Make Your Own Magnets...A How-To Tutorial!

Kristina Myers of kristinamyerscrafts gives us step-by-step instructions on how to make our magnets!

Have you ever wanted a certain magnet but couldn't find exactly what you wanted? Make your own! Here is a list of materials you will need:

1.5 inch flat glass marbles ($2.49)
Card Stock ($0.49)
Stickers or Permanent glue stick ($1.99)
Specialty glass adhesive ($5.29)
Magnets ($5.67)
Strong adhesive for magnets ($2.67)
1 1/4 inch round paper punch ($13.99)
Unscented baby wipes ($2.67)

Follow these steps to create your masterpiece!


1. Sort through the glass pieces to remove chipped, broken, or irregular marbles. Wash glass in hot soapy water. This removes dirt and oils that get on the glass during manufacturing, packaging and shipping. I let mine soak for 5 minutes.

2. Rinse with hot water. I make the water as hot as my tap will allow. The glass dries quickly with no spots.





3. Punch out card stock and affix stickers. You may choose to use images of your own. Print images on plain paper using the highest DPI your printer allows. Edit your photos before printing to find the best fit. There is an option in most photo editing software to "view" image in "actual size". I hold the glass marble up to the screen to check the fit.





4. On newspaper place cardstock (or paper) face up. Place specialty glass adhesive on center of circle. Press glass into adhesive. Make sure adhesive spreads evenly out to edges. Use baby wipe to remove extra adhesive and clean fingers in between each one. Place glue side up to dry overnight.
5. Use strong adhesive to attach the magnet to the back of the card stock. (If you printed an image, use the permanent glue stick to attach a piece of card stock to the back of the glass before gluing the magnet.) Allow to dry for 24 hours for best results.












If this sounds too complicated or expensive... you can buy 6 magnets for $7 from her shop at http://kristinamyerscrafts.etsy.com!

And the next Etsy Chat Team promotion is....

Halloween/Fall Challenge!!!

As you can see by the vote, it was a close poll....the results are as follows:

The original idea of the Halloween/Fall Challenge goes like this....."Team member shops come up with a really great item to list in their shop that is Halloween/Fall themed....let's say by October 1st. From there we post a list of the items, with a description, photo and link to the item/shop, and have a vote on our blog where readers can choose their favorite. Good way to motivate shops to be creative, and gets some exposure for the Team and each shop."

As an addition to this, we could also run a Team Wide Halloween Sale once we get the items from the challenge posted in our shops and on the team blog.

So...now that we have our promotion chosen, lets discuss it! I've created a new Forum Topic at our Ning page to discuss this and/or you can post here!

Happy Chatting,

Misty

Once Upon A Beautiful Blue

A beautiful, calm and refreshing look into some of the artists of the Etsy Chat Team!

Do you Ning?

If not, you should! Did you know that the Etsy Chat Team has a Ning Social Network that serves as our "base of operations"? It's a great place to interact with other team members, post photos, start some great discussions, etc. Find it HERE!

I've spent most of the morning making some changes to our site, so you'll find it looking pretty and fresh ;-). Also, check out the Forums, as I have created categories to help manage and more easliy find discussions.

If you are an Etsy Chat Team member but haven't registered for our Ning network, do so now!

Hey Chat Team!

Jupita posted this a week ago today asking all team members to brainstorm and come up with some fun ideas for promoting The Etsy Chatters Team.

So far we have a few great ideas, but before we put this to vote, I want to make sure everyone's been heard....so in essence, speak now or forever hold your peace ;-)

Here are the ideas so far:

• Sampler Group Boxes: where we create sampler style boxes with (choose a #) chatter's shops per box (example, 4 shops per box, which means one item from each shop per box). Each "group" member supplies that many items for the boxes. They send each of the participants of their "group" an item. Each member creates a box and lists it in their shop, each box being listed at the same price as the others.

• Halloween/Fall Challenge: where team member shops come up with a really great item to list in their shop that is Halloween/Fall themed....let's say by October 1st. From there we post a list of the items, with a description, photo and link to the item/shop, and have a vote on our blog where readers can choose their favorite. Good way to motivate shops to be creative, and gets some exposure for the Team and each shop. (This could be changed or also done for Winter/Christmas, etc.)

• Sampler Box/Theme Basket Blog Giveaway: For example, participating team shops would send their items to a Team Lead (Misty @ Heathenshearth or Jupita, to be determined later) and they compile a couple of bags/baskets from the items, take photos of the baskets, and post on the blog. Then have members, followers, etc post comments on the blog and we chose winners (dependant on how many bags/baskets we make up) using random. org.

• Etsy Chatters Team Sale: We can plan a weekend sale (maybe for August or September) and all team members who want to participate could decide what sort of sale they want to run (i.e. free shipping, 10% store-wide, 25% off orders over $50, etc etc the possibilities are endless) and use code "Etsy Chatters Team" for sale prices. After we get a list of who is participating and what their sale is, we can put together a blog post listing them in alphabetical order (or maybe even sorted by craft). Everyone can put it in their shop announcement with a link back to the blog post. We can all separately promote the Team sale using blogger, twitter, facebook, etc...whatever you use.

• Etsy Chatters Team-wide Chat-a-thon / Sell-a-thon: - Select one weekend (Friday evening to Sunday night, Etsy time) when every participating shop would have a promotion of some sort - BOGO, free shipping, gift with purchase, percent off, gift wrapping - whatever works best for the individual shop. - We promote the heck out of the weekend, with threads on the forums, posts on team members' individual blogs, Tweets and Ning messages flying across the internet, Treasuries made to highlight the team and participating shops, and (something no other team ever does), maintaining a chat room about the fun, all weekend long. - Participating shops, and other Team members, each 'adopt' an hour or more during the weekend to be responsible for Etsy-based promotion during their designated time. I'll have opened a chat room and Etsy forum threads, but as we know, chat rooms can die if they're not active, and forum threads fall off the main page if they don't get attention, so there needs to be a conversation going on there too, in both the Teams and Promotions categories. The forum and our Team blog would be another way to list all the participating shops, with their links.

