St Patricks Day Competition

Sarah from Sarah Mai Designs is now running the St Patricks Day Competition.

As St Patricks Day is fast approaching, it's time to take this opportunity to gain some extra exposure for our team.

I believe last year we ran a treasure hunt and it was a lot of work for everyone involved so I want to try to keep this as simple as possible.

The plan is to ask a simple question that sends entrants to each of our stores. For example how many team sellers listed below live in Cork? I will only list the sellers that have contributed a prize so entrants will have to follow the links rather than take a shortcut to the team page to find the answer.

If you would like to have your store included in the competition please send me a message via my shop Sarah Mai Designs by Sunday 26th February confirming that you will provide a prize.

I will post the competition details here as soon as I have a list of stores who will contribute.

The closing date for customers to enter the competition will be St Patricks Day and we will draw the winners on Monday 19th March.

There will be a blog post soon detailing the prizes etc.

Thanks

Crafty News Desk

Greetings from the Crafty News Desk. 
This weeks photo is of a determined briar that is growing though the back wall of our garden .... what PERSISTENCE - good word for us all in these recessionary times.

As part of our look at the Provinces I will be taking a stroll through MUNSTER this week.  No doubt I will only be touching the surface.  If you have anything to add please let me know and I can update the list or you can add your info to the comments at the end of this article.


Munster is made up of 6 counties i.e. : Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford.
A quick look at Etsy shows the following number of active shops in each county.
Clare (3), Cork (24), Kerry (5), Limerick (8), Tipperary (4) and Waterford (4)  total of 48   Big wave to you all in Munster ......


Some local links of interest
Clare : Clare Crafts Association  Assoc
Cork : West Cork Guild Guild 
Cork :  Stone Sculpting course Sculpting
Cork : textile intitiative Souvenir
Cork : Cork City Arts Arts
Cork:  Textile Exhibition and also 2-day textile festival  Cork Textiles
Kerry : news from Kerry Co Co. Kerry Co Co news
Kerry : Story of Irish Lace Exhibition and Seminar Lace
Kerry : Glass info Glass
Limerick : Milk Market Market
Limerick : Quilting retreat next weekend Retreat
Tipperary : craft classes Class
Tipperary : showcase crafts
Waterford : craft info studio

General links :
Craft Council of Ireland http://www.ccoi.ie/
Year of Craft site http://www.craftinireland.com/
Craft events http://www.craftinireland.com/
Business partnerships http://www.businesstoarts.ie/

Other news:

• Geraldine from LittleSnippets has been in touch with news of a great giveaway for Spring on her blog, well worth a look here ..... SPRING 
• How are you all getting on with the St Patricks Day Treasure Hunt???? 

Thats about it for this week.  Next week we have a look at Dublin.  All items for inclusion should be in with me by Sunday evening at the latest.
Have a good week
Cheers
Mo
http://www.huggleknits.etsy.com/

Fab Five on Friday

"Is ón chroí a thagann an cheird" = "Craft comes from the heart" ♥

Featured items:
1. Set of 4 Shamrock Cards, from paperpennies
2. Rosette Fabric Brooch, "Kiss Me", from homespunireland
3. Luck of the Irish Necklace, from SilkstoneDesigns
4. Love Card, from placed
5. Paddy's Day Baby Booties, from mukkymonkey


Chosen by Beth of magpieandbutton.
As always, if you would like to suggest or curate a Fab Five on Friday of your very own, just send me an Etsy convo :)

Etsy Ireland St Patrick's Day Treasury Hunt

Yarr me Hearties!

Fancy hunting some treasure?

Over 300 Euros worth of handmade goodness from Ireland, including an original oil painting, signed print, sea glass, silver, shamrocks and lots more?

This treasure?

Want to WIN This St. Patrick's Day Prize?

