Search Results for: diane gilleland

Craft Business Book Giveaway and Diane Gilleland Blog Tune-up Winner

February 8, 2012

In the same upping-your-online-game spirit as last week's "Craft Blog Tune-up" course giveaway from Sister Diane of Craftypod, this week we're giving away two books on how to turn your crafting passion into a business. The two titles are Kari Chapin's Handmade Marketplace and Meg Mateo Ilasco's Craft, Inc.(Revised Edition). Both include tips on using social media to connect with your community and get the word out, advice on how to price your products, pay yourself, and keep your own books, and plenty of interviews with people who have done it successfully before. Between these books, a craft blog tune-up, and pointers on how to photograph your fabrics and the beautiful things you make from them, this could be your year to make your creative passion your job!

To enter the drawing for these books, please comment below or on the corresponding Facebook post. Entries close next Tuesday, 2/13 at 7pm EST, and we'll announce the winner next week. Good luck, all! This giveaway is now closed. We'll announce a winner shortly!

Congratulations goes out to Stephanie Scigliano, the winner of last week's "Craft Blog Tune-up" course. We'll be putting her in touch with Sister Diane shortly to get started on her blog sprucing!

Diane Gilleland’s Craft Blog Tune-Up Course Giveaway

February 1, 2012

I'm really excited about this week's giveaway, courtesy of the lovely Diane Gilleland. For those of you who don't know, Diane is the author of the Craftypod blog and the creator of the Craftypod podcast. She is also author of the print book, Kanzashi in Bloom, as well as some full-length e-books on how to create a compelling craft blog and social media presence. In short, Diane is practically Queen of the Craft Blogsphere, and we're very big fans.

As you might imagine, Diane is in a pretty darn good position to offer great tips to folks who want to take both their crafting and their craft blogging to the next level. This spring, she's offering some online classes on how to give your craft blog a tune-up, and this is your chance to win some world-class craft blogging advice from one of our favorite craft bloggers out there. The live class begins on 2/13 and runs through 3/12, while the self-guided class can be done in 2-3 weeks (or at your own pace, of course). You can read about both options and decide which works best for you here.

To enter this giveaway, just leave your comment below or on the corresponding Facebook post, include your Spoonflower screen name, and let us know which class option you'd prefer. Entries close next Tuesday, 2/7 at 7 pm EST, and we'll announce a winner on the blog. Good luck, y'all! Entries for this giveaway are now closed. Thanks to all who entered, and stay tuned for an announcement of the winner on 2/8/12!

Thanks to all the folks who entered last week's giveaway for a year's subscription to Threads Magazine. The winner was Jamie Kalvestran of Wisconsin — congratulations, Jamie!

Spoonflower’s 12 Days of Giveaways, Day Five: Win Kanzashi book & fat quarter bundle selected by Sister Diane

December 5, 2011

Day_Five Lights

Day Five of our 12 Days of Giveaways brings us to one of our favorite crafting books by one of our favorite crafty people, Diane Gilleland of CraftyPod. We're giving away a copy of Sister Diane's book Kanzashi in Bloom: 20 Simple Fold-and-Sew Projects to Wear and Give, as well as a fat quarter bundle of Spoonflower fabrics selected by the author herself.

As before, to participate in the drawing just leave a comment on this post (or on the link to this post on our Facebook page). We'll accept entries that come in up until 7 am EST on Dec. 6th, but please this time be sure to leave us enough information to be able to track you down by listing your Spoonflower username in your comment. We'll choose one winner and announce the results tomorrow, December 6th, around 10:00 AM Eastern Standard Time.

Congratulations to the winner of our Day 4 giveaway of a Bamboo Capture digital drawing tablet, Poupée DeVisage of Santa Rosa, California. Thanks to everyone who participated! Loved reading all the comments.

Fabrics selected by Sister Diane of CraftyPod

BlueSnowflakes2

31 Scary Cute Must See Halloween DIYs

September 16, 2016

Something about dropping temperatures, the smell of mulled spices and the orangey, golden hues painting the trees this time of year gets us in the mood to make aaaaaaaall the crafty things. Whether it’s sprucing up the home with an autumnal refresh, or a new cut-and-sew Halloween mask to spook the trick-or-treaters, we’ve found every Halloween craft under the Harvest moon for you to make this fall!

