So, last few days to get your Summer Doldrums Contest entries. Entries close Midnight Eastern US time on 7/31. Our judges are ready and waiting to see your cool stuff!

One entry of note that we’ve received:
Good and Crazy People has a neat little tutorial on using a loop turner, and if you visit and comment you might win one of the adorable headbands she made with it!

Photojojo has a great roundup of fun flickr toys and tools. I adore flickr, so I had to check some of these out, including the “Spell with Flickr” which I used to create the image above! Too cool.

A Call to Arms for Geeky Crafters! Craftypod points us to a campaign to get a Joss Whedon interview in CrochetMe!!
Well, he made this joke in a recent interview about Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog, his latest project. Responding to a question about internet buzz for the show, he said: “Fact is, there’s been some buzz, but it hasn’t reached the places it would normally. Where’s our write-up in Crocheting Monthly? (I did a very sexy shoot for that one.)” Okay. . . this is where Kim Werker, editor of Interweave Crochet and CrochetMe.com, comes in. She saw that interview and got inspired: she wants to interview Joss on CrochetMe!
Go sign on to the cause by checking out the original post, and link to it on your blog too, to spread the word! Especially if you’ve ever knitted a Jayne hat!

Because we all need a little surrealism to our weekends: If you’ve never seen Fatboy Slim’s Christopher Walken video, you really must.

–A request! If you liked the shrinky dinks projects, vote for my Instructable in the O’Reilly book contest!! Pretty Please!?

–Don’t forget to finish up your entries for the Dabbled Summer Doldrums contest. You’ve got a ton of lattitude with this vague summer topic, so let’s see some creativity! We’ve got some good entries already, but we usually get quite a few in the last week, so don’t miss your chance for internet fame :) and a few prizes!

–Twitter (my new addiction!) apparently had some issues over the past few days, and I lost all my friends… It looks like most of it has been restored, but if you were following me (or vise versa), and now you’re not, that’s why. Follow me on Twitter here! (Also, you can see my last 2 tweets in the sidebar on the right)

–I’m so addicted to following blogs with Google Reader that I can’t remember what it was like to live without it. If you don’t understand the concept: “What is RSS?“. If you’re not following Dabbled’s feed, you can add it here. I occasionally add special content just for those who read the feed.

–Once a year I let my geeky side shine by going to Dragon*con in Atlanta. Anyone else going to be there this year? And speaking of geeky..

Interview 1: Craftypod * Interview 2: Diana Evans, Artist * All Interviews

For the 3rd Interview in the Dabbled Series, our focus is craft and the business of craft. Today we have Shannon Riffe, who writes the blog Make It – a blog about building a craft business, and is the silkscreening designer/crafter behind Rifferaff. I’ve been enjoying Make It for a while, and Shannon has documented a great deal about her journey to making it in her own craft business. A lot of times we only hear someone story after they’ve become established, but I think the process of how you get there is fascinating as well. So I’ve invited Shannon to share some of her wisdom here!

1) So, first off, the easy stuff… In 3 sentences or less, who are you, what do you do, how long have you been doing it, and is this your full time gig?
I’m Shannon Riffe, I currently live in Cambridge, MA but am moving to Ann Arbor, MI at the end of August with my boyfriend who will be a graduate student at the University of Michigan. I officially started my business in October 2007 making screenprinted paper goods. I work part-time as an office manager and part-time on Rifferaff.

2) You have some great designs… How did you get into printmaking?

Thank you! I left a full-time job in 2006 to take an unpaid internship with Mod Green Pod, a young organic textile and wallpaper company. What I lacked in income I made up for with exposure to design and the ins and outs of running a small creative business. Mod Green Pods products were all silkscreened, so that’s when I really saw up close the versatility of the medium. Up until that point I had experimented
on my own with batik and block printing with mixed results. Eventually I want to move into fabric design as well; I knew that teaching myself to silkscreen would allow me to do prints on paper and fabric.

3) Where do you get your inspiration? And what are your favorite sources of inspiration, both for your business and for your art?

