Treasury by cindylouwho2

Special thanks to cindylouwho2 at etsy - a member of the Alberta Street Team (I am too!) who included one of my cards in her beautiful treasury. You can take a look at her shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5770758 .

For the boys...

There's a lot of men in our family and I find it really hard to find a handmade birthday card that's not too girly. When I found these metal alphabets I decided they would make the perfect 'manly' embellishment. And of course Basic Grey's Archaic paper just works perfectly with them. The next time I make this design I'm going to change it slightly and add a mat of darker colored paper behind the patterned cardstock - just to soften the contrast between the white card blank and the patterned paper.

Spring must be in the air...right???

Since December, Calgary has had very very cold weather. It finally got warm mid January - one of our chinooks - a warm wind that comes over the mountain. So I figure - it's got to be spring, right!! Wrong - after making a few different spring card designs that I absolutely love the temperature has now gone back down, the snow is falling, and we're back to winter again. One of the joys of living close to the mountains!

Here's one of those spring cards - my daughter has decided this design too is part of my 'kindergarden' series - enjoy!

The results...

So my informal experiment yielded some interesting results. I had too much going on in real life to keep my internet promotion up so, needless to say, my valentines didn't sell. However, here's the views results - for one set of cards there was no difference in whether they were in the top category of paper or holidays. For the other set there was a significant difference with the holiday top category being higher. So I've decided it's definitely worth using the top category of holidays if your item fits but definitely be sure to put one in the regular spot too!

Here's my newest listing from what I call my 'kindergarden flower' series! Enjoy!!

Another valentine and a small etsy experiment

So did you know that the top category you put your etsy listings into makes a difference? It does - I'm not sure how much of a difference so I decided to put two virtually identical sets of valentines up for sale on etsy. One in the holidays top category, one in the paper goods top category. I'm very interested to see if there's a difference in views and sales between the two. I just found about this when I was putting Christmas cards on but I didn't get enough time to really try to answer the question.

I've listed my flat valentines - these are like postcards but with envelopes. Simple but bright and fun!

Finally! I listed something new!!

Since the beginning of December I've been so busy with general life/hockey/ballet/family etc that I've neglected this little enterprise called MyGrandpasPen. So today I finally got my act together and posted two new sets of cards. They're valentines but I think they're general enough that they could be more than that. I painted three hearts on cardstock and then added an embellishment - they're simply but I love them!

I love treasuries!

I really do - it's this special little thrill when someone likes what you do and puts it together with other things they like and the whole is always so interesting! This one was made by GenuineArticle (http://www.genuinearticle.etsy.com/) - thank you! I've decided to include links to all of the shops featured in this treasury so that if you want to see more it's easy to do!

http://www.caffeinatedcrafts.etsy.com/

http://www.milis.etsy.com/

http://www.shoptrik.etsy.com/

http://www.crimsonorchid.etsy.com/

http://www.heatherfuture.etsy.com/

http://www.canadianrockies.etsy.com/

http://www.sweetandsaucy.etsy.com/

http://www.baloo.etsy.com/

http://www.ribbonwands.etsy.com/

http://www.coolgem.etsy.com/

http://www.mgrils.etsy.com/

and me too http://www.mygrandpaspen.etsy.com/