Saturday Theme Treasury Challenge - Weddings!!!

 

Chandelier Earrings from CN teamies shop SomsStudio

Wedding pics: Copyright Our Labor of Love Photography 2009
Jewelry pics: Copyright Som's Studio 2009

We want to feature YOU! A reminder: Please use 8 CN members or your Treasury will not get judged. We've had some amazing shops we've wanted to feature as the winner but unfortunately we couldn't because all of the rules were not followed. Ok, the scolding from the teach is over, get back to recess.

Wedding season is quickly approaching! It's all about gowns, bowties and bling people! Think twinkle lights, wild flowers, grooms cakes, invitations, favours....the creative possibilities for weddings is endless so have fun!

This Saturday's Theme Treasury Challenge is taken from Etsy's Merchandise Desk: May Planning.

There is always a photo used to express the theme but this item does not have to be included in your treasury.The Rules:

1. Include at least 8 Curation Nation team members.
2. Tag the treasury "curationnation"
3. Tag the treasury "etsyteam".
4. Tag the treasury "etsyteamtreasury" - if you tweet, tweet your treasury using the hashtag #EtsyTeamTreasury.
5. Tag the treasury "wedding".
6. Post a comment here on the blog with a link to your treasury - your treasury will not be judged unless you have posted it below in the comments. Your shop could be chosen as the winner to be featured on our Wednesday Item Treasury Challenge. 
7. Put a link to this blog post in the comments of the treasury - this helps others find the challenge and enter.
8. Please follow our blog.
9. DUE DATE: Wednesday, May 4.
10. Saturday Treasury Challenges are the only challenges that get judged.

Everyone is invited to play - these challenges are open to all! These challenges are also voluntary - never mandatory for team members. Remember to try to include team mates you haven't used before.  These challenges are meant to build your treasury making skills, promote the team and make Etsy connections.  If you deal in vintage it's a great time to promote your vintage goods by making the old new again!

Wednesday Item Challenge - skyejuice

Upcycled and recycled goodness is in the air with all these wonderful Eco Friendly treasuries! I too, like Yvonne, feel a pain in my gut when I see a dry piece of cardboard in the trash so out it comes and to the blue bin I go! Three cheers for Mother Earth!

I'm very happy to announce this weeks winner of the Saturday Theme Treasury Challenge.......skyejuice with the wonderful treasury Eco Friendly could be Cool too.



This screen shot is a live, clickable version of skyejuice's "Eco Friendly could be Cool too" Treasury. You can click on any of the images above to be taken to each individual shop! Click here to be taken to the actual treasury.

This week we'll be featuring skyejuice's Hooked Metal Bookmark which should make for some fun nautical themed treasuries! Hint hint! ; )

The Rules:

You must include at least 8 Curation Nation team members - use the sidebar on the blog for a list of team shops.

1. Please follow our blog.
2. Put a link to this blog post in the comments of your treasury. This helps other people find the challenge and enter.
3. Post a comment here on the blog with a link to your treasury.
4. Tag the treasury "curationnation"
5. Tag the treasury "etsyteam" 
6. Tag the treasury "etsyteamtreasury" 
7. If you tweet, tweet your treasury using the hashtag #EtsyTeamTreasury
8. Include the featured item Hooked Metal Bookmark in the first three rows of your treasury.
9. DUE DATE: Wednesday May, 4.
10. Have fun!

Wednesday Item Treasury Challenges feature one item from a shop - the item must be included in your treasury. The featured Wednesday item is picked from the winning shop of the Saturday challenge. If the winner doesn't have a shop on Etsy, they will get to pick an item of their choice! Everyone is invited to play - these challenges are open to all. These challenges are also voluntary - never mandatory for team members.

Talkin' Tuesday - Meet Stacey from CreaShines!

Click here to visit her 'fun at heart' shop!

Here are 9 Fierce Facts about Stacey and one line is completely fictional.  Get involved by guessing which one of the 10 items listed below is the impostor. Put your comments below and Stacey may be around on Twitter so you can poke at her for some hints!  The fictional statement about Stacey will be posted next Tuesday when I feature the next CN Teammie. See below for the false fact about last week's featured teammie, Andrea.

1. When I was 14, I watched a movie where a baby pig's parents were taken to the slaughter house and I have been a vegetarian ever since. (Although my friends refer to me as a pick-atarian cause I'm still a picky vegetable eater.)

