Friday Photo: Turning the Wheels Of the Website

Chad Graves, a member of Spoonflower's engineering team, writes code powered by loud music a couple of hours before heading out to enjoy the beautiful North Carolina weather this Friday afternoon!

Living In A Jane Austen Novel - Fabric Edition

We asked designers this week to create fabric designs inspired by the idea of what life would be like in a novel by Jane Austen, the great 19th-century English novelist. Choose your favorites and we'll report back next week with a literary top 10!

This week's participants are:
1.  2_victorian_heart by tama_ann 
2.  A Bevy of Beautiful Bonnets Ready for a Romp in the Garden by glimmericks 
3.  a cup of tea and a chat by karinka 
4.  A Timeline of Quotes from Pride & Prejudice by love,witty 
5.  an outward display of decorum by weavingmajor 
6.  anna_sewell by cherb 
7.  Austen Ephemera by crowlands 
8.  Austens_world by veerapfaffli 
9.  Austentatious by cricquette 
10.  Becoming Accomplished by winterblossom 

Ten Cute Fabrics, One Cuter Bunny!

With the Easter holiday nearly upon us, in our most recent contest we challenged designers to create fabrics featuring painted eggs. The winner is French designer Virginie Ozanon, whose 'Easter Joy!' fabric you can buy on its own or as part of a fat quarter bundle that includes all of the top ten designs from this week's contest. Keep in mind that the painted egg fat quarter fabric bundle will be available only through April 3rd. Congratulations to the top 10 designers!

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The final votes:

1. 491 votes for Easter Joy ! by demigoutte 
2. 410 votes for Egg-stravaganza (painted eggs) by groovity 
3. 352 votes for Ukrainian Mania by dianne_annelli 
4. 342 votes for Lithuanian Easter Eggs by cathyheckstudio 
5. 339 votes for Decorative eggs, after Fabergé by su_g 
6. 324 votes for Painted Eggs by fattcheese 
7. 308 votes for Easter Eggs by kimsa 
8. 306 votes for Easter Garden by amel24 
9. 291 votes for Painted Eggs by nicoletamarin 
10. 284 votes for The Chicken or The Egg by mag-o 

Learn to Monetize Your Craft Blog From CraftyPod

This week we're giving away another great resource for helping turn your creative passion into something that can help earn you a living. One of our favorite people in the crafting world, Sister Diane of CraftyPod, is offering a 3-week online class on how to make money from your craft blog. The class, which normally costs $150, starts on May 6, 2013. Enter anytime between now and June 2, 2013, and we'll announce one lucky winner on June 3rd!

ENTER TO WIN THIS CRAFTYPOD CLASS

Congratulations to last week's winner of Amy Flurry's book Recipe For Press (and 3 yards of Spoonflower fabric), Jennifer Kesler!

Market Yourself March: Make Marketing Fun!

This week's Market Yourself March advice comes from Heather Dutton, of Hang Tight Studio.  Heather shares her fun approach to marketing her creative business through colorful postcards, great goodie bags, and more!

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If you're anything like me, the word marketing sends shivers down your spine.  We're designers and artists, we'd much rather spend our time designing and being creative, right?  Like it or not though, marketing is a vital part of running a successful business whether you're a big company or a small independent designer.  It's easy to get lost in the sea of talented designers that are out there.  You could be a design rock star, but if you don't market your amazing creations the only people who will know it are your friends and family.  As wonderful as it is to have their support and encouragement, odds are it's not going to help grow your business.

It's easy to get overwhelmed when it comes to marketing your creative business.  It's an industry all on its own and people major in it when they're in college for goodness sake!  Since I clearly chose a different path by going to art school and spreadsheets make me break out in hives, I decided that first and foremost I needed to find a way to make marketing my business fun.  If I'm not creatively inspired by what I'm doing and I'm not having fun doing it, then I'm definitely not going to stick with it.

