Summer Time and the Living is ETSY, Part II

Hi Anne-Marie from byAMOR here, with a second helping of summer inspirations for fellow Crafty Ireland Team members. Part 1 of this article covered July and focused on using this often quieter season on Etsy to revamp aspects of your shop. Part 2 continues in this vein, while honing in on August.


Summer vacations can really fire your creativity. I literally picked some inspiration right off the coast of France this year. I got a crick in my neck scavenging sea glass, pottery and slate on the Normandy beaches. You can’t always come home from your break with fresh supplies, but if elements of your holiday creep into your art, telling the story in your description makes it all the more real and alluring. A photo of whatever it was that inspired you can catch the imagination of the buyer too.


August evokes childhood memories of the annual trek into town to buy school uniforms, books and supplies. (Yep that’s me with my collar half out, showing an early penchant for asymmetrical designs.) Four daughters with two year gaps between us must have been a nightmare for my parents. I suffered the heat and boredom of this summer ritual, but the highlight was stocking up on fresh stationery and art supplies.


August is the perfect time to list back to school supplies. Makelovely has hit the mark with her hand-dyed zipper case.


Searching for items to feature in this series has drawn my attention to the question of tags. (cheerful gift tags, courtesy of Propeller.) I’ve been conducting shopping searches on Etsy using the terms ‘craftyirelandteam’ plus keywords like ‘back to school’, ‘summer’ ‘Leo’ , and other themes or colours of the moment.


I thought I had a decent handle on tagging. Yet my own items did not always pop up in my searches when they should have. It finally dawned on me that I have missed several tagging opportunities by not paying enough attention to Etsy’s merchandising desk.

Yes, I add a topical listing to my shop every now and then and tag it accordingly. But what about relevant colours and themes that are already lurking at the back of the shop, sadly labelled with last season’s buzz words, or worse, never-been-buzz-words at all? Take one of July’s hot colours, ‘robins egg blue’ for example. I had a few items in or featuring this shade but most were tagged the same old ‘pale blue’. Guess who’s feeling blue now.....?

So I’ve made a little mid-year resolution. I will use this month to revisit my tagging and in future I'll approach it with one eye on trends and colour shades.

Continuing on the subject, using the tag ‘craftyirelandteam’ on every one of your listings means fellow team members can find you when putting together treasuries and blog features or when shopping within the team.


A search for ‘peridot’, the birthstone of the month, turned up this charming necklace by Silkstone designs. Peridot is an unusual transparent green stone. This semi-precious gem has a long tradition as a power stone. It is associated with healing of emotional wounds and is said to bring clarity and a sense of well being. In ancient Egypt, peridot was known as the ‘sun stone’. It was used to bring calm to the mind and was believed to promote successful relationships.

Crafty possibilities abound for August’s zodiac sign, Leo. I’m thinking cards, handmade beads, mobile phone charms, paper bookmarks and cuddly plush lions for a start. ‘Teen’ or ‘teenager’ might be a tag to consider including.

If you plan to list birthstones or zodiac signs, it’s a good idea to tag with the relevant month and the words ‘ birthstone’ ‘star sign’ ‘zodiac’ et. Buyers don’t necessarily know what the stone or sign for each month actually is so their search could be quite general.

I couldn’t write an article about August and leave out Beelicious crafts’ fruit-slice money purses. You can almost taste the sweet flavour of summer.

To wind up, August hails the coming of the academic year. If you are considering learning a new craft, or up-skilling in some way, you might find inspiration from nightcourses.com.

Methinks a beginners class in photography might serve me well now...