2. For my college senior thesis I spent 2 to 4 hours every day from January to April photographing bagworm caterpillars in their natural habitat (the bushes outside our apartment). The final result was a 4 min stop motion film complete w/ audio entirely fabricated by me. *Yvonne here: I twisted Stacey's arm to share the link!  Here it is, but turn your sound on, it's a must to watch with the sound!  http://bit.ly/fCJEUE  
        

3. I joined the military on a whim after watching a TV commercial of a female sailor photographing Navy SEALS on the beach. I was like, "She gets PAID to do that? Heck yah, where do I sign?" The next day I found myself signing paperwork w/ recruiters to be a photographer in the Navy. It was at that time I realized I had forgotten to inform my parents until the recruiters told me I'd need their permission because I was barely 17. Whoops!
        

4. My boyfriend, Alex and I are huge animal lovers and have 5 wonderfully sweet cats. All of which are rescued from the streets & shelters. His sister, Olesya and I seriously plan to open our own cat shelter(s).
  
5. I once jumped 75 feet off of an aircraft carrier into the middle of the Arabian Sea & unwillingly participated in a jelly fish throwing fight once in the water. As soon as I got back on the ship, I looked down to see a giant mass of poisonous sea snakes swimming where I was just located. I've never stepped foot in any ocean or sea since.
       
6. My dream is to meet Jean Claude Van Damme and have his arse-kicking, French-speaking, sexy babies!

7. At my college graduation last year, I pre-organized with 100+ students to jump and do the wave (in the audience) when they called my name. As I crossed the stage, I took their photo with my big DSLR camera & attached flash. So subtle...

8. The first foreign country I went to was Bahrain, where it was legal for me to drink at age of 18. I remember getting out of a taxi a bit inebriated w/ ppl I didn't know who immediately left me. I soon found myself being followed by a Bahranian soldier wielding an M-16 & making kissy noises. I've still never sobered up so fast in my life! (yep, I got away just fine:)

9. Alex & I once spent 32 waking hours in NYC during the height of a college semester here in Florida.
We didn't get a hotel so in this time we:
~Watched a Bjork concert.
~Attended the Blockbuster midnight opening of a video game & met some celebrities in the gaming circuit. (Later we saw ourselves on Microsoft's website from the event!)
~Had very long conversations with a somewhat "interesting" lady who thought a Russian chauffeur and the FBI were watching her & blocking her emails. She also promised she could get us 1 cent plane tickets to any where in the world.
~Hit up many, MANY 24 hr Starbucks.
~Witnessed an irate elderly man peeing his pants in McDonalds while cursing out the employees.
~Saw a chubby lil' rat get stuck in a gutter (he eventually slipped through)
~Got kicked out of grand central station
~Walked around an empty times square at 4am
~Alex accidentally spit on Diane Sawyer while laughing during the outside taping of Good Morning America!
~Somehow made it to the train which took us to the plane that got us back to our car in FL which we drove home, where we slept & TOTALLY skipped school the next day.

10. I fell in love w/ The Beatles in the 8th grade when the 1st Beatles Anthology came out. It was during this time that my parents said, "Oh, by the way, you were named after a Beatles song (Michelle)" Needless to say, that was one of the best days of my teenage life!

While I have your attention--> Joining this team has literally changed my life because when the photo biz gets slow, Etsy is my main source of income. I honestly don't know what I would be doing if I didn't have the amazing support and exposure I get from all of you Curation Nation-ers. Thank you for all of your hard work!! I'm excited to see all of the creative treasuries in our future! :)

Yvonne again: You may have noticed Stacey's second shop on the blog roll called CreaShinesCreatures, it will be opening sooooon!  www.etsy.com/shop/creashinescreatures

*******Last week's false fact about Andrea from sacredsuds was this one: #8:  Andrea does not speak Jive, and she said she barely knows enough Spanish to get around.  

Saturday Theme Treasury Challenge - Eco Savvy

A vintage tablecloth sundress from CN teammie's shop ChirpAndBloom

We want to feature YOU!  A reminder: Please use 8 CN members or your Treasury will not get judged.  We've had some amazing shops we've wanted to feature as the winner but unfortunately we couldn't because all of the rules were not followed.  Ok, the scolding from the teacher is over, get back to recess.    