(click on the image to enlarge)

Participation in the Etsy Ireland St Patrick's Day Treasury Hunt is simple, but the task is challenging... *drumroll*

Starting 8 March, we will post a clue every day on www.facebook.com/etsyireland which will lead to a team member's shop. Find the word hidden in one of their pictures and at the end of the hunt, rearrange the words into a proper sentence.

Links to all Crafty Ireland team members' shops can be found on this blog in the drop down list under directory on the left.

After the last clue has been posted on 15 March, please email your sentence to me, Purls, at purlsofcolour [at] googlemail.com

The deadline for submissions is 16 March  at 11.59pm (23:59h) GMT. On St Patrick's Day, I will pull a name out of one of my woolly hats, watched by no other than the impartial bear, Judge Jacob.

Mo, who is collecting the donations from team members all over Ireland, will then be posting the treasure to the lucky winner.

Participation is open to everyone except the Treasure Hunt organisers (Letizia, Purls, Nadine and Suzie). Just to clarify, you do NOT have to be a member of the Etsy Ireland team to take part.

In the most unlikely event that there is a problem with a prize (ie one of the donations might not arrive at Mo's in time/gets lost in the post), it may be substituted with something equally gorgeous! So no worries...

Enjoy hunting for treasure and pleasure!!!

Happy St Patrick's Day to everyone!

The eagle has landed! The treasure box is opened!

Melody from Lemondadesun was the lucky winner of the recent inaugural St Patrick's Day Treasure Hunt (that sounds important doesn't it?!) and the box of goodies recently landed on her doorstep in Oregon, USA.


It sounds like it narrowly missed exploding at the seams as it was chock-full of Etsy Ireland goodness indeed.

She has a lovely blog post detailing all the contents, and I'm impressed by the amount and variety of everything within the beautiful packaging (thanks Ruth! looks great!)

Thanks again to everyone who took part.

Publicity and promo for some team members

Stephanie from Pandacubcafe has featured a load of the Crafty Ireland team on her blog! Yay! She has done a Shop Local in Dublin and also a round up of her Belfast finds, all found via our blog.




What a great start to the Paddy's Day festivities. You can find Stephanie at her Etsy shop too, so go say hi and have a peek at her gorgeous jewellery & accessories.

And Bridget from Bridget Farmer Books is the featured artisan in the UK edition of Etsy's This Handmande Life!


Go and check it out and congratulations Bridget. Pictured below is her Crow Story Hand made artist book.

Have a great St Patrick's Day everyone!

It's not too late to enter the Treasure Hunt!

Due to overwhelming demand, the deadline to enter The 2010 Crafty Ireland St Patrick's Day Treasure Hunt is extended to March 31.

Hidden in our members shops are 13 letters, find them all and work out the jumbled phrase and you could win over €150 worth of fabulous, wondrous, stupendous original goodies from a selection of the Crafty Ireland team. Wowzers! This is an international giveaway so no need to worry if you live on the other side of the world, we will still ship your prize to you.


Use the SHOP DIRECTORY listing on the sidebar to the right to start hunting through our team's shops on Etsy. The letter will be the last image of an item listing, and the shop will have a blurb in their welcome text letting you know if they are hiding one of the letters, so you'll know if you're in the right place. We've even given you clues to the next shop in the trail with each letter you find! The hidden letter will look something like the above image.

After you get your next clue you'll need to come back to the SHOP DIRECTORY over there to the right and scroll through to find your next shop, as the clues will be targeted on the shop name.

Once you've found the 13 letters, work out the jumbled phrase and convo Ruth at nicedaysupplies.etsy.com or email her with your answer:
ruthcrean [at] yahoo.ie

*** Deadline is now extended to March 31 due to overwhelming demand ***

All correct entries will be put in a hat and a winner drawn at random ... and he or she will receive a fantastic goodie pack of a selection of items from the Crafty Ireland team worth more than €150. Talk about beating the credit crunch!

To keep it fair, Crafty Ireland team members are not eligible to enter ... boo hoo ... but your family, friends, random acquaintances are all welcome. So give them a gentle poke on your behalf.

