Apr 29th 2009 07:18:59 am

I stumbled upon the Craftness site while reading some crafty blogs, and despite its simplicity it looks like a very fun concept. From the site description: “Craftness.com is a craft challenge site, every week a fresh challenge will be presented. Our community rate crafts and choose the winning artists and designers. We welcome you to join our challenge and craft using your weapon of choice: Ceramic, Needlecraft, Knitting, Jewelry, Fashion or Crochet using Metal Glass or Wood, all crafts are welcome.”

From what I can determine, there is a new craft challenge presented on Craftness every week. Crafters of all types are invited to enter the challenge contest with their completed craft projects. Then, the site users vote on the winners. The winning projects are featured on the site’s front page and there are prizes! This week’s challenge is “Homage to the 70s” and the winner receives $100 from MisterArt. I have not tried uploading a project, so I am not entirely clear on how the process works. There is also very limited information on the site, so it is hard to determine how often it is updated… Has anyone else tried out Craftness?

1 Comment » Categories: website review

Apr 28th 2009 07:47:42 am

Thimble is an adorable arts and craft blog written by Laural Raine from Toronto, Canada. Raine has been updating the blog with her projects, cooking adventures, and general crafty goodness consistently since its beginning in October 2004. Thimble is a great place to find pretty images, project ideas, and general inspiration. It also contains an extensive list of links to craft blogs and resources.

In addition to publishing Thimble, Raine is one of the people behind goodEGG Industries - an online shop featuring handpicked Canadian crafters.

No Comments » Categories: General

Apr 27th 2009 12:32:56 pm

This week’s featured swap is the Handmade Sketchbook or Journal swap hosted by revolutionoise. For this international swap you create a handmade, blank journal or sketchbook to send to your one partner. The journal must be at least 4 x 5 inches in size, at least 1/2 inch in width, and hand-assembled - no store-bought books! You will need to know (or learn) some simple book binding techniques in order to create your journal for your partner, and you can choose to decorate your journal specifically for your partner according to their profile if you want it to be extra special. The swap is open to anyone, even new users, but you must sign up before May 9th.

Check out these links for more info on creating and binding books from scratch:

• Binding Methods
• Bookbinding Tutorials
• Instructables Handbound Book

No Comments » Categories: Weekly Featured Swap

Apr 26th 2009 05:04:07 pm

Look at this adorable Swap-bot envelope stuffie! It was made by Swap-bot user Provadia to send to stampkrl. I think it is the coolest thing ever!

BTW: The Swap-bot envelope was named over the weekend - his name is now Ernie the envie. User, VJP, gave the suggestion and I think the name fits perfectly! Now he just needs a little buddy… Polly the package, maybe?

4 Comments » Categories: Swappy Goodness

Apr 24th 2009 07:00:14 am

Hello & happy Friday! Lots of links for you this week:

• Love art? Get you fix on Feed Your Soul: “Feed Your Soul is a free art project. Each month artists are invited to participate and to contribute a print which is totally free and available for download.”
• A quick, cool interview of Magda Sayeg (of Knitta, Please!).
• Whip Up has some good tips for better craft tutorial blogging…
• …and there are some great blog tips to improve your craft business by Bob Beacham on Craft Critique.
• I attended Etsy Labs craft night last week and learned how to make recycled Tyvek envelope totes from green crafter and author, Betz White. I definitely suggest checking out her new book, Sewing Green .
• Cookie magazine’s Nesting blog has the most adorable idea for a DIY detective-themed kids birthday party - love it!!
• For NYC-area peeps there are two upcoming craft fairs that you might be interested in (and I will be checking out): The Anti-Depression Session, May 2nd & 3rd, and Handmade Cavalcade, May 9th & 10th.
• Not exactly craft-related, but too funny/cute to miss: Dork Yearbook.
• ophthacare

1 Comment » Categories: friday link love

Apr 21st 2009 07:48:35 am

“Cafe Handmade is like a traditional craft show, but better. You can now attend a craft show at your leisure, as often as you would like, and have the same experience as a traditional craft show with featured artist interviews, artist demonstrations, giveaways, and more.”

There are a lot of craft websites out in the vast internet universe - more than most folks can keep up with - which is why a “one-stop shop” site like Cafe Handmade is so handy and fun! Cafe Handmade was created in November of 2008 by husband and wife team, Len and Kerri Testa. Their original goal was to create “a place where crafters and artists could show off their creations” and to promote buying handmade.

Cafe Handmade is more than just “a weekly virtual craft show.” There are also feature articles with interviews from artists and mommaprenuers, weekly giveaways, the Lounge (a social network just for handmade aficionados), artist demos, and a marketplace where you can purchase handmade goods. The Virtual Craft Show displays the work of dozens of artists and crafters with lots of lovely photos of their products. The wares range from jewelry and clothing to bakery treats and bath items. The Cafe Handmade craft show is a great place to find new-to-you artists and unique handmade products.

