Technology and the Crafter

Posted by Kelly on December 16th, 2008 at 04:01pm

Clearly, the constantly growing technological advances of society shape our entire world.  Isn’t it fun to think about how much technology has changed the world of crafting as well?

The wealth of resources out there now are pretty amazing; you can find answers to just about any kind of crafting question imaginable.  Thanks to social networks, blogs, and forums, crafters can share tips, project ideas, and patterns with each other in literal seconds.  What online crafting networks are you involved in?  For those of you who knit and/or crochet, I’m sure you’ve check out Ravelry before, but I have to give it a shout out as a great social networking site for a specific craft niche.  Another one of my favorite sites is Craftster.org because of its easy to navigate forums, helpful information, and cool shop with some really funny crafty t-shirts like this “Sew in Love” shirt or the “Handmade is Better” tee.

Another big advancement has been the creation of Etsy (we <3 Etsy, if you haven’t noticed!) otherwise known as the Ebay of the crafting world.  It’s true, Etsy has offered both professional and just-for-fun crafters the opportunity to sell their products to the masses with an easy and afforable platform.  While craft fairs are still awesome (and constantly getting bigger and better in most urban settings!), the average crafter doesn’t have to wait anymore to share their goods with the world.  There’s other sites, like Etsy, popping up constantly.  One of my favorites for handmade clothes and accessories is Smashing Darling.  Check it out — it’s great for finding unique gifts!

And lastly, I’ve got to give it up for new gadgets — who doesn’t love gadgets?!  There’s a few that have been on just about everyone’s wish list this season — too many for me to even get into.  But I have a couple favorites for this year, to help with all my scrapbooking needs.  The Slice, created by Making Memories, is being dubbed the “iPod of the Crafting world” by many.  It’s portable and you can do it all with just a touch of a button — select a design to cut, select the size, and let it do its thing!  My other new fave is the Crop-a-dile II, and not just because it has such a cute name.  Made by We R Memory Keepers, the Crop-a-dile is a not-so-average hole punch that you can adjust for punching holes of all sizes and easily place metal grommets, eyelets, snaps, and other embellishments just about anywhere on your scrapbooking project.  It makes everything look so easy — what will they think of next?

Tags: crafting tools, social networking, technology, tshirts

Under Uncategorized Tags: crafting tools, social networking, technology, tshirts