postage

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Sorry for the lack of posts from Owen and me lately — we’ve been on vacation. We promise to have some fun posts about our trip soon, but before that happens, I thought I’d post a little something in honor of the latest postal rate increase.

The USPS has only released a handful of stamps at the new letter rate (44¢), but I’m pretty psyched about these new Simpsons stamps and think the new king and queen love stamps are pretty lovely. Hopefully they’ll release some new artist stamps soon like the Nevelson, Noguchi or Chales and Ray Eames ones. If none of the designs from the USPS suit you, they now link to a few different outside companies that will print your designs on postage stamps.

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Father’s Day Cards now in our Etsy shop!

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We’ve just added our new Father’s Day card to the etsy shop. Owen and I are both really happy with how they turned out. The Father’s Day cards are available as a single card and also in a set with a Mother’s Day card for a little discount.

Just a reminder: Mother’s Day is May 10th and Father’s Day is June 21st.

Special: get 10% off any May etsy order from Design des Troy by mentioning you read theexpertsagree.

Gertrude & Mabel

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As long as we are giving shouts out to wedding photographers, I feel I must mention the wonderful photographers at Gertrude & Mabel Photography who shot Owen’s and my wedding a few years ago.

Not only do Heidi and Judy take fantastic and artistic candid shots, they are also total pros at making portraits not look super posed.

I’ll try to add a few of their shots from our wedding, but for now the shots above are all from Gertrude & Mabel Photography’s site. All images are ©Gertrude & Mabel.

Grain Edit’s Mid-century Modern Sticker, Label and Stamp Club

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I was just looking around on Grain Edit and found a rather old post about the Mid-century Modern Sticker, Label and Stamp Club. I figure since the images in the club are all from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s, it it OK that I’m a little late on posting about this. It is an AWESOME collection of, as the name would suggest, stickers, stamps and labels. The collection is beautiful to look at, but could also serve as a great resource for inspiration.

The images above were submitted by Max Friedrich Hartmann.

UPPERCASE Magazine

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I was so excited to receive my copy of UPPERCASE Magazine (a brand-new quarterly magazine published by Uppercase Gallery in Calgary) in the mail last week. I haven’t been able to read it super thoroughly yet, but from my few cursory looks, it is fantastic. I was a little nervous about subscribing without ever seeing it, but went ahead because the UPPERCASE blog is so well curated. So far, I have not been disappointed. Definitely check it out if you can — the magazine is available at a few retailers and, of course, at UPPERCASE.

The cover illustration is by Madrid-based artist Blanca Gómez; her work is available for purchase at her site and at her etsy shop. The lovely script on the lower-left corner of the cover is Mary Read (which Owen discussed in last week’s Font-y Friday).

Etsy Day: Etsy Greetings!

As we’ve mentioned before, we are members of the Etsy Greetings team. Here are a few great selections from a handful of our team members. To view tons more cards from Etsy Greetings, click here.

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Row 1: Armato Design & Press; Spotbear
Row 2: Melissa Kate; AJKArtistry
Row 3: LiSo Cards; Half Empty Press
Row 4: Two Hand Design; Twin Ravens
Row 5: Wheeler Studio; Grey Moggie Greetings

Etsy Day: Fun with Faux Bois

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Row 1:
Plush Tree Stump from Little Seedlings; Bump on a Log Cufflinks from Block Party Press

Row 2:
Tree on the Wall — No. 9
from Creative Exploits; Natural Stump Tote from Small Stump

Row 3:
Bluegrass Birds Letterpress Print from Cindy Tomczyk Art; pick-up sticks / bundle o’ three cat toys from spellwell

Row 4:
Tweet Woodgrain quilt wallet/card holder from Coco + Milkweed; Stump Gocco card from Off a Tree

Row 5:
Log and Owls Cross Stitch from The Great Northern; Wood Frame Thank You cards from Design des Troy*

Row 6:
Horse Ribbon Button from tiniest j*; Brown Screen Printed Wool Log Pillow from My Imaginary Boyfriend

* Typically we wouldn’t include our own products in one of these Etsy features, but we are all so into woodgrain that we just had to.

Etsy Day: Useful sites for Etsy sellers

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I love having a shop on etsy, but, as anyone who sells on etsy will tell you, it requires a fair amount of work to do it sucessfully. If you have an etsy shop and need a little help, or if you are thinking about starting an etsy shop, I highly recommend checking out the links below.

The Ultimate Newbie Guide
This newbie guide from sagittariusgallery just had its second anniversary in the forums. It is an amazing resource for new sellers and buyers on etsy. It has links to tons of useful forum posts on topics from uploading a shop banner to tracking views in Google Analytics to tips on photography for your instagram likes and comments, facebook post likes or social media site.

The Etsy Seller’s Handbook
The Etsy Seller’s Handbook is an index of all of the How-To posts from Etsy’s blog, The Storque. The Storque is a great reference in general, but the articles linked from the Seller’s Handbook seem particularly useful. There are articles not only on the basics of selling on etsy, but but also on topics like marketing and pricing, click here for marketing advice and services for your business.

Etsy Wiki
I think the name explains it all. It is a user-contibuted wiki for all things etsy-related.

Craftcult Heart-o-Matic
I look at the Heart-o-Matic all the time. It is a super convenient way to see if your shop or items have any new hearts. Craftcult has also recently added an area where you can see if any of your items have been featured on the front page, on the Storque or any of the Gift Guides.

Craftopolis
Craftopolis is another great tool similar to the Heart-o-Matic. It tells you if you are featured in any treasuries (including treasury west).

Modish Biz Tips
If you read design blogs, chances are pretty good the you’ve read Modish, from blogger Jena Coray. But you may not know that Jena also has a business blog, Modish Biz Tips. Modish Biz Tips has, as the name would suggest, a ton of great business tips for creative small-business owners. They are launching a new monthly feature called The Etsy Way, which will be written by Shannon Riffe and will feature etsy selling and marketing tips.

The Bakery
The Bakery is a firm owned by Jaime Derringer and Erin Loechner that helps small businesses with a variety of business needs like marketing, blog development and PR. I haven’t used them, but their blog has a number of uesful business related articles and they also have an etsy shop which sells a printed manual for selling on Etsy.

If there are any sites/links that have been of particular help to you, please post them in the comments below.

Please note, The Experts Agree is not responsible for the content on any of the sites mentioned above. None of the above sites, with the exception of the Storque, is affiliated with Etsy.com.

 

Etsy Day is Friday!

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Tomorrow, Friday the 24th, is Etsy Day. Check back tomorrow (throughout the day) for lots of fun etsy related posts!

Etsy Day image by Anda

Baby Let’s Play House

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The trailer for Sivan Gur-Arieh’s film short film Baby Let’s Play House is now available on YouTube and on her site. Owen and I worked with Sivan on the titles, credits and DVD art for the film. The trailer is good, but I think the film is fantastic.

Baby Let’s Play House, Sivan’s MFA thesis film, won Best Film at the Sundeis Film Festival, and has continued its festival circulation in Manhattan’s East Village Anthology Film Archives at the New Filmmakers Screening Series, and in Big Sur at the Henry Miller Short Film Screening Series.

If you get a chance to see a screening, don’t miss it!

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