Infusion by StephanieRonnyknit1bead2 on ArtFire

I love waking up to find that one of my items has been included in a collection. Fusion!! is "An infusion of color! Putting together our very own Artfire artisans multi-colored creations! Not only an infusion of color, but an infusion of lots of great talent!!"

ArtFire has a neat little tool to generate code for a collection. No more copying, cutting, pasting and uploading like on Etsy.

Fusion!!

Curated By: StephanieRonn...

ArtFire.com

Fine Art Paintings

Click here to read more!

Tutorial: Change Your Blog Background

Gemme Chandelier Earrings by Kibble2008

Is it time to redecorate your blog? Do you want to change the colors and maybe even the template?

There are some basic changes you can make real easily. The easiest change to make is simply changing the colors of your current template.

From your blogger dashboard, click on "layout".

That takes you to the page elements tab. Click on the tab to the right of the page elements tab called "fonts and colors".

You will see this screen.

Bergamot Cluster Earrings by Kibble2008

First scroll down the menu on the left outlined in green until you see the name of the part of your blog that you want in a different color. The first part listed is the Blog Background Color. Click on it to choose it. Choose the new color from the colors to the right. I drew a blue box around the colors you can use. If you don't like the color you have chosen, just click on another color.

You can go down the list and change as many of the colors as you want. Be sure and save when you have the colors you want. If you have really messed up the colors, Don't Save, click "Clear Edits" and start over. You can change most of the colors on your blog on this screen

If you don't see the color that you want you can enter the hexadecimal code for the right color in the box that I outlined in red. Just type the six digit number (including letters a through f) in the box and hit enter if you have the correct color be sure and save. There are many gadgets and sites that help you find the hexadecimal code for the color you want.

You can also change your blog appearance using the new template designer in blogger in draft. I will have a tutorial on the template designer in soon.


I want to thank Rowena from Cherrypik Jewel's for suggesting this topic.  Please click on the pictures to be taken to the item listing on Etsy.  You can use the links below to find her pages:

Cherrypik Jewel's on Etsy
Cherrypik Jewel's on Facebook
Cherrypik Jewel's Blog

If you suggest a tutorial topic and I write a tutorial based on your suggestion I will feature your items in the tutorial post. Click here to read more!

Tutorial Series How to Prepare Your Item for Treasuries #2

Chainmaille Choker in Copper Brutal Ribbon by Stygian Chains

Treasuries are a huge promotional tool for Etsians.  There are some shops whose items are featured all the time.  Some shops never have items in a Treasury.  If you are part of the second group, do you know why?  And do you want to know how to become a member of the first group?

This series of articles started as a tutorial type blog post but there is just too much information for a blog post.  Each post in the series will discuss tips that will raise the odds of your item being included in a Treasury.  Most of these tips will also help you make sales because buyers are looking at the same things that a Treasury curator looks at.  I will be using "Awareness" as my theme for examples, but you can substitute any theme that your items fit in and follow the tips using that theme.

Tags: part 2

Everyone has different ideas about how to tag your items in regards to color.  Some say you should stick to the basics, green, yellow, orange, red, purple, blue, black, white and brown.  Others say that you need to be more specific because it helps if you are in a smaller group.

Golden Bracelet with Rainbow Flash by 88Links

I think you should split the difference.  You should use that general tag but whenever possible you should qualify it.  If your item is violet why not tag it as violet and purple.  That way you will show up in both searches and both tags are true.  If I am looking for an item somewhere in the purple range for my Treasury, I am going to use purple as a search term.  The computer looks for purple as a tag.  Your item is tagged violet.  The computer does not know that violet is a purple, it only knows that the first letters are not the same.  To it that means your item is not purple and will not be included in my results.

The reverse is also true.  Your item is tagged purple.  I am looking for something violet for my Treasury.  I use the search term violet.  Once again the computer does not know about the relationship between purple and violet.  It just knows that the letters do not match and I don't use your item in my Treasury.

If you tagged the same item as violet and purple, both true, you would have had two opportunities to be in a Treasury.


Tags: part 3

There are 14 tags available.  If I laid 14 perfectly good lottery tickets on a table and said "Take as many as you want.  If you don't use them, they will not be used."  Are you seriously going to tell me that you will take 2 or 3 and let the rest get tossed in the trash.  That is what you do each time you use less than 14 tags.  The additional tags that you do not use may be the tags that I use to search for items for my next Treasury.

Funny White Braided Leather Bracelets by Laura Bijoux

I admit that I don't use all 14 all of the time.  Sometimes I am listing something quickly and can't think of all the tags I could use.  I promise myself that I will go back and correct the tags.  And I will, someday.  In the meantime, someone who is looking for my item can't find it because I didn't use all my tags.

I think the next topic will be pictures.  If you have questions feel free to ask them in the comments.  I moderate comments so if you don't want your comment published just tell me.

I want to thank Stygian Chains, 88 Links and LauraBijoux for answering my plea on twitter so quickly. Click here to read more!