When I opened my Etsy shop years ago I saw it as a perfect opportunity to let my customers know a bit more about me and my other creative endeavors.  A new customer might not even know that I design fabric or that I run a creative business outside of my Etsy shop.  Free samples and little treats make me absolutely giddy so I decided to create a little self-promotion goodie bag that I include with each of my Etsy orders. 

My marketing budget is pretty small but I've found that a little investment goes a long way.  One of the first things that I treated myself to was a custom rubber stamp for my design studio.  It's an easy (and FUN) way to add your logo to just about anything.  Another fun and affordable way to get your name out there is to create small stickers for your business.  Moo.com is a great resource, especially since they allow you to have a variety of designs within one order instead of being limited to just one image.

My goodie bag includes a variety of little treats that all get tucked inside a small muslin bag that I've stamped with my logo.  It's a little bundle of Hang Tight Studio fun and it changes whenever I have something new that I want to promote.

One of the newest additions to my goodie bag is a small swatch sampler that I created to help spread the word about my Spoonflower shop.  Fabric is such a tactile product and I thought this would be a fun way to show people how amazing Spoonflower fabrics really are.

All of the little details add a personal touch when you're connecting with customers and they don't require a massive budget, just a little bit of time.  Be creative, keep a notebook to jot down marketing ideas when they pop into your head, create a Pinterest board for inspiration, find a method that works for you and above all else, make sure you're having fun!

• Heather's Website
• Heather on Spoonflower
• Heather on Facebook
• Heather on Pinterest
• Heather on Instagram

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About Heather Dutton

Heather Dutton started her freelance / licensing design adventure in 2000 after a successful career as a fashion designer in San Francisco. Under the studio name Hang Tight Studio (www.hangtightstudio.com) she creates designs & surface illustrations for a wide variety of companies including Pottery Barn, Ore' Originals, Tupperware & DENY designs. She's obsessed with pattern, crazy about color, slightly addicted to Pinterest & has seriously love for the color green.

 

Market Yourself March: Keeping Marketing Strategies Simple

As we approach the end of our March series of posts about marketing your creative business, modern quilter and surface designer Thomas Knauer shares his simple approach to marketing. 

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Marketing can feel like an exceedingly complicated thing, especially as one gets into the weeds of particular decisions: this card or that, to place an ad or not, etc, etc. It can be mind-boggling, expensive, and often garner little to no reward. That is why I do very little of it, at least in those particular ways. My business cards are simple; I’ve never taken out an ad. I’ve stopped doing giveaways because that traffic doesn’t really endure, and I don’t do a newsletter. When it comes to all of the usual marketing suspects, I don’t do much.

For me, all of those particulars that are the trappings of marketing make up the surface of marketing, not the substance. For me, marketing is all about the plan—the long term perspective—and the plan comes from two simple questions: Who am I? and What do I do?

I don’t look at marketing as a means to reach an audience, but a way to tell the stories that flow from those two questions. The individual things you do—the cards, the ads, the giveaways, and the sales—are simply tools for conveying the core message, and the first thing you need to do is figure out what that story is. That means really making sense of and understanding your business and putting together a vision for what you want that business to be (a really honest one, not the sudden celebrity version).

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of people in the indie maker world doing incredibly awesome things. In an ideal world just being awesome would be enough, and at a certain level it is, but in order to succeed you need to actually build an audience, which is different from just reaching people. You need an audience that will come back again and again, one that will support you creatively and materially. 

All of the practical decisions, then, need to support that goal. Blog posts don’t just show the things; they share the nuances, the bigger picture. If a blog post is there for no other reason than to generate hits to support ad revenue or bolster stats you are doing yourself a disservice. Rather than host giveaways I build relationships based on mutual respect that leads to supporting each other through our work and our resources; you have no idea how much working with other makers can do. The goal should always be to market through good content; the mechanisms should support meaningful things, not just the mechanisms themselves.

To put it into blunt terms, lots of eyeballs are meaningless if your conversion rate is terrible; the blunderbuss is a pretty terrible tool. Reach is great, and is important as your business grows, but the key is to not sacrifice quality for quantity, mouse impressions for human impressions.