1. Cut and Sew Vintage Halloween Treat Bags

Halloween Treat Bags | Heidi Kenney

DIY Vintage-inspired treat bags? Yes, please. See the tutorial here.

8 Sewing Projects that Use a Fat Quarter or Less

September 25, 2015

Lately we’ve been super inspired to make new projects and try new techniques as we combat the never-ending fabric hoarding stash! As we strike-off all the projects on the list of things to make, we realize the list is getting too short and as the scrap fabric pile grows ever larger! To combat both issues, we’ve rounded up 8 projects that require no more than a fat quarter of a fabric.

DIY Bralettes & Briefs | Ada Spragg for Spoonflower [Read more…] about 8 Sewing Projects that Use a Fat Quarter or Less

Win a Copy of Quilting Happiness!

August 28, 2013

Today we are giving away a copy of Quilting Happiness, written by crafting and quilting experts Diane Gilleland and Christina Lane! Spoonflower crafter-in-chief Kim stops by to share her review of this brand new book!

Kim: I don't know about the rest of you, but I do love a beautiful quilting book. When I'm facing a day packed with errands and kids' after-school activities, when I'm short on time to actually work on a quilt of my own, or when I just need inspiration or ideas, I'll often pop a quilting book into my bag to peek at during the day. A good quilting book makes me feel like I'm still engaged in one of my favorite creative activities even if I'm not physically at my sewing machine. And who doesn't love a little eye candy when your day is uninspired or just too busy?

Quilting Happiness is the new book about making quilting "more joyful" by talented bloggers, sewists, and authors Christina Lane and Diane Gilleland (of The Sometimes Crafter and CraftyPod, respectively). Quilting Happiness offers plenty of luscious quilting and patchwork projects to inspire and energize, a must-have for any quilting book, but this book was different from any quilting book I've run across before. I know I love to make quilts, of course, but Christina and Diane challenged me to figure out what, exactly, I love about it through a series of creative exercises. The "creative tough love" exercise struck me as a good one. The "tough love" in this case takes the form of making a block you don't like using fabrics you love and a block that you do like out of fabrics you hate. I haven't tried this exercise yet but I'm super-curious about how that particular love/hate mash-up would turn out. It's like a soap opera of the sewing room!

In addition to offering help with creative soul-searching, this book also offers plenty of useful suggestions for organizing your creative impulses. One of my takeaways was a gift-giving planner in which you create a page for each intended quilt recipient in your life. This strikes me as a much better way to plan handmade gifts than just typing notes into a spreadsheet or a smart phone. There's also an excellent idea for a charity quilting kit that looks like it would both make starting your next charity quilt easier and provide a creative exercise all on its own. And why have I never started a quilting journal to corral all the tiny piles of fabric swatches I have laying around my sewing room, suggesting themselves as possible future quilts? I'm totally putting that together this week!

After I've finished reading a good quilting book, I always have little bits of paper marking the projects I'd like to try, and my copy of Quilting Happiness has several of those paper bits sticking out of it today. I love the "Starstruck Quilt," the "Squared In Quilt," the "Can't Help Myself Quilt," and the "Liberty Mini-Quilts" in particular. But even more of my little paper bits are marking the other stuff–the exercises for exploring what makes me tick creatively, the suggestions for organizing both quilting inspiration and handmade gift-giving, and the ideas for involving family and friends in quilt projects. Quilting Happiness is a great book both for those looking for new inspiration and for those who might want to delve a little deeper into their creative sewing lives.

Enter by Tuesday, September 3rd, 2013 for a chance to win! We will announce the winner on the blog on Wednesday, September 4th. Gina McPeak is the lucky winner of our Wacom Bamboo Splash digital drawing tablet giveaway— congrats!

ENTER FOR A CHANCE TO WIN!

Spoonflower Hacks: Magnetic Frames

July 22, 2013

Diane Gilleland from CraftyPod visits to share a fun wallpaper DIY for Spoonflower Hacks project month– magnetic photo frames made with custom printed wallpaper and stitched up with thread for a special handmade touch.

