Google Online Business DirectoryYou are here » Google Online Business » Links Directory » Arts » Crafts (0)
Crafts RSS FeedsCrafty Blogs to Explore - Enjoy this week's offerings from the crafty bloggers: Aileen's Musings - It's Christmas in July and Alieen reminds us that the holidays will be here faster then a blinking twinkle light! Now's the time to start creating gifts to give and to sell! Carmi's Art/Life World - Carmi has a Claudine Hellmuth tutorial to share this week! Crafty Princess Diaries - Tammy shows you her latest charity crafting project, some crochet washcloths for the Global Knit Haitian Relief Project. ...Feed Source: familycrafts.about.com Encaustic Art Book Review -
Shhh, don't tell anybody but when I got this book, I had no clue what encaustic art was. Always wanting to learn more about any arts or crafts, I anxiously flipped it open and starting paging through it. This book really opened my eyes and excited me about an art form, also known as hot wax painting, I had never explored before. As it's subtitle suggests, this book definitely seems to be The Complete Guide To Creating Fine Art With Wax.
The author, Lissa Rankin, does a wonderful job educating and instruction with this book. There are 16 chapters that cover everything from the supplies you will need to merging encaustic art with other craft technique most of us have heard of such as ... Back To School Activities -
I know your kids are probably not ready for summer to end, but these back to school activities and crafts might help make them a little more excited for school to start.
Part of the fun of going back to school is shopping for new school supplies. While you can spend a lot of money to buy fancy school supplies, why not create your own? You can easily jazz up notebooks and other books. Start out with a simple paper book cover or a fabric covered notebook. You can also make your own ... Interested in a Free Craft Newsletter or Two? - To get weekly updates and craft projects, sign up for the Family Crafts Newsletter. Currently, the Family Crafts newsletter is sent out on Thursday morning. You can also sign up for one of my special e-courses, which are like special 'classes' delivered to your email box at regular intervals. You will want to make sure you set your email box and spam filters to allow email from me (familycrafts.guide(at)about.com) to get through. You can sign up for one or all of these options:
Main Family Crafts Newsletter - This is a weekly newsletter that highlights new and updated content on my Web site.
Crafting Through the Alphabet E-Course - Sign up for this great, weekly newsletter and be introduced to wonderful resources to help teach or learn the alphabet.
Creative Recycling E-Course - If you ... Make-It-Over Monday - I have gotten a couple of craft projects using sticks submitted so far and am anxiously awaiting more! While you are planning your crafts for the week, I thought I would share some more nature crafts with you and also throw out another mini-craft challenge. Here are some fun nature crafts others have submitted to the Family Crafts Site without pictures. How about planning on making one or more of these crafts, along with a stick craft, and submit a photo. That photo will be featured here and published on the project page!
Beach Treasure Wreath
Corncob Printing
Geo Dude or Dudette Craft
Mister Harry Cup Craft
... This Week's Spotlight Crafts (July 17 - 23) -
What craft projects are on your to-do list this week? Here are the crafts that were on mine!
Pom-Pom Ice Cream Cone Craft - Follow these directions and you can make a miniature ice cream cone using felt and pom-poms that is perfect for celebrating the day the ice cream cone was introduced.
Plastic Egg ABC and 123 Game - Patty shares directions for creating a fun alphabet and/or counting game using plastic Easter eggs and ping pong balls.
Paper Straw Beaded Necklace - Mary explains how she de... Crafty Blogs to Explore -
Check out all of the wonderful thing the crafty bloggers are up to this week:
Aileen's Musings - If your anything like Aileen you have a lot of extra embellishments you haven't used. Stop by and see her Altered Embellishment video where Aileen gives you some ideas on altering them to fit your project!
Carmi's Art/Life World - Inspired by an antique find Carmi creates a new piece of wall decor.
Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world - Craftside's giving away 2 copies of the new book Sew Retr... Your Favorite Fast and Easy Craft Ideas -
Sometimes you are looking for a quick and easy craft projects to do with the kids. A craft project that does not take a lot of time to prepare for and one that does not take a lot of time to finish. Do you have a favorite fast and easy craft?
