Welcome to our very first blog feature! i am pleased to introduce you to Beth of BethsCrayonBox. I'm already looking forward to gifting her crayons to the kids on my Holiday List! My interview with her is posted below, and please go check out her shop by clicking the link to the left in the member list! Enjoy!



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks so much for featuring me on this wonderful blog! I am so happy to be part of this team! Because I can't type, my Sister (Sewmelody) is going to help me out with answering your questions.



-how long have you been doing your craft/art?

I have always loved making pretty things but until a few months ago, did not have a craft that I could really call my own. Because of my disabilities I was limited to tasks that involve one hand...and that eliminates most serious crafting projects. But unknown to me, my family members were brainstorming to come up with a way to let my creativity shine. As a birthday present this year, they presented me with the materials I would need to start a recycled crayon shop on Etsy!



Since then, I have been having so much fun designing beautiful crayons!-what inspires you?The thing that inspires me most is the crayons themselves. I just love working with them and with all of the beautiful colors. It's so much fun to break them up and arrange them into entirely new little works of art.



-what is your favorite food?I'm not hard to please! Spaghetti is my favorite main dish with a helping of cherry vanilla ice cream for dessert!



-what are some of your etsy goals?My primary goal on Etsy is to have a lot of fun making crayons and to hopefully make a little money at the same time.-do you have any favorite etsy artists?I don't spend a lot of time exploring on Etsy because I don't have my own computer so I don't actually know many artists here yet. That means that my favorite Etsy artist has to be my Sister, Sewmelody (www.sewmelody.etsy.com)! Now, what kind of sister would I be if I didn't say that! I do own one of her soft throw-sized blankets in all lavender:).



-what's your favorite thing to do or place to go?I really like to go the mall. I enjoy window shopping and picking up little things from my favorite stores. There's a lot of room for me to use the higher speeds on my metallic-pink wheelchair (sshhhh....don't tell!) and have a treat or a hot pretzel!



what is something you would like to share with your teammates?-When I break the single crayons down to make them ready to redesign, they are always flying everywhere! My family jokes that they are going to make me a T-shirt that says, "Breaks and Throws Crayons!" I am also getting ready to do my first craft show with my sister and am very excited! I wish you could see the hundreds and hundreds of crayons I get to work with. It's an ocean of color!



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

thank you beth and melody! we are so happy to have you on our team! many blessings!

Happy Election Day Being Over Day!

This year's election was a heated couple of years of political debates. I know, you all, of all people, had your minds on what the candidates would do for health care reform. We all probably understand just how important that topic is since we are impacted by it on a daily basis. I am so happy that the election is finally over...as i'm sure most of you are! I'm definately ready to move on and talk about something different.....

that being said....i would like to get some input about what you all want from this group.....i will post your ideas here so we can really get started building our team and helping support new disabled artists as they come to etsy.....

i will be featuring our first artist this friday...so check back in to learn more about carapace from etsy then! have a fabulous evening!~deborah

We are Officially a Team!

hello everyone! i just wanted to take a moment to post some info for everyone! first of all...thankyou for all the great convo's around starting our new team! i continue to get emails almost daily of people who want to join.

We will be tagging our merchandise in our shops with "createability" to help guide people towards our team on etsy search...so, when time permits, please go through and add that tag for your items. while you are at it...it would be awesome if you wanted to mention the team in your shop announcement. i know i plan to just drop a word or two in...and i don't plan on really going into details about the team other than to "be sure to check out my friends in the new CreateAbility Team Esty by typing 'createability' into the search function"....that will also enable you to find everyone more easily should you want to create a treasury featuring your new team mates....

I am trying to come up with a schedule of events for our team. While i'm in the process of that, i would also like to get links to everyone's blogs if you have one...so feel free to convo me that info as well.

Starting this Sunday...i will open our first official forum thread in the Teams and Events Section. Feel free to come check in, have a chat, and post links to your newest creations for everyone to see. This sort of weekly thing has been helpful in my other teams to really help encourage each other, and show off our new wares!

Mondays will be my official blogging day...so, you will always know to check the blog then....and i believe going forward, that fridays will be "feature fridays"....if you would like to submit a feature article about a fellow teammate and interview them and such, please convo the info to me and i will post it on the blog each friday morning. I will start off this event with next friday! submissions should be turned in no later than wednesday evening!

coming soon, we will be talking about organizing a team store, where you can make a donation! i think it would be a fabulous idea to use the funds as startup money to help other people with disabilities get a craft or art going....and to help them build inventory on etsy. but, we can talk about that soon...just wanted to get your minds going!

okay...enough bloggy bloggy for me....can't wait to see....eh, talk to you all on Sunday with our weekly thread and looking forward to getting to know you all! many blessings, and have a beautiful day! deborah

Welcome To Our New Team!

This is the first post to kick off the new Etsy Street Team, Createability Team Etsy. This team was formed around October 18th...by a handful of Etsy artists that saw a need and i, Deborah {aka the gaudy goddess} decided to kickoff. As our first post, i want to welcome everyone, and open a challenge to each of the members to brainstorm to figure out what we really want this team to accomplish going into the holiday season. I know we have had talks of opening an Etsy Team Store....i would like to see you all sharing tutorials that we can post here on our team blog....maybe we can also have themed challenges. The sky is the limit, and this group is for you! You all helped it come to be, and i welcome and encourage lots of input to make this one of the cooler Etsy groups!

some of the ideas off the top of my head:
~challenges
~featured shops
~blogging carnivals
~tutorials
~business topics
~team store
~materials swapping


i am so excited for this team to take off! i feel we have many opportunities and resources to help each other really succeed....we are all in this together! feel free to contact me by posting comments here or by convo'ing my shop!