Spoonflower wallpaper is dandy stuff for a variety of paper-y crafts. It has a beautiful, lightly glossy finish, a nice heft, and best of all, it comes with its own built-in glue! Given all these qualities, I decided to use it to make some magnet photo frames for my kitchen. They're really easy to make, and would also make cool place cards for a wedding or summer party, or stocking stuffer-type gifts for later on in the year.

Materials (per frame):

Photo (see note below)
1 swatch of Spoonflower wallpaper (I'm using several designs here: Tatami by Kalla, Twinkie by Yardwork, Reve D'Ete by Cassiopee, Free Falling by Fran2013, and Doilies Tan by Katarina.)
Chipboard (a cereal or cracker box works fine)
Quilting ruler and pencil (measuring)
Metal ruler, craft knife, and cutting surface
Sponge brush, small dish of water
Sewing machine and thread (optional)
Craft glue
Adhesive-backed magnet sheet

Notes: This project is designed for photos of any size and shape you like – you'll build your frame around the photo. I cropped my photos to non-standard sizes on my computer and printed them onto photo paper at home. You can also have photo prints made somewhere. Just make sure your photo can fit at least twice within your wallpaper swatch, with some room to spare.
Since wallpaper designs are often large in scale, it's a good idea to pay close attention to the scale ruler on the designs you're considering. Remember that you'll only be seeing a small amount of the design in the finished frame, so choose something with a smaller scale, or something that can look a bit more abstract. Or, heck – this is Spoonflower; design your own wallpaper in the scale you like!
Depending on the size of your frames, you should be able to get 2-3 of them out of one wallpaper swatch.

Step 1: Start by measuring the image area of your photo, ⅛" inside all four edges. Then, use a ruler and pencil to draw a square or rectangle this size on a piece of chipboard.
Next, measure ¾" outside this shape on all four sides, and draw a second square/rectangle. This is the front of your frame.

Step 2: Carefully cut out the frame front with a ruler and craft knife. Cut out the center opening, too. Then, trace around the outside edge of this piece onto some more chipboard, and cut that rectangle out to make the frame back. Trim away about ⅛" from one short side and one long side of the back, making it just a little smaller than the front.

Step 3: Now, spread out your wallpaper swatch face down. Position the two pieces of your frame over the back of the wallpaper, leaving a good inch of space on all sides. Trace the frame pieces onto the wallpaper, and don't forget to trace the inside opening of the frame front!
A note here: if you want to get fairly specific placement of the wallpaper design on your frame, you can try this trick: trace the frame front onto a scrap of tracing paper. Then position this on the front of the wallpaper, moving it around until you have the placement you like. Measure the distance from the nearest two edges of the wallpaper to the outer edges of the frame and write these down. Then, flip the wallpaper back over, measure, and place your chipboard at that spot for tracing.

Step 4: Measure ½" beyond the inner and outer edges of the frame front, and draw these lines on the wallpaper. (Draw them fairly dark, too.) Do the same thing with the frame back. Then, add some extra lines, which you can just eyeball: draw lines at the corners of the inside front opening as shown, and draw lines that slightly taper at the outer corners of both the front and back.
Carefully cut the wallpaper out along these lines.

Step 5: Pour a small dish of water now, and get a sponge brush lightly moist with it. Brush water over the back of the wallpaper – just enough to where you can see the paste starting to emerge. Try not to wash away your pencil lines in the process; you'll need to be able to see at least parts of these to line up your chipboard pieces.

Step 6: Now, place the chipboard front piece on the back of the wallpaper, lining it up with your traced lines. Gently press the chipboard down, and then fold all edges of the wallpaper over the chipboard.

They'll stick beautifully. Do the same thing with the frame back.
Place both pieces under some heavy books for 15 minutes or so.

Step 7: If you like, you can add some stitching to embellish your frame. I just put the front piece on my sewing machine and sewed a row or two, starting about ⅛" away from the inner opening. Straight stitch and zig zag stitch both look nice. Don't backstitch at the start or end of these seams. Instead, leave tails of thread hanging.

You can thread these onto a hand-sewing needle and pull them to the back of the frame for a cleaner finish, and then cut the threads away.

Step 8: Last, glue the front and back together along three sides with craft glue. All you need is a small amount along the edges – and don't forget to leave one side open so you can slide in the photo!

Put the frame under the heavy books again while the glue dries, and then trim a piece of magnet sheet to fit the back and stick it on.
Slide in your photo and you're all set!

