Every year about this time crafters get extremely busy finalizing their entries for various state fairs.  There are few honors higher than winning a state fair ribbon for a craft.  Many magazines feature state fair winners in special issues and if you are lucky, the patterns for their projects are available in those magazines.  I generally think of this for crochet and sometimes knitting and usually with incredibly beautiful afghans.

If you have a creation in a craft and would like to enter it into competition into a fair, it is time to get the entry submitted.  It isn’t very difficult and could be wonderful exposure for you should you wish to go professional with your work. 

Go to Google.com and type in the state fair you are interested in.  Each fair, of any reasonable size, has its own official site.  Then go to the section that addresses competitions, find your category, and read the rules and regulations.  These are usually in .pdf files so have your Adobe Reader installed.  Applications are often available on the sites as well. 

Give it a shot.  It could be fun.  And even if you don’t win anything, you will have a once-in-a-lifetime experience.  Well, until you do it again next year!  And I can promise you will meet new people and make some forever friends.

You’ve heard the expression “a picture is worth a thousand words.”  Here’s a new one for you and it is particularly pertinent to crafters.  “A video is worth a thousand pictures.”  Leisure Arts is a company that has been devoted to crafting and crafters for nearly three decades.  For the new technological age, Leisure Arts brings to crafters free videos, or webcasts, that address techniques and the important “how-to” lessons many crafters need.

Not only does Leisure Arts have the web casts, they also have free ipod subscriptions, to keep crafters up-to-date on what is available on the Leisure Arts Web site.  This is all free and a wonderful source of valuable information for crafters.

Leisure Arts Webcasts

Free Patterns From Leisure Arts

Leisure Arts Home Web Site

Much of the joy in crafting results from the community that is formed by crafters.  Do you have a crafting community where you live?  Do you know other crafters?  They don’t have to be crafters that do the same exact craft as you; in fact, it is more interesting if crafters pursuing various interests know each other as well.  Of course, finding groups of people who do the same crafts is valuable as well because of the available information and experience.

I found a Web site that is for people who live in a city in Texas.  You may live thousands of miles from Texas and be unable to participate, but this is a great matrix to form a crafting community for your own area.  This particular set of clubs is formed around the passion of quilting, but imagine it with knitting, crocheting, painting, stained glass or any other craft; better yet, imagine it with a bunch of different crafts. 

Take a look.  I think you will like what Stitchin Heaven is doing.

Stitchin Heaven’s Quilt Clubs

Do you like jewelry?  Most women do and a lot of us like special, one-of-a-kind pieces.  One good way to have those kind of jewelry treasures is to make them.  And learning isn’t that hard, particularly if you have OH! Bejewelled to help you. 

OH! Bejewelled is a site on the Internet that ties into the Oxygen Network’s Crafty Girls - a television show devoted to various crafts.  I like the way the crafts are presented on this site.  There is a video of the project, which is always helpful; watching someone make something makes it much easier to make it yourself.  And, there is also a .pdf file of the instructions for you to save and/or print out for your own use. 

Right now on the site’s page there is a charm bracelet, a layered necklace and hammered earrings.  There is also one project that isn’t on this page but it has to be my favorite.  The link is below - it will take you directly to a little video that shows you how to make some of the cutest earrings.  They have one pictured that is a number - now I am thinking if you have double pierced ears and want to flaunt your age, you could do two numbers and announce to the world you have reached 21 - maybe that would eliminate the need for ID - well probably not, but it would be cute for a birthday.  Or you could do 50 and let the world know they better not get in your way; at 50 you have become a power to be reckoned with!

There are many ideas on this site and they do change regularly so bookmark it and keep in touch.  You will find many ways to bejewelled yourself!

OH! Bejewelled

Earring Video