Two lucky crafters could win one of the books in the Making Stuff series; Making Stuff: An Alternative Craft Book or Making Stuff for Kids.

Re-released to coincide with the publication of its sequel, Making Stuff has tons of projects for both the seasoned crafter and the craft dabbler. The beginning of the book lays out the basics so you’ll have no problem crafting any of the 50+ projects that include making a notebook out of old records covers, sewing a smock-dress, or making origami lights.

Black Dog’s latest book, Making Stuff for Kids, contains 176 pages of craft projects geared for 4-11 year olds, but packs enough kitschy coolness for kids of all ages.  Parents are even provided more advanced projects such as knitting and sewing, so they can craft for and with their kids, but at a more grown-up pace.

Kids’ projects include making cereal box theatres and soft toys, to creating paper flowers and making smiley house pin boards — a project by plush crafter extraordinaire and Crafty Bastards vendor Heidi Kenney, of My Paper Crane. Kenney’s house also adorns the colorful cover.

Wanna Win?
Entering this contest is super easy! Just make a comment on any Hello Craft blog post from today through August 31st, and you’ll automatically be entered to win.  You can double your chances of winning by recording your craft story on our Handmade Podcast, or by registering for our upcoming Field Trip to the Biggs & Featherbelle warehouse in Baltimore.

Exclusive Discount!
The nice folks at Black Dog Publishing have offered Hello Craft readers an exclusive discount of 50% OFF(!!!) both of the Making Stuff books. To take advantage of this offer, simply email Jessica at jess@blackdogonline.com and mention the code HELLO CRAFT OFFER. This discount is good thru August 31, 2009.

Tina Seamonster and her crafty clan will be testing out the projects in the latter book, so stay tuned for her official review of Making Stuff for Kids!

Tactics! is a weekly tip from a seasoned crafter. We hope they will help you in the marketing of your making.

While all my friends seem to be linking up their updates on Facebook and Twitter (see this article on Mashable: Twitter to Facebook: 5 Ways to Post to Both),
I found that my audiences on both social networking sites are very different. Before you decide to link up your accounts, you may want to figure out if your audiences for these services are different. You may be mindlessly sending marketing to both without even realizing that you are talking to the wrong crowd.

Take inventory of your accounts. Here’s what I came up with for myself:

Facebook. My Facebook friends are largely made up of people that I actually know or used to know. Now, I’m talking about my personal Facebook page, not a “fan page”. My cousins and best friends from high school are not as interested in my handmade items as people who might friend me because they are already my customers or because they did a keyword search on Twitter.  So I market myself accordingly on Facebook, only posting new items to my feed. If I make something new, I tell people about it. I don’t tell them about old stuff over and over all day long. If I did, it would be like standing at a party of people who know you and saying, “I made this. Look!” over and over again.

Twitter is a different story for me. I have 7 times as many followers on Twitter. Many of them are already my customers, but don’t know me personally. Some of them found me based on a keyword search. Some of them saw me retweeted and liked what I said. Many of them follow me because of other projects. Many of them are Etsy sellers who just follow other Etsy sellers. The key to understanding your Twitter audience is in the numbers and how you gathered the followers. If you have 50 followers, you might not want to tweet old stuff over and over again or you will be shouting at the party again. With 400, 700 or 1,000 followers, it is likely that not all of your followers are on all day long. So you can go ahead and retweet your sales or product links more often. But, by all means, do the research. If you are annoying, people will unfollow you! And think about the quality of the follower in relationship to what you do.

Some things to remember when posting marketing to both. Don’t just post a link to your Etsy shop without a description. Once again, shouting, “I have a shop!” is meaningless. Take inventory of your followers on both to see if you are posting twice to the same group of people. Don’t show weakness, pity sales are bad karma! Remember sometimes the best marketing is actual content. I love to hear about the making process, about why you are doing what you are doing. This is often more interesting than your link to your BOGO sale or whatever. If I am interested in you, I will click on your shop link in your profile. Make me care about you as a person.