1 Comment » Categories: website review

Apr 20th 2009 07:46:13 am

This week’s featured swap, Fill an Envelope Full of Crafty Supplies, was chosen in honor of Earth Day. The swap, hosted by cittylou, is quite simple - fill an envelope full of crafty odds & ends for your partner - but it helps us give new life to craft supplies and doodads that might otherwise be languishing in our craft stash. Now is the time to recycle and use all of our crafty resources efficiently!!

The swap details: You must fill an A5-size envelope (21cm x 15cm or 9.5 by 6 inches) with at least five different types of craft items. Items can include yarns, ribbons, buttons, embroidery thread, felt, fabrics, patterned papers, stickers, embellishments, etc… From the swap description: “The package should be of a reasonable size and filled full of craft goodies, and above all must contain a high quality selection of goodies. It would be worth reading people’s wishlists to try and give them some things they would really like.” The swap is international and does not accept new users.

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For more crafty Earth Day projects and inspiration, check out the Craft Critique Earth Day Celebration & Earth Day Celebration Part 2! clomid testicular size

No Comments » Categories: Weekly Featured Swap

Apr 17th 2009 07:10:19 am

Poor, poor Swap-bot blog - neglected for over two weeks, but I think some fun friday link love can bring it back to life!! Enjoy!

• While searching around the Martha Stewart website I found the collection of their Best Clip Art Crafts. There is some really great stuff on the list - and all free to download and print!!
• Modish is hosting an amazing Earth Day Giveaway featuring over $1375 worth of prizes! Follow the instructions on the Modish blog to enter the drawing before April 26th.
• Speaking of Earth Day, Crafting Green World has tons of great earth-friendly projects, including ideas for reusing old sewing patterns.
• For all of you crafty entrepreneurs, Indie CEO is a smart blog with lots of great tips for running an indie business.
• Do you love making and swapping matchboxes? My “matchboxes are the best” group is hosting a new Summer Matchbox Swap. Come join us!

Have a lovely spring weekend! xoxo

3 Comments » Categories: friday link love

Apr 14th 2009 01:04:10 pm

Better late than never, here are the three randomly chosen winners of the March/April Giveaway for Swap-bot t-shirts and other goodies:

Christine Makai aka mystic69: “I heard about swapbot from an email buddy…. I just did two swaps (still waiting for my candy bar!) and am finding the experience awesome!”

Ellen aka ellie1200: “Ooh! I love to share the story of how I found swap-bot! I’d been searching the web for a crochet pattern. Someone had asked me about making them some “soakers” for cloth diapers (I didn’t even know what those were till I started looking around!). Anyway, somehow I ended up at a swap-bot member’s blog, momwithahook. She didn’t have a soaker pattern, but she did have some pictures of absolutely adorable crocheted stuffies that she’d made for a swap-bot swap. I just had to see what that cuteness was about, clicked a link, and I was hooked!”

Robin Rodgers aka biasbabe: “Wow, were to begin. I ran into the site of Swap-bot over two years ago on doing a search for swaps. The word swaps will take you to alot of places not just here if you know what I mean LoL. I clicked on the site link which had brought me to the main site, and just by seeing all the neat projects that everyone had completed was enough for me to venture on in. That was the first thing that peeked my senses. Then when it said it was a free membership then that really was awesome. I figured if I didn’t like it I would drop out gracefully. Well as you might have guessed it, that was all it took for me to get hooked on this site. many awesome projects and the next best thing to having a real family and a family of wonderful swappers to share my love of crafting, swapping and sewing. What more could I ask for, nothing absolutely nothing.”

Congratulations to the winners!! I will be contacting you to get your t-shirt sizes and then I hope to have your prizes mailed out by the end of the week.

3 Comments » Categories: Announcements, Giveaways

Apr 13th 2009 08:39:29 am

Hello! The last two weeks have been a very tough time for Swap-bot as we moved the offices across the country. We had very limited access to the internet while we were traveling and getting settled, which prevented me from doing anything beyond very basic admin duties. Obviously, that was not the original plan, but we did our best with what we had… and now Travis, Crusher, and I are settled in New York City and I am back in action on Swap-bot! Woot! I hope to announce the winners of the most recent Swap-bot swag giveaway later today, so stay tuned. I am also working my way through back-logged email and I thank you for your patience with my response time. My goal is to get totally caught up and become a highly efficient Admin machine by the end of the week! xoxo, Rachel

4 Comments » Categories: Announcements