Ok, I know I've been silent for the last two days, sorry! Friday was busy and then I just haven't been feeling good. I missed my normal Friday Featured Artist - but I don't want to skip right over it, so I'm just doing it today!
This week is a little different. Instead of focusing on a specific artist, I interviewed the team leader of one of my teams, FFEST, to tell you a little bit more about our new team! Sorry for the lack of pictures in today's post - just not up to it.
1. Can you tell us how the team started?
In mid-July I began a thread on the Etsy Promotions forum asking for Facebook fans for my shop's fan page. My original intent was to get to the magic 100 to have a shortened URL. It became a very popular thread and I decided to begin a group on Facebook to share information. One day while checking the thread I got this crazy thought, "There should be an Etsy Street Team for Facebook Fans on Etsy." Silly me, I decided to post that on the thread and it sort of took on a life of its own. The wonderful thing that happened was other Etsy sellers jumped on the bandwagon and most importantly volunteered to assist with this crazy idea. Once we got started it started to fall into place rather quickly. By mid-August we were "official". As of September 1st there are 22 members signed on to FFEST! My hope is that we grow at a slow and steady pace.
2. What are the goals of the team?
Networking and promotion with a heaping side of FUN thrown in. Here is the description that I originally used on the FB group:
A diverse group of artisans and crafters who have shops on Etsy.com and Facebook pages in order to promote the sale of handcrafted items. Also, to share ways to improve sales and promotions through Facebook.
First and foremost, promoting the team and each other to increase traffic in all our shops. Each month the members have a point goal of 20 to achieve to remain listed as an active member on the team blog. Many of the tasks suggested involve promoting another members shop or the team as a whole. We use more than Etsy and Facebook to do so. We tweet on twitter, have contest and in the future some giveaways, and we blog. I have already found that the more visible you are as a team, the better chance of increased sales. I recently had sales that I can contribute to the promotion of our team!
Another wonderful aspect of the team is the concept of "Pay It Forward" What I have found is this group is made up of many caring individuals. If some one is in need of fans or assistance, everyone steps right up to help. When I think about the FFEST team, I am moved and grateful that they have come into my life. As we learn about being a team and grow in numbers, it will be exciting to see what directions we will go in. This is a group effort and as a team we are open to suggestions and ideas.
3. My readers want to know, "I want to be a member! How do I join and what do I need to do once I've joined?"
There are two basic requirements to request membership.
♥ You must have an Etsy shop with 10 or more items for sale. We want active sellers!
♥ You must have a Facebook Fan page with 100 or more fans. This will only increase the visibility of the team as a whole.
We are Facebook Fans on Etsy, so it makes sense that those two elements are non-negotiable. So if someone has those covered the next step is visiting our forum home and checking out the other requirements. At that time, if someone believes this team will be a good fit, they can follow the directions at the left-hand side of the forum home page and we will set the approval process in motion. This involves emailing me the requested information. Once I receive it and check for the basic requirements, I will send an invitation from the forum for that person to join us.
Once a member is approved, they can post to their heart's content on the forum, use the tag "ffest team" for items posted in their Etsy shop, and participate in team promotion through our monthly points roll call. That info can be found on our team blog and forum.
4. Where can we find the team? (blogs, FB, ning...)
We seem to be EVERYWHERE. Our main page is:
www.ffonetsy.ning.com - the forum that serves as our team "home"
www.facebookfansonetsy.com - the place where we blog it! You can find our team treasuries posted here along with contests, featured FFESTy friends, and more. This is a work in progress!
There is also a link to our shop, blogs and twitter accounts.
www.twitter.com/EtsyFBTeam - follow us and we will follow you!!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=113391211629&ref=ts - the FB group that got the ball rolling and a great place to find fans! We ask that you join the group before requesting membership to FFEST.
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6223696 - the now famous thread on the Etsy Promotions forum that is still active! It was started on 7/20/09 and now has 88 pages of 879 posts! And to think I was just looking for 100 fans on Facebook!
5. Anything else we should know about the team?
There are some incredibly talented and dedicated individuals that step up to this challenge and have become part of the FFEST Admin Team (thank goodness because I couldn't do this alone!)
Missy of MissMooseDesign.etsy.com - she set up the ning forum and spent a Saturday afternoon on the phone with me working out the logistics of creating a street team...it was so nice to talk in real time with such a kind and talented person!
Heather of aktie9.etsy.com - she is our liaison between the team and the Etsy staff. She was the point person for all the info that needed to be sent with the initial team request.
Cheryl of cherylspurplecow.etsy.com - keeps the official team roster and is a lover of all things purple! She recently snagged a team treasury that was (you guessed it!) purple!!
Talina of ripperarts.etsy.com - did an amazing job with our team blog and our graphics! The one thing that I thought was extremely important was branding our team and our team avatar is bright and easily recognizable! It goes for Etsy orange to FB blue!
Anglea of Amievoltaire.etsy.com - contributed tons of time and ideas to the team start up and now has the role of Promotions Goddess! She is always looking for giveaway and contest ideas. I know I am looking foward to some of the things she has planned.
Vickie of inmyheadstudios.etsy.com - is the Leader of the Etsy Twitter Team and has signed on as a blogger, tweeter and all-around wealth of information! She is blogs about any team treasuries we might snag.
Without these ladies, this team would not have come to be. I am eternally grateful for their time and talents. We are still learning what works and what needs to be changed. It will take time to settle into a good pattern. With these ladies on board it will happen sooner rather than later!
