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The Craftys Awards – Nominations now open

Craftys Awards time

It’s time for The Craftys Awards and that means nominating your favorite crafter.   The Craftsy Awards were created to celebrate the best of DIY and Crafts.  The categories range from traditional such as knitting, crocheting, sew, and scrapbooking to a category known as “geek crafts.”     The Craftsy awards were launched in 2014.   This is such a great way to recognize our creative community.   Crafters have submitted so many awesome projects that selecting a winner will not be an easy task.

Craftys award

Craftys award

I am so honored to have been selected as one of the judges for this year.  Here is the list of the other judges.  So many talented people on the judges panel.

The Editors of Babble
Marisa Pawelko – Modern Surrealist
Yolanda Soto Lopez – All Crafts Channel
Marly Bird – Yarn Thing Podcast
Beth Kingston – Kingston Crafts
Vickie Howell – DIY Network / HGTV
Ed Roth – Stencil 1
Mark Montano – Big Ass Book of Crafts
Galit Lebow – FoodStirs
Amber Kemp-Gerstel – Damask Love

 

 

 

The best in show winner will receive $1,000 and each category winner will receive $200.

Some of the  Categories include the following.  Please go to thecraftsy.com  to a complete list and instructions/rules to enter:

  • Baby Crafts
  • Craft Blogger
  • Crochet
  • Knitting
  • Decorative Painting/ Mixed Medium
  • Edible Crafts
  • Geek Crafts
  • General Crafts
  • Sewing

The winners will be announced in a Live stream in February 2017 from New York City.  There are so many great sponsors for the Craftsy Awards.   If you are a creator and would like to participate you can nominate yourself or another person for an award.  Please go to the website thecraftys.com in order to enter. and learn all about The Craftys awards.  You will also be able to see the complete list of categories and sponsors.  Each year this event has grown. with over 400,000 votes submitted.

Here is a link with the official rules:  Official Rules

Good luck and get those nominations in.  Let’s do our part to get recognization for all of those awesome crafters out there.

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Can You Really Use Social Media to grow your Business? Yes, you can!

Using Social Media to Grow Your Business.  Here are a few tips.

It seems that everyday another social media platform comes around.   With so many platforms out there it can be confusing and even overwhelming.  For people like myself who are technology challenged it can seem even worst.   Sometimes I just want to put my head down and hide.   I must admit that I’m not the type of person who jumps on the bandwagon quickly.  I’m not what you would call an early adopter.   This has actually been a good and a bad thing.  On the good side: Did you know that recently a new app or was it a platform (I don’t know but doesn’t matter now) known as “Peach”  actually launched and went out of business within a few hours of launching their business. (Read article here )  On the bad side:  I am sometimes the last to get on board and get on board kinda late.   However with time I have come to realize that this is the world I now live in.  A world where everything seems to scream out for my attention.  What is a woman to do?

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Let’s celebrate 2016 with a Giveaway – Crochet and Knit Animal Lovie Books!

UPDATE:   GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED

Let’s celebrate 2016 with a giveaway.  A choice of my Crochet or Knit Animal Lovie Blanket books.. woohoo!

I can’t believe it’s already 2016 and almost the end of January!  Where does the time go?  It seems the older I get the faster time seems to go.  I remember being a small child and feeling like a year to forever to end.  I wanted it to get to the end of course because that meant Christmas.   2015 was full of so many fun and new experiences.  One of them of course was release of my Crochet Animal Lovie book.   Later that year I completed a Knit Animal Crochet book which was released this month January 2016.   Some of you may have already seen it.

Both books are available at Joann’s,  Hobby Lobby and Walmart.  Some people have told me they have found it at other stores as well.  The Crochet Animal Lovie book also has a mini-book format that is available for sale only at Wal-Mart.  Unfortunately the Knit Animal Lovie book will not be made into the mini-book format.    Both books are also available for purchase online from LeisureArts.com   They also have a downloadable version.

