Etsy Treasuries

I have my own Etsy shop, so from time to time I create treasuries. I'm doing them quite a bit at the moment as Craft Hour networking page host #TreasuryTuesday.  

Treasuries are lists of items on Etsy which people usually create to a certain theme, e.g. a particular colour or items for weddings. They consist of a maximum of 16 items. 

I always message people to tell them their item is in my list and often get asked how to create one from people who are new to Etsy, or have never created a treasury before.
Bearing this in mind, I thought I'd write a tutorial that I can point people to rather than writing it all out in conversations several times!

Step-By-Step

1. Go to Etsy front page and scroll down. On the left-hand side you will see 'More Ways to Shop' - click 'Treasury' 
   
2. On the next page, go to the top right-hand side and you will see 'Curator Tools' - click 'Create a List' 
   
3. This brings you to the page where you will actually create your treasury. Think of a Title and a Description which explain the theme of your items. You will also need to add Tags to help people in finding your treasury. Once you have done all this, copy and paste the URLs for each item and click 'OK'. 
   
4. Once all the spaces are filled, click 'Save' at the bottom. Your treasury is now ready to share. 
   

It is a good idea to send a message to the shop owners to tell them you've included their items. That way it gets exposure and you get more 'Favorites'. The more items are included in treasuries, the more likely they are to be on the first page when searching.

I hope you have found this tutorial useful. 

Many thanks, 

Light Tent

I've been taking all my craft photos just using what England calls natural light (not much sun around lately) and a couple of bits of white scrapbook card. They look OK but not really good enough, especially when trying to sell on Etsy.  So I thought I'd invest in a pop-up light tent.  

I found one pretty cheap on eBay and have just been experimenting with it.   Although they do still need a little bit of a touch-up in Photoshop, the results are so much better. 

Before:

You can see there are harsh lines and contrasting colour where the two pieces of card meet, plus the colour isn't great and there are shadows. 

After:

The background does show a little where the fabric gets folded and still ends up slightly different colours after Photoshopping, but overall it is a much better photo. 

This is the first time I have used the tent and I am pleased with the results. I just need some more practice with lighting and camera position etc.