Etsy, Oh Etsy, Where Have You Gone?

Anyone missing the merchandising desk?  I thought maybe August’s absence was a fluke but September seems to be MIA as well. Funny, I thought they used these tips for judging things like….oh I dunno…..the front page!!!!!!!  So if our guidelines are gone for FP treasuries, what is the new standard?

Well, you know what? We can make our own.  So I am introducing the first TPT Merchandising Desk, September 2012. Even if it is already September 10th! Let’s face it, a lot of this is common sense, repeat themes, seasonal holidays and the like so maybe we can write one just as well with maybe a bit of TPT fun and quirkiness thrown into it.

Okay, let’s see, you start with a picture first…okay. I’ll be right back.There – isn’t he a cutie pie? This sets the mood for the article.

Okay. The first section seems to be the common sense section. We all know that with September comes our time limit of only four months to Christmas and Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, three months to Thanksgiving, and one month to Halloween. So now is the time to concentrate on gearing up for the entire holiday season. Work on your shop items with appropriate tagging, revamp old titles and improve any pictures you deem necessary. If you only have one photo of your listing, consider using the other available photo slots . Consumers want to really see what they are buying and you want to sell, sell sell!

All these holidays for treasury makers is like being a kid in the candy store.  No lack of good material here. Hmmm….insert another picture here. Okay.

That looks pretty Halloweeny! By the way, these pics are from TPT members posting there items on our September threads.   After all, it is promotion!

So in September we focus on the changing of the season, autumn colors and fashion, Pantone’s Fall Color trends, and prepping for the upcoming holidays.

While we concentrate on fall, remember the other half of the world is going into spring.  So what traditions come in the fall?  School has already started but are you ready for some football?  Tailgating? Camping trips? Hiking in the woods? Ocktoberfest means beer and lots of it so parties, German festivals, beer steins.

Did you know Halloween is the all time leading Adult holiday? Etsy is full of truly unique and wonderful quirky and spooky items. Time to par-tay!!! Steampunk Halloween items are in vogue – have you seen the banners? Awesome!

Think change in weather to cooler temps which means layers in fashion, revamping your home decor to more deep, warm and comfy surroundings.  Popular themes will center around the harvesting of crops, gathering of friends and family around festive tables , fireplaces and apples – lots and lots of apples. DIY kits for making beer, herb infused oils, candles and the like. Think in terms of winter planting, rustic farm settings, pumpkin patches with frost and big fat harvest moons.

Look for old school fashions with an upcycled twist. Mixing fabric textures, knitted and oh yes, those glorious felted items. Leather is never out of style.  Think of fall outdoor sports and sport gatherings, bonfires, cookouts and patio parties for donning casual clothes. Don’t forget to work on your Halloween costumes. Vintage clothing and patterns offer creative souls fantastic costumes for those fun parties. Halloween is the start of the traditional season of parties!

Consider looking at least six months ahead for future brides. Winter and Spring weddings are being planned now so make sure to include these seasons in your shop. Try using an unusual Pantone fall fashion color combo for wedding themes and go crazy with some zany off the wall Halloween weddings.

Beautiful Sapphire is the birthstone and zodiac signs are Virgo and Libra, changing over on September 24th. Let me go find a piece of jewelry to insert here.

Did mention that these photos are coming from TPT member items because they were tagged TPT and I could find them easily?

Now, since it is the 10th of Sept already, I have abbreviated the fun TPT calendar of events to days that simply begged for a treasury theme. Let’s face it – some days are just plain boring. None of that here!

On a serious note, of course tomorrow is Patriot Day with the WTC Remembrance. None of us should forget and there are probably treasuries already on Etsy with this theme. Since there are no other notable dates, we shall move on to the more obscure.

THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER

As an entire month, we celebrate Baby Safety, National Sewing, Read a New Book and “Women of Achievement”. Both Classical Music Month and Piano Month are in Sept. For our food groups, we are not as exciting as previous summer months with only Chicken, Honey and Rice ( sounds like a recipe) earning celebrity status.

SPECIAL DATES OF SEPTEMBER FOR GREAT THEMES

9/12 – Chocolate Milk Shake Day

9/13 – National Peanut Day, Positive Thinking Day and Scooby Doo’s birthday

9/14 – the First Department Store opened in 1848

9/15 – Both Make a Hat Day & Hispanic Heritage Month begins ( Sept 15 – Oct 15)

9/16 – Collect Rocks Day

9/17 – Citizenship Day ( Constitution Day) and National Apple Dumpling Day – yum!!!   Goes with that chicken, honey & rice.

9/20 – the First RR Station opened

9/21 – International Day of Peace

9/22 – Dear Diary Day

9/23 – Checkers Day

9/24 – First Toy Store opened

9/26 – Johnny Appleseed’s birthday

9/28 – Chinese Mid-Autumn or Moon Festival and the first Airport was opened.

9/29 – Scotland Yard was formed in 1829.

So there you have it. May this “merchandising desk” by TPT give you some ideas for treasury themes and that maybe, just maybe, Etsy might notice!

 

 

June Has Everything for Treasury Making!

The month of June is practically upon us and is chocked full of treasury making goodies – probably too much so. Let’s start with the blatantly obvious. We know June hails the beginning of summer and with that comes graduations, school letting out, family vacations and Father’s Day as main events.  But I bet there is a lot about June you do not know. This particular month is honored with the Rose as its flower and either the pearl or alexandrite for its birthstone. While pearls and roses seem to be romantically linked, I thought it odd there was no mention of the month’s greatest activity being weddings…lots and lots of weddings. As seen by the photo above, alexandrite is a beautiful stone, now only found in vintage pieces of jewelry, mainly Russian in origin. It changes color from a moss green in daylight to raspberry red in artificial light…what a lovely color theme for a June wedding! And how well it can been coupled with roses in the same color theme.