Even though Earth Day is over, taking care of Momma Earth should be an everyday happening.  I'm the 'Recycling Police' wherever I go and have been known to bring home aluminum cans when I've been at places where they don't recycle so they won't go into our Earth.  The teeniest piece of cellophane goes into the recycling bin & if something can be reused or repurposed before recycling it, well, it does in our house. 

This Saturday's Treasury theme challenge is taken from Etsy's Finds email - Eco List. Ideas abound in Eco Fashion, Bike to Work,  Think about using hemp, bamboo, organic materials, and items that have been reclaimed and recycled throughout our vintage shops.  Click here to see some amazing visuals in Etsy's Eco List email.

There is always a photo used to express the theme but this item does not have to be included in your treasury.The Rules:

1. Include at least 8 Curation Nation team members.
2. Tag the treasury "curationnation"
3. Tag the treasury "etsyteam".
4. Tag the treasury "etsyteamtreasury" - if you tweet, tweet your treasury using the hashtag #EtsyTeamTreasury.
5. Tag the treasury "eco friendly".
6. Post a comment here on the blog with a link to your treasury - your treasury will not be judged unless you have posted it below in the comments. Your shop could be chosen as the winner to be featured on our Wednesday Item Treasury Challenge. 
7. Put a link to this blog post in the comments of the treasury - this helps others find the challenge and enter.
8. Please follow our blog.
9. DUE DATE: Wednesday, April 27. 
10. Saturday Treasury Challenges are the only challenges that get judged.

Everyone is invited to play - these challenges are open to all! These challenges are also voluntary - never mandatory for team members. Remember to try to include team mates you haven't used before.  These challenges are meant to build your treasury making skills, promote the team and make Etsy connections.  If you deal in vintage it's a great time to promote your vintage goods by making the old new again!

Learn & Grow - Featuring CayennePeppyBags

Welcome back to our newest feature! For those of you that missed the very first post here's a quick recap...It's called "Learn & Grow" because that's just what our intention is, to help us get better as a treasury making team! Periodically we will be interviewing some of you that have an Etsy Front Page treasury and featuring you here so others may learn and grow from your experiences. I hope we are all inspired by these posts. Feel free to contact Vanessa or Yvonne with any questions you may have surrounding this feature.

Congratulations to our new feature, Amy from CayennePeppyBags!

It's For You by CayennePeppeyBags

1. When you are making a treasury do you have a system that you use to coordinate the items?

To be honest, I usually put together a treasury based on color scheme. I’ve found that that’s a really easy way to put together a cohesive collection and there is always plenty of awesomeness from our team to choose from. :)

2. Do you tend to make treasuries on a whim or so you have a planned theme in mind?

I’m more of a whim(sical) type of gal. :) When I decide to make a treasury, I’ll often browse through my favorites and find something that jumps out at me that I work around. 

3. What tools on Etsy do you find useful while you are making treasuries?  

They’ve made making treasuries so easy now!! It used to be SO time consuming, but now you can whip one out pretty quickly thanks to schmetsy. (shmetsy.com/) Simply open a new tab to create a treasury, click the icon on the thumbprint or from the listing and WHA-LA!! It automatically posts on your treasury page! (you have to download their program first… it’s easy peazy) You can also send a mass convo to everyone letting them know you’ve featured their loveliness! I usually check the daily treasury tags for what’s hot and the monthly merchandising themes are always in the back of my head. I LOVE this team as that’s where I’ve learned lots of shortcuts!!

4. Tell me a little about the process of making the It’s for you treasury.

I actually stumbled across Denisebrain’s item and thought it would make a great theme for a treasury. William Dohman is a fellow Minnesota artist so I thought his ‘hello’ sign would fit beautifully. Cners filled in the blanks. :) I tried to keep the color palette and retro feel throughout, throwing in Easter/spring themed items.

5. Any rules or advice that you have to offer up to our teammies?

Don’t forget to tag your items with ‘curationnaton.’ I try to include as many shops as possible in my treasuries, but feel like I overlook some shops just cause they don’t show up on my etsy searches. (I know they’re on the blog, but I sometimes forget to reference that!)  When you do a search from etsy, don’t forget to search under ‘all items’ as we have some great vintage and supply shops too!
I always try to include as many CNers as possible, but like to throw in a few other interesting items to keep things fresh and give exposure both to my shop and the other featured shops in my treasury.

I LOVE how supportive and helpful this team is! There is so much talent and knowledge here, and every time I’m ‘treasured’ I do a little happy dance (inside, of course ;) Hugs and smooches! ♥Amy {cayennepeppybags.etsy.com/cayenne peppy.etsy.com}

Thank you so much Amy for taking the time to answer these questions!
Happy curating everyone!

