F%#@ You Very Much
Some say that, “Fuck you is the new thank you.” Well, I don’t know about that because every time someone does me a favor and I promptly turn to them and say, “Why, fuck you very much.” I usually get hit in the face, so I guess we’ve put that rumors to rest. Seriously, “fuck you very much” is an image posting blog from Denmark, similar to Dropular
and ffffound, both of which are “MHB” (must have bookmarked). What does FUVM have that the others don’t? Well, it’s not what it has as much as what it doesn’t have, that counts. FFFFound and Dropular get updated ravenously throughout the day, which makes looking through the blog tiresome. On the other hand, FUVM has only a couple images a day added, which gives it that more personal feel. I think it’s worth checking out!! If you have any other image posting sites that you love, post a link in the comments - Let’s share!!!! (4JB78GAUDEZR)
Cloud 9
Hi everyone!! We have been away for a while but here is our come-back!! The summer tourist season has started here in Greece and we are working 12 hours a day. This will continue for the next 5 months-hope we make it. Yet, the time away has given us the time to find some really kool sites and Cloud 9 is one of these "bad-boys." "My blog is devoted to: visual inspiration, faith, natural living, slow food, yoga, fashion, promoting emerging indie artists & designers & more!"
Cloud 9 is a combo of so many things it's hard to pin a title on it. At its core: it is a blog but it also has a marketplace, advertising, gallery, feature, news, contests and so on. There are all kinds of happenings-even submissions so go on over and who knows, you might get featured!!
Lovely Package
You know how you always here the phrase, "Location, Location, Location" in terms of physical store location and how to increase traffic to that specific business-well here is one I just made up, "Packaging, Packaging, Packaging." I know it doesn't flow the same way but it is super important, especially to artists that work from home but want that professional touch. Imagine this: You just created this wonderful item and someone buys it as soon as you placed it on etsy or any other site you use-so you get it ready and go to ship it. Here is the problem!!! If your packaging is not as unique as the item inside, your customer starts off with the wrong impression even before opening to see what's inside. It's hard for us artists to agree with this because we believe in the item (the art) but in todays market (especially etsy) you need to be unique and one important aspect of this uniqueness is the packaging.
"Packaging is a very important marketing strategy to glamorize your product in order to attract the consumer’s attention. Sometimes packaging is so important that it cost more than the product itself in order to lure the consumers to buy it. Packaging should definitely be included in the 4 major P’s of marketing (product, place, promotion and price)."
-Taken from marketingdeviant.com- Read the article here
Lovely package is this amazing site that displays beautiful packaging from all over the world and for every type of product you can think of. Think of it as a blog for packaging as FFFFound or Dropular are for images-wait......I don't know if that last sentence made any sense. Anyway, the important thing for us to remember is that selling incorporates many things and one of the most important is packaging. Check out Lovely package and let me know what you all think....
Paper N Stitch
"The Paper N Stitch blog is a design and style blog that features artists, makers, crafters, and indie labels. In addition to these features, Paper N Stitch also features DIY projects and tutorials, fashion and home decor." So, without further ado.....ladies and gents, I present the Swiss Army Knife of blogs. P&S may not be Swiss but their blog/Exhibition site/Shops/Products and so on resemble that MacGyver like tool in so many ways. The blog is updated 3-5 times a day, so you can return often to find fresh/ new/infomative/ posts that will get your fingers clicking. The layout is very warm, icon based but not ultra modern, so you almost get the feeling it has a country style to it. If you're looking for featured artists, they got tons and the best part for me: tutorials!!! That's right, a whole section dedicated to teaching us how to make different kool items. Check it out.....
Think Bakery
Do you like "Baking Business?" Hold on, let me restate that......Do you like "Baking Business" if by me saying "Baking Business" I mean gathering tools that will in turn generate sales for your shop? Yummy, right? Well, that is what our new Kool site, Think Bakery is all about. "Welcome to BAKERY, where we bake and you enjoy. There’s just one catch — we don’t bake goods. We bake businesses. We know who you are, and we know what you need. And we have the ingredients to make your business work for you. With a dash of advertising, a pinch of public relations and a smidgen of marketing, we’ll shape your work into something you knead. Err, need."
