It's a Cracker

This in an unashamedly festive post today (yes I know it is not even December yet) and while I'm being unashamed, it's a bit self promotional too! I made this sparkly pair of crackers a couple of weeks ago as a special end of term project for my weekly machine embroidery class... but I shall come to these in a little while...

 

 

 As a self employed artist/embroidery tutor marketing and promotion are just as important as actually doing and making stuff. At times I stuggle just to keep up with the game never mind staying ahead of it but I do quite like using Facebook because it is a great way of sharing images and it is pretty much instant, unlike writing a blog post which takes a bit of planning.

 

I'm aware it's not everyones cup of tea but used carefully it can be a great way of getting stuff out there. Facebook users will know that there are personal pages or profiles where you can have "friends". I have one of these and although I never put very much personal stuff on there I do still limit my friends to people I actually know or have met... so please don't take it personally if you have ever sent me a friend request that I have ignored! But there are also business pages where you have "likes" and these are open for anyone to like... and I have one of these too!

Gina Ferrari Textile Art

 

What is a mystery to me is how some artists have thousands of "likes" or followers and others, like me, not so many. So I tried a bit of a promotion last week and put some of these cracker photos on my page with an offer of a giveaway to one of my page likers... plus a request that if people felt like it they could share it on their pages too. Hooray... overnight I gained about 50 new followers (or likes).

 

Yesterday my class finished their crackers...

 

And the results were absolutely stunning... all so shiny and sparkly...

 

And all so different... don't you just love these pastel colours?

 

And so I put up these photos on Facebok yesterday with a reminder that I would be giving a cracker away on 1st December, and again overnight as if by magic, my likes increased from 875 to 920.

 

 

And I got to thinking how excited I would be if my "likes" actually reached 1000 by 1st December, so I'm letting you, my blog readers know. All you have to do is click on the link on my sidebar that says "Like my Facebook Page" and you could stand a chance of winning one of these sparkly decorative crackers pictured below... it might only be a 1 in 1000 chance but but you have to be in to win! And remember... do feel free to share!

 

And for those of you not on Facebook or not lucky enough to win I was also thinking of writing up a tutorial for making these and possibly selling the PDF in my Etsy shop*... just in time for Christmas. What do you think? Worth the effort?

 

And while I'm feeling festive... the first batch of mince pies were made yesterday. A little reward for those clever students for making such beautiful crackers! Would it be nice if I could share a mincepie with you too for reading this far!

 

* In response to Erica's comment - yes, several years ago there was an article on making crackers in Stitch magazine by Carol Colman  which gave me the idea for making crackers but  I have devised the method for making these myself. Any tutorial would be my own work.