I never get tired of reading about female design entrepreneurs. I’m fascinated by the businesses and the women behind Lotta Jansdotter, Orla Kiely, Port2Port Press, Virginia Johnson, Amy Butler, the Saltwater clothing line (I could go on and on…) These women are my business inspiration. They all have a unique and distinctive style, a playful sense of color, and their business are imbued with their personalities.

As for artistic inspiration, I strive to keep it simple. I want all my designs to look like they’ve been handrawn, or come from one of my block prints because they have. Design that’s done fully on the computer is just not interesting to me.

4) Without giving away trade secrets, what process do you use to create your art?

Everything starts with a drawing or block print on paper. I’ll scan that into the computer, manipulate it a bit in Illustrator and then send the digital file to a local t-shirt shop that makes my screens. When I get the screens back, I print all my products by hand using water-based inks that I mix into custom colors.

5) You’ve been documenting how you’ve started your business. Are you pleased with your progress thus far? Besides reading your blog (obviously!), what are your best hints for those who want to go into a crafting type business?

Yes and no. I’m really pleased with the reaction to my work, but not pleased with sales, for which I take full responsibility. I wasn’t confident enough in my product to really get aggressive about marketing it and getting the word out to stores and consumers. But now, 8 months in, I finally feel like I know what I’m doing and I’m
moving forward full steam ahead.

6) What has been the most challenging thing about starting your own business? What’s the thing you wish you’d known most at the outset?

Money. I’m proud to have never taken out a loan – I haven’t even asked family for money – so the entire venture has been funded by my personal savings. While that is a source of pride for me, I also think that going through the process of applying for a business loan would have been a good experience because it would have forced me to write a business plan and actually get serious about the direction I want to
take. As a result, I’ve floundered a bit as I started out; thinking I’d do one thing (gift wrap, selling via Etsy and craft shows) and have since shifted my focus (new emphasis on cards, pursuing more wholesale opportunities).

I wish I had actually run the numbers and had a business plan from the get go. Some people are able to start a successful business without a lot of pre-planning but I’ve learned that I can’t.

7) For all the readers who want to sell their stuff, what has been the most effective ways you’ve marketed your products? Least effective?

I don’t think I’ve been in business long enough – or had enough sales – to really answer that. I will say I think it’s extremely important to just think about getting the word out about your work in general. You may not see a direct correlation between advertising and sales, but every time you advertise you give someone a chance to see your work and you never know how that could play out. I was a little disappointed when I didn’t get a flood of orders from participating in The Sampler and Poppytalk Handmade Market, but now I realize that those experiences were still valuable because it got my work in front of new eyes I may not have reached any other way.

8) You’ve talked about lack of women of color in the design field. Do you think that affects your ability to sell your art? What would you like to say to women who feel like they don’t see ‘anyone like them’ in design? What would you like to say to ALL women?

No, it doesn’t affect my ability to sell my work. To other designers of color who feel like I do, I would say, keep doing the best work you can do so that you can be the one who gets on the cover of the design magazine or who gets a high profile licensing deal. I don’t want to whine about not seeing enough designers of color and then not do anything about it. I want to be the success story. This is one reason
I have a picture of myself on my blog – even though I’d be more than happy to take it off – I think it’s important that readers see me.

I think that’s a great tip for all designers. Really get personal with your audience and show them the person and the process behind your work. The Internet is so great for this, especially blogging. The revitalized interest in handmade items is all about a consumer’s desire to know where their stuff comes from. What better way to do
that than to see the person who made it!

9) So, where can we buy your cool stuff?

Right now you can get the full collection at rifferaff.etsy.com. I also have some items in Greenward (Cambridge, MA) and The Paper Place (Toronto, Canada). In the future I hope to start wholesaling my cards to more stores and have limit

ed edition items available exclusively on Etsy.

Thanks so much to Shannon for sharing a little of her journey toward ‘making it’ in the craft business!

Busy week with little internet connectivity, so you’ll have to make do with this little piggie, the mascot/logo I just did for our local neighborhood festival.
(oh, and with the internet problems I probably won’t make it to visit everyone’s illo friday’s this week, but if you leave a comment i’ll make sure to stop by!)
Pencil sketch, messed with in illustrator and colored in photoshop.

Click thru for larger

I’m happy to announce two of our judges, chosen from the winners of past contests:
Craftyminx and Tissuepaper!

