Etsy is for artistisans, crafters and designers

This Year 2013...

Etsy (pronounced 'Et- See').  Etsy is for artisans, crafters and designers.  It's an online community of thousands of "shops" of lots of creative people from all walks of life, selling anything from hand crafted wood furniture, up to up-cycled fashion clothing for adults.  What a better way to shop for authentic designs, and it's all just at your fingertips.  I have an Etsy shop located here, it's become my main source of selling my handmade designs and craft supply overstock.  Still kicking myself in the shins for not focusing my time, sweat, and energy into an Etsy Shop years ago when I opened it.  Instead I went the traditional "dot.com" route, which I never really saw much come of that... well, not much other than lots of bills for: website maintenance, web templates, and MANY hours spent formatting item listings... which in turn left little time for design of my actual craft.  I guess we do our best to learn from our mistakes and move on.  That lesson is still blazed in my brain, and my pocketbook for that matter too ;-)

No one artist/crafter is an island... that's what makes the community of artists on Etsy.com so great - there is an amazing network that supports fellow "Etsyians" - articles, groups, newsletters, discussion boards, etc.      There are lots of amazing fresh and talented artists/designers out there on Etsy, these are just a few of my favorites, in no way did they pay me to feature their shop, just wanting to share the crafty goodness with my few fans (errr, thanks family members + coworkers) that actually read this blog, LOL, (oh, and of course, thanks Mom for always being my champion supporter.. no matter how crazy my sewing ideas are!).

Here's a few of my favorite Etsy shops.  I encourage you to stop by and "favorite" their shops.

#1: Design Roots - Handwritten calligraphy and graphics that are fresh, modern, and timeless.  Great attention to details. Her wedding invitations have been most popular, along with her note-cards  and graphic art prints.  She's even recently launched stamp designs into her growing skill set.  I actually personally known the owner, Heather, we worked in the same architectural office many moons ago.

#2: Oh Dier - Handcrafted wooden signs, with plenty of satire, silliness, and whimsy.  Don't we all need just a little humor to brighten our home.

#3: Simply Southern Signs - I've only recently discovered this artist.  From reading her bio I realized that this Etsy shop is a husband + wife team - she paints, he does the woodwork - wonderful to see such a symbiotic relationship.   Her art isn't just on wooden signs.  A unique twist to her art is she also paints old windows - she has a very expressionistic and fun style.