What else can you do with this self-gluing wallpaper? You could use it for greeting cards, gift tags, covering boxes, or covering composition books, just to name a few projects!

About Our Guest Blogger

Diane Gilleland blogs, podcasts, publishes, teaches, and makes videos about all things crafty over at CraftyPod.com. When she's not doing those things, she's doing whatever her cat tells her to do. And what's wrong with that?

Market Yourself March: Evaluating Your Current Marketing Reach

March 4, 2013

This month, we’re turning our thoughts towards creative businesses and how best to run them. Getting the word out about your creative enterprise–whether that’s designing and selling fabrics and wall media on Spoonflower, trying to market yourself to a commercial fabric printer, or selling clothing or other items that you make yourself–can be a daunting prospect. After all, you’ve already invested so much time and energy into the dreaming and making of your vision. Now you have to sell it to someone? How?

To help you reach others with the message of your creativity and talent, we’ve asked some creative types who are already doing it very well to share pointers on marketing yourself. We’ll be bringing you advice and information on how to figure out who your audience is, how to utilise your existing strengths in a creative business, and how to create marketing collateral to show off your skills.

We’ll also be offering a few giveaways of resources to help you start and maintain your creative enterprise and to employ social media in a genuine and effective way in business.

“Marketing Yourself March” begins today with Diane Gilleland, aka Sister Diane of Craftypod, crafter, blogger, and podcaster extraordinaire. Read on for her tips on figuring out your market reach below!

Online marketing can seem like a daunting task, especially to us creative types – we’re often more about the making-things than the tooting-of-the-horn.
If the idea of marketing intimidates you (or even if it’s just something that manages to slide to the bottom of your To-Do list), try downloading this little worksheet. It’s designed to give you an idea of your potential marketing reach, right this minute.

To
help you get started filling it out, let’s walk through the steps.

Marketing-reach-2

How many people are listening to you right now?

First, take a look at your homes on the web. How many subscribers does your blog have? (If you don't know, try subscribing to your blog in Google Reader and also in Bloglines.) How many Facebook friends and Twitter followers do you have? How many Flickr contacts? Pinterest followers?
These numbers will give you a very vague idea of how many ready-made buyers you might have for your product or service.

If these numbers are low, however, it doesn't necessarily mean you won’t have sales. And if the numbers are high, it doesn't necessarily mean you'll be rolling in money.
Here’s what’s true: the more people you have access to, the more potential you have to develop a positive word of mouth reputation. And that reputation is a very powerful marketing tool, as we’ll see in a moment.

Is your audience active or passive?

You might have thousands of blog subscribers, but if most of them just glance at your blog from time to time, looking for freebies, then these people may not represent much "marketing muscle." A passive audience may still buy your stuff here and there, but they aren't as likely to help you spread the word.

Even if you have only a dozen blog subscribers, if they always comment on your blog and share links to you, well, these people are golden. They're actively engaged with what you do. Not only are they more likely to buy, they're more likely to recommend your stuff to friends. They have more marketing potential than any huge, passive audience.

Do you know people who know people?

Now, it's time to look at the strength of your network. Look at your best blog (and Twitter, and Facebook) buddies. Do any of these people know people who might be able to help you spread the word about your work more widely? Do your friends have blogs? How many people read these blogs? How many Twitter and Facebook friends do they have?
Do you (or your friends) have contacts at any large blogs in your subject niche? How about magazine editors? Do you or your friends know anyone who works for your local newspaper (or its website)?

Don't limit this scan to just your online friends. Everyone you know, whether it's a Twitter follower or your child's teacher, might know people online who can help you market. Make yourself a list of these contacts right now.

…And who do you need to know?

Who are the most influential bloggers for your specific subject matter? Who is podcasting about your subject? Who has a video blog?
These are all people who can help introduce you to new customers. I don’t recommend emailing them out of the blue and asking them to feature you! Instead, make a daily, weekly project of connecting with these people through their blogs and social media. Get on their radar as a nice person, not as “just another person asking for publicity

What to do with this information?

By the time you've finished this investigation, you should have a great idea of where your marketing strengths are, and where your network-building needs some focus. And that’s half the battle! Good work so far!

