BellaVita For Bella

My great friend Jessica finally opened up a shop on Artfire to sell her handmade goods. She named it in honor of her mother who recently passed away, she was known as "Bella" to her grandson Logan, Vita is Italian for "Life". I think its the most beautiful name ever and very fitting. BellaVita

She has the cutest handmade messenger bag in there right now with lil mushroom appliques on it. I cant wait till she fills up this shop!

She has a small baby (Logan) who is of course the center of attention so her shop may be slow filling up but you will want to keep an eye on it. This mama has great taste in everything hippie!

Jessica I am so super proud of you! Your shop will be a hit I know it! I just had to blog about this cause I am so super excited for you! YAY!

MoMosBows New blog contest

I love contests, I am hooked on them since I won the Artfire Facebook Contest LOL

MomosBows, whom I adore, is having the awesomest contest!

She is giving away a free one year subscription to her bow of the month club where you can get a free bow every month and two in your daughters birth month! WOW!

Its easy to enter, so go for it you may just beat me and win...good luck...you will need it, sucka!

48 for Larry Update

Here is an update to whats up with Larry

They have special SNEAK PEEK pages of the silent auction items posted on the blockhead radio site. Here is links to each one as they are today I am positive there will be more than three pages soon! My item is not yet listed on the sneak peek site but the pic of it is to the right


Page 1
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I want to thank the members of teambluegrass that have shown so much love to participate in this and the gift basket that Karen (tindlebears) was getting together.

If you want to jump in on the threads on Etsy or Artfire click the respective venue and you will go straight to the thread. As you all know keeping a thread bumped up keeps it going and more people will look at it and hopefully want to get involved.

Another cool thing Larry is doing, And this WAS cleared with John Jacobs before the listing was posted. He has decided to raffle off his grandmothers quilt. Handmade in the 1970's he is letting this beauty go. For 5 bucks you can get 6 chances to win. Drawing will be held in August I believe, see listing for details!

There is also a facebook group 48 For Larry that you can join if your on facebook.

There are also some posts on Votehandmade that you can vote up if you like. If you havent been to votehandmade be prepared to be addicted. This site is so fun! Registration is super easy and you build Karma as you participate in the voting and submission of items you like. Votehandmade was built using Reddit technology so if you have been to reddit you know pretty much already how votehandmade works. Its a lot of fun for sure!

You can also tweet about Larry to get the word out for him there is a link on the 48 for Larry page that you can click "retweet" and it will automatically send you to twitter with the tweet ready to send!

No matter what you do even if its just tweeting about him, or helping spread the word on facebook or donating a gift certificate to your shop or an item its all for a great cause!





We love you Larry!!!!!!!!

48 for Larry

I wanna post this link to a friends blog who wrote all about the situation with Larry. This dude could use some help in a bad way so help us help him! Knotted up - 48 for Larry

Larry is a diabetic and recently lost his insurance. Crafters and buyers of crafts together can help out. Blockhead radio is having a radio-thon from July 24 to 26 for him. See their website or Knotted Up's Post for more info. Just passing this along to help out. I dont know Larry but I know his situation...and its just not cool to need something like this and be broke!

Vote for Tabmade

Tabmade is one of my team members and she is an AMAZING polymer clay artist as well as an amazing photographer of tiny things. She has an item that needs YOUR vote...of course if you WANT to vote for her item....Here is the link to her blog post where she tells you ALLLL about it
Tabmade Art and Craft

The contest she speaks of is pretty cool. I thought about entering myself if I could get some time. Tim Adams rocks he always has something cool on the blog so go check it out!

Sarabeedesigns yarn...in love.

Sara is just the sweetest thing. We did a trade...she has a soap addiction, I have a yarn addiction. We were meant to trade. She adores her soaps, and well...I am insanely crazy over the yarn I love it so much I have kept whats left of a skein of handpainted boucle in my purse with a hook at all times in case I get stuck someplace I have to wait...then I can make waiting WAY more enjoyable by working with her beaurtifully colored all cotton yarn. YUM!

She also has t shirt yarn and I made this cool recycled t shirt yarn dishcloth which is a lil extra scrubby. I like it. I am not able to do dishes the old fashioned way anymore due to my disabilities but when I do need to scrub out a pan quick this baby does a GREAT job and I am not leaning over the sink for ages cause it cleans so darn good. Check out Saras recycled t shirt yarn and save the planet !

She also makes the prettiest handpainted spindles on the planet. No doubt! Check out her spindles if your into spinning. This one is handpainted lilies....LOVE IT!

But wait this started out with me telling you about her making a blog post about me! Yeah she made a blog post...I get to thinking about her and that yarn and you see what happens I forget about everything and just want you guys to see it! LOL

So if ya got a minute swing by her shop and see whatcha like. Sara is super sweet, and also a proud member of my street team. So if your in Kentucky PLEASE buy goods local and check out my street team to start your shopping off right by helping your neighbors here in Kentucky. The economy can be strengthened by buying handmade, and even more b y buying local. Ok off my soap box (not intended as a pun but it sure is funny aint it?)

I was featured on a blog! YAY!

Go check out this awesome collection of stuff.

Kellibeans was kind enough to include my art collage skirt in the mix with all this talent, I am so proud!

More guerrilla marketing tips from Pam Hawk

Well Pam did it again. This time the post is based on Media type marketing tips, Go check it out and enjoy! Remember it never hurts to contact your local paper, especially if your in a small town they will most likely LOVE to hear your story!

Thanks again Pam for posting such valuable info for us to use!

Matchbook Notebook how to tutorial

One of our newest members, kellibeans was so kind to make this AWESOME slideshow tutorial for us with pictures! Its on how to make a matchbook notebook, which would be awesome for marketing your shop.

All you would have to do is use a sticky address label to affix your shops important info to the front cover, or if your really skilled in Microsoft Word or any of the photo editor programs you could print a sheet of coverstock with your shops name, info and colors! Talk about making an appearance! You can get a package of coverstock for about 12 bucks at staples, enough to make a bazillion of these notebooks, this would be an awesome way to market your etsy or artfire shop.

I find handing out business cards is nice but if you hand out something USEFUL like a notebook people are more likely to check out your shop cause they will be USING your "Business card". I keep all the magnet business cards I get on my fridge and those are a great idea too.

Guerrilla marketing tips

This article was published by Pam Hawk who is amazing with this stuff. I subscribe to her blog thru email and got this post and I just HAVE to repost it here

151 Guerrilla Marketing Tips

I have a few tips of my own I got from our new team member Kelli of Kellibeans fame

Make small items and leave them places, like sample sizes of your product, something small that cost little time and effort to make with your business info attached

Make something useful that has your business info on it...a pen, a magnet, a calender,SOMETHING that a person could use often and be less likely to throw away or ignore.

Have fun with guerrilla marketing it sounds like something I would like to get into myself as I am ALLL about marketing! Just make sure your marketing ends up being cost effective and you dont go ovr your budget you set aside for advertising expenses. it can be so easy to go over budget, I have done it before! LOL

Polymer Clay Smooshers Guild

I love polymer clay work, it is so amazing to me that someone can take a ball of clay and make it into something amazing. I tried polymer clay once and I can appreciate the talent and skill that goes into a piece.

So when I seen a post on Artfire forums about a voting thingy on their guild blog I was excited! I had to vote! But the problem is...I have to pick ONE to vote for !!AHHHHH!

So if ya got a minute go view the talent and try your best to pick just ONE!
Polymer Clay Smooshers May Challenge,

Also if ya got another minute drop by my Street Team's blog and vote in our monthly contest! This months prize is made by Vernon Ave who makes AMAZING clutches and bags