Craft Forums and others

Many of us are members of forums, in fact I must be a member over over 20. not all of the are craft forums, many deal with the software I use to run the site and others are for Webmasters and cover things like site promotion and development.

I've noticed something different about the craft related ones, on the whole they're a lot more sociable than other types of forums which I'm a member of.  There's a lot more general chatting going on which is really nice.

Of the forum I'm a member of it's obviously my own which I visit most often and which I enjoy the most.

Free Craft Downloads Forum is the one I use most. Lots of great areas, a lot of general chat but also sections where crafts can be discuss, mostly paper crafts.

The Forum with no Name is very similar. It used to be "Alan and Barrys Crafts" forum but when that company closed it was rescued so it wasn't lost to the members.

Other Popular Craft Forums include:
craftsforum.co.uk/
craftbubble.com/
crafttelly.com
craft.co.uk/

More specilised Craft forums would include the like of:
glasspainting.co.uk/

There are lots of other Craft related forums... many the popular craft designers also have forum including FeeJ Designs and Joanna Sheen.

All of these are nice forums where you can meet and chat to other crafters.  may be best to have a nosey at a few until you find one which really suits you.

Card Making and Colours

As is fairly normal, I was sitting making some of the free backing papers the other afternoon with the television on in the background, can't remember exactly which channel but it was one og the shopping telly craft shows so probably either QVC or Create and Craft.

Anyway my attention was suddenly drawn to what they were saying "These colours are so in this year" and "These are going to be next seasons colours". I was honestly going to turn over as I assumed the schedule had moved on to a cloths programme but no, it was still on a card making programme and this was then talking about a set of papers they were selling.

So is it just me or is it really stupid talking about card making papers in this way. I know there are some conventions, lots of reds and greens for Christmas papers, blacks and greys for sympathy ones and I do tend to do my Christening papers and Baby papers in pastel blues and pinks, but are is there really such a thing as "thins seasons colours (pastel green if I remember rightly in this case) or is it just another way of them getting us to buy yet another set of papers?

Loads of Free Craft Downloads

OK I've decided to create this blog so people can follow the work we are doing on our Free Craft Papers and other Free Stuff for crafters. Mainly it will follow the work on the following sites:

www.freecraftdownloads.co.uk
www.freecraftstufff.co.uk
www.glasspainting.co.uk
www.craftcalendar.co.uk
www.craftquestions.co.uk
www.craftbargains.co.uk
www.craftdemos.tv

In addition to these we have a few "feeder" sites around which help generate traffic and / or are general craft directories such as www.craftlinks.co.uk and www.craftlinks.org.uk.

So the first question to answer is, why do we do it? Well it all started off as a bit of fun (the free sites) but I have to admit it has slowly dragged us in to become more serious. THe problem is the more visitors you get and the more papers you make, then the more server space and more powerful server you need. The more powerful server you have the more visitors you need to cover your cost and so on and so on.

At the moment we have a single (quite powerful) dedicated server for the main sites and a few shared servers for the smaller ones.

A Difficult Year

There is no doubt that this is going to be a difficult year for craft companies both on and off line. Towards the end of last year several of the smaller online craft companies ceased trading and more are sure to follow. There were far too many of these small online companies to be sustainable but it is a shame as many of these smaller companies were run by real craft enthusiasts.

I've noticed already that several craft fair organisers have cut down on the number of shows they are running so this will cut down on the choice for crafters. As incomes drop and stand prices increase crafters will have to think hard about which shows they book. Unfortunately most finished craft items are not a necessity for the buying public and we shall have to wait and see how much they continue buying.

All is not doom and gloom, as normal in this situation there are bargains to be had as craft companies compete for the smaller amount of custom around. Keep you eyes on your favourite craft websites and you will see more reduced prices and sakes.