Winning Treasury Challenge #135

 A few words from VivaEstelle...

First of all, I would like to give a HUGE thank you to Nicolas for choosing my T last week. The competition was stiff, I am glad he and I saw eye to eye on the one I created!
Wow, What a touching, dramatic and fun few days! This is the most talented group of people that I have ever seen! I have never cried upon viewing a treasury until this week, and it happened with two different ones. Everyone seems to know exactly what I like, what pushes my buttons, and they gave it to me! Lots of dark, rustic, dramatic, intensely emotional and meaningful representations this week. I hate when a judge says "they are all winners", but now I understand. I have narrowed it down to 22 that could easily win. So, this week there are 21 runner-ups and one winner. I will never be able to compete with Nicolas with his wonderful comments and categories, but here is my attempt:

'Don't Blink....for Hannah' by KarmaRox

WINNER:
Don't Blink....for Hannah by Karma of KarmaRox
www.etsy.com/treasury/NTEzNTUzOXwyNzIxODkzOTY3/dont-blinkfor-hannah
It took me an entire day before I could even comment on this T. The heart-wrenching, emotional story is probably the best T ever on etsy. Karma, thank you my dear friend for sharing. I hope you can relish in all of the positivity that this community has given you over the last few days. Bravo.....

Congrats to KarmaRox! She'll be choosing the Inspiration Item for Challenge #135. She'll also be judging it. Check the team discussion page for a "Laying Odds" thread to make suggestions / predictions on the Inspiration Item. We only have today to help them choose their item, so please be sure to pop in.

Treasury Nonteam Challenge #135

A creative challenge open to all members of Etsy! Create a treasury around the Inspiration Item. Win the Challenge and the Inspiration Item for the next Challenge will be something of yours! Who knows how many treasuries will be created with your item! 

Justin from Viva Estelle will be judging the Challenge this week. It is totally up to him as to what he is looking for. Make the best treasury you can and just maybe one of your items will be featured in our next Challenge! Please read the guidelines carefully before creating your treasury.

Our inspiration item is...

Italian Alabaster Statue by Viva Estelle

 Requirements for Participation in this Challenge...

Failure to follow these 8 steps will disqualify you from the challenge. 

1. Read the guidelines. 

2. Include the Inspiration Item in any of the first 12 spots (not as an alternate). 

3. Leave a link to your treasury in our Entry thread on our team page before Sunday at noon eastern. Please leave it one time only. Judges and volunteers use this thread to find the current treasuries. You must leave your link in the correct thread by the deadline to have your treasury judged. Your link also needs to be there to have your shop added to the sidebar list and to be added to the buyer account. 

4. Tag your treasury with "nonteamchallenge 135". (separated by a space before the number) 

5. Be sure to include a link to the blog in the treasury description. If it doesn't fit into the description, you may leave it in the first comment. http://treasurychallengenonteam.blogspot.com/ 

6. Only one entry per person if you have more than one Etsy account. Only one entry per account if you have multiple people running a single shop. 

7. Support other participants - View/Comment/Click on as many other treasuries in the Challenge as possible. Do not leave a link to your treasury in the comments of another person's treasury. 

8. Don't tag your non-team treasury with tags for other teams that you are a member of. Our non-team treasuries are not meant to promote your other teams. 

*** Only participate if you'll be available to judge the next week's Challenge - and report the winning treasury by the next Tuesday. Judging is a hugely time-consuming job. There may be hundreds of treasuries. Please only participate if you have the time to judge next week. 

*** Make sure that your shop is in compliance with Etsy's TOS. We won't promote shops that are resellers, blatant copyright infringers, purposeful mis-taggers, etc. Those shops are disqualified from winning challenges. 

Highly Recommended (not required)... 

* Become a follower of this blog to stay in touch with each new challenge, challenge winner, announcements, etc. 

* Use the current challenge tag on your items to make it easier for others to include your items in treasuries. Only use this tag if you plan to create a challenge treasury THIS week. Please read the details here. 

* Use items from other participating shops if you'd like and if their items fit your theme. There are three ways to find them. 

1. Search the current challenge tag for all items on Etsy. (Don't forget about our supplies and vintage shops!) 

2. Visit our Etsy buyer account to see items from shops that participated in the previous challenge. 

3. See the left sidebar of the blog to find shop links. 

* Replace missing items in your treasury. Don't replace sold items. 

* Tweet, Facebook, Blog, etc to spread the word about your treasury and our Challenges.

Winning Treasury Challenge #134

A few words from Nicolas of My Antartica ...

I don’t even know where to begin. . . to say I was touched by the number of incredibly moving and emotive treasuries this week would be the understatement of the year. I was, for lack of a better word, humbled. To have my imagery interpreted and re-imagined in so many artistic and soulful ways. . . to open collection after collection and be awed and, often, inspired myself. To see TWO of your collections make it to the front page in four days and to have the many opportunities to express to you ALL how much I appreciated each and every one.

I also thought judging would be easier. I thought, “A winner and twenty or so HM’s? No problem.”

I sat here, on Monday evening, still with 8 or 9 collections I considered for the winner and 48 in the HM category. That’s AFTER paring it down mind you. . .

Seriously, every single one was a treasure to open!

So today I realized I just had to choose and, to help, I came up with my own “award categories” for the HM’s which you’ll see enabled me to pare them down to under 30.

Then picking a winner. . . I went around more times than I care to admit but in the end, this one was the one that was always at or near the top of favorites no matter what other ones came and went from the list.

This weeks challenge winner is Justin from Viva Estelle.

'seeking one day, to fly' by VivaEstelle

Treasury tool by StylishHome.

It captures everything I want my own imagery, and life, to convey. Possibility. Dreams. A connection between past and present. Fantasy. Imagination. . . and as one of the comments a team member left on his collection summed it up best: “BRAVO, Almighty!”

Well done Justin! Enjoy the craziness that awaits you THIS week!

In addition I want to thank Donna for choosing my Paracosm treasury last week as the winner. It was most pleasing to know she came to see exactly what I put into it, what meaning lay behind it and how her work certainly is, as many of ours comes to be, one entirely of our own creation. 

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Congrats to Justin from VivaEstelle! He'll be choosing the Inspiration Item for Challenge #135. He will also be judging it. Check the team discussion page for a "Laying Odds" thread to make suggestions / predictions on the Inspiration Item. We only have today to help them choose their item, so please be sure to pop in. 

The Shapeshifter on Front Page

Congratulations to Natalie Eberly from The Silk moon for her treasury "The Shapeshifter" making the front page.

'The Shapeshifter ' by nataliasage

Treasury tool by StylishHome.

Natalie makes hand painted silk scarves in beautiful colors like the one pictured at right. 

Hooray for the NonTeam, and congratulations to the shops featured in this darkly lovely treasury.