Scoring a Treasury

If you are an Etsy shopper, you know about the great tools they have to help you find just the right thing. Of course there's a regular search box, but there's so many other neat things, that when I first started visiting Etsy I would get lost for hours using the different shopping tools. A buyer can Pounce, which means finding shops that have either recently sold something, or have recently updated and are looking for a first sale; you can Shop Local, which means you are supporting crafters in your own geographical area; use a color wheel to see what pops up in a particular shade, or visit the Treasuries.

Treasuries are groups of items chosen by any etsy user, usually with a theme. It's a great way to get your items seen because when someone has an item showing in a Treasury they tell all their friends and everyone visits. The Etsy administrators also choose many of their front page items from Treasuries. The thing that makes being in a Treasury special is that they only last for 48 hours, and there's a limit to the number that can be listed at any one time. So you've got to time it just right to be able to score the opportunity to make one. I don't work full time, and I have a very erratic schedule, so I've been lucky to have made 4 Treasuries in the last few months.

I also discovered Treasury East, a new beta tool etsy is using to refine the way Treasuries are made. Treasury East is cool, because more items are featured and they don't expire. Instead of being listed by date/time they are listed by levels of "hotness".

I try to feature items from members of my EtsyBloggers Team, since the point of a team is to support each other. I search for my theme idea, such as "turtles", and include "etsybloggers team" with it. I took screenshots of the three treasuries I currently have up. You can click on the picture and it links to the live page. The Red, White and Blue expires Saturday, so I hope you'll check it out right away, and leave a comment there, too!
Are you an Etsy shopper? Have you tried any of these tools? Or maybe you have your own shop?
CAUTION: If this is your first time visiting Etsy, be sure to set aside plenty of time to lose yourself in the beautiful and creative items made by people from all over the world!