Let's get some more ideas rolling! I will be checking this periodically and Jupita and I will post a poll on the blog in the next couple days!

Calling all Chatters Team Members!!

HI!!

It has been a while since I posted much in the blog.

It is rare that we have all the chatters in the rooms at one time. We are all busy gals and guys!So, I have an idea... instead of a meeting...we will use the BLOG!!

The basics...

Leave a message here regarding your idea for a team wide promo. Give the basic outline of the idea (yard sale, giveaway, team baskets, etc...) In one week I will go through the ideas and make a poll. THEN, the team can vote on the next promo we will do!!

All new team members, Thanks for joining us!! We aill soon become more active..

I am sending a new email to Etsy Admin to have all the newbies added at weeks end as well. So, also post here if you do not see your name yet in the side bar to the right on the BLOG!!

~Jupita~

DukDesigns is AWESOME!! Come see why...

1. Who is dukdesigns? Heather Wayne is the owner-operator of DuK Designs. Specializing in designing handbags and backpacks, Heather expresses her creative side through designing different bags with a bit of engineering skills, color coordinating, and imaginative exploration... no patterns!

2. What kind of crafting/art do you do? I love my sewing machine! If it involves fabric and thread, I am in! How long have you been doing it? I learned the beginner skills of quilting and sewing when I was a young girl. However, it wasn't until after graduating college that I took the time to grow my skills and dedicate time to sewing. While job-hunting I needed something to invest my time and energy. I bought a brand new sewing machine and started creating bags.

3. Where do you pull your inspiration from? I love fabrics and draw inspiration from the beautiful variety of different fabric designs and colors! I can spend hours in the sewing store and online, pulling together fabrics, colors, and gathering ideas for new designs.



4. What is your favorite medium? Purse design.

5. Is Etsy your art your full time job, or just an on the side project? It started out as my full-time job, and I remained dedicated to my Etsy shop on a 50 hour work week schedule for 8 months. Recently, however, I was offered a full-time job in my field of study (Human Services), and I now work my Etsy shop part-time. But my love and passion for designing is definitely more than a hobby to me! I am whole-heartly dedicated to it!

6. How did you find Etsy? A close friend of mine saw the bags that I had created and told me I needed to check out Etsy. The rest is history!

7. How did you become ADDICTED to Etsy CHAT? I first started joining chat as a way to promote my shop. After getting to know many Etsy regulars, it became more of a daily socializing ritual for me! I have gotten to meet so many awesome people online through Etsy. Now if I don't get my daily Etsy chat time, the day is just not the same!

8. What is your favorite piece that you have done? I created a "Skulls and Roses" handbag, which I was totally impressed with. The skulls theme is not something I would personally consider “my style,” however, once it was completed, I was IN LOVE with the bag! The colors of red and black, and the goldish rings I used all pulled this bag together so perfectly. It was really a piece of art to me... and one hot lookin' bag!

9. What is your favorite Etsy shop (other than yours)? Oooh that's tough because I have several close Etsy friends who all have awesome shops!




10.Tips for other Artists? If you are ever faced with a time where you lack creative inspiration or motivation, go back to the roots of when you first fell in love with your art and draw upon that passion.

11. Tell me a Secret about yourself. I am an avid NASCAR fan. Only my close friends know that about me, and if I tell people that I love NASCAR, they seemed surprised. I guess because it’s not the most girly sport in the world. But I have been around racing my whole life, so it’s in my blood.

12. Any parting words of wisdom? Questions? Comments. Do what you love and love what you do. And don't ever sell yourself short! Don't mark your product down in price because you are anxious for a sale. When the right buyer comes along, they will pay you what you say it is worth! And you deserve the compensation for your hard work!
GIVEAWAY TIME:

DukDesigns is giving away a "Lotus Dreams in Blue Handbag" to one lucky winner!!
How do you enter to win? SIMPLE....

1 Entry: go to www.dukdesigns.etsy.com and pick your favorite item, then come back here and tell us what it is! (required)

1 Entry: Twitter this Blog post AND DukDesigns.Etsy.Com, Leave a link here to the twit and get another entry.

1 Entry: BLOG about this Giveaway and DukDesigns, leave comment here with a link.

2 Entries: Purchase an Item from Dukdesigns.etsy.com, post a link to the transaction here, and get TWO more entries..

1 Entry: Follow this blog, leave a post here to let us know you follow.


SO, 6 entries in all!!

HAve fun!!!

Chat Team Meeting....

Chat Team Meeting tonight has been postponed. Sorry for the inconvienience.

I have a request:

1. Convo me with your three avaiable time/date combos when you would be most likely to be able to attend a meeting in chat. I will look over them all, and find the time that the most chatters are available. Example: Wed 9pm EST; Friday 10pm EST; Sunday 3pm EST

2. Could everyone CONVO me their ideas for the next few promos:

Jupita.Etsy.Com

2kute and JSwrites have a great idea for a sidewalk sale (we all need to figure out time/week/ etc and then we can all run with it.) Jswrites and 2kute, can you convo me all the information about the sidewalk sale?

Sampler Etsy Chatters Team bags?

Giveaway?

Send me your ideas..

Another Chat Team Treasury

I was lucky enough to snag a treasury this morning and I filled it with wonderful Chat Team pretties! Click on the photo to go to the treasury :)