6. Take a minute to promote your self! Give us you shop addy and tell us a little about what you sell :)
I have a shop on Etsy called Lucky Ladybug Designs at glorybe1024.etsy.com I set it up in April of 2007. At that time LLD wasn't in the picture. I put some bracelets on there and nothing and I pretty much forgot about it. I took my bracelets in to work one day and sold quite a few and had a great response to my designs. One woman suggested that I sell them online...etsy popped into my head. I needed to come up with some sort of name. The date was 7-7-07...needed to have something to do with luck. Then it hit me! Ladybugs are considered lucky and after a couple of different tries, I came up with Lucky Ladybug Designs.
I have the cutest little ladybug as my avatar...branding!
I began by selling jewelry and branched out to crocheted items and now I am moving in the direction of sewing. I love my mini key fobs...they would make a perfect stocking stuffer!! After many attempts I came up with the fat-bottom clutch which is a wonderful make-up bag since is stands up and has easy access. I love to crochet simple things like the cotton cloths and scarves. I am constantly getting inspired by things I might see in a store or the work of others. I usually see something then say to myself "but I would change this or that" and go home and try it.
About me in general, I am 47. I live in Indianapolis. I have two children, a grown son - 20 and a teenaged daughter - 17 who receives a lot of my "attempts". I am married to a wonderful man who tolerates my crafting. I am also active in the local community theaters in Indy. I am an administrative assistant by day - the job that supports my crazy crafting habit. And I happen to love ladybugs ~ go figure!!
I finally started weaving in the ends on my baby blanket! I'd been dreading it because the yarn was freying and unraveling badly, so I thought it was going to be a major headache. I finally sat down yesterday though, and it was no where near as bad as I thought it was going to be! I used a small dish of water, would wet my fingers, and then use my wet fingers to twist the yarn ends into submission. Other than my fingers turning rather pruney...it went smoothly! 
I finally drafted the pattern for the book mark I've been wanting to start on for the last few weeks! Unfortuntely I now need to go to the store because, despite having two full boxes of thread, I don't have the right color grey for the brain I'm going to do on the right side of the words that you see above. 
Yes, I'm STILL working on this bracelet! I told myself I'd have it done by the end of the weekend, and though I did work on it, it just didn't happen. Oh well. Should have it done by next week :P 
I did get the pieces out for a necklace I've been wanting to do for weeks, so that makes me happy in the jewelry department! I finally have all the components I need. I won the charm in a blog contest and I've been wanting to make a necklace with it ever since! Actually stringing it is on my to-do list tody.
I'm in a treasury! Aways a great way to wake up :) My earrings are in the middle, second row from the bottom. 
I won this lovely tote from Char Spirit Creations. Isn't it cute? It's a reversible pocket tote. What's the inside in this picture features the fabric that you see in the pocket as I have it laid out. Then it has a pocket of the plain black fabric. I like using it this way because it's still bright and fun, but not quite as "in your face" as having the main fabric being the rainbow peace signs would be. Who knows? That's my mood right now, I may change my mind on different occasions :P 
I'm on to the third row! I think I'm starting to pick up speed gain and finally getting used to these fiddely pieces of yarn. Having said that...I'm dreading weaving in the ends because all the ends are freying and it looks like it's going to be a heck of a job! I might start on the first row tonight while watching the Heroes premier though. Lots of breaks and distractions that way :P
If this looks familiar...it should be! I put it aside a few weeks ago to work on my Mom's birthday project. And then it got set aside again while I worked on a custom order. Then I finished another bracelet I had in progress. :P I think I've only added about a threads worth of beads since you last saw it, but it's my main project at the moment! I have a lot of jewelry ideas floating around my head (or in my notebook) but I've made myself a promise not to work on any other pieces until I've added a thread's worth of beads that day. Each thread is approximately 5-6 feet long, so I should finish this by the end of the week that way :)
I had signed up for a "Craft It Forward" awhile ago, and this was my beautiful present! It's from my friend Sharla. She said it's for keeping track of all my jewelry ideas. So I took her at her word and titled the notebook appropriately.
Didn't get as much done on this, this week. I'm going to have to step it up so it gets done in time for next months baby shower! 
I still have a lot of ideas floating around my head for the next cross-stitch project, but I havan't had the brains to do the actual planning. So I've worked more on putting thread on bobbins! Going for a bit of raibow type pattern since these threads don't have numbers like the DMC thread that I have in my other storage box.
I finished my butterfly book mark! I have a few ideas for the next one, but I need to do some sketching before I can start it. Some things I use patterns from others, some times I make up my own, the next one will be one of my own :D
Until I get around to sketching the next book mark I'm working on taking thread and putting it on bobbins. I have this whole bag (that you see to the right of the picture) of random colors that my Mom gave me. Up until now I've just been pulling out the colors I needed and putting them on bobbins, but I want to have it more organized and easier to access. I already have a box like this of DMC colors that I've collected over time, and now I'll have a box of random colors with no DMC numbers :P
My new baby blanket (for my cousin) is going SLOW. As you might be able to tell, the yarn has silver threads through it, which is gorgeous, but HARD to deal with! So I'm crocheting much slower than I was on the previous blanket I was working on. Hoping I'll speed up as I get used to it. 
I'm thinking next time I do something like this I should take more "along the way" pictures so I can give you a better idea of what's involved... There are a lot of steps! First you have to secure the cabochon to the material with glue. Which is really only a temporary hold. Then you bead around the cabochon and up the sides to truly secure it. Then you do the embroidery all around it to fill out whatever pattern/shape you desire. Then you glue all of that to a piece of ultra suede backing material and let that dry. Then you go around the edges with more beads. THEN, in this case at least, you glue it to the hair barrette! 
My earrings are going to be on a embroidery hoop. Well, two hoops probably looking at this pile! All I did on that today was to pull them out from their various places they were stashed and dump them on the hoop :P