Yes, the ads, the cards, the newsletters can all help, can all get the message out there, but the most important thing is to seriously invest in knowing just why you should succeed. And then, of course, do the insanely hard work of doing amazing things; without that all of the marketing in the world won’t mean a thing.

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About Thomas Knauer

Thomas Knauer holds MFAs from both Ohio University and the Cranbook Academy of Art, and before entering the quilting world he held faculty positions at Drake University and the State University of New York. He currently designs fabric for Andover Fabrics and is expecting his first book with F+W in early 2014. At times he thinks it might be best to flee to Outer Mongolia. 

Friday Photo: Knit Baby Blankets

Some of the Spoonflower crew spent an evening sewing up a colorful stack of baby blankets from organic cotton knit for Darci to share with a children's home on her upcoming trip to Uganda. 

Painted Egg Fabrics - Hop On Over and Vote!

With spring getting ready to hop like a bunny, the theme of this week's fabric design contest is painted eggs. Here's your chance to vote for all your favorite Easter-ish fabric designs. Voting is open through Wednesday, and we promise to report back next week with a very colorful top ten!

The participants this week are:

1.  Just add Flour and Eggs! by abstracthands 
2.  The Birds of Easter Island by ceanirminger 
3.  "An Eggsellent Easter" by jeanfogelberg 
4.  -paintedegg by kikivanpersie 
5.  01 by hassansiraj26 
6.  A Basketful of Painted Eggs by robyriker 
7.  A Beautiful Bunch of Painted Easter Eggs by pencilmein 
8.  A Bees Knees Egg by karenharveycox 
9.  A Dozen Eggs in a Dozen Colors by coloroncloth 
10.  A Tisket, A Tasket... by krussimages 

Welcome to Spoonlandia! Announcing the Staff Challenge Winner

After weeks of preparation, much gnashing of teeth, innumerable exchanges of bitter looks, and a week of voting, we are pleased to announce the winners of our annual internal craft smackdown. This year Spoonflower crew members were divided into teams and asked to try their hands at something that, in many cases, they had never tried to do in their lives: creating a quilt. The fifteen teams produced a number of witty, creative and in some cases even beautiful efforts. They included an LED-lit quilt, a 3-D quilt that showcased fabric manipulation techniques, a scented quilt with a flower design, and a tribute to Spoonflower's hometown of Durham. But the winner turned out to be a tribute to Spoonflower itself, and to the many talented designers who make up the Spoonflower community. With all the votes counted, the Staff Challenge winner is the Spoonlandia quilt by the team of John, Abbey and Laurie. Their prize will be a set of cooking lessons at one of Durham's most cutting-edge restaurants, Revolution. Thanks to everyone who voted and cheered them on!

 

 

We're not going to post vote totals on this one, partly because -- at least in our book -- we think all the teams are winners. But just to remind you of the entrants, here's the list in no particular order:

1. Beth, Anne, and Kimmie: Team Mandala
2. Caroline, Joey and Leah: Team Bumblebee
3. Adam, Chad, and Kelsey: Team Color Wheel
4. Abbey, John and Laurie: Team Spoonlandia
5. Mary, Thomas, and Kerry: Team Minimal
6. Danielle, Kim F., and Kate: Team Texture
7. Deron, Kelly W., and Lindy: Team Steampunk Chess
8. Holly, Paula, and Yoalder: Team Music Tapes
9. Allie, Theresa, and Kimberly: Team Hey Girl
10. Anna, Jorren and Emma: Team Horror Closet
11. Katie, Stephanie, and Sharon: Team Haiku
12. Jesse, Kelly B. and Stephen F.: Team Durham
13. Caitlin, Jaysen, and Sarah: Team Rocketship
14. Janet, David and Stephen B.: Team Baum
15. Becca, Darci and Gart: Team Kite

Announcing Fabric8 2013: Geek Chic

Today we are very excited to announce the return of the Fabric8 Contest from Spoonflower and Robert Kaufman Fabrics. This year’s Fabric8 contest theme will be Geek Chic!  Fabric8 is an annual contest designed to discover the next groundbreaking textile designer for one of the most respected fabric companies in the industry. One of eight finalists will be chosen as the recipient of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to release a collection through Robert Kaufman that will be sold in stores across the US and around the world.  

