I ♥ TeamEcoEtsy

Since it's Valentines this week, I thought I'd celebrate the season of love by featuring some of my EcoEtsy teammates!
(as always, click the picture to see the listing)

A carved stone necklace from SteppingStones

I ♥ Recycling fridge magnet from earthlore, made with recycled cardboard!

Happy Valentines Day cloth pads from LilBees
(yes, I totally featured one of my own items...I do that occasionally!)

"Love is Everywhere" (hearts in nature)
featured on notecards by HeartOfNature

and LakeErieBeachGlass presents these delicate earrings, made with tiny pieces of found sea glass!

CPSIA Updates...

Quoting from the new Storque article, published today:

Q. Do I need to have my goods tested by a third party testing facility?

At this point, manufacturers do not need to have third party testing or lead-free certification for their products, but are liable if their products contain more than the legal limit of lead or phthalates. This remains the case until February 10th, 2010. We are not yet sure what will happen one year from now. (Keep the pressure on!)

Q. Ok, I understand that my products do not need to have third party testing or certification at this point, but I know that I am also still liable. I want to make sure my items are safe for children because this is the right thing to do! How can I assure that my products do not have lead in them?

A.

• Work in materials that you know are lead free.
  
• Avoid zippers and other fasteners that may contain lead. Instead, use wood buttons or other natural materials.
• Look to less expensive home testing technologies, especially XRF. Pool resources with other sellers in your area and test together to save money.
  

Q. What materials are recognized as lead-free by the CPSC?

The following materials are known by the CPSC to be inherently lead-free or are exempt, and can be used in their untreated/unpainted state without any risk of sanction or penalties by the Commission.

• Precious gemstones: diamond, ruby, sapphire or emeralds
• Semiprecious stones provided that the mineral or material is not based on lead and is not associated with any mineral based on lead
• Natural or cultured pearls
• Wood
• Other natural materials including coral, amber, feathers, fur, and untreated leather
• Surgical steel
• Gold, of at least 10 karats
• Silver, at least 925/1000 pure
• Platinum, palladium, rhodium, osmium, iridium, and ruthenium
• Yarn, dyed or undyed
• Dyed or undyed textiles (cotton, wool, hemp, nylon, etc.), including children’s fabric products, such as baby blankets, and non‐metallic thread and trim. This does not include products that have rhinestones or other ornaments that may contain lead or that have fasteners with possible lead content (such as buttons, metal snaps, zippers or grommets).
• Children’s books printed after 1985 that are conventionally printed and intended to be read, as opposed to used for play
• Certain educational materials, such as chemistry sets

The Commission has also provided limited exclusions for products containing component parts that contain lead in excess of the 600ppm limit, specifically:

• Components that are not accessible, that is cannot be reached by a small child’s finger or tongue. Paint and other coatings or electroplating are not considered barriers that make a component inaccessible.
• Components of electronics devices intended for children that cannot be made inaccessible and cannot currently be made with a lead level that meets the limit.

All textiles are inherently lead-free, and I do not use any metal components. While I have not yet been able to verify the safety of my elastic (it's lead-free but may contain phthalates), it is completely contained inside the diapers, and therefore I believe falls under the 'inaccessible' clause.
If you have concerns about any of my products or materials, please feel free to contact me, or to refer to my compliance information post. ☺

Tuesday Tip: Entrecard

I've recently been introduced to the world of entrecard...I'm not sure how I found it or why I tried it...but somebody had it on their blog and I thought I'd give it a whirl. I vaguely remember that they mentioned in their blog post that they got a lot of traffic from it...well, I've had mine for just a couple of weeks now and already I have to say that YES, I get a LOT of traffic from it! More than twitter, more than facebook, more than them both combined actually!

So, what is entrecard? Well, it's something like an electronic business card and an ad rolled into one.
See there on the left sidebar? That's my card spot. If you have entrecard, you can 'drop' on my spot to let me know you were here. You can do that once a day, every day. Every time you drop, you earn entrecard points.
Every time someone drops on you, you can see who it was--and you have the option to bookmark them (within your entrecard account), to drop on their site, etc.
You can't see my actual card on my own site, what you see is someone elses card that I have agreed to display today--they have paid entrecard credits to advertise with me. Depending how many drops I get in a day, the cost to advertise with me varies--higher for more drops. It's more expensive to advertise on a blog that gets a lot of traffic...but then again, it's all entrecard points, which are free.
Actually, you can also buy entrecard points for cash if you want to--I'm not messing with that at this point though. I'm focusing on dropping. ☺
So where is my card? Well, I drop it on other people of course (and they can see who has dropped on them, and hopefully will come back to visit me and drop their card for me), but also I can place ads with other people. I can browse through entrecard and choose who I want to place my ad with. Some sites cost just a few credits, some cost over 400...it just depends on how busy the site is. Once I choose someone, they get a message saying that I've applied to advertise on their site. They then approve or decline my ad--if they decline, then I can take my credits and go elsewhere. If they approve me, then my ad shows on their site for one day (24 hours). Of course the same applies in reverse--if someone wants to advertise with me, I have the choice to accept or decline them. That's nice because it means that I never have to allow content that I don't want on my site.
I also get credits every time someone clicks on my ad (on someone elses site), every time I feature someone elses ad on my site, and every time I make a blog post!

A tip about using entrecard--put your card near the top of your page. That way it will load first--if you have a lot of stuff on your page, other people may not see the card, or may not wait long enough for it to load (especially if they have a slower connection). If you put your card at the top of your page, they will see it, AND it will load so they will be able to drop on it!!!

Also, you might consider joining a ring (I joined the green ring with eco-conscience blogs, but there are a lot of rings--just look next to other people's cards and see what they've got, then click the link!)

Click here to see my tuesday tip about speedy dropping (or, how to earn a lot of credits fast!)

Friday Feature: MagdaleneJewels

I found this fellow EtsyBlogger's shop this week, and she has such fabulous Valentines items that I simply had to feature her! I love that she has love-related names for them, such as Juliet and Venus--I always try to be clever with my listing titles but I pale next to this. I also think it's great that even with a cliche holiday like valentines, she has kept things fresh by using things like black hearts! Her jewelry speaks for itself, so rather than try to talk about it any more I am just posting pictures (I used the bigger photos for her mini so you can really see these pieces--they are so lovely!)
Go ahead, drool a bit, you know you want to!

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade MagdaleneJewels.etsy.com

Tuesday Tip: Increase your traffic

This guy at TimothyAdamDesigns has lots of tips for increasing blog/shop traffic, so rather than try to tell you about them, I'll just send you over to his site. ☺

(I should give credit to Suzanne at Bliss Candles who linked him from her post, and that's how I found him in the first place!)

Perfect Bows Every Time

This month for the EtsyBloggers carnival we were asked to share a tutorial about something. In the spirit of Valentines, I thought I'd share a tutorial of how to tie a perfect bow...so they will always look like this

Not like this

(It was easiest to do it with a video, so here goes!)

A CPSIA Victory!

It's not complete, but it's definitely a step in the right direction! Look what etsy published on the storque this week!

"CPSA has voted for a "Stay of Enforcement of Certain Testing and Certification Requirements of CPSIA" — which means that they are proposing a 1 year suspension of the burden of lead testing and certification while they take more time to review the rules and plan enforcement! " [link]

I intend to continue pursuing component testing for my products, but I am relieved to know that I do not need to throw away any of my current stock. Textiles (which includes everything I make/sell) are inherently free from lead, so even though I do not have testing information about all of my materials yet, my customers can feel assured that my products are safe. ☺