Another Fabulous ETTEAM Giveaway!! - Strands of Light

This month's ETTEAM giveaway is from etteam member Barb of StrandsofLight. She is offering a pair of distressed sterling silver hoops adorned with three tiny gemstones in autumn colors. They are the first in a series of four that Barb call Saisons (seasons) in her Etsy shop. The hammered and oxidized hoops are one inch in diameter and the bright stones are 2mm hand faceted rondelles of deep orange carnelian, bright lemony citrine, and sparkling green peridot. They are light weight, feminine, dark, and earthy. What a fabulous giveaway!!

A little about Barb:

"I grew up traveling the world in a military family and never knew any home for more than two years at a time. When I first passed through Montana, as an adult taking a cross country road trip, I found it emotionally very difficult to make myself drive out the other side of the state. It felt like I had found home for the first time in my life. It took me a while but I am home at last now living in the beautiful Flathead Valley at the gateway to Glacier National Park and loving every minute of it (even the occasional moose in the back yard).

I'm a sculptor at heart and I approach jewelry making from that perspective. I have worked with many different artistic mediums but the ones that always call me back are the tactile ones. My best work is accomplished when the raw materials come from the earth. I love watching a strand of silver or copper slowly transmute into something that can be worn and loved and I also love adorning that transformed metal with beautiful, organic stones."

So, how do you enter to win these gorgeous fall earrings? It's easy, you can enter up to 5 times by doing any or all of the options listed here (although the first one is mandatory). Be sure that each entry is left in a separate blog comment. If you do all the options and put them all in one comment, you will only have one entry. The winner will be determined by random.org. Be sure you put your email address or name of Etsy Shop with your comments so I can contact you if you win. Here are the entry options ....

1. For one entry: Visit the Etsy Shop of StrandsofLight and tell us in a comment here what item of hers is your favorite! - This one is mandatory!

Here are some other ways you can have extra entries for this giveaway:

2. For a second entry: Follow our ETTEAM blog - and let us know in a comment here. (If you are already a follower - just let us know - it counts!)

3. For a third entry: Follow Strands of Light on Twitter, and Tweet about this giveaway. Let us know about it in a comment with your Twitter account name and/or link to the Tweet.

4. For a fourth entry: Grab our Etteam Blog Button or our Etteam Widget and add one of them to your blog. Leave us a comment with the link to your blog where the button or widget is displayed.

5. For a 5th entry: Blog about this giveaway on your blog, and leave us a link to your blog post in the comments section here.

And there you go. 5 chances to win these fabulous earrings. The winner will be chosen by Random.org from the verified entrants who have commented here on this blog.

The Giveaway starts today August 26th, and ends at Midnight (PST) Thursday, September 3rd.

We'll be back here next Friday, September 4th to blog about the winner!

Spread the word!!

Etteam BlogMistress

The details are in the Photos!

Contributed by:  Heather of NiftyKnits

My name is NiftyKnits, and I'm a treasury addict ;-)

For my most recent treasury I searched for intriguing photos that really drew me in. This was my first choice:



I love the angle, I love the contrasting textures, I love the way you're clearly on the edge of a larger picture - and most of all I love the way I'm not sure what it is! Just thinking of the textures alone, I can see some vertical lines on the right - what is it? Is it wood grain?

Here's the item in ByTheWay's shop

Time after time I kept coming across photos I wanted to use all from the same seller - and those of you who are treasury addicts like me know that is not approved of. So I decided to devote an entire poster sketch to the photographer in question (click on the poster sketch to enlarge it):



All of these pictures work so well in my opinion. They almost *force* me to enter the shop and check out the other 4 photos. You'll no doubt have noticed there is more than one shop? bythewayside.etsy.com, ByTheBy.etsy.com and
ByTheWay all share the same attention to detail, the same method of catching our attention by not showing us everythign at once.

The first time I really noticed the unusual photos were in this shop was with this photo:



I had to look twice, because at first I thought I was seeing a leather bra on a torso (ok, maybe that's just me!)

It's actually (as you more normal folks will have realised) a pair of high heeled shoes photographed upside down. So much more striking than a more conventional photo.

I'm on a mission to improve my own product shots - and what better way to learn than by looking at the success of others?