway, you must comment on this post by telling us: 1) What do you do to save the earth? and, 2) What is your favorite fragrance?

Both answers should be in one post which should also include your email address. Don't forget you can earn additional entries as detailed above. Good luck!

Check Out This Great Giveaway From HOST (the helping others street team)

The Etsy Helping Others Street Team (or HOST)invites everyone to enter their first Blog Contest for 2010. The prize is a $50US Shop Analysis from noisettemarketing on etsy. Contest is open to all Etsy shop owners and closes March 31st at midnight.

Details of the Giveaway can be found here:

http://helpingothersstreetteam.blogspot.com/2010/03/host-blog-giveaway-etsy-shop-analysis.html

The Egg Team's Wonderful Egg Hunt

WELCOME TO THE WONDERFUL

WITH FABULOUS GIVEAWAY

SPONSERED BY:

Come join in the fun and win a fabulous giveaway egg filled with awesome items donated from each of our participating member's shops.

The egg hunt begins March 15th and ends April 3rd midnight eastern time.

It is open to all worldwide.
Participating shops cannot enter.

The rules are easy, first look at the list of participating shops and next to each one you will see a number, that number represent how many eggs are hidden within that shop.
You must find all the eggs in each shop and then post the links in the comment section of this blog post.

UPDATED: There are a total of 23 eggs to find.
You must be at least 18 years of age to enter!!

Please be honest when joining in the egg hunt and do not copy and paste someone else's comment post with the found links.  You never know but they may not be all correct so please do take the time to actually HUNT for the eggs yourself and at the same time help support these great shops by taking a look at their wonderful items.

At the end of the egg hunt a winner will be choosen by random generator and contacted by email so please make sure there is an email either attached to your posting ID or make sure to post it along with your comment post. If for any reason we cannot contact the winner a second drawing will be done.

Only one winner for this egg hunt and that winner will receive a fabulous giveway worth over $150 in items that are shown here.

List of participating shops:

reducereuserepurpose 2

"Think Green" Repurposed, Reclaimed Material Screen Printed Strapped Pouch

sewsassycreations 2

Perfect Pocket Bag

The mini pillow was donated by zulamay who is in the process of moving at the moment so will not be able to participate in the egg hunt.

soapaddicts 2

Spa Set ~ Two Bath Fizzies, One Signature Angel soap, One Exfiolating Luxirious Celtic Knott Soap, One Lavender Vanilla Bath Salt Sample

sugarshoxcrafts 2

Awesome Fried Egg Earrings

silverWARES 2

Sliverware Pendant & Repurposed Domino Pendant with Necklace

dormousedesigns 2

Beautiful Gothic Tale Earrings

inmy2hands 2

2 Scrubbie Dub Dub Dish Scrubs

 lavanderdreams 2

3 Set Blue Crocheted Wash Cloths

thecreativecavaran 1

Block Printed Skinny Scarf

fyrecreek 2

Too Cute Hand Felted Woolly Gnome

flowergurlcrafts 1

Cutie Crocheted Chick in Basket

funvites 2

Fun Card Pack

sever96 1

Yummy 8oz Bag of English Toffee

(due to the freshness of this item it will be shipped directly from seller to winner)

In March Be On The Look Out For.......

COMING SOON!!

With A Fabulous Giveaway!!!

Congrats To The Team!!!

I wanted to send congratulations to all the members of The Egg Team as we were awarded one of Etsy's team grants for the month of February.

For more info about Team Grants see this Etsy Blog post: http://www.etsy.com/storque/etsy-news/team-tip-etsy-team-grants-1656/

For the Team Grant application see here:

http://team.etsy.com/grantsApp.html

Thank you soo much etsy and Morgan for selecting our team.

We will be using the grant to help advertise the team and get some promotional items together, as well as a team graphic and banner design. If you know of any etsy sellers who do this kind of work or if you are one please feel free to contact us and let us know what you do and pricing. Our team is still small but we will be making orders of at least 20 to 25 pieces depending on what the items are and the input from out members.

This is very exciting!

Make Beaded Bouquet Tutorial By Creative Home Arts

Bead A Bouquet Tutorial From Creative Home Arts

Beaded Floral Centerpiece

Customize your centerpiece

By: Sharon M. Reinhart

Bead and arrange dimensional paper flowers to create a springy new accent for a table or desk. An inexpensive mini watering can, some pink cardstock, and a few simple supplies are all you need. Create in colors to match your home décor.

Finished size: 7 1/2" tall Centerpiece (2 1/4" Flower Heads)

Skill: 1 Time: 1 Cost: 2

You will need:


• Mini gold watering tin
• One 2 1/2" craft foam ball*
• Pink cardstock*
• Multi-layered flower rubber stamp*
• Brown ink*
• Metallic thread* - #7730
• Beading needle
• Seed beads* - pink & tan iridescent
• One yd. light pink sheer dot ribbon*
• 1" circle punch
• Straight pin
• Foam mat
• Five wooden skewers
• Craft knife & mat
• White craft glue*
• Foam mounting tape
• Double sided tape
• Cellophane tape
• Optional: Office paper shredder
Ruler, scissors

• See photo for details and placement.

STEP 1: Stamp flowers. Ink flower stamp with brown ink. Stamp image onto smooth side of pink cardstock five times.


STEP 2: Cut flowers. Trim around each stamped flower. To create pop-up effect, use a craft knife to cut around inner pointed petal up to rounded petal, and following stamped lines. Use this technique on two flowers.