Along with a great business model, Think bakery has an amazing blog that has provided me with insulting amounts(in a good way) of info and references. For me, it's a must read blog, that never gets old and gives a glimmer of hope to small/home based businesses . Check it out....
Design Milk
Do you like Design? Do you like Milk? Do you like designing with milk? Well, design-milk.com has to do with only one of these and we'll let you guess which one. Design Milk is a blog dedicated to art, architecture, & design but with a little extra in mind. Each blog post in design-milk not only acts as an informative piece of lit but also as a kind of go-between, bridging you and the item/shop the article is about. It's like being told about a wonderful piece of art and then, after showing interesting, that very same person takes you to meet the artist. They receive no money from sales and get all their economic support from sponsors, thus there is no forced voice in the reading. Go and check them out...ETSY Hacked
No, we didn't get hacked but ETSY did.....in a way. Before you freak out, let me explain because it's actually a good thing. There are a lot of things about etsy that we would all like to change, case in point: Quickly knowing where you have posted in the forum: Creating a new listing based on an existing one: Adding zoom options on pictures in your shop/other's shop: and the list goes on. Well, someone smarter
than us has figured it out (I know, they do exist) Let me introduce you to, "etsyhacks." This mysterious man/women has created "scripts" that run within FireFox, which in turn add countless functionalities to etsy. As of right now, these scripts will only run on FireFox (best browser) but there are plans on bringing it to IE, Safari, Opera and Chrome in the near future. I have been using the scripts for a couple days now and see no negative effect on my browser nor computer. This, combined with craftopolis and craftcult make up for the things etsy should have as part of its site. Check it out people and leave your questions and comments here....
TwitPic
What it all comes down to is this, "Twitter and Google will rule the world!!!" Yet, in the mean time, we can all get along....right? TwitPic is a gem of a site that simply allows you to share images on twitter. Now, this can be done in three different ways: by phone, by their ARI or from the site itself-simple right? Best of all, if you have a twitter account, your all set, no need to sign up to another account. (thank god because all these sites mean that I now have 7.3 billion Usernames/Passwords 
T-Shirts Are Art Too!
Ok, I'm just going to stand up and say it, "I love T-Shirts!!" And you know what? They love me too.....some times. A lot of people forget that without a shirt, you couldn't leave your house. So in essence, a t-shirt is more than just a statement, it's your way into society. Fashion is Art-no way around it and in this post, I am going to show you two of my favorite t-shirt sites.
Palmercash: Was the first t-shirt site I stumbled upon and it has never let me down (above: my newest buys from there). With a very kool/retro website and ever changing catalogue of shirts, palmercash is more like a blog than an online store. Besides having sizing charts, fabric information, international shipping and very detailed close-ups of the designs, every shirt has a bio/story that goes along with it. A must see
Bustedtees: Is the crown jewel in my T-shirt website list. They combine vintage images with crazy/modern slang, which makes for a dangerously funny combo. Their site is endless, with new shirts coming in all the time and old-popular ones being reprinted on demand. Busted also has all the details: size charts, material info, international shipping and a great crew working the site, if you have any questions.
Give them the bird...
This one is easy, right? I thought I was the last one to figure out what twitter was or maybe not. Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing? Also, it's an easy way to stay up to date with all your etsy friends. That way you'll never miss important information like, "I have a sale" or "Love your store" or "Be right back, I'm going to the bathroom." Join the party and follow us here.
Do You MOO?
Moo.com is the ultimate business card site....if there was to be one, which there should always be at least one....right? Not only are they well priced and ship everywhere but they also work together with etsy. So this means that you can import into your moo account all your etsy store pictures and use them as you wish, this can also be done from flickr. Editing and customizing your cards from there on is a snap and you get to play with font, text size, color, shape, paper style and so on. Check them out!!!
