Giclee Fine Art Print-St. Charles Bridge | $100 | Deborah Julian Cards and Prints

Happy New Year and welcome to 2011!  As you’re formulating your plan for 2011 here are a few links to get you started.  If productivity is at the top of your list, these may just offer a little perspective.

Sorry I Can’t Come to the Phone Right Now… [American Express OPEN Forum] A great post by financial guru Jean Chatsky, on how your Blackberry, Android, iPhone can surprisingly suck a lot of your productive time without you even realizing it.

Craft Fail [CraftFail.com]  This website is a great place to see the creative process gone sadly wrong…and share the pitfalls and laughter with your peers in the process!

Why You Should Resolve To Fail [Fast Company] Worried you will fail in keeping your New Year’s resolutions? Maybe that’s a good thing…

How to Plan Your New Year [Simple Productivity Blog] A huge list of tips on planning your New Year.

The Glass Labryinth [Mommy Tracked] Resolutions that help you navigate the Glass Labryinth of your career.

Split Rimmed Butterfly Bowl | $12 | Judy B Freeman

As we fast approach 2011, we are reminded here on our blog and elsewhere to make resolutions and goals both professional and personal to enrich our lives and businesses, to help us make 2011 a great year. With that in mind, here are this week’s blog links to help you think, reflect, and plan. . .

Trackbacks vs Pingbacks Explained: Why You Should Definitely Read This Post [Traffic Generation Cafe]

Do you have a blog? Do you know what a trackback is? What about a pingback? No? You’ve got some reading to do, and you should start here!

Resolutions for the Soul [Shine from Yahoo]

This post takes the usual resolutions like “Lose weight” and “Be a better person” and explains how they can be used to delve more deeply into what makes you truly happy and centered.

When In Doubt, Do The Work [her circle ezine]

“Doubt is fear in disguise.” Read more and make an effort to move past your fear in 2011.

New Year’s Roundup [One Pretty Thing]

Rachel has compiled everything you need for a fabulous end to 2010 and start to 2011! Tutorials and how-to’s galore!

Enjoy, and Happy New Year!

~Laura

I saw this on TechCrunch last night: Glancely, a new app just created in October, allows you to search Etsy listings by color.

From the TechCrunch article:

Let’s say you want to find that perfect quirky little black dress for New Year’s Eve? Like a mashup of Etsy, Flickr color search and Google Instant, Glancely lets you search Etsy visually, sorting instant results by color and by price so you can scan through multiple green knit caps or purple socks or whatever handmade items your heart desires.

I tried Glancely out for myself. The concept is definitely neat, and having an app help to sort through and drill down to exactly what you are looking for can be a real timesaver. But I couldn’t help feeling that I was not seeing “all” of the results I would see by searching directly on Etsy, perhaps because in many cases the search results that Glancely pulled up for me seemed to be of a limited number. On the positive side, having another mobile app for searching on Etsy is always welcome, and giving shoppers the ability to truly “browse” through multiple images is as close as you can come to browsing in an actual brick-and-mortar store. Maybe this is why Google’s image search results are so addictive.

And speaking of Google’s image search results, I did a quick compare. I searched for “red handmade slippers” on Google’s image search, and it gave me many wonderful images to browse, as in “about 297,000″ according to Google. No, I didn’t have the stamina to browse through all of the images. So I went to Glancely, and typed in “red handmade slippers” and received no results. Typing in just “handmade slippers” didn’t work either. But type in the simple word “slippers” and you are good to go! Several eye-catching images were presented to me. An easy click just once on one of the color boxes (in this case I clicked on the red box), instantly drilled down the slipper results to show me just the red ones!

Here’s my two take-aways from playing with Glancely:

1. Glancely is a fun tool to cut through the clutter and drill down to what you want to find on Etsy.

2. Glancely is yet another reason that Etsy sellers need to have fantastic, clear, product images for their products. (Yes, we here at Handmade Spark will never stop encouraging the ongoing pursuit of stellar product pictures in your online shops!)

You can read the full article from TechCrunch here.

You can try out Glancely for yourself here.

Try it out and let me know what you think in the comments below.

~Laura

Etsy was profiled in the New York Times today, in their Technology section. Not surprising for one of New York’s hottest start-ups! What makes Etsy stand out more and more in the eyes of those actively watching them, is how they continue to build on a sense of community with their buyers and sellers, even as they increase in members, revenues, scope, and more.

