Monday, June 23, 2014

~•♥•~ This Weeks TOP SHOP ~•♥•~ Carto Creative

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The TOP SHOP of the week is Carto Creative.

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Here is a little bit about this fabulous shop...

CartoCreative is a shop where creativity and graphic design meet a burning passion for cartography.

Our story began in high school, when we met at a school for the arts. We immediately connected and talked about starting our own business where we could create affordable art people would be proud to hang in their homes. This dream has been developing over our ten years together and has now become a reality.

In university, I studied commerce and urban planning while my boyfriend and business partner did a double major in graphic design and cartography, completing his thesis in Italy.

Home barely long enough to repack our bags, we quickly began our globetrotting adventure. We taught English throughout Asia, road tripped across North America, backpacked through Europe, and helped build habitats in Africa, before returning to Ontario, Canada.

Upon our return, we began creating maps and skylines reminiscent of our adventures. In May of 2013, we participated in an artisan market and our work was a huge success. After completely selling out of prints within an hour, we decided it was time to open an Etsy shop and started building it that night.

We continue to create each map and skyline lovingly by hand, revisiting past memories and being introduced to destinations we have yet to discover. Each new city, offers a new place for us to explore. We digitize every print so that they can be customized to represent the connection each person has with a location, whether that be with a quote, a specially placed heart, or a path of their first date.

We are dedicated to creating high quality products and offering the best customer service because this journey includes you and we value every moment of it.

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Calling all team members to visit this TOP SHOP!

To find out how to be a TOP SHOP visit here


~•♥•~ 100 Views Or Sale ~ Round 38 ~•♥•~


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Let's get this product 100 VIEWS or a SALE.

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Calling all team members to visit Bagsy Me First and ♥ this wonderful Debutante Handbag!

To view the team discussion about this challenge - visit here

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Tuesday, June 3, 2014

~•♥•~ This Weeks TOP SHOP ~•♥•~ Second Shot

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TOP SHOP of the week is Second Shot!

Here is a little bit about this fabulous shop...

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Second Shot is a company that was born from a passion for Skateboarding and its culture. Created by John Gibson, husband, father of one and skateboarder since age 10; Second Shot happened organically in his shop at home in Ontario, Canada. 

Originally, John went to school for Auto Body Repair and spent the last ten years in that industry. Acquiring the necessary tools to work from his home shop, John took freelance jobs painting cars, customizing personal items from motorcycle helmets to guitars. Eventually he began to combine his work with his love for skateboarding, "Skate Art" hung proudly in his living room long before it had its name - what would eventually become "Second Shot".

Almost all skateboards are made from seven layers of cross laminated maple ply, with some of the layers dyed different colours depending on the brand and mfg. We collect the used, broken and unwanted skateboards from local skaters, skate parks and skate shops. Once the grip tape is removed the recycled skateboards are ready to be cut, sanded and given a 2nd Shot! When pieces from different skateboards are compressed together you get a one of a kind colourful piece of wood, which can be made into just about anything you can imagine, from bird sculptures to sunglasses and watches. Every item is handcrafted with extreme attention to detail by John. All orders are packaged and processed by his partner Lindsay.

Read more about us here in our Etsy Blog - Featured Shop
https://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2013/featured-shop-second-shot/
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Calling all team members to visit, fav, and share this TOP SHOP!

~•♥•~ Team Newsletter JUNE 2014 ~•♥•~


~•♥•~Hello and welcome to the June newsletter!~•♥•~
Can you believe it’s June already? Before you know it, it will be Christmas again!! But before that we have another big day coming up, next month will see our 1 year anniversary and we have over 2300 members. How amazing is that, 2300 shops all helping to support and promote each other. Thank you all for making this such a great team to be part of.


~~~~~Twitter~~~~~
We have a new team leader this month, Amy from AmyWonderland will be running our team twitter account. You can find it heretwitter.com/AfternoonTEA13 . A great way to interact with your team members and get retweeted is to use the #atcteam tag when posting on twitter. Use it to find other team members on twitter to follow and they will find you too. 