This year's theme is intended to inspire rather than to limit the designs created for the contest, and --  while we haven't undertaken a literal definition of Geek Chic -- we have created a Pinterest board to help jumpstart your creative brainstorming:


Judges from Robert Kaufman and Spoonflower will select 100 semifinalists from all of the entries submitted. Semifinalists will be announced May 9, 2013. Voting in the semifinal round will be open to the public from May 9-15. The winner will be offered a contract from Robert Kaufman Fabrics, a $1000 advance against royalties, and a Wacom professional digital drawing tablet. Each of the eight finalists will receive $150 in Spoonflower credit.

This year we're happy to welcome American Patchwork Quilting as a media sponsor for the contest.

FIND OUT HOW TO ENTER FABRIC8

Market Yourself March: Crash Course in DIY PR + Recipe for Press Giveaway

For the month of March, we're bringing you encouragement and advice from creative business folks to help you get the word out about your creative endeavor. Today freelance writer, editor and stylist Amy Flurry shares a crash course in DIY PR, along with an excerpt from her book, Recipe for Press. 

This week we'll also give away a copy of Amy's book and three yards of the Spoonflower fabric of your choice. Enter by filling out an entry form any time between now and Tuesday, March 26, 2013, and we'll announce the winner on Wednesday. And congratulations to last week's winner of the bundle of business books for creatives, Wendy Sheridan!

ENTER FOR A CHANCE TO WIN RECIPE FOR PRESS + 3 YARDS OF FABRIC

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Ten ways to make your pitch stand out! A Crash Course in DIY PR

The truth is, editors and writers are constantly on the hunt for new people and products to feature and you don’t need a publicist in order to get our attention. You do, however, need to know what it looks like to pitch like a pro. DIY publicity works, but only if you play by these oft-unspoken-by-editors rules (there are more in my book, Recipe for Press)! When you do, it makes all the difference in scoring easy press.

Keep it personal

Always address the editor or blogger by name (and make sure you spell it correctly). A different editor compiles each section of the magazine and often that editor’s byline is written on the page. If you don’t bother to find out who you should approach, then the editor won’t feel obligated to read it. Engage the editor quickly Editors receive hundreds of pitches each week so you’ve got about three to five seconds to catch their eye. Grab their attention with a compelling headline and a clean photograph (embedded directly into the email) and keep your pitch tight, preferably two short paragraphs or less.

Work with the editorial calendar

Editors and writers for national magazines work six to seven months out and regional publications pull their pages together three to four months in advance. So if you’re pitching Country Living today, you’d want to connect your product or idea to an early fall theme like Back-to-School. Include one or two great pictures The very first thing the editor will look for in your pitch is the picture you send with it. Most editors know if they can use your product the second their eye hits the photo. Send crisp, well-lit images against a white backdrop to help your pitch rise to the top of the submission pile. And know that editors don’t open attachments. You want to embed the low-res (72 dpi) image into the email instead of sending large files that slow or clog an inbox. Give your pitch a header or subject Like a handrail for your idea, this gives editors—at a glance—the skinny on the story you have in mind. A little teaser for a bright red umbrella like (Cool Wet Weather Gear …….for under $25) helps the editor see that your product could fit in a number of themed roundups or sections. It also signals to the editor that you have done your part to make a good fit for their publication and that you are ready for press.