Wednesday Item Challenge - CrabappleVintage

Mmmmm, Candy! Coke Bottle Gummies, Red Feet, Blue Whales, Spree, Pop Rocks....oh man I like me some candy especially Cotton Candy (hint hint). This weeks Saturday Theme Treasury Challenge was so fun! I had many a candy craving looking through all of the wonderful treasuries! Thank you to all for participating!

I'm very happy announce that this weeks winner is....drum roll....CrabappleVintage with her delicious Cotton Candy Colors Treasury!



This screen shot is a live, clickable version of CrabappleVintage's "Cotton Candy Colors" Treasury. You can click on any of the images above to be taken to each individual shop! Click here to be taken to the actual treasury.

This week we'll be featuring CrabappleVintage's Turquoise Rocking Horse Cookie Cutter. Etsy's May Merchandise Report is out and there's mention of the Kentucky Derby and Vintage Goodies so I thought this would be fun! Not to mention it's darn cute!

The Rules:

You must include at least 8 Curation Nation team members - use the sidebar on the blog for a list of team shops.

1. Please follow our blog.
2. Put a link to this blog post in the comments of your treasury. This helps other people find the challenge and enter.
3. Post a comment here on the blog with a link to your treasury.
4. Tag the treasury "curationnation"
5. Tag the treasury "etsyteam" 
6. Tag the treasury "etsyteamtreasury" 
7. If you tweet, tweet your treasury using the hashtag #EtsyTeamTreasury
8. Include the featured item Turquoise Rocking Horse Cookie Cutter in the first three rows of your treasury.
9. DUE DATE: Wednesday April, 27.
10. Have fun!

Wednesday Item Treasury Challenges feature one item from a shop - the item must be included in your treasury. The featured Wednesday item is picked from the winning shop of the Saturday challenge. If the winner doesn't have a shop on Etsy, they will get to pick an item of their choice! Everyone is invited to play - these challenges are open to all. These challenges are also voluntary - never mandatory for team members.

Talkin' Tuesday - Meet Andrea from sacredsuds!

Click here to visit her 'soap with soul' shop!

Here are 9 Fierce Facts about Andrea and one line is completely fictional.  Get involved by guessing which one of the 10 items listed below is the impostor. Put your comments below and Andrea may be around on Twitter so you can poke at her for some hints!  The fictional statement about Andreas will be posted next Tuesday when I feature the next CN Teammie. See below for the false fact about last week's featured teammie, Natalie.

1) Right after my husband and I got married, he had to leave on a research trip for 5 months (he is a biologist).  We were living in Maryland at the time, and to occupy myself while he was away, I registered for the Washington, DC AIDS Ride.  I raised $2000 and trained for several months to ride my bicycle 350 miles, from North Carolina to Washington, DC, in three and a half days.  Pedaling into Washington on the last day of the ride was the single most empowering moment of my life. 

2) In my former life (pre-children), I worked in a population genetics lab in the entomology department at the University of Maryland.  Yup.  I worked with bugs.  And their DNA.

3) I have several categories of favorite books.  Some I read every year or two (Lonesome Dove, Life of Pi, The Shipping News), some I read every 5 to 10 years (Gone with the Wind, various Hemingway novels, The Fionovar Tapestry trilogy by Guy Gavriel Kay), and some were so powerful that I couldn't imagine my life without having read them, but I don't think I'll ever be able to read them again (Roots).

4)  I love to swear.

5)  My favorite way to release energy is to go out dancing.  Sadly, since I've become a parent (and need that release the most!) I rarely go out dancing anymore.  So my best release now is to laugh.  Luckily my husband is very funny.

6)  I grew up on the coast of Georgia and I love boiled peanuts, cheese grits, and diving into ocean waves.  Much to my husband's dismay, I also say (and even worse, write) "y'all's" (that's the plural possessive of y'all, in case you were wondering.  It's usually accompanied with the word "all," as in "all y'all's").

