Man, a week flies by fast. Here is another collection of fabulous Etsy shops, for this most excellent Thursday evening. Enjoy.
I love to be amazed at "before and after" photos that really show a dramatic transformation. It can be inspiring. While I don't have a before and after project of my own to share, just now, I did come across a few that I can share.
My most favorite TV designer is Candice Olson, of Divine Design. She has never done a room that I didn't love and want for myself. She gets it spot on every time. Whoever is lucky enough to have Candice come to their house and makeover a room for her show, they can be sure to end up with one of the coolest spaces ever.
Here is a bathroom remodel she did a while back:
Before
After
I think I always get the most excited for people who transform themselves by loosing weight. The Biggest Loser has had many great success stories of people who were willing to share with the rest of America their experience of it all. Losing weight in front of millions is the best motivator I can think of.
See Matt's transformation of becoming a Biggest Loser:
see more Biggest Loser photos here.
We all know that photos in magazines are air brushed and touched making already beautiful women, even more perfect. Look at some before and after photos of celebrities that have been photo shopped before being put into the pages of magazines. Let's call these after and before, because seeing them in that order has a much better affect.
see more celebrities that have been photo shopped here.
Whatever, is all I can say. I don't do scrapbooks. I do, however loooove the products, especially the paper. So, I can definitely appreciate the supplies some scrappers accumulate . I also tend to drool over meticulously organized studios , craft rooms, or any room for that matter, as mine is certainly not. So, I stumbled across these "scrap rooms" of some 2 peas members, a bit ago, and my jaw actually fell to the floor. These ladies have scrap rooms that put most of my favorite shops to shame, let alone any studio space I've ever seen. And these are just ladies who scrap as a hobby. They don't use these spaces for working, or making any kind of living. Like I said, WHATEVER.
Room 1 - filled with more supplies than any one person could possibly even consider using in 10 life times. And this is just a section of what she's got.
Room 2 - my favorite of them all. Almost as many supplies as the room above. But, the organization in this room just blows me away. She designed this room just for scrapping. Picking out the shelving units and everything else for every little supply, down to a drawer for each letter of the alphabet with chipboards, just chipboards. See the "K" drawer? And that cabinet full of paper, color coordinated, of course.
Room 3 - i love how colorful this room is. How can you not be inspired in a space like this?
I checked and all of these ladies are married. So they must have a magic spell they put their husbands under, that makes this all possible. Not to mention, a few extra bucks to support their habits. Another member of 2 peas mentioned how she was bookmarking one of these photos to show her husband any time he complained that she had too much stuff. Seriously, this is all a bit over the top, excessive, and even a bit absurd. But, I want one too. waaaaaahhh.
see more detailed photos of these rooms and others here.
I should have known better than to start something like this count down. It is rare that I am able to update my blog daily, let along 12 days in a row. Besides the fact that the "12 days of Christmas" are starting to bore me, I've been off or behind so much, that I'll just finish it off now. And honestly, my reader following isn't much to speak of, at all, so I'm pretty sure I won't be disappointing anyone by cheating. So here is the rest.
by armatodesign
This great shot is from Non Photography (No Rules Street Photography). I love the colors and the lines. Very nice.
I have been wanting to contribute to The Sampler, ever since I discovered it. If you don't know what The Sampler is yet, check it out. It's great. I finally get it together and just sent in my contribution for the December Holiday Sampler. I'm not sure how effective it is going to be, as far as getting people to my Etsy shop, we'll have to see. I'm pretty excited about receiving my sampler that I get for participating. When I first contacted them, letting them know I was interested in contributing, I was feeling a bit over confident, when I first starting putting my samples together. For some reason I thought I'd be able to get 200 of them done. I had almost a month to get it ready. Well, it didn't take long for me to realize that wasn't going to happen. I ended up getting 100 (108 actually) done. It still qualified me to contribute to the media only sampler, if I want to. I plan on doing that next month. So anyway, I decided to contribute a mix of items, magnets, push pins, gift tags, and a few pendants. It came out to about 75 gift tag sample packs, 25+ mini boxes of magnet sets or push pins, and 5 pendants.
Here are a few of the mini boxes of magnets and gift tags packs. I like the way the gift tag packs turned out. The mini boxes were something I learned from an Etsy tutorial from the Storque .
Here is everything all boxed up ready to send off.
I received an email from them today letting me know that my package arrived safely. I am so relieved it got there on time and intact. I'll update once I know how it goes.
Time for another photo of the day. This time it's "Wedding Day" by Elliot Erwitt. See more of his work here. Erwitt has taken many historical media photos you may recognize. Enjoy.
Wedding Day. New York, 1955 Elliot Erwitt
I haven't learned all the ins and outs of it all out yet, but so far, ning seems to be pretty cool. I joined the "we love etsy" group as another way to promote my shop. There are quite a few fellow etsiens there. They have a bunch a fun tools to add to your page. Here's a slide show from the photos I uploaded so far:
Find more photos like this on We Love Etsy
It took all of 1 minute to create. Im sure flickr has something similar as do other places as well. Wherever it comes from, it sure is a nice little way to showcase your work.
I love scouring the web for great photos. I used to be obsessed with doing it on my stumbleupon blog. There, I have page after page of some really great images. I thought I would start doing that here. Here is the first of my photo finds to share.
Here is one from my favorite photographer rebekka guoleifsdottir
This great shop, Rock, Paper, Scissors is full of fun paper products. I love all the colors and patterns. Like these great wood grain towels:
or these fun coloring books. This is like major big girl fun. I could totally enjoy these.
give them a visit. You're sure to find something you like.
Successful sellers on etsy know the importance of a good picture when it comes to selling your work. I'm still an etsy rookie, but the first thing I discovered since opening my shop, was if my photos weren't good, then I was wasting my time. When customers are browsing the infinite abyss of items to buy, it's the great photos that are going to make them stop and look, and maybe even buy. It's the only thing a buyer has to judge since they can't hold the item in their hands and see it up close. The quality of photos you'll find on etsy range from professional looking to "I think I'll let my 3 year old take my photos for me". I have found the best places to see examples of great photos are on etsy's front page and in the Treasury. Anyone with a camera can learn some simple techniques that make a difference between a photo that will get viewed by buyers and one that will just get passed by. A quick stop by the etsy forums or the etsy wiki can give you all the information you need. At the very least, sellers should edit the photos they take before adding them to their listings. You don't need to own photoshop to do this either. I've found a great online image editor that requires no download, that is simple to use. Try snipshot here.
Let me show you how just editing your photos make a huge difference. Yesterday I listed some magnets. Here is how the photo I took looked before I edited it at snipshot:
While the shot is clear and even in focus, the colors are off, and there is too much empty space around the magnets. Just a few adjustments at snipshot, a little cropping, and here is what I end up with:
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