I’ve been thinking about how slowly good things grow – bulbs and flowers, trees, children, good marriages, home-based craft businesses, … websites. They all require patience and most require a lot of work.

The amount of time and effort invested make them that much more satisfying when they blossom. Things that come too easily are often underappreciated.

I’m very skeptical of get-rich-quick schemes. I’ve warned about them frequently on the Artful Crafter and in response to readers’ letters.

The best things in life grow slowly and need nurturing, love and care. They can also be the most rewarding because you’ve put so much into them.

We get more and more letters from readers expressing appreciation for the growing wealth of information on The Artful Crafter. When we put the site up almost two years ago, we started with 50-some pages. We now have over 400 articles, craft ideas and patterns.

My techie husband pointed out that, because of this growth, the site was getting difficult to navigate. So, he has been diligently reorganizing and indexing the entire site for you – a task I cringe to think about.

Also remember that anytime you can’t find what you’re looking for, you can search The Artful Crafter site using the Google search bar which appears on many of our pages.

We hope you like the new look. As for me, after two years of hard but gratifying work, I’m going to bask for a while. OK, that felt good. Back to work. Here are a few ideas to grow your craft business to the next level.

Eileen

Have you heard about the new crafting fad, beading parties? Each participant goes home with a lovely custom hand-beaded piece of jewelry and a sense of accomplishment.

Rena Klingenberg was one of the first to come up with the idea. She started arranging beading parties for young girls.

The idea caught on. Click here to read her how-to article.

Soon adults were clammering for beading parties. Why should kids have all the fun? If you’re looking for another outlet for your jewelry crafting, think about beading parties for grown-ups.

Read our tips for adult beading parties here.

If it sounds like fun to you, but you’re not a beader, print out the article and give it to a beading friend!

If You’re Looking for a New Craft Media, …

Have you ever worked with leather? Think of the possibilities: purses, wallets, belts, caps, even shoes. A few simple hand tools will get you started.

If you want to take leather goods to a more artistic level, try tooling. Tooling or stamping is putting embossed designs onto leather. Western saddles and gear may come to mind, but creative leather crafters are expanding in new directions.

For information on tooling leather, click here.

To learn how to make your own leather shoes, click here.

Or do you do computer graphics?

You might consider adding a graphics tablet peripheral to your computer set-up. Not only can you draw freehand with these sophisticated toys, you can use them to trace.

Most come with a clear plastic cover sheet for tracing. If yours doesn’t have one, any clear sheet of plastic will do (e.g. transparency sheet or plastic sleeve for 3-ring binders).

Can’t find the click-art graphic you want? Trace or draw it on your graphics tablet.

Read all about Graphics Tablets. in this article.

Cameo Jewelry

This is not strictly for crafters. However, our latest merchant sells museum quality antique cameos, as well a contemporary pieces designed by Preston Ruether of Wire Sculpture fame.

In any event there are beautiful one-of-a-kind pieces for sale as well as more affordable cameo rings, bracelets and pendants made of shell and agate and set in gold or silver.