About Our Guest Blogger

Fat Quarter February: Kaleidoscope pillows

February 18, 2013

This week’s Fat Quarter February project comes from Diane Gilleland of CraftyPod, who shows us how to make pretty pieced kaleidoscope pillows from just two quarter-yard pieces of fabric.

Diane: I’ve been a little obsessed with the idea of kaleidoscopes lately. It’s so intriguing how you can take a wedge shape, multiply it by six, and create endless new patterns. So I thought it might be fun to replicate this idea in fabrics. I might be cheating on this month’s fat quarter theme just a little by using two fat quarters, but I really love the result, and using these large scale prints give it a very graphic look. I’m using four Holli Zollinger fabrics here: Chevrons Red and Chevrons Burlap from her Kunda Linen fabric collection in one pillow, and Mint Arrow and Arrow Marine from her Native Spirit Linen collection.

Materials (per pillow):

Two coordinating Kona® Cotton fat quarters with matching print
18” x 18” backing fabric
Kaleidoscope pillow pattern PDF
Low-tack painters tape or pattern weights
Ruler and mechanical pencil
Sewing machine and thread
Hand sewing needle
Fiberfill
1” covered button kit
Nylon upholstery thread

All seam allowances in this project are ¼”

1.
Begin by downloading and printing the PDF pattern. I recommend
tracing it onto tissue paper, which will make it much easier to place
the pattern precisely on your fabric before cutting. Iron all
wrinkles out of both fabrics.

2.
Now, align the tissue pattern where you want it on your fabric.
You’ll want to choose a section that will form a nice pattern when
it’s repeated six times. It’s also wise to take a moment and make
sure you can get three identical pieces from your fabric. Here, I’ve taped the pattern to the fabric and traced the main outlines of the design. This will help me align the pattern exactly the same way when I cut the next two pieces.

3.
Pin the pattern to the fabric and cut it out (I’ve already added a
¼” seam allowance to the pattern for you, so cut around the outer
edge.) If it helps you to label sections of your tracing like I’ve
done here, go right ahead.

4.
Repeat this process to cut three identical triangles from each of
your fat quarters.

Sewing the pillow:

5. Pin one triangle of each fabric together with right sides facing. When you pin, pay close attention to matching up all the elements in the fabric design – here, I’m matching the edges of the stripes.

In fact, you may notice that by matching the designs, you end up with little gaps in the edges of the pinned fabrics, as seen above. Don’t worry! You can gently stretch the fabrics so they’re flat as you sew. Just keep those designs aligned.

6.
Sew each pair of triangles together along one side, creating three
units. Press their seam allowances in the same direction. As you sew,
pay special attention to where you end your seams at the tip of the
triangle. They should end ¼” away from the edge of the fabric, as
shown above. This will make it easier to match all these points at
the center of the pillow.

7.
Now, sew the three triangle units together, making sure the two
fabrics alternate. Do your best to make sure the tips of the
triangles align in the center. If you have a mismatch, like you see
above, you can remove some of the seam and stretch the fabric gently
as you re-sew to get a closer alignment. But
that said, getting six points of fabric to line up perfectly is
tricky! So please don’t make yourself too crazy over this. We’ll
be covering the center of the pillow with a button, so perfection is
not a requirement here!

8.
When you’re done assembling the pillow front, check the back of
your work to make sure all the seam allowances are laying in the same
direction. That will allow you to neatly press the center flat as you
see here. Go ahead and reorient and press any seam allowances.

9.
Cut your backing fabric to match your finished pillow front. Pin them
together with right sides facing and sew around all six sides,
leaving about a 4” gap in one side for stuffing. Trim away the
fabric at each corner and press the seam allowance open. Fold and
press the edges of the fabric at the opening so they match the seam
line.

10.
Turn the pillow right side out, poking all the corners out so they’re
nice and sharp. Press the pillow flat before you stuff it.

11.
Stuff the pillow firmly and then sew the opening closed with a ladder stitch.

Tufting the Pillow:

12. Follow the instructions in your covered button kit to make a 1” covered button from a leftover scrap of pillow fabric. Thread a hand-sewing needle with about 20” of upholstery thread, which is strong enough to withstand the pulling we’re about to do. Regular sewing thread isn’t a good choice for this step.

