For all who wish to remain on the EtsyPaper team: The deadline for reply to the membership roll call is October 30th. The roll call info request was sent as a broadcast message (to all members on Ning). For those of you who may have mis-placed or did not receive the email, I am adding the requested info below. You can just copy & paste the questions and respond to either me or Chrystal via etsy shop convo. Please feel free to ask questions through our Ning forum post HERE.
PLEASE FILL OUT THE REQUESTED INFO BELOW:
Name:Location:E-mail Address:
Primary Etsy Shop:
Etsy Username (if different from shop name):
Brief Description of Your Shop:
Any additional Etsy Shops (with brief descriptions of each): If directly related to your business...
Website:
Blog:
Flickr:
Other Sites:
Send to (either)
* Sarah Kinzalow (Paper Peddler)
* Chrystal Schilling (CS Paper & Beads/ Craft Studio)
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
EtsyPaper Team October Challenge - Give Thanks
Hello and happy October to all! We are back with a new challenge for the month and hope to have a lot of participation. We have a few team members who are in the military, have been in the military (me included), or are married to a soldier. We thought it would be nice (with Thanksgiving right around the corner) to let our men and women in uniform know how much we appreciate them. Chrystal (CS Paper & Beads & Craft Studio) is married to a Marine and they were recently getting fellow Marines ready for deployment to Iraq. We thought it might send a little comfort to all who are away from home, especially during the upcoming holidays, to send our thanks, thoughts and well wishes over to them. Challenge details are below - enjoy!
GIVE THANKS - EtsyPaper Team October Challenge
* Make a thank you card for our recently deployed Marines
* Themes can be American/Americana or Fall/Autumn, Thanksgiving
* Take photos! Add them to Ning with "October Thanks" as the tag (so we can easily find them) We would also love to have you post in our team thread once you have completed the challenge and add a link to view the photos
* The deadline to have the cards finished is October 22nd. You may then mail them to Chrystal and she will see that they get shipped out to our Marines. Feel free to write an encouraging note inside and/or sign your card.
* EVERYONE is invited to participate! Official & Aspiring members welcome.
* You may also create multiple cards - the more, the merrier!
* An event will be created on Ning and we ask that you "RSVP" if you are participating. We will use the RSVP list to send out Chrystal's address.
We will highlight the entries as they come in on our team promo thread and here on the team blog. I am also hoping to get enough entries to create treasuries,etc. and gain some much needed exposure for our team and members. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Thanks to everyone in advance.
Sarah (contact here)
Here are a few Thank You cards I found from our team members:
GIVE THANKS - EtsyPaper Team October Challenge
* Make a thank you card for our recently deployed Marines
* Themes can be American/Americana or Fall/Autumn, Thanksgiving
* Take photos! Add them to Ning with "October Thanks" as the tag (so we can easily find them) We would also love to have you post in our team thread once you have completed the challenge and add a link to view the photos
* The deadline to have the cards finished is October 22nd. You may then mail them to Chrystal and she will see that they get shipped out to our Marines. Feel free to write an encouraging note inside and/or sign your card.
* EVERYONE is invited to participate! Official & Aspiring members welcome.
* You may also create multiple cards - the more, the merrier!
* An event will be created on Ning and we ask that you "RSVP" if you are participating. We will use the RSVP list to send out Chrystal's address.
We will highlight the entries as they come in on our team promo thread and here on the team blog. I am also hoping to get enough entries to create treasuries,etc. and gain some much needed exposure for our team and members. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Thanks to everyone in advance.
Sarah (contact here)
Here are a few Thank You cards I found from our team members:
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
EtsyPaper Team Membership Roll Call - More Info
We are getting ready to send out an email via Ning messaging system and/or convo so that we may update our membership records & roster. I have created an event through Ning as notice to everyone to be on the lookout for your email this week. The event will also serve as a reminder to all. There is no need to take any action on the event message. You will, however, need to respond to the next email you receive as to whether or not you would like to remain a member. There are also a few items you will need to fill out/answer so that we can update our teams page on etsy.