It is this sense of community that formerly drew customers (again, both buyers and sellers) to eBay. As eBay has grown, many of its smaller niche sellers have felt lost among the huge sellers of mass-produced items. While Etsy says it will have handled almost $400 million in transactions this year, that number still pales in comparison to eBay, which analysts predict could handle up to $15 billion in sales this year. Still, Etsy is doing many things right, and building on the idea of a niche community (or several small niche communities within Etsy), will continue to resonate with both buyers and sellers.

The folksy appeal of Etsy’s site creates a kind of intimacy between buyers and sellers, said Rachel Botsman, co-author of the book “What’s Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption.” And shoppers can feel good about their purchases because the experience is similar to that of supporting an independent crafter or local artist at a flea market.

“Some people are more interested in buying an item or a good with a story behind it,” Ms. Botsman said. “There’s a backlash against anonymous mass-produced goods, and eBay feels as though it’s been taken over by mass-produced goods.”

We here at Handmade Spark LOVE the idea of community collaboration, and have been working on our new Handmade Spark Studio feature around this concept. We can’t wait to share it with you soon, and look forward to how it will provide a new way for buyers and sellers to truly “connect” with each other!

You can read the entire New York Times profile on Etsy here.

~Laura

Framed Butterfly Display | $60 | Insect Art

With Christmas just a few days away…here are some links to crafty tutorials and yummy recipe gift ideas for your enjoyment!

Fabric Pinwheels Free Project Tutorial [Sandi Henderson Design]

From the author of Sewing Bits and Pieces comes this fun project!

Things To Consider With Bookbinding [Elizabeth Carls]

A wonderful summary of terms and tips to know about bookbinding, from Handmade Spark member Elizabeth Carls.

Glass Jar Votive Holders Tutorial [Pretty Handy Girl]

I just adore this tutorial, and had to share it here with you!

A Gnoma Claus “window appliqué” [Happy Zombie]

A no-sew project, which you can use beyond the holidays. Window fabric appliqués? Very cool!

48 Homemade Gifts In A Jar [Tip Junkie]

Still need a few more gift ideas? You can’t go wrong with one of these!

Enjoy!

~Laura

Boho Holiday Gift Tag Set | $12.15 | Bijoux Paperie

We’re coming down to the wire, with just a bit over a week left until the Christmas holiday. Hope everyone is doing their best to stay sane by staying as serene as possible. Remember, the word is “holidays” not “holiDAZE” – try to be in the moment as often as possible, so you can catch all the little joys that sometimes get lost in the midst of everything going on.

For this week’s blog links, I’m going a bit lighter on the business tips, a bit heavier on the eye candy and creative interest stories.

7 Naughty Creative Business Tips [Blacksburg Belle]

Whether you’ve been good or bad this year, these tips will help you start off 2011 with a bang!

Tutorial: Mini Gift Pouches [Pretty Handy Girl]

There’s still time to jazz up those last-minute gift card purchases for someone special!

20 Beautiful Examples of Christmas Bokeh [My Modern Met]

Eye candy to enjoy and get you into the spirit of the season! What is Bokeh, you ask? Read our blog post about it here.

Infographic of the Day: Clock Knits Time into a Scarf [FastCo Design]

Yes, an actual clock that knits.

College Hosts Recycled Art Show to Raise Eco Awareness [Green Diary]

Ivy Tech Community College, in Indiana, USA, hosts this annual show where artists are invited to make something creative out of trash.

Enjoy!

~Laura

Every so often, a book comes along that surprises you. So it was with Craft Hope: Handmade Crafts for a Cause by Jade Sims. Before reading this book, I knew that it was one of the Lark Craft titles released this year, and that it had something to do with making crafts to give to others in need. (That was my pre-reading simplistic summary!) And so, when I began to read this book, I was not prepared for the journey I was about to take through its pages. More about that later in this review.

First off, you need to know and understand what Craft Hope – the movement – is. It didnt start with this book, but this book has helped grow its ranks to help more people than ever imagined. Jade, a mother of three, began Craft Hope as a way to teach her children about helping others and making a positive difference in the world. Jade had already been a crafty blogger for a couple of years, amazed at the crafty network she became a part of, with crafters located all over the world.

Jade describes the humble beginnings of Craft Hope in the beginning of her book:

It started with the simple urge to combine my love of crafting with my desire to spread hope to those who have lost hope or feel forgotten and unloved. I made the site and started with a call for handmade pillowcase dresses (I posted a basic pattern) for a childrens shelter in Mexico. Twenty-seven dresses arrived in the mail within a few weeks. I moved on to cloth dolls for an orphanage in Nicaragua and quickly got a lesson in the power of the Internet: crafters from all over the world began sending in their handcrafted dolls. In what seemed like no time, people from as far away as Brazil, Morocco, Australia, and Japan had sent in 405 handmade dolls. We kept going, gathering burp cloths and crib sheets for orphanages in India, sock monkeys for a childrens burn camp in California, and more than enough quilts for each homeless child in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The growth of the Craft Hope community in a short time was astounding, but it was each individual making up the group that was so inspiring: an 86-year-old woman knitting caps for preemies, a fashion student wanting to do something useful with her remnants, and many, many children learning how to sew dolls and sock monkeys as they also learned that giving really can feel even better than receiving.