~~~~~Facebook~~~~~
Have you joined our Facebook group? If you haven’t pop on over, it’s a great place to chat and ask questions. This is a private group so you can ask help from your fellow team mates on anything. Clair Rigby from Obstinate Pursuits runs it for us and she also runs a brilliant Facebook Friday ~ this is a fabulous way to learn how to use Facebook to your advantage, especially if you are like me and not really sure how to use it! Lots of very useful tips and hints and tasks to get you on your Facebooking way.

~~~~~Google +~~~~~
Did you know that we have a Google+ page? Penny from Keneka runs this for us. Google+ is still unknown territory for many people and a little scary. Here is a link to an article explaining the advantages of being on Google+www.entrepreneur.com/article/232283 and the biggest advantage for me is that Google+ has it’s own search engine which the other social media outlets do not, so you are more likely to show up on search engine results pages. 
Penny posts lots of helpful articles to help grow your business. Please pop over and follow and help grow this part of our team.

~~~~~Team Blog~~~~~
Emily from Cottage Sprout runs the team blog for us. Grab a cup of tea and have a read. Along with recent team news she has a TOP SHOP of the week. If you would like to be our top shop of the week on the blog then all you have to do is have a look around the blog, comment on a post or two. The shop of the week is pulled from people who comment so please don’t forget to add your shop name along with your comment so she can find you.
The team blog of course can be found here www.atctteam.blogspot.co.uk

~~~~~Pinterest~~~~~
TJ from Wickstead Family runs the pinterest boards for us. If you would like to be able to pin to the boards please follow and she will send an invite to you. Look out for the pinterest games she runs too, they are fun!

~~~~~Team Listings~~~~~
If you love making treasuries featuring your team mates then the team listings page is a great way to find themwww.etsy.com/people/ATCTTEAMFINDS/favorites/items-i-love?ref=favs_index_1 
Simply type what you are looking for in the search box and voila, lots of great items to choose from.
Currently we are at 415 pages which is amazing. If you would like the items from your shop added to this page please post a comment here www.etsy.com/teams/18642/afternoon-tea-chat-and-treasuries-team/discuss/...

~~~~~Congratulations, Bravo~~~~~
Please let us know about exciting things happening to you and your shop or if you spot a team member on the front page or being featured, we have a thread dedicated to celebrating amazing milestones, features and exciting times.

~~~~~Afternoon Tea Meet Ups~~~~~
**St Regis Hotel, Houston ~ 7th June 3pm**
The first afternoon team meet up will be happening in the St Regis Hotel, Houston on June 7th. Lindsey our lovely Team Captain will be there, there are still a few spaces left so if you are in the area and fancy a proper posh tea experience here is the meet up link. 

**Bake Shop & Café, Cypress ~ 19th June 12pm-3pm**
Lindsey and several team members will be meeting at this fun unique café for lunch on the 19th June. 
You can rsvp both these events at the meet up link above.
We hope you all have a wonderful time at these meet ups, I for one am very jealous, they look like fabulous venues and of course you get to meet some lovely team members. I can’t wait to hear how the meets ups went.

~~~~~Daily Thread Games~~~~~
There are some daily threads run by the team leaders for you all to join in and promote your shops.
Ginger from Picadilly Pastimes runs a Daily Treasure Hunt thread which is a fun way to find some great shops from your team members. She posts a different theme every day for you to go find in other peoples shop. This is a great way to show the love to your team mates.
I run the Favathon thread, just post two items from your shop and heart all the other items posted by your team mates, this is a fab way to get favourites on your items while helping promote your team mates.

Father’s Day is fast approaching. If you need any inspiration or you have any father days items please post them herewww.etsy.com/teams/18642/afternoon-tea-chat-and-treasuries-team/discuss/...
A big thank you from all the Team Leaders for making this such a fun and friendly team to be in. 
Happy Sales
Chantal from Snoochy
ATCTEAM Team Leader