7)  The flower for my logo began as a tattoo, designed by my childhood friend for five of us who get together every year for a Girl's Weekend.  The five petals of the flower symbolize the five stages of a woman's life - birth, maidenhood (girlhood freedom), motherhood (not just of children, but of any creative or nurturing endeavors), menopause, and death.  The inset five-pointed star has myriad symbolic meanings, but I think Dan Brown sums it up best in The Da Vinci Code:  "The ratios of line segments in a pentacle all equal PHI, making this symbol the ultimate expression of the Divine Proportion.  For this reason, the five-pointed star has always been the symbol for beauty and perfection associated with the goddess and the sacred feminine."

8)  I speak English, Spanish, and Jive. 

9)  Both of our children, my brother, my sister-in-law, and my best friend (from #7) are all Sagittarius.  I'm thinking I have some karmic lesson to learn from that sign, but I can't figure out what it is.

10)  I hug trees.  I'm totally embarrassed to do it, and I'm always afraid someone is going to see me, but this winter, whenever I'd go out snowshoeing in the woods, the trees would just stand there, with all their strength and stamina and stillness, and I just couldn't help myself.  I'd look around to make sure nobody could see me, and then I'd wrap my arms around a tree and press my heart up against it.  And I'd feel as rooted as the tree, and the pulse of its energy, and this wonderful sense of safety and comfort and all-is-well-with-the-universe.

*******Last week's false fact about Natalie from funretro was this one: #3: I am addicted to raisins and black licorice and carry a stash with me everyday. Actually, Natalie told me that she would rather eat paper than either raising or black licorice. 

Saturday Theme Treasury Challenge - I Want Candy Colors

Thank You Cards from CN teammie's shop SimplyInvitingCards

We want to feature YOU!  A reminder: Please use 8 CN members or your Treasury will not get judged.  We've had some amazing shops we've wanted to feature as the winner but unfortunately we couldn't because all of the rules were not followed.  Ok, the scolding from the teacher is over, get back to recess.    

Blue Raspberry!  Watermelon!  Lemon!  Tangerine!  Vanilla Cream! Delicious treats for the tummy but this week they'll be 'eye candy'!

This Saturday's Treasury theme challenge is taken from Etsy's Finds email - Mother's Day Shopping Guide.  Click here to see Etsy's Spring Coated email.


Psssst...In that email I spotted our very own CN teammies there! Congrats to Brenda from bstudio and Amy from cayennepeppybags!  

There is always a photo used to express the theme but this item does not have to be included in your treasury.The Rules:

1. Include at least 8 Curation Nation team members.
2. Tag the treasury "curationnation"
3. Tag the treasury "etsyteam".
4. Tag the treasury "etsyteamtreasury" - if you tweet, tweet your treasury using the hashtag #EtsyTeamTreasury.
5. Tag the treasury "candy coated spring".
6. Post a comment here on the blog with a link to your treasury - your treasury will not be judged unless you have posted it below in the comments. Your shop could be chosen as the winner to be featured on our Wednesday Item Treasury Challenge. 
7. Put a link to this blog post in the comments of the treasury - this helps others find the challenge and enter.
8. Please follow our blog.
9. DUE DATE: Wednesday, April 20. 
10. Saturday Treasury Challenges are the only challenges that get judged.

Everyone is invited to play - these challenges are open to all! These challenges are also voluntary - never mandatory for team members. Remember to try to include team mates you haven't used before.  These challenges are meant to build your treasury making skills, promote the team and make Etsy connections.  If you deal in vintage it's a great time to promote your vintage goods by making the old new again!

Wednesday Item Challenge - LaurenceCollection

Lindy here again with a big thank you to all those who particpated in this past Saturday Theme Treasury Challenge. It was so wonderful to see all the lovely mom treasuries and all the different ways in which Mother's Day can be interpreted! Yay for moms!

I'm happy to announce that the winning treasury for this week is "It's all about Mom" by LaurenceCollection. Congrats!



This screen shot is a live, clickable version of LaurenceCollection's "It's all about Mom" Treasury. You can click on any of the images above to be taken to each individual shop! Click here to be taken to the actual treasury.

This week we'll be featuring LaurenceCollection's Seafoam, Blue, Lime green and Yellow Clutch which I think will fit nicely into some of the topics mentioned in the April Etsy Merchandise Report such as Easter, Mother's Day, Fashion, Wedding/Prom, and Spring!

The Rules: 

You must include at least 8 Curation Nation team members - use the sidebar on the blog for a list of team shops.