I want to host a giveaway to welcome in 2016.  I will be giving away 3 signed copies of my Animal Lovie book.  The winners will be able to choose either the Crochet or Knit version.  I realize that everyone does both so this will give everyone a chance to choose the book the prefer.

To enter this giveaway just

1) become a member of this blog (It’s free and your info is never shared)  and

2)  add a comment below.  Something like “I want to win the Crochet Animal Lovie book”  or  knit book.

That’s it.   In 7 days I will choose the winners.  I will announce the winners with a follow-up blog post AFTER the winners have been notified.   The giveaway is opened worldwide.

These lovies are so fun and addictive to make.  They make perfect  gifts.   I hope you will enter the giveaway today and Good Luck!

P.S.- Be sure to share the post with your crafting friends.  Sharing is caring!  XOXO

 

Crochet Lovie Book

Crochet Lovie Book

Crochet Lovie Book

Crochet Lovie Book

Knit Lovie Book

Knit Lovie Book

Knit Lovie Book

Knit Lovie book by Yolanda Soto-Lopez

 

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Online Courses coming soon!

I can’t believe it’s actually happening.  Thanks to everyones support and encouragement I have taken a giant leap.  (OK, it’s giant for me)  As many of you may know I’m not exactly what you would call a “techy”.  As a matter of fact I really struggle with this aspect of sharing my content with everyone.  You see I don’t come from a technology background and sometime I feel totally out of it.   There are times when I listen to people speaking about their sites and use terms like SEO traffic optimization, shopping-cart,  updates,  SSL, etc… to me it might as well be Greek.   I must admit that technology has always kinda scared me.

I don’t know if it’s part of getting older and being used to old school methods.  For example I still actually mail people letters.  Seriously, I love getting a letter in the mail.  Greeting cards are even better.  So, when technology has been a difficult transition.  However, you know what they say innovate or die.  I don’t want to die…… so I have done it.   I have joined the platform called “New Kajabi”    This has been a huge investment for me.   So far it seem easy enough for even me to use it.  What it will allow me to do is something that I have been working on for a very long time.  Create courses that are more detailed, better organized and easily accessible.  I have been searching for a platform that would allow me to do this and reach more people.  This is something that I am really excited about.   This is how it will work:  (OK, this is how I want it to work, fingers crossed.)   I create courses and projects you have requested and upload them to the platform.   I can organize them as single projects of complete courses with several modules.   The modules can include written patterns,  video tutorials,  user feedback, and tons of other great features such as subscriptions/memberships.

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Filming the balloon Drop. Sometimes I just want to have fun

Filming the Balloon Drop was more work than we ever imagined

Sometimes I just want to have fun.  I enjoying creating video tutorials and sharing the things I love to make with others.   As many of you may know my main focus has been on my YouTube channel “All Crafts Channel”.   I like to make videos where I share the crafts I enjoy.    I have been starting to feel a little boring lately so I decided to film a fun channel intro.    Together with my son and husband I filmed a new intro this week.  We filmed a Balloon Drop for our intro.

Screen Shot 2016-07-05 at 11.36.18 PM

I must admit it appeared much more spectacular in my mind…. Yeah, I had delusions of grandeur.   First we had to gather all the supplies we would need to film the intro.   We inflated 50+ balloons the old fashioned way;  Lung Power.   My husband suffered a little light headedness but we got all the balloons inflated.  We also used party-poppers and confetti guns for the shoot.   If you listen carefully you can hear them popping in the background.    In order to release the balloons we have to set up a backdrop frame and draped a large sheet over it.  We then poured (carefully) the inflated balloons onto the sheet which was being held up by my husband and son.  They stood up on step-stools.   I then ran to the camera and started filming.   Once I said the tag line my husband and son released the balloons.   After releasing the balloons they (and I) set off the party poppers.  I used a confetti gun which was purchased at Smart-n-Final store.  My husband also had a confetti gun.  My son set off most of the party poppers.     Oh, did I mention that we were in the middle of a heat wave.. and it was super hot in the living room.

Check out the video of the balloon drop on the next page.

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