Treasury Friday - Sweet!

My very first stop in the treasuries this morning landed me an unexpected Treasury West spot. Woohoo! Feast your eyes on a few of my favorite Fabulous Artistic Mom jewelry bits.

Blues...

This week's EtsyBloggers blog carnival topic is color - pick a favorite and explore the ways it's expressed in your work.

I don't know that, before I began crafting and creating, I would have been able to tell you my favorite color. I've been flummoxed by the question before - generally, just making something up to appease the asker (lately, my 3-year-old). But as I began to work with all the glorious decorative papers I've come to fall so in love with, I find that I'm almost always drawn to the same few palettes. A quick trip to my shop reveals all - pink and brown and, even more so, blue and brown.

As I was thinking through this post (while making beds, as per my daily ritual), it occurred to me that my house is filled with this same combination of soft, calming blues and warm, chocolatey browns. There is something about this palette that, to me, conveys affection, sentimentality, and comfort. So it's only natural that, as I create my little folded sheets of paper and attempt to infuse them with those same sorts of feelings, I might drift into the same sweet and simple color scheme.

My "bluesy" cards are definitely among my faves, and probably carry just a little bit of extra "me" in each envelope. See what I mean?

Cool! Free Traffic!

Come on! All your friends are doing it...

Thanks to Captured Time Books (cool altered journal pictured above) for pointing me in the direction of Link Referral earlier this week. Have you heard of this thing? Here's what their "About Us" page has to say about the Link Referral "concept":

Members directory traffic - By joining, you will be included in our members directory which is visited by our community of over 180,000 members, and thousands of outside visitors on a daily basis. You'll have the opportunity to earn a ranking at the top of your category, absolutely free! Receive valuable feedback from visitors of your website, network with your peers, and give your opinion on other websites in the directory. The more you participate, the more you get in return! (more details)

Referral based traffic - You are probably familiar with the concept of network marketing, well this is a free version of that marketing method - by registering and promoting your linkreferral affiliate link, an exponential growth of 5 levels of referrals can be created (ex. you refer 10 people who refer 10 people each who refer 10 each....), potentially 10,000s of visitors/day all viewing your link prominently in the top spot of our 'Featured Sites' section on our home page for your referral ID. It works because its free, fast to register, easy to implement and no risk. People that are referred from your site will have nothing to lose and everything to gain, just like you. (more details)

Search engine traffic - By registering, you'll benefit several ways, including,

1) having your webpage listing indexed more quickly - the major search engines continuously spider our site, and the sites listed in our directory.
2) Improved search engine rankings and SEO optimization.
3) Indirect search engine traffic via linkreferral.com. Pages such as your directory listing and your affiliate page listing feature your link and description, are picked up by all the major search engines. Your sign-up description, combined with our strong traffic base (a prime ranking factor for most major search engines) can pull in a significant immediate steady stream of traffic to your listing on linkreferral.com and then on to your web site.

A search for "Etsy" yields 1032 results as of this morning. Wow! Apparently I've been missing out! I swear I'm usually the world's biggest skeptic about these things, but several fellow EtsyGreetings members have had quite a bit of success with Link Referral, and try though I might, I've not been able to find a single reason NOT to create an account. A small daily investment of time has honestly yielded a substantial bump in traffic within the past few days. Plus, browsing member links has been a great way to find and promote other great Etsy sellers I might not otherwise have run across. Why not give it a shot, right?

Monday, Monday -- So Good To Me

Sweet! This was surely a nice way to cure my nasty little case of the Mondays...


Thanks to one of FAM's treasury queens, Winklepots, for creating such a gorgeous collection! In other news, there's yet another great giveaway today over at the EtsyGreetings blog, this time featuring Carlin Card Creations. Check it out!

A Brand New Artiste

Armed with a whole new look, four new vendors, and a whole shopload of unique and beautiful mommy-made treasures, Artiste Congo is stocking again tomorrow night, September 5th, at 9:00.

Macaroni and Glue is proud to be one of the newest "artistes." This great group of talented moms truly offers something for everyone, from knitted goodies for your little one to indulgent soaps and teas to handsewn mommy essentials. With lots of great new product and special guest, Miniature Magic, tomorrow night's stocking promises to be quite the event. Pick your faves now and be ready to pounce when we go live!

Who Doesn't Love a Giveaway??

Visit the EtsyGreetings blog today for a chance to get something for (almost) nothing! Simply leave a comment at today's post with your fave Mac & Glue creation and be entered to win a set of my best-selling "Pretty in Pink" thank you cards. Good luck!



EtsyGreetings has launched an exciting new blog lineup as of September, including weekly giveaways, monthly design challenges, Treasury Tuesdays, team member features, business and craft tutorials, and more! With more than 600 members, the EtsyGreetings team offers not only a huge variety of handcrafted greeting cards, but a wealth of knowledge about Etsy, paper crafts, and business ownership. Check back often to see what we're up to!

Find Me On Facebook!

Macaroni and Glue is now on Facebook! Become a fan to get exclusive updates on special events, promotions, and sweet deals for Facebook pals. You can find our page here:

http://www.new.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Macaroni-and-Glue-on-Etsy/18333326699

In other news, the 2008 holiday earlybird special continues. Purchase any card set from the 2008 holiday collection before October 1st and get a $1 PayPal refund. Also, check out the EtsyGreetings blog tomorrow, September 3rd, for another Macaroni and Glue giveaway.