I have gathered together some quick and easy craft ideas. Most of these crafts can be done in about 10 minutes and take very little preparation. Actually though, I would rather see your ideas for fast and easy craft projects.
What craft and activities do you turn to as an... Get Started on Your Home-Made Holiday Gifts -
Now is the perfect time to get a jump start on your holiday crafting. You can make a fun and unique holiday gift for everyone on your list this year.
I have gathered together home-made gift ideas, and I have broken down these gift ideas into categories. Browse through these great home-made holiday gift ideas and find gifts to make for parents, friends, teachers, kids, crafters, and everyone else. You can even make fun gifts for your favorite pets. Many of the gift ideas can even be modified to suit anyone on your list.
Once you decide ... How to Press and Dry Your Flowers -
Learn how you can preserve your summer blooms by either pressing your flowers or drying your flowers. By either drying or pressing your fresh flowers, you can creatively save them to be enjoyed year round! Both dried flowers and pressed flowers can be used to make fun crafts, gifts, and decorations.
Of course, before you press or dry your flowers, you need to pick them. When it comes to picking your flowers, no matter whether you are drying them or pressing them, it is best to pick them on a dry day. Try to do it in the morning, as soon as any dew has dried. You should also try to pick your flowers just before they reach the full bloom stage. Some flowers do open more as they dry.
Once you have all of your flowers gathered, follow ... Newbie Craft Show Exhibitor Advice - While this advice is relevant to established arts and crafts business owners, it's particularly useful for brand new startups. Part of the whole gig for many arts and crafts business owners is exhibiting at craft shows. Before you decide to whether to participate in a particular arts and crafts show, try to attend it as a shopper. Then you can eyeball the crowd and perhaps find a participating vendors who will share with you their impression of how worthwhile the show is to attend.
Of course, take all of this with a grain of salt. Some artists and crafters may not want to encourage any additional competition or they may just have a booth layout that doesn't encourage sales. While their experience may not be all that great, the show itself may be a winner for you.
One of my latest articles hi-lights taking the opportunity to add some ... Advice for Showing at Craft Shows - Wow, I've run across a bunch of good etsy.com info lately. Here's part three of a series on marketing yourself, specifically pre-craft show preparation, which will also be applicable for online selling.
You can access all three articles in the series by following this link.
I also have a ton of info (step-by-step basics) available on how to set up an etsy.com shop.
Also, check out my articles on how to set up an ArtFire.com studio.... Etsy Posts June Figures - Etsy.com has their June 2010 figures up. While sales went down slightly from the prior month, June 2010 sales dramatically increased from June 2009. Check out all the stats at the etsy.com website.
Additionally, there is a great article on the etsy.com website about the Handmade Toy Alliance's fight against the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. Etsy Posts June Figures originally appeared on About.com Arts... Rio Grande 2011 Catalog Available - Rio Grande's catalog containing their gems, findings, displays and packaging for 2011 just arrived in my mailbox. A separate catalog contains tools and equipment. If you're not familiar with Rio Grande, I highly recommend you check out their website.
While many artisans feel Rio Grande is strictly a jewelry-making resource, even if you don't craft jewelry, work in PMC or metals, you'll probably find some cool stuff that will come in handy for your arts or crafts business.
Think you might want to expand into jewelry making? Tammy Powley is the Jewelry Making Guide at About.com.
I've also written a couple of articles on the subject:
Basics of Soldering... Economy's Effect on Crafting - I recently found an article onEntrepreneour online about crafting being a silver-lining in a bad economy. Dated March 2009, much of it is still very relevant. The article specifically mentions green crafting, scrapbooking, sewing and child crafts.
Many of my arts and crafts buddies are still erring on the side of caution when it comes to buying raw materials - basically, looking for existing inventory items that can be modified to work in new projects. I know I have really cut back too. Used to be if I saw a great price on some gemstones, even if I didn't particularly need them, I would purchase them for potential future use.
... Arts and Crafts Writing Jobs on Monster - Monster.com recently posted jobs working for Examiner.com writing on different arts and crafts related topics such as beading, knitting and pottery. I know absolutely nothing about this employer so I'm not endorsing the job, merely making anyone who may be interested aware of the fact that monster has these postings.