Think beyond printed publications

One of the smartest ways to get your product in a magazine is by starting with their website. Create a relationship with an online editor, who is also looking for people and products to feature, and she’s likely to pitch your services or product to print editors when the time is right. Make it new The one word an editor wants to see in every pitch is “new.” Why? New material fuels issue after issue. Magazines want to be the first to feature a new product or service or destination. If what you’re pitching is not new, then it is your job to tie the idea or product into a new trend, a holiday or current event. Respond to editors quickly Plenty of products with passionate people behind them fail to reach their press potential because they are simply slow to respond to editorial requests. Editors operate on very tight deadlines. If we can’t find you, we may have to move on to the company we know will come through for us every time.

Remember the Golden Rule of Publicity

The editor/PR relationship is about mutual respect, just like any other important and lasting relationship. People on either end who treat an editor or blogger as a tool or as an “outlet” are missing the message and won’t find success in pitching. Get to know the publication before you pitch When polled, editors say that the number one mistake people make in reaching out is not reading the publication before pitching. Print and online publications are formatted similarly every day/week/month, and getting to know their formula will help you identify a great fit. Does your product look like it could be plugged on to the page you're pitching? If so, then it’s likely a good fit. Similarly, don’t expect an editor to cover services when their pages are all product-driven. Do your homework first before reaching out.

Get to know the publication before you pitch

When polled, editors say that the number one mistake people make in reaching out is not reading the publication before pitching. Print and online publications are formatted similarly every day/week/month, and getting to know their formula will help you identify a great fit. Does your product look like it could be plugged on to the page you're pitching? If so, then it’s likely a good fit. Similarly, don’t expect an editor to cover services when their pages are all product-driven. Do your homework first before reaching out. 

An excerpt from Amy's book, Recipe for Press: 

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About Amy Flurry

Amy Flurry is a contributor to some of the biggest publications on the newsstand and online including InStyle, Conde Nast Traveler, Country Living and Design Sponge. Amy served as a contributing editor to Lucky magazine for six years and is the author of the new DIY publicity book, "Recipe for Press: Pitch your story like the pros and create a buzz!" Her popular DIY PR workshop serves to strengthen relationships between editors and the entrepreneur. In addition to her editorial work, Flurry provides brand consulting for a mix of fashion and lifestyle clients. 

Market Yourself March: Discovering & Using Your Strengths

This week we continue Market Yourself March, our series of posts on getting the word out about your creative enterprise with tips and practical project ideas from creative business folk. Today, Rae from ARMOMMY visits with some encouraging words on discovering your personal strengths and using them in your creative business endeavors. 

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Hello, friends! I’m so excited to share some marketing tips with you today! A little background before we get started; my name is Rae and I own a creative business with my mom (Jane) called ARMOMMY. We’ve been in business now for six years and have experienced lots of successes and failures.

Two of the greatest turning points in our business came when we 1. defined what our strengths are, and 2. leveraged our strengths in our marketing. So, let’s talk about number 1! We tend to spend a lot of time thinking about what we aren’t good at or should be better at and very little time thinking about what we are good at.

If I asked you, “what are you good at?” what would you say? Do you know? Are you confident in those strengths? Or do you just know that you are creative? That’s a good place to start, but it’s still pretty broad and can feel overwhelming. If you are like I was about a year ago, and have no idea how to answer the above question, here are a few ideas that might help you:

• Read the book, Now Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham & Donald O. Clifton, Ph.D. They also have a website and strengths test you can take here. 
• Email those closest to you and ask them what your top three strengths are. This might feel awkward, but will payoff.
• Do some soul searching and ask some specific questions. What do you love to do the most? What do you get the most positive feedback about? What have you been successful at?
• Find a place to record what you’ve learned in a way that is simple to read and easy to see (such as bullet points pinned to a board). 

Now it’s time to shake whatcha mama gave you…. Or in other words, use your natural strengths to move your business forward. Here are some examples of how you can use your newfound knowledge in your marketing:

Your personality is always a strength, so share it with the world by using it in your marketing. Are you sweet and sentimental? Do you make friends quickly? Maybe you are good at encouraging people. Whatever it is, use it in your social networking, status updates, blog posts, business cards, packaging, campaigns, and any other copy you share with your customers and potential customers.