Think about that for a minute. A call to action that defied age limits. Little kids learning about the importance of helping others, and spending time creating things rather than playing video games or watching TV. A fashion student wanting to recycle her remnants by providing for those in need. And an elderly woman creating as well. These are just 3 examples from the large network of Craft Hope participants located all over the world, united by the idea of creating handmade items for those most in need of them. (I instantly began revising my simplistic pre-reading summary of this book!)

There are over 30 projects, each with colorful photos and well-written instructions, designed by well-known crafty designers. Included within each project are some “Hope Notes” with quotes from Craft Hope participants. Each project’s main charity is listed with some background, and other appropriate charities are included too. Templates are included at the back of the book for each project, along with artist bios, and a basic sewing kit outline with examples of stitching for those unfamiliar with sewing.

Yes you could benefit from this book simply as a crafty how-to book. But this book is so much more than that. This book took me on a journey where I learned about charities and organizations that I had never heard of. One, in particular, really struck me: The Little Red Wagon Foundation. This organization was started in 2005 by an eight-year-old boy who wanted to help underprivileged kids. An eight-year-old boy. That’s pretty darn cool. And as you read through each project, you will keep having these moments where you just stop and think and be amazed at the generosity and selflessness of people young and old. People who saw a need and simply decided that they would do their best to fulfill it.

When I finished this book, I literally had tears in my eyes. We can be surrounded by so much bad news, heartbreak, struggles, and even everyday stress. But reading this book, especially at this time of year, was truly a joy as I was reminded of how much good there is out there.

Enter this giveaway, or buy this book, or check out the Craft Hope website. Learn more, get your kids involved. It will make you feel good, and more importantly: it will make those who receive your generosity feel good.

~Laura

PS – As if you need another reason to want this book, but just in case: HGTV just included Craft Hope: Handmade Crafts for a Cause in its new list of the 20 must-have coffee table books for 2010! You can read the full list on HGTV’s website here.

Okay, I hear what you’re thinking: “Another guide on this topic?”  Well… yes and no. Yes, it is a guide on a topic that is close to all of our hearts and business minds. No, in that this guide is different. Reading this book was like having a good friend sit down with you and tell it like it is. (I think these kinds of friends are the best, by the way, especially when one is first considering dipping their toes into the proverbial water of selling handmade goods.) The book begins at the beginning – pun intended – with asking if you are really ready to sell. By offering various points to consider, Chris helps the reader arm themselves with information to help make such a decision.

The chapters continue as if Chris is accompanying the reader on their journey to become a seller. The chapters are organized into five main sections:

First Things First

Getting Started as a Casual Seller

Sales Venues for the Casual Seller and Beyond

Transitioning Into a More Active Seller

Sales Venues for the More Active Seller

Hand Painted Flower Ceramic Flat Oval Beads | $2.12 | Chetti Beads

Within each section are many chapters and subheadings, easily organized in the Table of Contents in a such a way that you can either read from cover to cover, or skip around to the parts most important to you. From Making Connections in the Crafting Community to Quantifying Costs, from Selecting a Marketing Color Scheme to Rethinking Your Finished Goods Inventory, Chris walks you through each section which include tips and term definitions sprinkled throughout. Like any of the Complete Idiot’s Guides, the format makes the subject matter easy to find, easy to understand, and enjoyable to read.

Plus there’s bonus content, and who doesn’t love bonus content? If you go to the website Crafty Channels, you will find this book’s Table of Contents, Supplemental Appendix, and the Crafty Channel blog. It’s like having Chris be your virtual mentor, and that’s pretty darn helpful.

Giveaway Alert!

We have two – yes two! – signed copies to give away to two lucky Handmade Spark blog readers! All you have to do is leave a comment below, and tell us why you would like to have this book. (Only one entry per person, please.) We will take your comments through Sunday night, December 12th. At that time, we will close the comments and assign a number to everyone. Using a random number generator, we will choose our two winners. These winners will be announced on Monday, December 13th.

Good luck!

