Speaking of craft-related podcasts, check out CraftyPod's recent interview with Rachel Johnson, creator of Swap-bot.

Although I've been watching Swap-bot for a while now, I have to admit I haven't yet participated in any of their swaps. But I do think the site's a great idea. As the interview explains, Swap-Bot makes swaps much easier to organize -- and less work means more fun! They've got tons of swaps in various categories. And they've even got an RSS feed of recently-added swaps, so you can easily watch for swaps you might want to join in on.

Here's a few current swaps that look great for polymer clay artists:

• Altered Band Aid Tin Swap: Sign up by March 1
• Dare To Prepare a Doll Face: Sign up by March 1
• Spiced-Up Crafts: Sign up by March 3
• Beads, beads and more beads: Sign up by March 9
• Handmade Earrings: Sign up by March 10
• Funky Fridge Magnets: Sign up by March 16

Think you might try one of these? Or do you have your own great idea for a swap to organize? Leave me a comment, & I'll sign up for it too!

Posted in: Polymer Clay

Making a mistake is one thing that makes me want to give up on a craft project. But I've noticed that I also tend to abandon craft projects that are going really well. I'll get to a certain point and I'm happy with it... but if I don't have a clear vision for what the next step should be, I'll stop. I guess I'm afraid I'll mess it up.

I usually tell myself I'm just gonna leave it there for a couple of days and see if the perfect idea hits me. Ya know, divine inspiration. But after a couple of days pass, something more pressing comes along and it gets pushed to the side. And months later I find a pile of nice, promising half-finished works in the corner of the closet.

It doesn't matter how promising they were when I stopped working on them. They're still half-finished. And I suspect that finishing something -- even if it ends up being less-than-perfect -- is better for my inner artist than leaving it unfinished.

So here's an abandoned card I finished in honor of this week's challenge at Inspire Me Thursday. Their "Abandoned Art" theme served as a nice reminder that sometimes you need to get over the fear of future failure and just do something.

Any abandoned artwork in your closet? What caused you to abandon it -- a mistake you made, fear of messing it up, or something else? Leave me a comment -- or add your own entry to the Abandoned Art challenge.

Card materials: Stone Washed Denim-Basic Checks (Provo Craft); Denim Seams Printed Flat Paper (K&Company); Black & Cream Polkadot (Colorbok). Doodles Stamp & Design (All Night Media); Seasons of the Heart Set (D.O.T.S.). Blue fiber (Adornaments); polymer clay stars.

Posted in: Paper Crafts , Tips & Techniques | Comments (2)

Alison Lee interviewed Donna Kato for this week's Craftcast, and I really liked what Donna said about mistakes:

"When you make a mistake -- or something you perceive as a mistake -- how much worse could it get? You might as well cut it up and put it together some other way. You're risking very little.

"If you don't like what you've done, there's no risk in changing it."

A great philosophy on artistic mistakes... and a great interview overall. Listen to the rest of the podcast here.

Posted in: Tips & Techniques | TrackBacks (2)

The Craft & Hobby Association held their Winter Convention this past weekend. While I wasn't able to attend, I did sit at home watching eagerly for news from the lucky ones who did. Here's a few reports worth passing on:

• West Coast Crafty tells us about CHA highlights, including info on the keynote address from Martha Stewart. Complete with photos of Pink Craftie (of Craft Magazine fame).
• Laura's Blog also shares some show highlights. In a couple of related posts, she goes into more details on taking a Lisa Pavelka polymer clay class and on meeting Carol Duvall (how cool is that?!).
• Donna Kato has a nice long post that highlights the Bottles of Hope winners and talks about various booths. She also shares some of her photos here and here.
• Speaking of Donna Kato, she also has a good post about getting ready for CHA. It has some good advice for newbies. As does this article in PCPolyzine. It's from March 2002, so some things (like the convention name) have changed, but it's still a great overview of what it's all about.

I have to say, I'm a little surprised that I didn't see more updates posted during the show. Maybe I just missed them. Or maybe I was expecting more Consumer Electronics Show-style buzz -- big news stories, press releases, etc...

Hopefully I can go next year. If so, I'll be sure to post a few times during the show, in honor of all the folks sitting at home...

Posted in: The Business of Crafting