Top 5 Sites for Crafters

By Kate Pruitt (from Design Sponge) on April 26, 2011

Crafting has come a long way in the last decade-- no longer relegated to old ladies and kindergarteners, the techniques and materials that used to be considered "arts + crafts" are now finding their place within the ranks of art, design, and technology. The internet has played a large role in this emerging trend, and today I'm sharing some of my favorite online resources for crafters of all kinds. If you have a specific project in mind, or simply a hankering to play with materials and make something creative with your own two hands, you should check out these sites for a little inspiration, guidance, and a supportive, thriving community of craft lovers everywhere. If you're a craft expert of simply a fan of crafts, I'd love to know -- what are your favorite crafting resources?

1. Ravelry
Ravelry is a free network for anyone interested in fiber arts, including knitting, crochet, spinning, weaving, and more. Members share tips, tutorials, tools, and reviews for a wide variety of projects, making it a great resource for both emerging and expert crafters. I've never had much luck learning knitting or crocheting techniques from books, which is why this online community is perfect for fielding my myriad questions!

2. Curbly
In the DIY universe, Curbly is a major galaxy unto itself. Not only do their editors round up tons of projects and craft related content from around the internet, but they also create original DIY projects, and have published a few downloadable DIY books as well. Its a great online resource for home owners, tinkerers, and anyone looking to dive into new crafts.

3. Not Martha
Megan founded Not Martha in 2001 as a way to catalog all of her favorite projects, links, and crafts she was tinkering with on her own. It has since gained an enormous following and reasonably so--the site is one of my favorite go-to places for fun holiday projects, food related crafts, and little bits of daily inspiration. I especially love that Megan continues to refine her projects, and will regularly post her updates and improvements. With Megan's crafts, you always know her instructions are well tested and guaranteed to provide great results.

4. Digital Photography School
This may not be the case for everyone, but I would imagine the majority of crafters and designers in the world would love to document their creations. If we start talking professional photo equipment or hiring photographers, the costs can add up quickly, but luckily Digital Photography School has the resources to help anyone learn how to document their own work, and do it well. You can find tutorials, tips, and discussions on everything from add-on flashes to lenses and filters, plus they have great links to DIYs and hacks for rigging up a budget-friendly professional photo studio in your own home.

5. Etsy
If you haven't checked out Etsy yet, you are majorly missing out. With an enormous selection of handmade and vintage goods for sale, Etsy is every craft-lover's dream. I love checking out their featured sellers and searching by material to find gifts and inspiration for my own craft ideas. Etsy is also a great resource for materials that may be hard to find in standard art supply stores, and searching their supplies section can yield great finds for those crafters looking to complete unique projects. I've found antique findings and hardware, japanese art supplies, and great vintage fabrics for my creative projects, all within minutes of searching.

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Design*Sponge is a daily website dedicated to home and product design run by Brooklyn-based writer, Grace Bonney. Launched in August of 2004, Design*Sponge features store and product reviews, sale and contest announcements, new designer profiles, trend forecasting and store/studio tours. In addition, Design*Sponge features a unique section dedicated to covering student design, national and international design shows. The site is updated constantly throughout the day (with an average of 6-10 posts a day), and attracts a core group of devoted readers. Design*Sponge currently has over 60,000 daily readers. As a Contributing Editor at Design Sponge, artist Kate Pruitt shares DIY projects each Wednesday. Kate lives in Oakland, California and has a background in art/art history and recently left her job creating window displays to pursue her own work full time. Growing up in New Hampshire, Kate spent a lot of time building machines out of paper and scotch tape, and thus discovered her first DIY impulses.

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