~Laura Kuhlmann

California writer and artisan Chris Franchetti Michaels has written extensively about jewelry and jewelry making online and is the author of Teach Yourself Visually Jewelry Making and Beading, Beading Quick Tips, Wire Jewelry Quick Tips, and Teach Yourself Visually Beadwork. Chris has appeared on several episodes of the DIY Network television show Jewelry Making, and her designs have been featured in popular jewelry project books. Visit her website for help and inspiration. And visit her Handmade Spark mini-site here: Chetti Beads.

Vintage Santa Card | $6 | ByTheWayside

Take a few minutes out from the hustle and bustle of this season to check out the following links. You’ll be inspired, motivated, informed, and might smile a bit too!

The World’s Worst Boss [Seth Godin's Blog]

According to Seth, the world’s worst boss is you. Uh-huh. Read why we better learn to better manage ourselves.

Brightening Your Business’s Star Factor [Abby Kerr Ink]

First in a 3-part series on Abby’s blog about the right ways to toot your own business horn. Good stuff.

Personalized Name Gift Wrap [The Swell Life]

Cool tutorial to show your friends and family that their gifts really are meant for them. (Side benefit? No confusion over which package is for which person!)

Being Safe on Etsy: Spotting and Avoiding Advance Fee Fraud [Etsy's The Storque]

Etsy explains one of the most common online scams, and how it shows up on Etsy.

Flowchart: How to Make Money on the Internet [FastCo Design]

I hesitate to say I’ve included this for entertainment purposes, although reading through this flowchart will make you chuckle here and there. But this flowchart has worth, to see it all mapped out. (Plus Etsy is included in it too!)

Enjoy!

~Laura Kuhlmann

Lark Crafts has published an amazing array of books this year, each coveted by artists and crafters for their own knowledge and inspiration…and purchased by those that love artists and crafters (!) to give as the perfect gifts. We are so pleased to be partnered with Lark Crafts to bring you – our Handmade Spark readers – access to their popular crafting library!

Today’s book review, just in time for the holidays: Fa La La La Felt, 45 Handmade Holiday Decorations by Amanda Carestio. This is a soft-cover book, 132 pages, published this year in the late summer.

In conclusion: Head to your favorite bookstore and purchase a copy of this book!

Yes, I know, it is odd to begin a book review with the end result – but – the holidays are upon us and you need this book to help create adorable felt projects, whether for your own home décor or as gifts to share with others. Here’s why:

Thirteen designers, plus author Amanda Carestio, provide you with 45 felt projects designed for all skill levels, from hand- and machine-sewn, to no-sew. Plus there are eco-friendly projects using eco felt (naturally!) and recycled felted fabrics.

The book begins with an introduction and some felt basics – a section which covers different types of felt, how to create felted fabric, basic tools and techniques, and various types of embroidery stitches. After the basics, you can move on to creating! With 24 ornament designs, 11 types of decorations, and 11 adorable ideas for stockings, you are only limited by your own creativity! And for our crafty readers, this means you will come up with countless variations on the designs – I have no doubts about that.

The ornaments section of the book had me thinking beyond the holidays and winter. For example there are adorable fruit ornaments that I can imagine worked into someone’s kitchen décor. And the animal crackers ornaments I can picture hanging in a nursery. (Of course up high, out of reach of the baby. Safety always first.)

The decorations range from garlands to tabletop decor to wreaths and more. The stockings include everything down to little stockings for your pets. Being owned by two cats – yes they own me and my husband – this was the perfect project to find. (And was it just my imagination that our cat Lulu, snuggled next to me while I read this book, put her paw on this particular page?)

Each project is so colorful, whether the felts are in pastels or brights. The photography is up close and detailed. Each project is clearly explained step by step, with templates included in the back of the book for all projects (along with directions on how to use them). There are bios for each designer, including addresses for their blogs, shops, and websites, plus a handy index in the back. I liked seeing that some of the designers have Etsy shops. (And as an aside, the author has a blog called “digs & bean” that is a fun place to visit.)

To further tease you about how fun this book is, here are two links to the Lark Crafts website for free – yes free! – projects from this book, courtesy of the awesome team at Lark Crafts.

Oopsy Daisies Stocking by designer Amanda Carestio

Click here for the PDF project from Lark Crafts: Oopsy Daisies Stocking

Paisley Power Stocking by designer Cathy Ziegele

Click here for the PDF project from Lark Crafts: Paisley Power Stocking

So in conclusion – just to refresh your memory – head to your favorite bookstore and purchase a copy of this book, and whip up some handmade felt decorations!

Enjoy!

~Laura Kuhlmann

Love felt? Make sure to check out Deck The Halls…With Felt!