The Benefits of Joining a Craft Group

I met Lisa when I formed the Lincoln Handmade Etsy Team.  She is such a great addition to the group and does an excellent job of keeping us motivated and on task.  She takes her role of dictator very seriously.  Lisa is the person behind Oobbles. 

Thinking of joining a craft group?  Have you seen all the teams on etsy?  They have hundreds!  Some are grouped by location and meet in person, some are grouped by subject/craft and meet only virtually.  I am a lucky member of two such groups- Etsy Hookers and Lincoln Handmade.

I joined Etsy Hookers first, right at the beginning of my sojourn with etsy.  My main craft is crochet and so I went looking for a crochet team!  Etsy Hookers is great because they take their team seriously.  They maintain a ning forum, a group blog, and a flickr pool.  In addition to all of that, they have regular activities like chat and promotion threads, crochet contests and a hooker of the month.  I love that this group is so active and has so many different ways in which to participate.  They are a really nice group of people and are always willing to help out when you have a question or just want to chat.

There are many benefits to being a member of a large virtual team- communion with like minded folks- the power of a big team for promotions and more.  But one thing they usually lack is the ability to meet in person.  That was a big reason I joined Lincoln Handmade when it formed in 2008.  Lincoln Handmade is a group that is made up of many different personalities and crafts and what binds us together is our love of creating (and I think our love of talking!).  We have a regular monthly meeting where we get together to discuss our etsy shops, new crafts we're working on, and fun get togethers we'd like to have in the future.  We've already had some great ones, as you can see from the photos!   If you'd like to see more, check out our flickr pool or our new facebook page!

May Craft Challenge Reminder

Your craft challenge entries are due today!  I think my "harsh" words on the instruction sheet worked because a record number of you finished early!  You even inspired me to get mine finished before the deadline.  It took me a couple of tries to get something that worked, but here is what I came up with. 

This is just a little wall hanging I made for my daughter.  I used the middle part of the silk flower as the sun.  My fancy stitches on my sewing machine came in handy for my flower stems.  And, the paper was stitched on as grass. 

My first attempt was to have this in an embroidery hoop and using the wire as the stems.  This was a bad idea and now I'm wishing I took some pictures before I ripped it apart. 

I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else creates this month!  If you don't have your pictures uploaded to the flickr group yet, make sure you do that.  If you've emailed them to me already, that's fine too. 

Remember: you are competing for a prize pack from the Lincoln Handmade Etsy team.  This will be full of handmade goodies that you're sure to love! 

Voting starts tomorrow and will only run through Friday night.  I'll announce winners on Saturday.

If you'd like to participate in next month's challenge or buy a longer subscription (at a discount!), you can purchase those in the etsy shop. 

Craft Night with the Lincoln Handmade Team

I'm a member of our local etsy team, Lincoln Handmade.  Last night we all got together at my house for a craft night.  We spent most of the evening using the Big Kick, eating, and chatting.   You can read more about it at the Lincoln Handmade blog.  

The Big Kick was the hit of the evening.  I bought mine on sale a couple of months ago at Joann. It is a die cutting machine.  It is great to use with paper, fabric, chipboard, felt, and whatever else you can run through it.   You can make appliques like a dream!  TIP: add your heat n bond to the fabric BEFORE you run it through the machine.  Then you have a ready to iron on shape!

The dies can be purchased at craft stores.  I have a few that are exclusive to Stampin' UP that match their stamp sets.  The dies can get a little expensive.  Most run around $15.  Make sure to use your craft store coupons!  Alphabet and other specialty dies can cost over $100.  We were talking about maybe charging dues for our team and investing in some of these more expensive tools for the good of the group.

This is actually a pretty good price for the Big Kick if you're interested.  Do you have one already?  What are some of your favorite dies?

April Craft Challenge Deadline

image courtesy of Spool {} via flickr

Can you believe that it is almost time to have your April craft challenge completed?  Have you even started?  If you haven't, don't worry.  You still have a few more days.  The deadline is Wednesday, April 22nd.   Email the picture you'd like to include for voting or you can go ahead and upload it to the Flickr group.  If you blog about the challenge, email me the link and you'll be included in the drawing for the free month. 

The winner this month will win a great stamping bundle (value over $60!) from Schlosser Designs.  I'm also pleased to announce that the sponsor for next month's challenge will be the Lincoln Handmade Etsy Team.  I'm a part of this great local group and they are getting together a bundle of their handmade products for a mega-awesome basket for the winner.  You won't want to miss out!  May craft challenge packets will be available for sale until April 27th.  This is a little earlier than normal.  I need to do this so I can be sure to get all of the packets ready to mail by May 1st. 

Did you know I have 3, 6, and 12 month subscriptions available?  Have a crafty mom?  What a great Mother's Day gift!  Are you a crafty mom?  Send your husband/kids the link.  I know this is kind of sounding like an infomercial and I might be a bit biased, but I think they make a great gift for yourself or someone else.  You will always be able to purchase them month by month, but if you purchase a subscription, you get a bit of a discount. 

Have no idea what I'm talking about?  Check out the Craft Challenge FAQs. 

Win a 3 Month Subscription to Christy's Craft Challenge

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED! CONGRATS TO GINNY!

Today is the start of our week-long giveaway celebration for the Lincoln Handmade Etsy Team. We are close to 40 members strong here in our small community and a handful of us are participating in this event.

I'm kicking things off with the first giveaway of the week...a 3 month subscription to Christy's Craft Challenge. If you are new to the site and haven't heard about my craft challenge, I have a frequently asked question page that explains the details.

I started selling on etsy a few years ago in another shop but once I started my craft challenge, I realized that I didn't have enough hours in the day to dedicate myself to both. Combining crafting with competition was a no brainer for me--as I love them both!

Please take a moment to check out my new offerings at my etsy shop. I now have 3 month, 6 month, and year long subscriptions to the challenges available. Purchasing them in advance allows me to offer a bit of a discount.

All you have to do to enter this giveaway is leave a comment with your email or other contact information (twitter id is fine). I will draw a winner on March 18th. Good luck!

Lincoln Handmade Etsy Team Promotional Giveaways

Starting on Monday, the Lincoln Handmade Etsy Team will be hosting a week of giveaways. As a founding member of the team, I'm so pleased to be taking part! Make sure to take a look at the shops of those that are participating and follow us around during the week to win some great handmade items. I'm going to be giving away a 3 month subscription to Christy's Craft Challenge starting on Monday.