Your results may be very different from mine, but my point is this: Think about your audience. Know who you are talking to. Be smart and you won’t be wasting your time.

Image by papersparrow.

Each week, the Hello Craft Podcast collects stories of making and buying handmade.

This week, Morgan of MamaSassDesigns learns to crochet.

Click here to download the episode (right-click and choose “save as” on PC, or control-click and choose “save as” on Mac)

Step 2: Vendor Statement.

If you know who you are and make something awesome, your vendor statement shouldn’t be too difficult. Sometimes the vendor statement will have a character limit, which means you have to make every word count. Let’s break down my vendor statement from last year:

Tina Seamonster silk screens shirts and cards in small batches at her kitchen table with a Print Gocco. She is inspired by her life as an urban mom of twins in DC. Her designs are mostly about overcoming fears (of zombies, etc!),
dealing with stress and living life with humor above all else.

The first thing that I do in my vendor statement is establish my brand identity. This is who I am. Then I immediately tell you what I make and how I make it. One former judge thinks that explaining how you make your items is very important. He says: “One tip that I have is to explain, explain, explain. We received more than a few applications that didn’t really specify the crafter’s role in their work. For instance, if you sell screen-printed shirts, explaining that you draw your own art, burn your own Gocco screens, source your own t-shirts from Africa, and hand mix your own inks from natural pigments is much better than leaving it up to the judges to guess. ‘Cause they just might assume you sent an image to the screen printer and — viola — 2 weeks later 400 shirts show up. And that isn’t gonna win you fans. Explaining why you’re all DIY is good.”

So, I explain first who I am, then what I make and how. Next I tell you where I am coming from. This might not matter for everyone, but for me, my crazy lifestyle as a twin mom living in the city is key to what I do, so I mention it. If your crazy lifestyle as a traveling lion tamer is important to your handmade flutes, then let us know! And lastly, I explain the style and subject matter of my work. This is not at all a hard and fast rule to creating the perfect vendor statement. We all have our own style. Maybe your statement will be funny or provocative or memorable in some other way. Just make sure you make every word count!

Step 3: Photos.

The dreaded photos. I hate this part. I truly do. But it is so so important. My first advice is to send new photos. Don’t assume that because you got into a show last year or every year that you can send old photos. I nearly made this mistake a few years ago. Don’t do it! As much as you love or are still selling a million of the same items from last year, do try to show something new. That said, a former Crafty Bastards judge, Liz of Trees can say the rest better than I can:

First off, and I can’t stress this enough, submit bright, clear photos of your work! Judges look at hundreds if not thousands of photos when jurying a show. Not only do you want your work to stand out, you don’t want to contribute to their eye strain! You are being judged by your submissions and if the judges can’t see how great your work is because the photos are too dark or too fuzzy, you won’t get into the show. Also, if your work is highly detailed with say 10 different decorative stitches on a skirt, make sure this comes through.

Second, show variety in your work. If you make hand-knit scarves as well as kitten booties and iMac cozies, send in a photo of each so the jurors can see the breadth of your work. Don’t just send in three separate photos of scarves.

Third, I’d recommend showing your work in action. If you make pottery, take a photo of someone enjoying a steaming cup of cocoa in a hand-thrown mug or if you make pillows, take shots of them on a couch or with your cat napping on them. It gives the viewer context.

Fourth, inject your personality and style and vision into your photos. If your craft consists of making fun, irreverent clothing, take photos of people wearing the clothes doing fun, irreverent things! If your artwork is somber or goth or melancholy, take your oil paintings to a cemetery on a cloudy day and stage a photo shoot.

Thanks Liz!

A few more photo tips. If you make shirts for the whole family, I suggest that you show that in your photos. Many indie crafters only make shirts in standard sizes. But if you make stuff for plus sizes, as well, try to convey that in your photos. If you make stuff for babies and kids, too, make sure you have a whole family wearing your gear. You don’t need models, just use your family!