And because we're REALLY kind, we think this is an AMAZING competition. There's your first clue (hint, hint... Amazing ... go look in the Shop Directory for someone Amazing) so good luck and happy hunting.

So get hunting ... oops, have I just linked to the first clue?!?! Good lord!

Unfortunately we're not allowed to ship leprechauns internationally so they will have to stay here. Really truly.

St. Patrick's Personal Fabulous Five

If St. Patrick was around today what would his Fab 5 be?
Possibly...
Very lovely cuff links from Faerytopia, for important occasions

Surely he would love this hand printed book from BridgetFarmerBooks.


No doubt he would give a loved one some of these quirky ginger bread love hearts from GingerBreadStreet.


I think he would no choice to buy that same loved one this very fabulous head piece from By A Thread. He would have liked animals. And appreciated craftsmanship!


And I think he would just have to buy this wonderful crocheted ring from Treasure Online for someone too! He was quite keen on green.


I hope this post makes you smile lovely followers and that you all have a great weekend! X DesignFingers

It's On - The Crafty Ireland St Patrick's Day Treasure Hunt 2010

Game on! The 2010 Crafty Ireland St Patrick's Day Treasure Hunt is now on. Hidden in our members shops are 13 letters, find them all and work out the jumbled phrase and you could win over €150 worth of fabulous, wondrous, stupendous original goodies from a selection of the Crafty Ireland team. Wowzers!

*** Deadline is now extended to March 31 due to overwhelming demand ***


Use the SHOP DIRECTORY listing on the sidebar to the right to start hunting through our team's shops on Etsy. The letter will be the last image of an item listing, and the shop will have a blurb in their welcome text letting you know if they are hiding one of the letters, so you'll know if you're in the right place. We've even given you clues to the next shop in the trail with each letter you find! The hidden letter will look something like the above image.

After you get your next clue you'll need to come back to the SHOP DIRECTORY over there to the right and scroll through to find your next shop, as the clues will be targeted on the shop name.

Once you've found the 13 letters, work out the jumbled phrase and convo Ruth at nicedaysupplies.etsy.com or email her with your answer:
ruthcrean [at] yahoo.ie

All entries MUST be received by midnight (Irish time) on St Patrick's Day, March 17.
*** Deadline is now extended to March 31 due to overwhelming demand ***

All correct entries will be put in a hat and a winner drawn at random ... and he or she will receive a fantastic goodie pack of a selection of items from the Crafty Ireland team worth more than €150. Talk about beating the credit crunch!

To keep it fair, Crafty Ireland team members are not eligible to enter ... boo hoo ... but your family, friends, random acquaintances are all welcome. So give them a gentle poke on your behalf.

And because we're REALLY kind, we think this is an AMAZING competition. There's your first clue (hint, hint... Amazing ... go look in the Shop Directory for someone Amazing) so good luck and happy hunting. This is an international giveaway so no need to worry if you live on the other side of the world, we will still ship your prize to you. We're kind like that!

Clickety click - St Patrick's team treasuries

We've got 3 fabulous St Patrick's Day themed treasuries currently twinkling away in the vast Treasury lists.

Seek and ye shall find has been snagged by TanyaMac with an impressive array of beautiful things. It's so great to see creative interpretations of the Ireland / St Patrick's theme which showcase the group's work and loving the warm gold and orange hues in there too.


And An Irish Holiday has been snagged by IrishWoolen, another varied and impressive range of items to get the Paddy's vibe going, with great green and cool blue shades. Great work.

And Quaint, snagged by Balanced is continuing the St Patrick's theme. The Treasury team are firing!


If you have time to visit and click, click, click and comment that would be great. Thanks to everyone's hard work at snagging the many Treasuries over the past weeks.

Clickety click - gorgeous greens in Gayle's treasury

Gayle from AmazingBabe has scored a treasury - hoppity hop over and click away and support the featured team members.


And the ever-impressive Treasury master Ooakie has also created another beautiful green-themed treasury too. I'm feeling the good green vibe of St Patrick's Day.


