The Creative Connection

BlogHer Panelist-Monetization and Business Models (Intermediate-to-Advanced)-Craft + Money:The Next Steps

Alicia DiRago is a DIY, style and design enthusiast. She currently resides in Houston, TX where she gave up a career in chemical engineering to start Dismount Creative, a company that offers social DIY classes that encourage women to Make It Fun, Make It Together, Make It Yourself! When she isn’t teaching happy hour craft classes (and enjoying the hoppiest beers she can find) Alicia writes a popular blog about DIY fashion, jewelry and décor projects and inspiration at www.dismountcreative.com/blog. You can also find her on Twitter @aliciadirago.

Panelist-Creating an Event

Alli Worthington’s goal is to bring good things to women. She is one of the most recognized names in the Social Media community. In 2008 she founded Blissfully Domestic magazine, one of the most trusted women’s destinations online. Alli found her passion when she discovered the joy of hosting events. She is the co-founder of the wildly successful BlissDom Conference and its sister event BlissDom Canada. BlissDom is the first International Women’s Social Media conference; it strives to give the right brands the ability to connect with influencers in a welcoming environment. The Blissdom Conference environment fosters relationships and communication. She describes it as a loving business conference. What? It really is. She is a dynamic business consultant and strategist who specializes in developing social media strategy, vetting promotional campaigns and advising best practices for effective blogger outreach. Fortune 500 companies, small business owners and individual bloggers work with Alli to develop a vision, brand identity, and social media strategy. She often gives unsolicited marketing advice when she finds poorly executed pitches in her inbox.

Alli, her husband, five boys, and a rescued dog named Mollie live outside Nashville, TN. Alli is an avid gardener, she dreams of having a chicken coop and has plans to learn how to can homemade jellies this Summer. Alli dreams of having or hosting her own TV show, going on a safari in Africa, running for U.S. Senate, and building a greenhouse, not necessarily in that order. She’s not that picky.

Contact:
Web: http://alliworthington.com
Twitter: @alliworthington
Email: alli@allisonworthingtonmedia.com

BlogHer Panelist-Monetization and Business Models (Beginning)-Introduction to Monetization Models for Creative Bloggers

Amanda Rettke is the creative force behind iambaker.net and iammommy.net. Her blogs showcase baking and all things parenting. Amanda’s award winning recipes and designs have been featured all over the web, on several television programs, as well as international newspapers and publications. Her self deprecating sense of humor will keep you laughing and her pictures will inspire you to be the best baker and parent you can be!

Panelist-Self Publishing

Amy Barickman is the founder and owner of IndygoJunction, The Vintage Workshop and AmyBarickman.com. She is a leader in the fashion sewing, needle arts, and retail crafting industry, having released nearly 1000 sewing pattern titles, sold more than two million sewing patterns, and published 80 books in the U.S. and abroad. Her recent endeavor is the book Amy Barickman’s Vintage Notions: An Inspirational Guide to Needlework, Cooking, Sewing, Fashion and Fun, already in its third printing since its release in September, 2010. Named one of Country Living magazine’s prestigious Creative Women Entrepreneurs, Amy has made numerous television appearances on shows like HGTV’s The Carol Duvall Show, and Public Television’s America Quilts and Sewing with Nancy. Amy continues to reach out and share her collections, views on vintage, travels and projects with the ever-growing community of crafters and sewers that has embraced her and her work for twenty years. Amy’s video series is her latest venture.

Contact:
Web:
www.indygojunction.com
www.thevintageworkshop.com
http://AmyBarickman.com

Panelist – Self Publishing

Amy Powers decided to create her very own online magazine, Inspired Ideas, on a bit of a whim. She always adored magazines and when she didn’t find anything on the newsstands that particularly inspired her, she decided to publish her own virtual one. With a background in magazine design (she was once art director for a very boring engineering magazine), she dusted off her ancient computer programs and got to work. She called upon her crafty friends for project ideas and published her first issue in Autumn of last year. It was met with a small happy reception. Her goal is for readers to feel inspired to create at least one project from each issue. “I’d love for the magazine to be page after page of inspiration. I always feel a magazine is worth the price if I’m inspired to create something after I read it.” Amy lives with her charming husband, Rich, and their adorable son Alfredo in their home in the DC Suburbs. She writes of her sweet life on her blog, Inspire Co.

Panelist-Creating Community Through E-Commerce

BlogHer Panelist-Growing Your Reach (Beginning)-Using Content and Community to Grow Your Reach

Amy Turn Sharp is the wood queen of Little Alouette, an organic wooden toy shop she runs alongside her master carpenter husband, Joe. Their sweet little toys are all over the world now, from tiny boutiques to American Eagle 77 Kids shops. Even Martha Stewart thought Alouette’s toys were fabulous and extended an invitation to the shop to sell wee wood toys in NYC last holiday season at a private event.