1. Please follow our blog.
2. Put a link to this blog post in the comments of your treasury. This helps other people find the challenge and enter.
3. Post a comment here on the blog with a link to your treasury.
4. Tag the treasury "curationnation"
5. Tag the treasury "etsyteam" 
6. Tag the treasury "etsyteamtreasury" 
7. If you tweet, tweet your treasury using the hashtag #EtsyTeamTreasury
8. Include the featured item Seafoam Blue, Lime Green and Yellow Clutch in the first three rows of your treasury.
9. DUE DATE: Wednesday April, 20.
10. Have fun!

Wednesday Item Treasury Challenges feature one item from a shop - the item must be included in your treasury. The featured Wednesday item is picked from the winning shop of the Saturday challenge. If the winner doesn't have a shop on Etsy, they will get to pick an item of their choice! Everyone is invited to play - these challenges are open to all. These challenges are also voluntary - never mandatory for team members.

Talkin' Tuesday - Meet Natalie from funretro!

Natalie from funretro! Click here to visit her funk-a-licious shop! 

Here are 9 Fierce Facts about Natalie and one line is completely fictional.  Get involved by guessing which one of the 10 items listed below is the impostor. Put your comments below and Natalie may be around on Twitter so you can poke at her for some hints!  The fictional statement about Natalie will be posted next Tuesday when I feature the next CN Teammie. See below for the false fact about last week's featured teammie, Dawanna.

1.)  English is not my first language.  I was taught Portuguese before going to school, but never again after that.  All my Portuguese conversations involve the vocabulary of a four year old.

2.)  I have traveled extensively around the world and have visited around 35 countries on 6 continents.

3.)  I am addicted to raisins and black licorice and carry a stash with me everyday. 

4.)  I was the unsuspecting victim of a hidden camera joke in Montreal that aired on Juste Pour Rire (TV show) back around 2002.

5.)  I have had a penpal from Japan since I was 12 years old.

6.)  I am the first in my family to ever graduate from college (Go Rutgers!).

7.)  I am saving all my Etsy money to buy a house in Portugal.  You're all invited (when it finally happens!).

8.)  I moved all the way to Australia just so I could continue dating someone from Ireland who couldn't get a US visa.

9.)  I was almost a Sears baby back in the 70s but my mom wouldn't remove the strange birthmark on my head so they said no.  (Thanks, Mom!)

10.)  I have done a lot of, ahem, strange things in my life and have sometimes taken very unusual paths.  But I can honestly say that I have no regrets about anything.  I like the fact that sometimes people think I am a little crazy :)

*******Last week's false fact about Dawanna from peacesofindigo was this one: #3:  I am obsessed with having a perfectly manicured yard. 

Saturday Theme Treasury Challenge - Mother's Day

Entwined Heart Lavender Sachet from CN teammie's shop bstudio

Call your mother!  Whether you call her Mom, Mother, Mamma, or Ma, the day we all stop to send flowers, take her to dinner, visit her or spend the day doing lunch and getting mani/pedis with her will be here in a month! 


This Saturday's Treasury theme challenge is taken from Etsy's Finds email - Mother's Day Shopping Guide.  Click here to see Etsy's Mother's Day Shopping Guide

There is always a photo used to express the theme but this item does not have to be included in your treasury.The Rules:

1. Include at least 8 Curation Nation team members.
2. Tag the treasury "curationnation"
3. Tag the treasury "etsyteam".
4. Tag the treasury "etsyteamtreasury" - if you tweet, tweet your treasury using the hashtag #EtsyTeamTreasury.
5. Tag the treasury "mothers day".
6. Post a comment here on the blog with a link to your treasury - your treasury will not be judged unless you have posted it below in the comments. Your shop could be chosen as the winner to be featured on our Wednesday Item Treasury Challenge. 
7. Put a link to this blog post in the comments of the treasury - this helps others find the challenge and enter.
8. Please follow our blog.
9. DUE DATE: Wednesday, April 13. 
10. Saturday Treasury Challenges are the only challenges that get judged.

Everyone is invited to play - these challenges are open to all! These challenges are also voluntary - never mandatory for team members. Remember to try to include team mates you haven't used before.  These challenges are meant to build your treasury making skills, promote the team and make Etsy connections.  If you deal in vintage it's a great time to promote your vintage goods by making the old new again!

Wednesday Item Challenge - aubepine

Hello, hello! Lindy (craftedbylindy) here! I'm excited to announce that I'll be helping Vanessa out with the Wednesday Item Challenges. We'll each be taking a turn on a monthly bases and I'll be here for all of April! Woo hoo! I'm so excited to contribute to this blog and help out this wonderful team!