Craftyminx was one of the winners of the Black Heart Anti-Valentines Day contest with this delightfully black-hearted entry:

And Tissuepapers was a winner of the April Fools contest with this cool and creepy entry:

These fabulously crafty ladies have graciously agreed to judge your submissions, and do check out their websites, because they have some great stuff :)

Prizes will be announced in the next few days, and (besides undying internet fame!) will include one of the prototype mini-elepurses, an original drawing, and more!

We saw the new Batman movie yesterday, and I have to say it was great. I would write up my own review, but Tom Richmond did a great one, that I totally agree with, so I’m linking to that instead. I will say, even if you’re not into ‘superhero’ movies, don’t miss this one.

Indie Fixx guest blogger Jessica Gonacha has some great ‘green’ finds. I adore the fabric hamburger!

Totally cool stuff in this month’s Evil Mad Scientist Link Dump… I loved the comparison of flav-r-ice and otter pops! And who doesn’t need a jar of eyeballs?

So, hopefully, internet willing.. more original content tomorrow :)

‘night all!

Chewing Pencils, an interesting cartoonists blog, is doing a series on marketing yourself as a cartoonist – even if you’re not a cartoonist, some really good interesting info: Chewing Pencils

A adore Instructables.. I’ve put several out there over the past year, and it’s a great place to get inspiration as well as instructions on how to pull off the inspiration. Anyway, they’re having a contest, and the winners go in the new O’Reilly book, so if you’ve got a tutorial you’ve been thinking about doing, go do it!
They’re also looking for instructables which answer some burning questions.. so check it out, you may know the answer!

Regular commenter Hello, I’m Sally has a neat tutorial on how to make jam, that sounds so easy that i might even be inspired to try it! Check it out.

And I put a call out to my twitter friends (if you’re on twitter, friend me!! do send me a msg so i know you came from here..) for good inspiration, and got some good stuff back:
TinkuGallery recommended this really cool pottery artist: Diane Fayt.. Some gorgeous work.. I’m impressed!
and Joscie had some adorable robot scrapbooking – and you know how I love robots..

Website Design Posts

Several people requested details on how to create the art (or photography) portfolio site using blogger so here is some info:

Examples:  (updated 3/2010)
-Old art portfolio site: Here
-A friend’s photography portfolio site: Grieg Wehr Photography (this is a WordPress site now)

The previous blogger portfolio site: http://griegwehr.blogspot.com/

Basically all your data is in blog posts, but you link to them as you’d like, not in the typical blog daily format.

1) Create a new blogger site.
2) Find a template that you like the feel of – from a columns perspective – don’t worry about the colors or graphics, you can easily change those. (I used one that’s linked from the bottom of the dorsner.dabbled.com page.
3) Under Settings/Formatting, change the ‘show title’ to No & change “Show” to 1 post on the main page.
4) Under comments, change comments to Hide
5) Now you’re going to mess with the HTML – Save a copy first (as it suggests when you go the to layout/Edit HTML page.
6) You can change the colors either on the Layout/Fonts and Colors page, or by directly editing the top of the HTML. If you don’t know the numbers google for ‘html color codes’.
7) You want to remove all the stuff that makes an entry look like a blog post – (via bloganol you can do that by adding “display:none;” to any of those things you don’t want to display: here’s more info..
http://bloganol.blogspot.com/2008/06/easiest-way-to-remove-blog-post-date.html
http://bloganol.blogspot.com/2008/06/remove-subscribe-to-posts-atom-in.html
8) past that, you’re basically looking at adding page elements with menus and such to access the pages you want.
9) All your content goes in blog posts, and the post you want to show up on the front screen you want to post-date to like 2010 so it is always first. the rest of the content you create as blog posts, and just link it where you want it to go. For example, the Contact Me page was just created as a Contact me post, and i just linked the menu button to the URL for that particular page.
10) I used Flash Slideshow Maker Professional (available free for download) to make the slideshow on the first page.

I’m sure i’m forgetting things, but these are the basics. let me know if you have questions… and if you’re really nice, i’ll just give you a copy of my template.

hope that helps!

Also useful: Blogger for Dummies site