We are looking to have most of our "aspiring" members join us as "official" members by the end of the year, but the roster cleanup needs to be completed before we are able to add anyone new. ASPIRING MEMBERS: you are included in the email request so please be sure to fill out your information. This will save the hassle of getting it from you at a later time. We currently have 328 members on Ning (aspiring & official), not to mention shops/members that are listed on the etsy teams page who aren't on Ning. I can honestly say there is only a small percentage of which I regularly "see" or recognize their names and shops. We want to fix that and also hope to get a better idea of where we should focus our attention to benefit our members and team. We are also asking that if you no longer wish to be a member to please respond with that.
We are giving one full month to answer the request in case there are people on vacations,etc. You will have until October 30th to respond. After that date, we will begin removing (first) members who have conveyed that they no longer wish to be on the team, and (second) those who have not responded to the email. This is also going to help cleanup our Ning site as well. We're asking that you respond quickly (as possible) so that Chrystal and I can get things rolling and we can all go into the new year with better focus and with members who are happy and active. We have a forum on Ning for you to post questions (you may have questions that others are curious about so ask away), or you may contact either Chrystal or myself at the links below and we will get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks to everyone in advance:)
CONTACT HERE:
*NING FORUM FOR QUESTIONS
* Sarah
* Chrystal
We are looking to have most of our "aspiring" members join us as "official" members by the end of the year, but the roster cleanup needs to be completed before we are able to add anyone new. ASPIRING MEMBERS: you are included in the email request so please be sure to fill out your information. This will save the hassle of getting it from you at a later time. We currently have 328 members on Ning (aspiring & official), not to mention shops/members that are listed on the etsy teams page who aren't on Ning. I can honestly say there is only a small percentage of which I regularly "see" or recognize their names and shops. We want to fix that and also hope to get a better idea of where we should focus our attention to benefit our members and team. We are also asking that if you no longer wish to be a member to please respond with that.
We are giving one full month to answer the request in case there are people on vacations,etc. You will have until October 30th to respond. After that date, we will begin removing (first) members who have conveyed that they no longer wish to be on the team, and (second) those who have not responded to the email. This is also going to help cleanup our Ning site as well. We're asking that you respond quickly (as possible) so that Chrystal and I can get things rolling and we can all go into the new year with better focus and with members who are happy and active. We have a forum on Ning for you to post questions (you may have questions that others are curious about so ask away), or you may contact either Chrystal or myself at the links below and we will get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks to everyone in advance:)
CONTACT HERE:
*NING FORUM FOR QUESTIONS
* Sarah
* Chrystal
Monday, September 28, 2009
EtsyPaper Team Featured Member - Amy Vander Vorste
It's time for our next EtsyPaper Team featured member post! I am pleased to to feature Amy Vander Vorste of Avlor's Imprints. She is a valued member and also maintains our team Twitter account. Read her feature and visit her shop and blog (links can be found below). Enjoy!
Tell us a little about yourself:
(Waving to everybody) Hi! I'm Amy Vander Vorste and I'm a stay at home mom. My darling hubby and I have 2 wonderful kidlets under the age of 10, a runt fuzzball cat named Tuna and the rollie pollie Hammy the Hamster. Besides playing with paper, I enjoy fiber arts (knitting, spinning, card weaving, naalbinding, etc), learning about Japan, studying the Viking age, and tinkering on the computer. My shops take up most of my "hobby" time (and then some), but I try to do something non shop related every week.
Tell us about your shop:
* When did you open it?
Avlor's Imprints opened December of 2007, after nudging by a couple of my friends. It's been a fun journey so far turning it from just a little hobby to a business.
* What items/type of items do you sell?
At first I was all over the map with the items I put in my shop. But I've focused in on stationery (printed and print-your-own), labels and tags, and promotional items. Designing, adding a touch of whimsy and seeing the finished printed products is always a thrill.