I had so much fun looking through all the "Da Man" treasuries this week! So many awesome manly finds! Thank you to everyone for participating! I'm happy to say Congratulations to aubepine, this weeks Saturday Theme Treasury Challenge Winner with her One Cool Dude treasury! (doing a happy dance for you!)

This screen shot is a live, clickable version of aubepine's One Cool Dude Treasury. You can click on any of the images above to be taken to each individual shop! Click here to be taken to the actual treasury so you can give it some love. 

It was hard to choose an item from this wonderful shop but these Yellow Chalcedony and Seed Pearls Handmade Earrings - Lemon Meringue caught my eye. They're so cheery and bright and I think will fit many categories mentioned in this months Etsy Merchandising Report: April Showers.

The Rules: 

You must include at least 8 Curation Nation team members - use the sidebar on the blog for a list of team shops.

1. Please follow our blog.
2. Put a link to this blog post in the comments of your treasury. This helps other people find the challenge and enter.
3. Post a comment here on the blog with a link to your treasury.
4. Tag the treasury "curationnation"
5. Tag the treasury "etsyteam" 
6. Tag the treasury "etsyteamtreasury" 
7. If you tweet, tweet your treasury using the hashtag #EtsyTeamTreasury
8. Include the featured item Yellow Chalcedony and Seed Pearls Handmade Earrings - Lemon Meringue in the first three rows of your treasury.
9. DUE DATE: Wednesday April,13.
10. Have fun!

Wednesday Item Treasury Challenges feature one item from a shop - the item must be included in your treasury. The featured Wednesday item is picked from the winning shop of the Saturday challenge. If the winner doesn't have a shop on Etsy, they will get to pick an item of their choice! Everyone is invited to play - these challenges are open to all. These challenges are also voluntary - never mandatory for team members.

Talkin' Tuesday - Meet Dawanna from Peaces of Indigo!

 Dawanna from peacesofindigo. Click here to visit her beautiful shop!

Here are 9 Fierce Facts about Dawanna and one line is completely fictional.  Get involved by guessing which one of the 10 items listed below is the impostor. Put your comments below and Dawanna may be around on Twitter so you can poke at her for some hints!  The fictional statement about Dawanna will be posted next Tuesday when I feature the next CN Teammie. See below for the false fact about last week's featured teammie, Lauren.

Before I give you the scoop on Dawanna, I have to share this story with you.  Dawanna and I were chatting via email and she told me about the necklace in the photo.  I knew the CN teammies would appreciate the story behind it so she gave me the green light to share it with you!

This is my great great grandmother's vintage necklace that she wore for her wedding.  Before my jewelry adventure began, my grandmother gifted this to me because it needed some repairs and she thought that it should be mine.  It's one of my most cherished possessions.  The first time I ever had the courage to wear it out of the house was last week to a Tony Bennett concert here in Nashville.  I felt like a princess wearing it!

1.  I love playing with precious metal clay and cannot imagine going more than a few days without creating something out of it.  It's become an addiction.

2.  I homeschool my three sons.  It's an adventure, just in case you wondered.  :D

3.  I am obsessed with having a perfectly manicured yard.   
4.  Chocolate and wine are in my top 5 must haves for survival.  I can't remember what the other 3 are..........

5.  I adore and collect classic literature.  My library has pretty much taken over every room of my home. 

6.  Jane Austen is my hero!  Her characters keep me company when I'm designing, creating new pieces or feeling blue. Watching one of my ( many ) Jane dvds makes me very happy!

7.  I abhor traffic.  I'll stay home, miss an event or forgo something that I really want just to avoid it.  I adore online shopping mostly because I don't have to spend time sitting in my car. 

8.  My jewelry adventure started when my hubby was laid off from AIG in 2009.  If we hadn't been shocked by the news that our only income was ending, I would not have taken the leap from stay at home mom to artist / business owner.  I'm SO glad that I did!  

9.  After the layoff, our family of 5 sold our house and moved into my parents 1400 square foot house. Yep, we all still like each other!

10.  I have a connection to the mountains that I cannot explain.  Every once in a while, I just 'need' to see them in person.  It's the perfect way to recharge my batteries and just makes me happy.

  

I am thrilled to be a part of the Curation Nation team!  Making treasuries is such a cool way to explore the amazing world of Etsy. 

