These, my friends, are brand-spanking-new Kanzashi Makers from Clover! They aren’t even in craft stores yet – they’re in the process of launching right now!

And lucky me, I get to accompany the Clover team to Spring Quilt Market in Salt Lake City this weekend. I’ll be demonstrating these bad boys throughout the show.

If you’ve ever tried Clover’s yo-yo makers (and you should – they’re amazing), these Kanzashi Makers work very similarly. You fold the fabric inside the plastic template, and then follow a series of numbered stitch holes. Remove the template, pull the thread, and BAM! Petal!

The templates neatly solve the two biggest issues people have with the method in my book, namely: the backs of the Round petal style popping out when you assemble your flower; and the potential for stringing petals facing the wrong way.

Here are a few flowers I’ve made with them recently, so you can see the three petal styles at work. In fact, all of these will be on my person at some time or other at the Market.

(That’s a trade-only event, but if you’ll be there and you read this, I’d love to say howdy in person!)

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

Well, this certainly took me long enough, but I’ve finally listed a special-edition of Kanzashi In Bloom in my shop.

For the list price of $21.95, I’ll sign your copy with whatever you’d like me to write, and I’ll throw in this handy Kanzashi Kit.

The kit contains 24 squares of assorted fabric, 3 coordinating buttons, 3 pin backs, and a bundle of assorted floral stamens. Depending on the number of petals in your flowers, you can make up to four of them from this kit.

Dare I say it? A nice holiday gift option! (And I should say, there are only about a dozen of them available right now.) Get them right over here!

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

Anyway, this one is called Social Media for your Crafty Business. I’m really happy with how it turned out. Here are some details:

Social Media for your Crafty Business

Social media websites like Facebook and Twitter have exploded on the internet scene in the past couple years. And so many experts are shouting from the rooftops that social media is the best new marketing tool for small businesses.

But let’s be realistic: social media consumes time, and it can be hard to tell whether it’s really bringing you customers. To make things even more complicated, traditional marketing techniques can really annoy people in the social media space.

So, how can you take best advantage of this 21st century tool?

Social Media for your Crafty Business aims to do these things for you:

• Explain in simple terms how social media works, where its pitfalls are, and how to avoid them.
• Explain how to use the two most important elements of effective social media: value and engagement.
• Offer lots of concrete suggestions for injecting your craft business into the social media space (without annoying people).
• Help with managing your time and tracking your results.

Social Media for your Crafty Business is 72 pages, formatted for easy reading on your computer screen. If you own a small creative business, whether it’s product or service based, this ebook will help you use social media to increase its visibility.

Ideally, you’ve already spent a little time in either Facebook or Twitter (or both) – this ebook focuses more on effective social media techniques than on which buttons to click. But, the ebook comes with an online library of links to useful nuts-and-bolts information.

_______________________________________________________

It’s in the shop new. And I’m celebrating by taking an hour off!

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For example, this cute upgrade of a thrift-store handbag by Suzy Spence, who writes GeorgiaPeachez.

Here’s an awesome Kanzashi for Fall, rendered in corduroy, by Forever Tonight.

I love this combination of tiny Kanzashi and pearl dangles! It’s made by Maricy, of Mirabella Designs. (Follow that link – she’s made all kinds of pretty Kanzashi.

…And Cathe Holden has been doing some freaking amazing Kanzashi projects lately. Look at this flower with names printed in the petals! She has a how-to for this on her blog, Just Something I Made.

She also blogged recently about making Kanzashi from thrift-store purse leather, and creating a custom button center. Cuh-razy amazing. She has a how-to for that button as well.

Please keep them coming, my friends! I love seeing what you’ve made!

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

I’ve been so thrilled with the reception for my new ebook, Creating a Blog Audience! And the reviews have been awesome.

I thought it might be fun to celebrate with a little giveaway. So – up for grabs is a copy of this here ebook, and its accompanying worksheet pack!

To enter to win, leave a comment here and answer this question:

Why you want to build a bigger audience for your blog?

(I really want you to answer WHY here – it’s a really important question for anyone who seeks a bigger audience.)

I’ll draw a winner at noon PST on Tuesday, Sept. 22.

International readers, interplanetary readers – you’re most welcome to enter!

Congratulations to Karen, our big winner!

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

Hey, Portland – just a reminder to come hang out with Susan Beal, Alicia Paulson, and me this Sunday at 2:00 at Hollywood Library. We’re presenting a Crafty Writers Talking session, and we’d love to answer your questions about writing and publishing craft books.

Details are here. Please join us!

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

A little fun news on the Kanzashi front this week – Woman’s Day has a project excerpt from my book in the current issue. (Page 28, to be exact.)

They also asked me to make a Kanzashi demo video for their website, so I thought I’d share it here. It shows the basic flower-making process from start to finish.

Be kind! This is my first video, and I might add, shot with a webcam. I had to do a lot of tweaking to overcome quality issues with sound and picture. (Speaking of which, iMovie rocks!)

…And oddly, I think it both moves too fast and is too long. Video is a whole other challenge, but I’m intrigued now. I hope to make more video in future.

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

Popping in here to share an awesome thing I just discovered: my weaving ebook is up for vote for the October Book Club on Craftevolution!

(If you’ve never heard of this awesome crafty book club, all the details are here.)

Anyway, I’m up against some Very. Stiff. Competition, so I’m not sure I have much chance of being selected. Still, it’s freaking awesome for an indie publishing effort like this to be nominated against traditionally-published books.