Amy is a mother of three from Columbus, Ohio, who tracks her life on doobleh-vay blog, and has at least seven projects brewing all the time. She really wants to have an essay aired on NPR in the next two years. Amy LOVES online connections and helping other women find rooms of their own. She likes radishes, bookshops, and chicken korma. She is a Kirtsy.com and StoryBleed editor, in addition to a freelance writer who regularly contributes to sites like Alphamom.com and Scoutiegirl.com. She works with women all over the country teaching on the topic of social media. Amy also runs creativity workshops with local children and was named “One of the 50 Top Etsy Moms” by Babble.com in 2010. She has spoken at numerous conferences, including BlogHer, Blissdom, Mom2.0, Kirtsy HOSB, Chicks Who Click, and many other amazing local venues.

Contact:
Web: www.amyturnsharp.com
Blog: http://doobleh-vay.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @amyturnsharp

Panelist-Creating Community Through E-Commerce

Andrea Badgley is the owner and soap crafter behind Sacred Suds ~ Soaps with Soul, her home-based handmade soap company that she has successfully grown over the past three years, doubling her revenue each year. She is a mother of two, and it was on giving birth that Andrea realized her creative potential. She found her greatest creative joy in making soap, a craft which manages to pull together her scientific background (she has a degree in Ecology from the University of Georgia), her love for recipes, her passion for the magic of the earth, and her deep desire to bring beauty into the world. Because her first jobs are as Mom and manager of the household, she has focused her business efforts almost exclusively to work that she can do from home, on her own time schedule. In other words, she has channeled her energy into her online presence. Andrea sells her soaps almost exclusively via the e-Commerce site, Etsy.com, an online marketplace for all things handmade, vintage, and supplies, and has built her brand and online persona via Etsy’s community-building tools, social networking on Twitter and Facebook, and through her blog. When she’s not making soap, Andrea enjoys writing, reading, baking, and racing triathlons.

Contact:
Web: www.blog.sacredsuds.com
Twitter: @sacredsuds
Facebook: www.facebook.com/sacredsuds

Panelist-Creating an Event

Andy Krueger is the founder of the St. Paul Craftstravaganza, an urban arts & crafts show held annually at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. 2011 was its sixth year. In 2010 he helped to start the first annual Minneapolis Indie Xpo, a comics festival highlighting local and independent artists. He also works full-time as customer service manager at ReconRobotics.

Contact:
Web: http://craftstravaganza.com/

BlogHer Panelist-Monetization and Business Models (Intermediate-to-Advanced)-Craft + Money:The Next Steps

Anne Kuo Lukito has been hooked on crafting since her dad showed her how to sew on a button at age 8. As a self-proclaimed “Crafty MacGyver,” her many endeavors over the years have included sewing, papermaking, cardmaking, silk painting, jewelry fabrication, baking and even a few failed attempts at learning to crochet from her grandmother. Anne discovered the world of knitting in 2006, after teaching herself to knit from a book. By 2008, she was completely immersed in the craft and began developing her own designs which appeared in such renowned publications such Knitty.com, Interweave Knits magazine and the book, “101 Luxury One-Skein Wonders”. Over the last few years, Anne’s work has also appeared in several books, yarn company collections and other publications, such as Knitscene and Twist Collective. Anne also designs for her own label, Crafty Diversions, and is currently writing her first book and well as a series of booklets. Y ou can find her designs at http://www.craftydiversions.com/ and http://www.ravelry.com/designers/anne-kuo-lukito .

BlogHer Panelist-Growing Your Reach (Beginning)-Using Content and Community to Grow Your Reach

Becky Jorgensen currently designs and produces online sewing workshops on her site www.patchworkposse.com, blabs about all things crafty on her blog www.patchworkposse.com/blog, and sells one-of-a-kind patterns in her shop www.whosiesandwhatnots.etsy.com. While serving as an area rep for the Utah Quilt Guild for three years, and as president of a local quilt group she founded in 2010, Becky created www.patchworkposse.com. This helpful website hosts online sewing workshops, features patterns designed by top sewers and crafters, and includes a monthly e-zine. Becky loves to provide a place for sewers to learn something new, share tips with others, and connect to a worldwide community. Blogging for over four years, Becky has learned the “tricks” on building a community using her crafty enthusiasm. Through those efforts, she has successfully sold her unique quilt and doll patterns, and new patterns seem to jump out of her sketch book every month! Becky has been sewing since she was eight years old, and claims she’s never been able to follow the instructions properly. This led her to design a quilt series called “Cranky,” which lets go of the standard rules of quilting. Her latest project has been converting a cold storage building in the backyard into her own personal sewing cottage, where she will continue to develop new workshops, design new patterns, and quilt for others.