But I digress. June is also primarily documented with a lot of birthdays – from the famous to well known comic and cartoon characters. June also ranks very high as honoring various types of food, from healthy to not so much as you will see. Lots and lots of food. So for our appetizer, on a national scale we have the National Drive Safe and National Safety Month, the National Rose month, and National Tennis Month. Our main course consists of National Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Month along with National Iced Tea Month and Turkey Lovers Month. For animal lovers June is the Zoo & Aquarium Month. But my personal favorite of all time so far, is Potty Training Awareness Month. Let’s see some T’s on that one – I dare ya!

Month long observances also include Dairy Month and the Great Outdoors Month along with National Adopt-a-Cat Month. For week long observances, the first week has National Fishing Week; the second week is National Clay Week ( perfect for odes to our pottery Etsians) and the fourth week is National Camping week. I guess they skipped the third since the third Sunday of the month is Father’s Day. Let us not forget the second Sunday of the month is Racial Unity Day.

For more fun, here are specific date related little tidbits of the month you may not be aware of and these always bring a smile to my face. Sometimes I just don’t know where they come up with this stuff! Warning: you may gain some weight just reading this list  or at the very least, go grab a bowl of ice cream.

• 6/1 – Donut Day, Flip a Coin Day, Oscar the Grouch’s birthday.
• 6/2 – The radio was patented in 1896.
• 6/3 – Is Egg Day, the first US Spacewalk occurred and Repeat Day, Repeat Day…
• 6/4 – Aesop’s Birthday along with Cheese Day while Ford’s first operational car was “born” in 1896.
• 6/5 – Hot Air Balloon day, Richard Scarry’s birthday ( children’s book author) and World Environment Day.
• 6/6 – Was D-Day and hopefully was remembered today (Memorial Day) as I write this post. But on a brighter side, the first drive-in theater opened in NJ – get this, in 1933! Also National applesauce cake day and Yo-Yo Day.
• 6/7 – National Chocolate Ice Cream Day.
• 6/8 – One of my favorites, Frank Lloyd Wright’s birthday ( 1867) along with World Ocean’s Day.
• 6/9 – Donald Duck was born in 1934
• 6/10 – Ball Point Pen Day, Iced Tea Day Day ( why do they have a day when they have the whole month?) and Judy Garland was born in 1922.
• 6/11 – Jacques Cousteau was born in 1910 and ET premiered in 1982.
• 6/12 – Anne Frank’s birthday in 1929, Magic Day and supposedly Baseball was invented in 1839.
• 6/13 – Another personal favorite I can not wait to celebrate – Weed Your Garden Day, like that needs a day. More like the whole month for me!
• 6/14 – Flag Day and World Juggling Day
• 6/15 – Fly a Kite Day along with the Power of a Smile Day.
• 6/16 – National Fudge Day, oh yeah, baby!
• 6/17 – Eat your Vegetables Day ( since you had all that fudge the day before )
• 6/18 – International Picnic Day
• 6/19 – Garfield’s birthday – he debuted in 1978 but not to be undone by the Tasmanian Devil who was born in 1954.
• 6/20 – Bald Eagle Day and wait for it….Ice Cream Soda Day.
• 6/21 – the first “official” day of Summer
• 6/22 – Let’s have Chocolate Eclair Day on the day the US Dept of Justice was formed! As good a reason as any.
• 6/23 – King Edward the 8th was born in 1894, as was Gutenberg in 1400 they claim and June Carter Cash inf 1929. It is also Pecan Sandies Day, in case you didn’t get enough eclairs and own stock in Nabisco, along with Pink Day and Soap Opera Day. (Sometimes you just have to use your imagination how you are going to celebrate.) Oh, I forgot – the typewriter was patented in 1868.
• 6/24 – UFO Day – I like this one – it is supposedly the first documented sighting.
• 6/25 – LEON day – spelled backwards is NOEL – to let you know it is 6 months to Christmas. Better get started on all those fabulous items you are going to create for the buying season!
• 6/26 – The bicycle was patented in 1819. And for chocolate lover’s we have National Chocolate Pudding Day. BTW, it is also the day which the toothbrush was invented in 1498 – WOW! I would like to see what that looked like.
• 6/27 – Captain Kangaroo ( Bob Keeshan was born) as was Helen Keller (1880).
• 6?28 – Paul Bunyan Day
• 6/29 – Camera Day
• 6/30 – Meteor Day and perhaps related, Superman’s birthday.

Etsy’s big shindig in Sydney Australia is June 2cd. Movie releases are nominal – Snow White & the Huntsman is this Friday, June 1. For sci-fi lovers we have Prometheus Friday June 8th. Rock of Ages takes the big screen June 15th and Seeking a Friend for the End of the World opens June 22cd. (Unfortunately GI Joe is on hold.) All of these might make good themes. One is called Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter which is curious. I’m sure it is not the same honest Abe. On June 5th (June 6th for the Eastern Hemisphere) Venus will trek across the sun’s path, like a little black dot, which is actually a type of eclipse. This will not happen again for another 105 years. (Remember to use a filter if you plan on checking this out). June is also full of local festivals and celebrations.

So there you have it. Of course, do not forget your mermaids, nautical themes, summer fashions and summer home decor themes, nor our woodland friends and geometric shapes & patterns. Look for Etsy’s Merchandising Desk for June coming at a website soon. In the meantime, happy treasury making!