This book provides actionable steps to help shop owners engage the Etsy community in authentic ways that attract buyers and generate sales. The best Etsy shops stand out among the sea of sellers and draw loyal customer bases, but how they’ve done it isn’t—and shouldn't be—a secret. In these pages, top Etsy sellers share the tools that have helped them, the changes they made that yielded positive results, and their best advice for achieving and sustaining a successful Etsy shop. Beyond sellers’ words of wisdom, this book offers a roadmap all sellers can follow in order to: • Choose keywords and tags to drive traffic to your shop • Photograph your products for maximum appeal • Create a unique shop that stands out • Write winning product descriptions • Price your goods appropriately • Market your products effectively on social media platforms • Maintain lasting relationships with your customers • Diversify your product offerings

    Whether you re a beginner, a student, or a career artist looking to be in the best museum shows, this book provides ways of advancing your plans on any level. Making It in the Art World is an invaluable resource for artists at every stage, offering readers a plethora of strategies and helpful tips to plan and execute a successful artistic career. Topics include how to evaluate your own work, how to submit art, how to present work to the public, how to avoid distractions in the studio, and much more.

    20 traditional patterns for a new generation of generous quiltmakers are included.

    This work teaches you everything you need to know about colour theory, fabric selection, and design, as well as providing expert advice on piecing, hand and machine applique, and finishing techniques."

    Critics and popular audiences alike marveled at these quilts that combined the best of contemporary design with a deeply rooted ethnic heritage and compelling human stories about the women. Gee's Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt is a major book and museum exhibition that will premiere at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), in June 2006 before traveling to seven American museums through 2008. The book's 330 color illustrations and insightful text bring home the exciting experience to readers while displaying all the cultural heritage and craftsmanship that have gone into these remarkable quilts.

    Today, his prodigious output of hundreds of dust jackets and paperback covers evidences his distinctive flair for design and his extraordinary ability to portray the essence of the books that came his way. Edward Gorey: His Book Cover Art & Design features a broad selection of his work, created from 1953 to 2000.In his essay, Steven Heller offers an insightful overview of Gorey's book cover art and design. He writes, "Successful cover design requires the expertise of an artist, typographer, poster designer, and logo maker. Many book design specialists were incapable of designing a cover or jacket with the same Gorey aplomb, even if they tried."

    With specific how-to techniques and creative prompts on using an artist's sketchbook in a new way, these pages provide a gentle push to help you discover and integrate your creative passions through sketchbooks, workspaces, and mixed media. Through beautiful full-color imagery, you’ll learn in each chapter how your collections, scraps, ideas, and doodles can lead directly to, and fuel ideas for, creating individual works of art.Using her own materials and methods as a source of motivation, Sarah Ahearn Bellemare provides an inside look at her personal creative processes, sharing her use of her favorite resources alongside tips and tricks for making art – all the while encouraging you to explore, play, and make mistakes as part of the journey. At the end of each chapter, Sarah takes you to visit the studios and sketchbooks of some of her fellow artists – including Shanna Murray, Christine Chitnis, Stephanie Levy, and others – for behind-the-scenes glances into their creative work.Become inspired to build upon your own artistic style and discover the beauty in everyday life with Painted Pages!

    She shows you how to use dots, fine lines, brushstrokes, black and white, color--a mixture of mediums and techniques--to suggest: glass, cast iron, adobe and brick, sunrise and sunset, driftwood, leaf textures, basketry, surf and ocean, waves, enamelware, rainbows, wood grain, distant trees, eggs and onions, animal hair, and dozens of other textures! You'll learn how to use materials, from technical pens to paint brushes, colored inks to liquid acrylics. You'll discover ways to blot, spatter, stamp and otherwise alter and combine ink and watercolor for exciting texturing effects.

    Up-to-the-minute coverage now includes digital assetmanagement; metadata standards; the role ofInternet, FTP, and e-mail technologies; the impactof media consolidation on assignment and stock photography;and much more. This indispensable guidecovers the full range of business and legal questionsthat photographers might have, with comprehensiveadvice from the ASMP, the foremost authorityin the field. In eleven in-depth chapters, morethan two dozen industry experts explore pricingand negotiating, ethics, rights in traditional andelectronic media, publishing, and much more. Businessand legal forms, checklists, and an extensivecross-media bibliography make this the one reference book that deserves a place on every successful photographer's bookshelf.• Covers all of today's most urgent issues in photography• Contributions from more than two dozenexperts, all professional photographers• 60,000 copies sold!

