The Owls ON SALE!!!

Tis the season for tons of bargains, and this post highlights the great deals being offered by some of our members! Please pay attention to the dates of each sale as the dates vary from now through the 14th of December.

Each special is followed by an Etsy Mini of the shop, so you can see some of their items and click through to their Etsy shops. Enjoy, and shop up the Owls!!! (And Happy Holidays!)

• KnitandPearl Super Holiday Sale

11/27: Giving Thanks Day: Every item purchased gets a free gift! If you purchase 3 items, you will receive 3 free gifts! It's a "thank you" from me to you!
11/28: Black Friday: All items are 30% off. Discount refunded through paypal or wait for a revised invoice.

11/29: SuperSaturday: Buy One Get One Earrings! Discount offered on lower priced pieces.

11/30: Knit and Pearl Day: Take 25% off any items that are KNIT or are made with real PEARLS. Discount refunded through paypal or wait for a revised invoice.

12/1: Cyber Monday: Free Shipping all day! Celebrate the joys of internet shopping and get your merchandise sent to you free of charge!!

Remixstudio:

During 11/24 (Monday) through 12/7, will be offering 1/2 price shipping everywhere (US & International!) Prices will be refunded after payment is received through paypal.

WeiOpenSecret

• When you shop at Wei's store from December 1st through 14th, you'll receive FREE Domestic First Class Shipping (US only). I will refund you the cost of shipping as soon as the payment is received. Thank you!
  Also, when you enter the coupon code, GIFT, at the Note to Seller area, you will receive FREE gift wrapping (gift boxes for all jewelry items). Your purchase will arrive ready to give away as a gift (both US and International). What a great time to shop!
  
  
  
  
  
  Suenosdejmi's EtsyFest Madness

Free US shipping on all orders over $25 (after discounts) from 11/28 - 12/1

Gift packaging available---just ask!

All Spain Photography will be Buy One Get one Free from 11/29-12/1 with FREE worldwide shipping

11/28 Black Friday: All Scarves are 50% off

11/29 & 11/30: 25% off storewide (excludes buy one get one free photography)

12/1 Cyber Monday: All Scarves 50% off!

• LaLaLa08's EtsyFest Sale

Black Friday to Cyber Monday!(Starts 12 A.M. EST Friday, ends 3:00 A.M. EST Tuesday!)>>>FREE SHIPPING ON ALL U.S. ORDERS ALL WEEKEND!!!<<<>>>FREE GIFT with purchase on Friday and Saturday!<<<>>>HOOT LA LA SUNDAY: $5.00 off CUSTOM OWL BRACELET ORDERS! Regularly $25.00. <<<>>>MOTHER OF PEARL MADNESS ON MONDAY!<<<>

• Love Alisa
  
  All Onesies are Buy One, Get One Free! Sale ends 11:59 pm pacific time December 1st
  
  
  
  
  
• HollyStott
  HUGE THANKSGIVING SALE!!!!!!!!!!!
  EVERYTHING IN MY SHOP IS 25% OFF + FREE SHIPPING!!!!
  SALE THROUGH 11/26 - 12/7
  To get these great savings put in the notes of the order "TURKEY" and don't pay. I will create a new invoice via paypal w/ the discounted prices. After I send you an invoice you can then pay and I will ship you your order! If you have any questions about how to do this please Convo me I would be happy to help.
  
  (the only exception to this sale are custom orders; everything else is included even sale items)
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Executeme

  
  
  Free Worldwide Shipping with a Free Gift with purchase.
  
  
  
  
  

• Paperwire


Holiday EtsyFest Sale November 27th-December 1st. During that time, I'll be offering free shipping to the U.S. and Canada, and U.S. shipping prices for international orders!

• PresentsforPirates
  
  

  Holiday etsyFEST '08*
  thanksgiving day through cyber monday the following deals will be offered in my shop:
  
  11/27: giving thanks day: every item purchased gets a free gift! If you purchase 3 items, you will receive 3 free gifts! It's a "thank you" from me to you!
  
  11/28: black friday: All items are 20% off. discount refunded through paypal or wait for a revised invoice.
  
  11/29: super saturday: buy one get one half off any set of notecards! discount applied to lower priced piece.
  