And if you've ever wondered if you've made it to the front page of Etsy ... Craft Cult has an archive of treasury lists that have made it to the front page. You can search by your user name too (just hit the SEARCH BY MEMBER option) and see if you've made the grade and popped up on the front page while you were sleeping or away (!) from your Etsy site (gasp! I know! but sometimes it happens.)

And another useful tool is the Treasury Clock which shows when the treasuries are opening up and you can search here in the Treasure Hunt to see if you're currently in a treasury somewhere.

I will take off my school teacher hat now and find some coffee. Mmmm, coffee.

Thanks Gayle and Ooakie! Go say hi and click, click, click.

Update!!
Rebecca from Lucky Rainbow Designs also just snagged a treasury...and I think it may be her first as she is one of our many team newbies...share the love!

Paddy's Day Ideas...and Etsy Chat

Image: Tanya Bond- Paddy The Rat Drinking Guinness in a quiet pub

Hi everyone it's Ruth here again, I just wanted to give you a brief run down about what was talked about at the 'chat' last Wednesday night. Firstly thanks to those who made it, it was lots of fun getting to know you all better.

-Firstly we talked about making the 'chat' on Etsy a more regular thing, so people would know when it's on, and join in if they were free. We talked about having it either weekly/forthnightly on a Sunday night at 8pm. But that would depend on the feedback we get from you guys...so leave comment here if you are interested.

-We discussed local markets and fairs, so if there is a market in your locality could you leave a comment here with some details, as it's very hard to get a comprehensive guide, so we thought you guys might have some tips.

-Trust the Irish! We discovered that the chatroom is sensored and that you can't curse there, typical!!, but very fun to play with, I highly recommend it. Although it did turn us into compulsive potty mouths!

-Obviously Paddys Day was discussed. Etsy have said that they will be promoting this holiday, and seeing as we are the Irish team we want to make a huge effort with it. So the plan of action is:

-Treasuries-if you can nab one, do so, not every single one has to be Paddys day themed but a large percentage should get us noticed.

-Tag all your Paddys items under holidays(as discussed in the post below this one)

-Make lots of Paddys day items and get them listed as early as possible, as the American market is the one that will mostly be buying you need to allow time for shipping etc.

-We would like to do a giveaway as part of the Paddys Day promotion, so if any of you have small items that you could donate for the prize please get in contact with me and I'll give you details for postage etc.

-Myself and Alex have talked about the team doing a treasure hunt for this prize. Including hidden messages in peoples shops. This means people will have to search through all our shops to find the clues to win the prize. I will need 13 shops for this so if you are interested please leave a comment on this post and I'll pick some at random. I'll explain how it works exactly if you are one of the chosen shops. Either way everyone will get increased traffic because all shops will have to be searched.

-If anyone has any more suggestions for Paddys Day, let myself or Alex know and we'll try to work it into 'the grand plan' to paint Etsy green.

Clickety click - let's get the St Patricks ball rolling!

Ooakie has done it again and got the spirit of St Patrick's Day underway ... another beautiful treasury to get the green theme going. Loads of delights to click so have a peek at them all and leave some love in the comments!

How about we try and flood the St Patrick's category on the Etsy site with some home-grown goodness ... if you have St Patrick's items or even just some fab green things make sure you list them:
- with Holidays as the top level category
- then use st patricks as one of your other tags
- and of course make sure it's tagged with craftyirelandteam too!

It won't go into the category unless it's tagged Holidays as the first level. So you'll need to use your normal category eg jewellery, paper goods, knitting etc as one of your other tags.

Thanks Ooakie for hanging out with the Treasury Clock!

The Look of the Irish Treasury

I managed to grab myself a treasury for the team, yey. It's so much easier to get them since I discovered craftopolis. I thought we could start moving into the whole St.Patricks day promotions to try to get Etsy's attention. Hope you enjoy the selection....and don't forget to click click click and comment!