Certainly if one of your goals is to be published in a craft magazine such as Bead and Button or Fiberarts (to name a couple), getting writing experience to add to your resume can't hurt. Like all things in life, completely check out the job requirements and payment arrangements.
Image: © Olivierl | Dreamstime.com... Setting Arts and Crafts Prices and Niche Marketing - Now that we are half way through the year and fast approaching high-sales fourth quarter, it's important to know your target market and whether you want to sell for value or price. This is a marketing basic. Ideally you try to spend your marketing efforts and money reaching your niche - that particular client base who will be the most likely to appreciate the handcrafted and related price for your crafts.
On the flip side, if you sell for price rather than value, your marketing efforts should be directed towards a client base that will purchase a high volume of lower priced crafts.
Recommended articles on this topic:
Understanding the difference between marketing and advertising
... SNAG Partnering With Art Galleries - If you own an arts or crafts gallery, you have until July 15 to submit your proposal to partner with the Society of North American Goldsmiths (SNAG) for the purpose of SNAG co-producing and/or supporting exhibitions in your gallery.
Access the complete exhibition guidelines via a pdf file at the link above. The requirements are pretty rigorous but for those art or craft galleries that qualify, is a great opportunity.
Note: have some of your art work at a quality gallery? Make the owner aware of this partnering effort. Good for the owner and good for you!SNAG Partnering With Art Galleries originally appeared on ... Paper Mache on Bravo's Works of Art - I was a late adapter with television shows such as Project Runway and Top Chef. I think I started watching both (plus others) in about their 3rd season, after Bravo ran a weekend marathon of Season One of Project Runway in 2006.
Not that I'm a TV snob, far from it, but after a couple of years I had enough. I really grew weary of the pack mentality of some of the contestants picking on others who they considered to be less talented, more annoying, geeks, because of ageism, sexism - whatver. (As an aside, I believe the producers knowingly throw odd/less talented ones into the mix merely to stir the pot.)
Anyway those two new horrifing design shows last year rang the death knell for me on watching these types of shows. But as it happened, I was sick last week and the first four episodes of Work of Art were on so I watched them fast forwarding through the same, frequent, annoying diet soda commercial.
Two episodes show... Community Alternative to Running a Full Time Craft Shop - In my area we have a pretty expansive flea market that is open Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Two wings of it are air conditioned with more or less permanent flea market vendors. Rather than incurring full time shop rent, these vendors are only paying rent for high traffic shopping days.
Flea markets aren't really the kind of place that most artists or crafters want to exhibit their wares - however, the Oakland Artisan Marketplace took the same basic concept, limiting the vendors to artists and crafters.
The story about how the marketplace come to life, with help from the Oakland, CA Community Economic Development Agency is very interesting and well worth a quick read. In brief, started as a 5-year pilot program in 2000, the marketplace has grown in size and continues to thrive.
The artisan fee is quite modest at $250 for a full year or $145 for a half. In you li... The Metal Plating Bible! - High Conversions Off Targeted Traffic - Great Niche With Little Competition.... Sewing Roman Shades. - How to easily sew roman shades. Step-by-step roadmap to professional window shades.... Crochet For Profit. - Earn great money selling fantastic eBook!... Personalized Baby Newspaper Business. - How To Start Your Own Personalized Baby Newspaper Business.... Official Guide To Crochet. - Finally! Quick and Easy, Step by Step ways to Master Crocheting in 12 days or Less.... The Sweet Smell Of Success. - Make your own fragrances for fun and profit!... Easy Face Painting. - Step-By-Step Face Painting Guide Makes Face Painting So Easy Even Non-Painters Can Look Like Pros.... Scrapbooking Titles, Phrases, & Ideas! - Scrapbooking Resource eBook highlights over 5,000 fun Titles, Phrases, Captions, Quotes, Sayings & Ideas! Free Sample Download!... Bath Salts Guide. - Our guide will teach you how to make your own bath salts at home.... Diy Gift Package & Craft Templates. - Innovative Diy gift and craft templates for all occasions.... Copyright © 2010, Google Online Business. All Rights Reserved. |