Pass the needle straight down through the center of the pillow, bringing it out at the back. You can compress the pillow so the needle reaches through.Take a little stitch on the back, and then bring the needle back out through the front of the pillow.

13. Thread your covered button on now, and then remove your needle. Tie the two ends of the thread into an overhand knot.

Pull the threads to tighten this knot, which will also compress the pillow center a bit.
When you have the center compressed as much as you like, tie a second knot to lock the thread in place. It’s very helpful to have a friend hold the button down as you tie this second knot. Cut the ends of the thread short enough that they can hide under the button.

About Our Guest Blogger

Diane Gilleland blogs, podcasts, publishes, teaches, and makes videos about all things crafty over at CraftyPod.com. When she’s not doing those things, she’s doing whatever her cat tells her to do. And what’s wrong with that?

Tutorial: Make Spooky Halloween Puppets

October 15, 2012

This week Diane Gilleland from CraftyPod shares a tutorial for making your own Halloween hand puppets.

These puppets would be fun Halloween party favors! There's a craft stick inside the skirt to make puppeteering easy for little hands. Older kids might enjoy adding the extra hand controls shown in the video below. Best of all, either version makes up in about an hour.

I designed my puppet faces using a paint program on my computer and printed them on Spoonflower linen-cotton canvas. You're welcome to download my file, or if you have artistically-inclined little ones, they can draw their own puppet faces to print on fabric! My sample puppets have 1 5/8" diameter faces. You could certainly make them bigger if you like.

Materials:

1 test swatch of linen-cotton canvas for puppet faces
2 fat quarters of Kona® Cotton for puppet dresses
(I'm using Fiesta de los Muertos by Ljonte and Spidery Web in zombie green by Voodoorabbit. You can get about three puppet dresses from a fat quarter.)
Ric Rac, about 1 yard (optional)
Stiffened felt scrap for head (I'm using Friendly Felt)
Jumbo craft stick, 1 per puppet
Hot glue gun or white craft glue
Eyelash yarn, about 3 yards
Sewing machine
Hand-sewing needle and upholstery thread
Scrap of acrylic or wool felt for hands
2 thin bamboo skewers (per puppet, optional)
Black wide-tip magic marker (optional)
Downloadable pattern for puppet faces (optional)
All seam allowances in this project are ¼".

A note on glues: I like a low-temp hot glue gun for all of the steps in this project – it bonds quickly and speeds up the process. But, if you're making this project with kids, of you aren't familiar with using hot glue, you might want to use craft glue instead. You'll need to allow some dry time here and there, but it'll save those little fingers from being burned!

Make the Puppet Dress:

1. Print the downloadable dress pattern and cut out four pieces of fabric: the puppet dress back, its center front, and two side front pieces.

2. First, assemble the three pieces of the dress front. Place them together with right sides facing, and sew them along the seam lines.

Press the seam allowances open.

Just for fun, I sewed some ric rac on top of these two seams, but you can leave this step out if you like.

3. Now, put the front and back together with right sides facing, and sew the shoulder seams.
Leave this seam unsewn between the two seams on the dress front, as shown below. This opening will be the neck opening of the puppet dress.

Press the seam allowances open (including the unsewn section), and while you're at the iron, fold up the edges of the two sleeves ¼" and press this fold.

4. Stitch along the sleeve hems you made in Step 3. Then, pin and sew the two side seams (again, right sides facing).

At the points where these side seams curve, carefully clip into the seam allowances as shown.

5. Turn the dress right side out now. This allows you to easily reach inside and press the side seam allowances open, as shown. Don't worry about pressing the sleeve seams.

6. Now, fold up about a ¼" hem along the bottom edge of the dress, press it, and sew this in place. Your puppet dress is almost ready!

7. To finish up, we'll sew a gathering stitch around the neckline by hand.

Thread a needle with about 10" of strong thread. Start stitching at the center back of the dress, leaving a 3" tail of thread hanging on the right side.

Take a small running stitch around the entire neckline, ending up back at the center back. Leave tails of thread hanging at the both ends of this seam. We'll use this thread when we assemble the puppet.

Assemble the Puppet:

This video will walk you through making the puppet head and hands, and dressing it up. You'll also learn to add stick controls to your puppet's hands if you want to do some more complex puppeteering.