Print-your-own stationery is what I started with because I like the convenience of just printing some when I need it. So my slogan for printable stationery was born - "Save money by having cards and stationery on hand! Save trees by only printing what you need! Include a personal note in your orders for an excellent presentation! Great for promos!"
I don't just print my own designs. Helping other sellers by making promo cards or graphics with their product photos is fun too!
My hubby even designed one of the sets - Spaceman M.E.L. (I keep trying to convince him to do more sets, but he's trying to get back to writing on his book.)
Getting to know you - 5 Questions
1. Is there something that you've never tried with paper that you'd like to try?
Making my own paper. Someday soon I will slate the time to just try it with the kiddos. It sounds wonderfully fun and messy! Experimentation and exploration are incredibly important to being artistic. I like to encourage people to try new things and to not worry about being good at it right away. Try something new when ever you can. I've tried metal smithing, roasting my own coffee, spinning my own yarn, historical re-enactment, learning Japanese, designing my own stationery, photography, and many other things. Some things I am good at, some I'm terrible at (like smithing) - but I love trying them all.
2. What is your first crafting memory?
My grandparents lived with us when I was a kid. My grandmother taught me to crochet ... several times, because I kept forgetting it. But her patient persistence gave me a love of making things and a pride in accomplishments that has stayed with me to this day. She also gave me some of her good old German tenacity in the process. I hope to pass these on to my own children too. My son is asking to learn to crochet so he can make a stuffed tiger. I'm slowly teaching him, and it's cool to see the other side of learning the first craft I learned.
3. When did you join the EtsyPaper Team and what are your favorite things about being a team member?
This last spring is when I joined the team. It's the first team I applied to join and I chose it because there's a good community here. People here are very friendly and make you feel welcome right away. If you need help, advice or encouragement - you can count on the EtsyPaper team. I also like how we're professional but laid back at the same time. We promote each other - like we do with the business card exchange. I feel its important to be active and of help in any group we join. This limits the number of teams we can join, but it's more rewarding. I've joined only one other team (EtsyTwitter) and that's enough for me.
4. How has being part of the Etsy community changed your craft?
Being in the Etsy community has challenged me to:
* be more professional -> I "brand" now because if Etsy. I'm proud of the products I make and I want people to know it.
* plan ahead and schedule more efficiently -> So I can do more. Not everything, just more.
* try new things and ways of doing things -> I've tried several methods of cutting my stationery by hand and I know what works best now.
* add special touches -> Each product has a little something that makes it special. I also enjoy sending my products as a gift to my buyers.
5. Do you have more than one etsy shop?
Yes, I do. This summer I started a second shop because I wanted to narrow the focus of the items I sold in Avlor's Imprints. Having the variety of two shops is great. But two is my limit!
* Name of shop(s) & link:
Ojami - http://ojami.etsy.com/
* Types of items you sell there.
Otedama (Japanese juggling and jacks) game sets and Bento accessories (lunch Bags and Bento lunch box bands).
I started making Otedama sets after making sets for my son's class at Christmas one year. I was hooked on the little game. (True confessions - I'm not coordinated enough to be good at the game. But I keep trying because it's fun!)
Then the Bento related items came from a need in my own family. The school lunches here leave much to be desired. After reading Japanese lunch blogs and forums at justbento.com and lunchinabox.net, I got in gear to make healthy reasonably sized lunches for my kiddos and myself. (I posted about this on my blog, so I won't go into detail here. http://avlorsimprints.blogspot.com/2009/08/back-to-school-packing-healthy-lunches.html) I couldn't locally find resusable lunch bags that would accommodate the Japanese style bento boxes we use or the bands that hold them closed, so I made my own. I hope it will help others wanting to be health and eco conscious.
Find her here:
SHOP: Avlor's Imprints
BLOG: Avlor's Imprints
NING: Amy Vander Vorste
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