If you, ahem, wanted to vote for me, you could always click this link and vote in the sidebar.

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

That whoooooshing sound you hear is me breathing a huge sigh of relief. My new ebook is finally out!

I didn’t exactly make my self-imposed August 15th deadline on this one, but sometimes it takes longer than you think it will to say everything you want to say (coherently).

I hope you all like Creating a Blog Audience. It’s about promoting your blog through “engagement marketing,” which is particularly well-suited to a community like ours and the internet age. And it’s written specifically for craft bloggers.

You can get all the deets over here.

And, if you bought a copy of my first blogging ebook, Making a Great Blog, then watch your email! You should be getting a discount coupon from me soon for this new one.

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

So… I had my book signing at Powell’s last night. This was, co-incidentally, my last book event, wrapping up two weeks of intense promotions. And it was pretty dang cool.

One of the best things (from a geeky standpoint) about author events at Powell’s is this freaking amazing podium. I’ve wanted to stand behind that bad-boy for years. (Those are real old-book spines mounted on the front, by the way.)

I’d also like to point out that I was standing on a giant wooden book. Heh. I love that.

Anyway, I managed to say everything I came prepared to say, and then K. passed out fabric squares to everyone and I led the group through folding a couple petals.

…Which they all caught onto very quickly. It’s always fun to watch people realize that this craft is nowhere near as difficult as it may look from the finished flowers.

(You can kind of see Susan, Lee, and Caitlin in this photo. Thank you so much for coming, Ladies!)

Then I signed some books, plus a big pile of stock for Powell’s. (So, locals, if you’re so inclined, you can head to the downtown store for a signed copy. Signed, I might add, with the special pens Rachel gave me.)

Mom helped a ton with setting up and tearing down. And, I had the all-too-rare opportunity to ask a room full of people to give her some applause for her amazing how-to photos.

(She says I owe her big time for that. Heh.)

There’s a small Flickr set if you’d like to see.

…And that concludes the acute phase of my book launch. Thank you for coming along! And I promise, we’ll resume regular crafty programming this week. Right after I spend the rest of today sleeping.

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

It’s definitely a fun thing to have a book out, but I’ll tell you what’s way more fun: having your Mom review said book on her own blog, and make a killer project from it!

Mom did an awesome mashup of two projects in the book: the Tiny Blossom Earrings and the Back to Back Ornament. And she created these adorable ornaments for her mini holiday tree – they’re just 1″ across.

Her use of a bead cap as the flower center is pure genius. Wish I’d thought of that when I made the earrings!

Oh – and her review shows more of the projects – including the tea cozy that nearly killed me. But, more on that later…

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

Hey, Locals – tonight’s the big night. I’ll be doing a book signing event at Powell’s Books downtown!

We start at 7:30pm in the Pearl Room. I’ll talk a bit about where Kanzashi comes from and share a few stories from the making of the book. Then I’ll do some Q&A, and then we’ll all fold some petals together.

You can also take a look at some of the projects from the book, and meet my Mom!

I would love to see you there!

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

I don’t think I’ve ever had a day fly by faster, but Urban Craft Uprising was a total blast.

It’s still going on today (Sunday), so if you’re near Seattle, you should stop by! A great space, and so many intriguing artisans. Plus, crafty demos all day, taught by awesome people!

After getting lost in downtown Seattle, I skidded into the show just in time to teach my Kanzashi workshop. It was a lovely group, and lots of great energy.

Then it was off to the signing booth to sign books and meet super nice people. (There’s fuller documentation of all this, by the way, in my Flickr set.)

I got to walk the show a bit, and meet several Twitter buddies in person, including Tara, Tsoniki, Shannon, and Dawnise, who gifted me with a groundbreaking plastic canvas book. But more on this later….

It was also so great to see and hug friends. I love this community we’re all in, but Boy! We all get so little face-time.

It’s always a huge treat to have even a few minutes with folks – so I relished little visits with Moxie (pictured in the earlier photo, in the lower left corner), Kristen, Kim (pictured above, documenting), Michaela, Jennifer, Susan, and Brookelynn.

And then, holy moly, I met Thea Starr (there in the white shirt)! She’s an amazing Kanzashi artist in the traditional technique. I went kind of fangirl on her. Go look at her work!

To cap an already-great day, I also had a chance to meet my agent, Kate McKean, in person for the first time. And she’s just so freaking amazing.

So – now I owe you a podcast! It’ll be up later today. But first, another nap, methinks.

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

Whew! The Kanzashi In Bloom Blog Tour comes to an end over at West Coast Crafty. Susan Beal and I both live in PDX, so we got together recently to make some Kanzashi from vintage fabrics and buttons.

(…Because Susan knows her vintage buttons!)

Anyway, we had a great time, and Susan documented our fun. Her photos give you a nice glimpse into the Kanzashi-making process.

Thanks so much, y’all, for coming along on the tour! I wonder where you can find the whole thing online?

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

Hey, Seattelites – I’m super excited to be going to Urban Craft Uprising tomorrow!

I’ll be there teaching a little Kanzashi-making workshop from 12:30 – 1:30, and then signing books from 2-3. I’d love to meet you!

Actually, UCU will be packed with crafty demos and signings, including Susan Beal, Becky Stern, Jennifer Worick, Moxie, Kristen Rask, Brookelynn Morris, and Tonia Davenport.

All this, and outstanding vendors. Get the full scoop over here.

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!