Design Team News & Pointers!

Well, hundreds of you applied for our last Design Team call….

I am happy to report that the decisions have been made!

I have now, emailed everyone who applied…with the good or bad news.

There is little doubt in my mind, that there are more disappointed crafters at the moment, than those who are screaming and dancing around the house with joy!

Whilst I am going to keep our new DT line up a secret for just a little bit longer, I would like to take the time to perhaps help the disappointed amongst you with any future Design Team calls that you may enter…..

Here are just 5 little tips, they are in no way definitive answers but if you can look at your work objectively, you may see what we see, when we hop around blogland.

• Your colouring, how do you feel it compares with others? Is it something you could practise more? Honing your colouring skills can only give you a better chance.
• Your photography skills….how clear are your pictures? If your card is difficult to see it can severely hamper how you are perceived. Perhaps take a look at other craft blogs and see how they photograph things, and what equipment they use. Do you need a light tent and a daylight lamp, or will a bright window and some plain white card help?…also find basic (and free)  photo editing software and experiment, it can work wonders.
• The overall look of your blog…..if it is covered in blinking badges and busy patterns with candy notices everywhere, is it just generally very cluttered? This can also detract from your work, the most important things on your blog should be your craftwork…it’s kinda that simple!
• Think about the number of design Teams you belong to….do you look overcommitted, are some of those no longer fun? Do you still belong to them purely because you can have a badge saying ‘DT member’ on your blog? We could never tell you what to do but, crafting should be for fun…not for collecting badges. We look for people able to commit time to a project, there will be other companies who do the same.
• Is your blog in the language of the company you are applying for? Now, I am multilingual BUT there are MANY, MANY people who are not and how can you judge if a person can write in passable English if they do not show you they can? There are many translation sites over the web which you can copy and paste whole chunks of text into and use the translations on your blog. Make your posts bilingual….it makes sense.

This is in no way a definitive list, just some common things we see time and time again when trying to make these difficult decisions.

The great thing about crafting is that it is an art form so, everything is a matter of personal taste. 

I would however, like to take the time to thank everyone again for their time and their applications! I did enjoy my visits to your blogs, it’s always great fun to see what people get up to with our sweet Scottish stamps!

Carry on crafting….

Luv’n’Hugs

Gayle x