    The kaleidoscope effects occur spontaneously, thanks to the ingeniously simple 'Stack-n-Whack'(R) cutting technique. By stacking identical repeats of fabric, quilters can efficiently cut the pieces needed for all the blocks. Each block will be unique and unexpected, keeping the quilting experience fresh and exciting! With over 200 how-to illustrations and dozens of color plates. Designs include the classic LeMoyne Star, Hybrid Lilies, Kaleidoscope Pinwheel, Hexagon Star, Diamond Ring, Morning Star, and others, all pieced with construction methods that eliminate set-in seams and ensure quick, successful results.

    And she's determined to enjoy making quilts. In fact, she will not -- absolutely will not -- let the risk of making a mistake, or a less-than- perfect quilt, keep her from relishing the task! In the 34 chapters of this new book, Lisa covers: The need for new fabric colors -- "blurple," "rorange," and "brellow," to name a few; The virtues of lumps in a quilt; How to share your bum fat quarter at a fabric exchange; How crocheting doilies will drive you back to quilting; How to cope when your quilts lack depth and dimension. Lisa Boyer is a breeze of fresh air. She brings you back to the pleasure of quilting with her confessions and adventures in Stash Envy!

    You're free to quiet your inner critic and spill color (as well as your thoughts) all over the page. Author Diana Trout offers a double-dose of encouragement for you to try out new techniques, to ask yourself new questions and to see how safe of a place your private journal can truly be.Whether you've been carrying around an art journal for years, or have been waiting for just the right push, in the pages of "Journal Spilling" you will learn new ways with mixed media as well as new insights about yourself. Step-by-step instruction will make the process easy and you'll explore such techniques as: Using salt, alcohol and wax paper as resists for watercolorSpilling" color over your page with the help of watercolor crayonsCreating unique lines and shapes with a fun ink-blowing techniqueMaking secret pockets and flaps for storing wishes and private reflectionsCarving and stamping with hand-carved stamps, making your pages even more personalGetting out of a writing rut with prompts and inspiring exercises and much more Find out just how fulfilling using creative expression in your personal journal can be and let "Journal Spilling" be the friend to offer you support for each page you create."

    Jessica Alexandrakis has traveled the world with her on-to-go sewing kit and small stash of fabric, creating strikingly modern patchwork along the way. Now she shares everything she's learned about this addictive, beginner-friendly technique. • Sewing kit essentials that you can slip in your bag so you'll always be ready to stitch • Color theory and stash organization tips for dramatic effects or scrap-happy results • Creative patterns to combine hexagons, half-hexagons, diamonds, stars, squares, and triangles • 10 step-by-step projects, including the hand-pieced Laptop Bag, Tanuki Stripe Throw, Falling Stars Baby Quilt, and Jessica's signature Travel Quilt • 10 customizable quilt patterns with 40 vibrant color palette suggestions Whether your style is classic or modern, Jessica offers a range of stunning projects, from small home accessories to full-size quilts, for all skill levels. So leave the sewing machine at home. Take your quilt to go.

    Personal Geographies gives you the tools and techniques you'll need to create artful maps of your self, your experiences and your personal journey. Chart the innermost workings of your mind, document your artistic path and create an unfolding maze of your future dreams and goals.Inside Personal Geographies you'll discover:- 21 mixed-media map projects featuring artistic techniques like working with alcohol inks and pochoir, painting on a black surface and carving custom stamps - Insight into the world of traditional and contemporary maps and how they relate to and inspire personal mapmaking - A gallery of maps by contributors from around the world to spark your own creativityFrom mapping your head, hands and heart to recording powerful memories or experiences, the maps in Personal Geographies are a gateway into the fascinating and meaningful world of you.

    Presenting a diverse collection of projects—many inspired by the Japanese zakka aesthetic—such as a travel sewing kit, sewing machine cover, table runner, apron, eco bag, towels, calendar, lap quilt, tote bag, pillowcase, and shoulder bag, all designs are fun, functional, and easy to master. Combining sewing, appliqué, quilting, and patchwork techniques with thoughtful advice on how to select, work with, and care for linen, this colorful handbook is brimming with sophisticated and innovative projects to challenge and inspire both beginning and intermediate sewers and quilters.