Design Observer
Imagine if FFFFound and Ernest Hemingway had sex; the baby would be Design Observer. In what seems like an endless amount of image posting sites (30% of all websites......ok, I just made that up) here we find one that isn't about the image as much as the word. Design Observer is the critique, the dialogue that takes place when viewing images or more importantly, design and culture. I think it's worth checking out, especially if you want the 1000 words that supposedly come with every picture.
Need Help With Etsy???
Need help with Etsy? Do you ever wish there was an easy way of finding out what treasuries your wonderful items are in or how many hearts you have received? Well, these two sites are right for you!!!Craftcult: Want to know how many hearts your store has gotten on any given day or how many hearts a specific item of yours has? Well, Craftcult goes one step further, you can easily sort: Store Hearts: Item Hearts: Single Item Hearts: Items Views and Features with nothing more than entering your etsy username. No membership is needed and this site is a great tool to assist you as your store matures.
Craftopolis: Want to find out what treasuries your beautiful items are in or just find your treasury quickly-even Treasury West? Craftopolis is a simple but powerful website that takes the looking around and waiting out of searching all the treasuries. Simply enter your username or the username you want to search and you will get a list of all the treasuries that person is involved with. Like Craftcult, no membership is required and yet another tool for your etsy experience.
kit and caboodle
Kit and Caboodle describes itself as "...online network of contemporary jewellery makers, galleries, bloggers, teachers, students, outlets. join, network and show your work." The way we describe it is, "Unlike most jewelry blogs, which consist mostly of galleries and no content, it is refreshing to find a site that mixes both." The blog is full of great info, that is updated daily, if not hourly and has wonderful articles. We also find it a great resource for our etsy shop and we hope it helps you as well...pass the word on....FFFFOUND!
FFFFOUND! is the second social image posting/bookmarking site we will feature and it is massive. If you have never seen a site like this, it is a must-see, especially if you are into photography. I came across it by word of mouth some time ago and have seen it grow in the last 3 month by leaps and bounds. The members post some amazing pictures and it makes you think if they just spend all day scowering the internet for the most unique things they can find. As with all these sites, it is members only to post, but anyone can view the images. Keep an eye open because they do open up registration once and a while, so don't loose out.Dropular
Dropular is the first social image posting/bookmarking site we have featured and while it is not as large as ffffound, it has a more personal feel to it. If you have never seen a site like this, it is a must-see, especially if you are into photography. Also, keep an eye open because they do open up registration once and a while, so don't loose out. Dropular is a media bookmarking service loosely based on the idea of a droplet contributing to a pool, filling it ever-so slightly one by one. This amazing tool lets you discover, remember and share images, videos and links - all in one place.
Klimt02
Klimt02 is part of our K00L list, check out the site. The intention when creating Klimt02 was to show the work of contemporary artists and all those things that generates from it and can be found around this subject: know to inform, and to be informed to know. Klimt02 proposes a selection based in very specific artistic principles, and in working together with contemporary jewellery world experts. Setting up a place where information can be attained, seen, found, contributed, consulted or swapped is the starting point of this project, which a part from that, would fill up a nowadays empty and disperse space with regard to this subject.
VELVET DA VINCI
Velvet is part of our K00L list: Opened in 1991, Velvet da Vinci (our name inspired by an old Perry Mason television episode) is a gallery of contemporary craft specializing in artist jewelry and metalwork. Representing artists from the US, Europe, Latin America and Japan, the quality and range of work shown at Velvet da Vinci has made it a regular must-see stop for collectors, museum curators, and other knowledgeable art and art-jewelry enthusiasts.
Notcot
NOTCOT.ORG is part of our K00L list, here is some info but really you should check it out. Notcot is a community of creatives, design lovers, and trendsetters - where .org serves as the studio bulletin board gone digital - each image and caption brings you to a place worth visiting. It's about sharing what inspires you. Bookmarks, del.icio.us, digg, blogrolls, etc. make you read, search and think. This is the PICTUREBOOK to their novel. NOTCOT.COM is the editorial face of NOTCOT, offering in-depth features on products, artists, technology, innovation, and up-and-coming trends.