  11/30: journal day: take 25% off any journals. discount refunded through paypal or wait for a revised invoice.
  
  12/1: cyber monday: free shipping all day! celebrate the joys of internet shopping and get your merchandise sent to you free of charge!!
  
  *offer not valid with other discounts.
  
  
  
  
  
  

• InkyPaws
  
  Free shipping on everything in my shop from black friday, Nov 28th, to cyber monday, December 1st!
  
  
  
  

• CagedBirdSings
  
  11/28 (black friday!) - FREE shipping on all chimes!
  11/29 - buy TWO get ONE Half off!
  11/30 - buy TWO get ONE half off!
  12/1 (cyber monday!) - FREE shipping on all chimes!
  
  
  
  

• CorkysCookies
  
  Free worldwide Shipping
  Stockings are all Buy one, Get one free of equal or lesser value
  Free gift with every purchase
  Anyone purchasing from my shop between 27th until 1st December receives one entry into the prize draw worth $75
  
  
  
  

• JoniKay52
  
  Now through Mon. mid-night Maine time free shipping on jewelry items. Year round shop discount on jewelry and orders more than $25.00 free shipping. Special for Dec. 1st through 15th $5.00 refund on each necklace set purchased.
  
  
  
  

We've Had A Facelift!

I decided the one column of our blog was getting a bit crowded, so I decided to up us to the 3 column layout. I found out how to do this for my own blog a few months ago through Blogger Buster and I haven't looked back!

This is so useful because it allows you to have twice as many links, pics, an Etsy mini, whatever! It's especially useful for us because we link our team members and our members with blogs, and both of these are very long lists!

The method linked above gives you instructions on how to edit your own layout (requiring you basically to convert to the Minima for the easiest conversion) without losing any of what you have on your blog. There are a ton of uploadable layouts, but changing many of these changes the history of your blog---and I was afraid we'd loose our blog archive, so I chose to convert in this manner. The site above also has downloadable Blogger layouts.

Also, we can now host our banner! Yay! Shoutout to Amanda of HenryRabbit for the awesomeness that is our banner!

Owl Spotlight, StripeyMonkey

Hello...

I wasn't sure what to write about for my first feature but i thought it might be interesting to take you through the type of commission that I'm often working on off-Etsy... i'm pretty new to selling on Etsy but love this way of doing business and hope that one day i can get my shop well known enough that most or even all of my work comes through there.

Anyway, this is a piece commissioned for a special gift from a boyfriend to his girlfriend on her 30th birthday...

The first picture below shows 4, step-by-step photos of the process. You can see in the top-left picture that a heart shape has been cut by hand from a nice generous chunk of sterling silver. The customer sketched the heart shape that I initially used himself. This is one of the lovely things about a commission as the customer has had some real input into the creation and design of the piece.

Picture two in the top-right shows me starting to file to get the shaping of the heart... this is the first and largest of the files I use, I will use three or four more finer files as the process goes on and four or five different grades of emery paper to achieve a smooth shape I am finally happy with (note the state of my nails - another inevitable result of this process!!).

In picture three on the bottom left I have just finished the soldering process. I have soldered on an extra piece of silver for the bale and a little spiral that I have hammered from a piece of 18ct rose gold. Rose gold is my favorite gold to use and I love its warm pinky colour against the silver. You can see the silver is a funny colour, that is because it has been coated with a chemical to stop it being permanently stained bythe flame. It will go into an acid bath next to remove this then I will form the bale by hand while the silver is still pliable from the heat process.

Picture four on the bottom left shows another benefit of commissions, a personal message stamped on the back of the piece, xxx for 30 and of course for kisses too!

Anyone who knows my work knows that my style is pretty dirty with lots of distressing and visible tool marks, I like to see evidence of how the piece was forged and I like a bit of grime! You can see in the final image how this piece is a little shinier and smoother than I would probably have created left to my own devices... it is good when a commission moves you in a direction that whilst retaining your own style pushes you into slightly new territory.

I love how this piece turned out and of course the best bit of all is being part of something that is so special to someone and will be treasured by them hopefully for years to come.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this... if you would like to see or find out about more of my work please visit my blog or of course visit my Etsy shop

Thank you:) linda x