STEP 3: Make stitching holes. Place flower right-side up on a foam mat. Use a straight pin to pierce one hole at outside end of straight line in each rounded petal. Pierce another hole at opposite end, just inside center of flower.

STEP 4: Stitch flower centers. Cut 24" of thread. Thread onto beading needle. Do not tie a knot. Using a single thickness of thread, insert needle through one pierced hole in center of flower from back to front. Pull thread through until approximately 1/4" - 1/2" remains on back of flower. Secure end of thread with tape. Re-pierce any holes covered by tape. Pick up one seed bead on end of needle. Insert needle through same hole to return to back of flower. Continue until every center hole has been stitched with a bead. Stitch one pop-up flower with pink beads and the other with tan beads. For remaining flowers, stitch one with pink beads and two with tan beads.

STEP 5: Stitch lines in flowers. Continue to stitch straight lines on pop-up flowers, stitching twice on each line. For remaining flowers, stitch lines from outer hole to inside hole two times, insert needle through outer hole once more (back to front), pick up seed bead on end of needle, and return to back of flower through same hole. Continue until complete.

STEP 6: Curl flowers. Use skewer or fingers to curl pop-up petals slightly forward and outside petals slightly backward.

STEP 7: Assemble flowers. Punch or die cut ten 1" circles. Adhere one circle on back of each flower over top of stitching. Attach skewer to center back using double-sided tape or white glue. Apply a strip of foam mounting tape vertically on each side of skewer. Adhere remaining circles on top with textured side out to sandwich skewer between them.

STEP 8: Attach ribbon. Cut five 3 1/2" lengths of ribbon, tie in a knot around skewer at base of each flower, and trim ribbon ends at a slant. Cut three 4" lengths of ribbon, tie in a knot around watering can handle, and trim ends at a slant.

STEP 9: Assemble in watering can. Push foam ball into watering can. Excess will be trimmed by edge of watering can as ball is pushed in, ensuring a snug fit inside watering can. Determine placement of flower picks. Trim skewers as needed. Insert flower picks into foam. Cut several 1/4" strips from pink cardstock using scissors, or if available, run through an office paper shredder. Crumple strips in hands. Adhere on top of foam with white craft glue.


  *The following products were used in this project: Bazzill Basics color pinkini • Blue Moon Seed Beads • Clearsnap Colorbox Fluid Chalk inkpad • Crafter’s Pick The Ultimate glue • Lizzie Anne Designs “Jolies Fleur” rubber stamp set • Michael's ribbon • STYROFOAM Brand Foam • Wonderfil metallic thread.

Important Parts of the Sales Process

Recently I placed orders with two vendors on Etsy. I sent my payment through PayPal immediately. I did not hear back from either of the vendors for quite a while. I found this very puzzling because as soon as I get a sale, I like to send a Thank you immediately. I tell my customer when I will ship the product and when they should expect its arrival, that I appreciate their business. I let them know that if they wish to contact me for any reason, I will be glad to help them if I can. I consider this not only good business practice but also a practice to alleviate what is called "Buyer's Remorse". Of course, on Etsy we generally are not concerned with high priced expenditures that create true Buyer's Remorse...like homes or automobiles or even televisions, computers or home appliances. For purchases that require a great outlay of cash, the buyer will almost always have second thoughts about spending the money, or question the item itself... i.e., "Did I choose the right product, did I get the best deal''? and so on.

On the level in which we each do business on Etsy, buyer's remorse most likely will not be occur over the amount of money the customer has spent. In my case it was simply asking myself if I made a good choice of vendor because they did not seem to appreciate my business. As we all know, there are plenty of other vendors from which to choose from on Etsy or the internet in general. The competition is stiff and it's a dog eat dog business out there! Because the competition is so stiff, we as vendors must ask ourselves, what is going to separate me from the next guy? The simple answer is great customer service!

How do you give customer service that will separate you from the pack? Simply stated, act like every sale is your first sale! Do you remember the excitement you felt when you made the first one? You couldn't wait to say Thanks and ship out as soon as possible. You couldn’t wait to hear back that they received the merchandise. Then with great pleasure, you checked the rating the customer gave you, and sent a follow up Thank you note for that as well. You asked them if they were happy and satisfied with the product and service and hopefully they said yes. If they did not say yes... well we can cover customer complaints and resolutions in a different post because that is a whole topic in itself!

Another thing to remember in the sales process is that it is much easier to make a repeat customer out of a first time satisfied customer. A repeat customer is much easier to come by than a first time buyer. It takes more time and effort as well as advertising dollars to create a first time buyer. The repeat buyer hopefully has confidence, not only in the quality of your product but in your customer service skills. They feel relaxed and good about buying from you again if the first time was a pleasurable experience.

So everyone, go sell and remember to say to your customer, Thank you, I appreciate your business, not only once, but in each step of the sales process.

Come Shop With The Etsy Goodie Goodies Team Members

reducereuserepurpose


babazoobee

DormouseDesigns

Zulamay

Soapaddicts

TheCreativeCavaran

Sugarshoxcrafts

silverWARES

LavanderDreams

sewsicora

SewSassyCreations

ExpressionsByCheree

vintagetreasurehntr

IFeltYourBeads

Under Construction

Please bare with us while we set up our blog. In the meantime check out the thread that started it all http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6411611