The picture above is an example from my own life. When I received an email inviting me to do an interview and home tour on a well known mommy blog, I immediately went to the site to see what other people had done before me. What I discovered were beautifully decorated homes that had been remodeled and staged and my mind immediately started focusing on how I’m not good at displaying things on my shelves, etc. However, when it came time to take the pictures I resolved to be myself. Which includes messes and playtime, and working around the kids and wearing my workout clothes. I was scared to death about what people would think, but the response was amazing. (You can see and read more about that interview here.) Lesson learned.

Time is precious. Especially if you are growing your own small business. So, use your talents to help you decide WHAT you should spend your time doing. For instance, do you love long projects? Prepare a four-part remodeling series on your blog. Are you good at sharing details and keeping in touch with people? Promote your Instagram feed, Twitter feed, and Facebook page and keep them updated as a way to grow your audience. Are you good at public speaking? Look for opportunities to teach classes or speak at events. Do you love starting conversations and meeting new people? Say yes to farmers' markets and craft fairs!

Last but not least, look for people you can trade services with. If you are really good at writing product descriptions and you have a friend that is a talented photographer, ask if she would like to do a work swap. You write her product copy and she can take pictures of all your products. The best part is that it will result in less work (it usually takes us less time to do what we are good at) and everyone will be happier with the results. So in short-- define what you are good at and apply those things to your business and specifically your marketing. Then when you are on a roll, start to build some of the skills you wish you were better at and outsource those tasks you know you will never want to do! Hopefully this information was helpful for you… I would love to hear your thoughts and questions in the comments below!

XO. rae

Friday Photo: Prepping Wallpaper & Decals

Joey prepares chevon decals and wallpaper to be shipped to their new homes!

Quilt vs Quilt: The Spoonflower Staff Smackdown

Every year we turn the tables for a week and ask you to vote for designs created by the Spoonflower staff. This year we divided all of our people randomly into fifteen teams of three people each and then asked each team to create a quilt using fabric it designed. We also asked the teams to chronicle their efforts for the Spoonflower blog. We hope you'll agree that the results are quite entertaining. Here's your chance to help choose the winning team!

The participating teams are:

1. Beth, Anne, and Kimmie: Team Mandala
2. Caroline, Joey and Leah: Team Bumblebee
3. Adam, Chad, and Kelsey: Team Color Wheel
4. Abbey, John and Laurie: Team Spoonlandia
5. Mary, Thomas, and Kerry: Team Minimal
6. Danielle, Kim F., and Kate: Team Texture
7. Deron, Kelly W., and Lindy: Team Steampunk Chess
8. Holly, Paula, and Yoalder: Team Music Tapes
9. Allie, Theresa, and Kimberly: Team Hey Girl
10. Anna, Jorren and Emma: Team Horror Closet
11. Katie, Stephanie, and Sharon: Team Haiku
12. Jesse, Kelly B. and Stephen F.: Team Durham
13. Caitlin, Jaysen, and Sarah: Team Rocketship
14. Janet, David and Stephen B.: Team Baum
15. Becca, Darci and Gart: Team Kite

Girl Power Fabric Hour

The winner of our lighthearted, fabric-centric tribute to International Women's Day is one of our favorite designers, Miriam Bos (Irrimiri) of the Netherlands. Check out her fabric and the rest of the top ten, or buy yourself a specially priced fat quarter bundle with all of them.

