All Over Albany

Sharing the love: local Etsy valentines

Not to alarm you, but Valentine's Day is less than three weeks away.

Sure, you could grab a card at the grocery store on February 13th. But with a bit of planning ahead, you can find your Exceptional Someone an Exceptional Card from a local artist.

Etsy, the online marketplace for vintage and handcrafted goods, is my favorite place to buy greeting cards: they're original, unusual, fresh. They can be little works of art.

Here are some fun valentines from local card makers on Etsy...

This one, by thirteenthstory of Albany, features a ninja named FIN (with a taste for chocolates). $1.75.

For the "odd couple" who somehow makes it work; by backyarddesign of Albany. $3.50.

An appealingly strange valentine, from Schenectady's ienjoysoup. (Part of a set of five assorted cards, $20).

Okay, not traditionally a valentine -- but quite merry. It's a valentine pillow (and on the back, it's sealed with a kiss). From goldenelephant of Saratoga Springs. $20.

This vintage valentine from Albany's jessjamesjake is already signed, true. But it's such an interesting little vignette of midcentury marriage that we couldn't resist. (And in fact, if your name is Marion, you'll be all set.) $8.

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A note on local Etsy shopping tools.

Want to see which local Etsians make a particular type of item? Etsy launched a tool late last year that allows you to do a local item-specific search. Previously, you could look for local shops, but not narrow them down to browse local shops that sold only, say, wombat plushies.

In the new search, you type your search term into the box -- let's say "necklace" (since apparently there are no local wombat makers -- and why not?!?). After the results come up, you put your zip code in the "local items" box. Behold! 233 Albany-made necklaces. 71 in Saratoga. 41 in Troy. It'd be nicer if they had a "25-mile radius" option, so we didn't have to type in every community individually. But it's still fun to browse through the offerings of our creative neighbors.