In the end, you do not need professional photos. All you need is good light, interesting backgrounds and a little imagination.

In the end, know the show that you are applying for by checking out their past vendors. And only apply to shows that you think you are right for!

Hopefully I have made the application process a little less scary. Please leave your own tips or questions in the comments. All questions will be answered! Good luck!

Post image by KokoStudios.

This week, Lhay Browning Thriffiley shares the story of Avalon Sewing Co and how she had to close up shop.

Click here to download the episode (right-click and choose “save as” on PC, or control-click and choose “save as” on Mac)

Each week, the Hello Craft Podcast collects stories of making and buying handmade.

This week, we have three stories from crafters who will be presenting their work at the American Craft Council Show in Baltimore at the Baltimore Convention Center, February 27 – March 1, 2009. We hear stories from Caitlin Phillips of Rebound Designs, Rania Hassan of Goshdarnknit and Shannon Delanoy of Sweet Pepita. All three tell us about past events that have made them the crafters they are today. For more information about the show, including times and ticket prices, check out craftcouncil.org/baltimore.

Click here to download the episode (right-click and choose “save as” on PC, or control-click and choose “save as” on Mac)

Learn how to contribute to the podcast!

This week, Mara Bradford gets creative with a gift for Uncle Bill. Check out Mara’s colorful world of crochet, here.

Click here to download the episode (right-click and choose “save as” on PC, or control-click and choose “save as” on Mac)

Uncle Bill opening his gift:

Close up crocheted Rainbow Trout:

Learn how to contribute to the podcast!

I went to NPR today to record a segment for Weekend Edition Sunday with Liane Hansen.

I was really afraid because the focus of the piece was making holiday gifts and I quickly realized that while I am well versed in the world of indie craft, I am more interested in the business of craft. I so heart buying and marketing and building an indie business more than the actual making, which made me kinda laugh.

But I got through it. Beth (Tigerflight) was nice enough to meet my on the corner in Columbia Height with a bag of her owls, some vintage buttons (thanks to Cori for the buttons, too!) and some thread, all things that I needed for my video and audio taping. I even asked her to explain felting to me as my cab pulled away. This all made me realize that I don’t spend enough time actually making. Dabbling, really. I make lots of stuff, especially right now with the demand for ornaments in which zombies attack santa pretty high, but I don’t dabble. When I get more time, I need to do this so that next time I am asked to craft on video, my hands don’t shake.

There was this moment, sitting there in the darkened studio when the host did her outro: “I’m Liane Hansen and we’ve been talking to Tina Seamonster. Tina is a crafter, a podcaster and a blogger.” Hearing myself in these terms by this stranger with a familiar voice was completely startling. I know that I am and do all of those things. But in that one instant, it felt completely for real, important. I thought, heavens, I am who I want to be when I grow up. I might not really get paid for it, but I am here and I am me and this matters. And I thought of that line in the song “My Rollercoster” by Kimya Dawson where she sings, “And my mom would say, I hope someday you get paid for being Kimya Dawson” And for that one instant I felt how it must feel to be paid to be Tina Seamonster. Someday I hope you get paid to be who you are. It will likely be the most important thing that could happen to you.

All of that said, I should be on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday this Sunday (11/23). You can find out what time via your local NPR Station as each station plays the show at a different time. Locally in DC, WAMU plays it from 8 to 10. I will also be doing a live chat online at either 1 or 1:30 EST at http://www.npr.org/gifts. You will have to register to chat. You can also upload photos of your projects to their holiday community page while you are in there. Please stop by and ask me a nice or funny question.

Image is Yellow Spotted Loch Ness Monster on Wheels by PearsonMaron
This was reposted from I Like Seamonsters.com.

Each week, the Hello Craft Podcast collects stories of making and buying handmade.

This week, I talk about my grandfather, John Ross Henry. He was obsessed with making throughout his entire life and it wore off on me.

Click here to download the episode (right-click and choose “save as” on PC, or control-click and choose “save as” on Mac)