The voting results:

1. 494 votes for Girl Power lies in happiness by irrimiri 
2. 403 votes for Strong Smart Beautiful ME by gitchyville_stitches 
3. 376 votes for Girl power around the world by ebygomm 
4. 363 votes for Women do it all by addilou 
5. 362 votes for Girls' Powerful Playtime by cricquette 
6. 358 votes for knight of hearts by dennisthebadger 
7. 325 votes for girl flower power by amel24 
8. 300 votes for 'Ordinary Girl' Power by pattyryboltdesigns 
9. 292 votes for Girls - A hand-drawn repeating pattern (click through to see the whole thing!) by rikkib 
10. 267 votes for Paper Doll by cassiopee 

2013 Spoonflower Staff Challenge Pt. 15: Craft Closet Of Terror

This is the fifteenth -- and final! -- post in our series of staff project narratives created for the Spoonflower Staff Quilt Challenge. Voting for this contest opens tomorrow, Thursday, 3/14.

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Howdy! Are you looking for a tale of suspense, eerie coincidences and spoooooky sounds? If so, you might be in the wrong place, but if you’re looking for the story of Team Terror’s staff challenge quilt, you’re in the right place.

Our team boasted 3 members from across Spoonflower’s departments. I (Emma) work at the help desk, Jorren works in Operations and Anna is an accountant extraordinaire. I’d heard through the grapevine--the Spoonvine?--that Jorren was known for his pretty excellent doodles and drawings (if you’ve received an order recently, you may have been lucky enough to receive one of his masterpieces on your packslip). The Craft Closet of Terror was hatched when Jorren emailed us this classic horror comic cover from the 1950’s.

Since this is Spoonflower, we decided to create a campy horror-comic cover but with a crafty twist. We started with a few quick sketches and keywords we thought we might want to use: It was decided that the scariest thing, for a crafter, was the looming pile of unfinished projects hiding somewhere just out of sight. Whether it’s the works-in-progress or the unfinished objects, what could be more terrifying?! We discussed the finer points of naming--would it be Crafts from the Fabric Stash, à la Tales from the Crypt? Which rolls off the tongue better, “Closet of Horror” or “Closet of Terror”?

Jorren pointed out that many of these mid-century horror comic series had a “host”--a little character featured on the front of the who introduced the creeeeepy tale inside. It seemed only appropriate that the “host” of our journey through the terrors of the craft closet be our own fearless leaders, Stephen and Gart, co-founders of Spoonflower.
Since neither Anna nor I can draw worth a hoot, Jorren took over the design process of the front of the front panel of the quilt. He started with a quick sketch (notice the empty circle where our hosts would be--we wanted to be sure that our bosses wouldn’t mind being depicted as a grotesque headless 2-headed monster. If they do, we haven’t heard about it yet!).

Then Jorren started the process of drawing his design on the computer. Using a drawing tablet and a lethal combination of InDesign (for the typography) and Photoshop, Jorren started with the lettering at the top of the quilt.

2013 Spoonflower Staff Challenge Pt. 14: Color Wheel Quilt

This is the fourteenth in our series of staff project posts created for the Spoonflower Staff Quilt Challenge. Voting for this contest opens tomorrow, Thursday, 3/14.

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For the 2013 Spoonflower Staff Challenge, our team decided to make an unconventional quilt. As printer operators, Adam and I (Kelsey) are constantly working with color, while our other teammate, Chad, spends most of his time in the Engineering Department. So, in order to use everyone’s talents, we came up with the idea of an illuminated color wheel quilt.

The first step was to design a color wheel.

After we established the concept, Adam utilized a few functions in Adobe Illustrator to make the base of the design. First he used a little math to separate the circle into 60 equal sections.  

Once Adam had the angle for each section he used the “Copy Rotate” feature to complete a 6 degree rotation, and then used Command D until he was back at the beginning. 

2013 SPOONFLOWER STAFF CHALLENGE Pt. 13: Flight Kite Quilt

This is the thirteenth in our series of staff project posts created for the Spoonflower Staff Quilt Challenge. Voting for this contest opens tomorrow, Thursday, 3/14.

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My imaginative Spoonflower crew mates for this year's annual staff contest, Gart and Becca, brilliantly brainstormed our way into an unusual answer to the challenge to design fabric for and sew a quilt. I (Darci) was fortunate to be along for the ride. 