*******Last week's false fact about Lauren from FlashForward was this one: #7:  I've never seen the sea turtles lay eggs on the beach or hatch, but I would LOVE to see it some day!

Learn & Grow - Featuring KristiMcMurry

Welcome, one and all, to our newest blog feature! It's called "Learn & Grow" because that's just what our intention is, to help us get better as a treasury making team! Periodically we will be interviewing some of you that have an Etsy Front Page treasury and featuring you here so others may learn and grow from your experiences. I hope we are all inspired by these posts. Feel free to contact Vanessa or Yvonne with any questions you may have surrounding this feature.

Congratulations to our first feature, Kristi from KristiMcMurry!

Click here to view the treasury!

1. When you are making a treasury do you have a system that you use to coordinate the items?

I usually just start with an item that strikes my fancy and scroll through pages looking for things to go with it. I open items in a new tab from the initial search (saves me from backing up all the time!), then start plugging them into the collection. I pick at the collection after every few items and delete and rearrange things if I think it needs it. I find items by searching keywords, and sometimes just searching curationnation and looking for specific colors or styles. 

2. Do you tend to make treasuries on a whim or do you have a planned theme in mind?

I'm an "on a whim" kind of girl. I just look through team members' items until I find one that feels right for my mood or the day, then I work from there. 

3. What tools on Etsy do you find useful while you are making treasuries?

Just search I guess. I know there are some tools out there to use when building one, but I haven't had the time to figure them out! haha. I also usually check the merchandising post on the Etsy blog to get tag ideas. 

4. Tell me a little about the process of making the Clouds Clouds Go Away treasury.

It had been cloudy for what felt like years and I was feeling like everything was GREY! I decided to make a collection and since I was in such a grey mood, funflash's camera caught my eye. I'm also a photographer, so that had a little to do with it :) I just started searching grey, cloudy, neutral, and things like that to find good things for the treasury. Usually when I have a neutral collection I try to add a hint of color just for interest, so you can see some faint purple splashed in there. It's all about coordinating!

I usually try to include something expensive in there, but oddly enough I didn't this time and it still made FP. I guess it's not as important as I thought!

5. Any rules or advice that you have to offer up to our teammies? 

It's good to be picky, so don't be scared to delete things that might be throwing it off a little, or even some simple rearranging might help. Try to step back a little and look at it to make sure it isn't heavy to one side. Some photos have more going on and some have plain backgrounds, so balancing those is important. I know Etsy ends up rearranging them, but we have to attract them in the first place :) Also, if you're aiming for FP, make sure you have a good variety. Sometimes I'll go back through what categories are represented and make sure it is varied. 

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A huge thank you to Kristi for her hard work and participation in this post!
Feel free to comment below and remember this is all just a learning experience, everyone is different!

We look forward to sharing more posts with you in the future!

Go CNation!
 

 

Saturday Theme Treasury Challenge - Da Man!

Photograph found in CN Teammie's shop - ArtByAmarose

The ability to remove any spider from anywhere!  The 'Go To Guy' for opening stuck jar lids!  The one that doesn't replace the toilet paper roll.  And, the one that complains about the 'Honey Do List' but wouldn't have it any other way.  Who is this person?  Why, the Etsy Dudes, of course! 

This Saturday's Treasury theme challenge is taken from Etsy's Finds email - Etsy Dudes.  Here's the link to the look that Etsy specifically promoted:  Etsy Dudes

There is always a photo used to express the theme but this item does not have to be included in your treasury.The Rules:

1. Include at least 8 Curation Nation team members.
2. Tag the treasury "curationnation"
3. Tag the treasury "etsyteam".
4. Tag the treasury "etsyteamtreasury" - if you tweet, tweet your treasury using the hashtag #EtsyTeamTreasury.
5. Tag the treasury "etsy dudes".
6. Post a comment here on the blog with a link to your treasury - your treasury will not be judged unless you have posted it below in the comments.
7. Put a link to this blog post in the comments of the treasury - this helps others find the challenge and enter.
8. Please follow our blog.
9. DUE DATE: Wednesday, April 6. 
10. Saturday Treasury Challenges are the only challenges that get judged.

Everyone is invited to play - these challenges are open to all! These challenges are also voluntary - never mandatory for team members. Remember to try to include team mates you haven't used before.  These challenges are meant to build your treasury making skills, promote the team and make Etsy connections.  If you deal in vintage it's a great time to promote your vintage goods by making the old new again!