Becca found inspiration for this quilting challenge in an old issue of Vogue, of all places! While educating herself about the proper accessories for a weekend in Montauk, NY, a gorgeous patchwork kite by Betty Street caught her eye and she immediately tore out the photo to show the team.

Business Books For Creatives Giveaway

Keeping to our Market Yourself March theme, this week we'll hold a drawing to award one winner a bundle of three business books for creatives. As anyone who has tried to run a business can tell you, one of the key challenges you face is getting your work out there. Artists in particular have a tendency to focus on the process and on the product itself, which is the fun part. Selling yourself and getting known are, for many, the hard parts. The good news is that social media provides individual artists with a whole arsenal of free tools for promoting their work. The bad news, of course, is that the same set of tools is available to thousands and thousands of your fellow artists who are hoping to do the same thing. How do you stand out? How do you get noticed? The business books we're giving away this week can give you a great start in tackling the challenge. Fill out our entry form any time between now and Tuesday, March 19th and we'll announce a winner on Wednesday the 20th. Good luck!

This week we're giving away three great books to help you grow your creative business. They are:

• Grow Your Handmade Business: How to Envision, Develop, and Sustain a Successful Creative Business by Kari Chapin. Applying her trademark "you-can-do-it" coaching style to the nuts and bolts of business planning, Kari Chapin covers all of the issues involved in turning your creative hobby into a successful business--from mapping out a business plan to expanding production and distribution, finding funding, and addressing legal matters. With this definitive guide, you'll discover how to grow your business beyond the dining room table and finally quit your day job.
• Creative, Inc.: The Ultimate Guide to Running a Successful Freelance Business by Joy Deangdeelert Cho and  Meg Mateo Ilasco. As the hipster classic Craft, Inc. did for crafters, this book will teach all types of creatives illustrators, photographers, graphic designers, animators, and more how to build a successful business doing what they love. Accessible, spunky, and packed with practical advice, Creative, Inc. is an essential for anyone ready to strike out on their own.
• Blogging for Creatives: How designers, artists, crafters and writers can blog to make contacts, win business and build success by Robin Houghton. Of the billions of internet users worldwide, a massive 80% are visiting blogs. The blogosphere has become a huge platform for individuals and businesses alike. Blogging for Creatives is the first approachable, non-techie guide to the blogosphere, complete with hundreds of tips, tricks and motivational stories from artistic bloggers who have started from scratch.

ENTER FOR A CHANCE TO WIN

Last week's winner of the amazing bundle of prizes from The Makerie Sewing Retreat was Stephanie Basden. Congratulations, Stephanie!

2013 Spoonflower Staff Quilting Challenge Pt. 12: A Textured Quilt

This is the twelfth in our series of staff project posts created for the Spoonflower Staff Quilt Challenge.  Voting on this contest opens Thursday, 3/14.

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Danielle, Kim and I (Kate) weren’t really sure where to start with this year's staff challenge.  A quilt?  Made with Spoonflower fabric?  What limitless possibilities!  All avid crafters, it was a little difficult to begin to narrow down the focus, so we ruminated on our ideas for a few days before our first meeting. 

Several years ago, I'd got my hands on a lovely book, The Art of Manipulating Fabric by Colette Wolff.  I had since hoped to have the time and focus to sit down and try out some of the phenomenal grids and patterns she suggests for pleating, tucking, smocking and more.  This quilt project seemed to be the perfect time to try it out and when I suggested this idea, Danielle and Kim were both enthusiastic.  As a matter of fact, Kim had a copy of the same book on her bookshelf!


Danielle and I each took a gander at reproducing some of the patterns that served as guides for assorted types of fabric manipulation in the book.  Printing those patterns onto Spoonflower fabric enabled us to bypass the usual time-consuming task of manually measuring and marking grids, which allowed us a lot more time for sewing exploration.  Danielle started with designing simple grids of dots, each spaced in different increments, using different colors, and printed onto different fabrics so that we could explore several different methods of manipulating fabric to create textures.

One of Danielle's grids of dots