Under the Bed

Wishing everyone a day full of Love and Memories. Happy Thanksgiving! 

Kimara and Michelle

Trailing Vine Star Ornament

Just a couple three things I wanted to mention this morning before I got sucked into the weekend! First, even if you're making most of your own gifts this holiday season... kudos to you BTW... if you're in need of a few purchased items, visit the shops in our Support Homemade Holidays. These are Wee Folk Art readers, just like yourself, that are running small, home-based shops. Yay for home-based businesses! We want to support their efforts. And, there is still plenty of time to get your shop listed. The more the merrier!

Next, there is a FAQ/contact update. I finally got out and got our PO Box. If there is a need to get in touch with us through snail mail, our address is:

PO Box 5033    Brighton, MI   48116

I've never had a PO Box before. Makes Wee Folk Art seem so official and grown-up :)

Finally, Michelle and I were having this conversation about post holiday come downs... more about that later... and we had this scathingly brilliant idea, which includes another Holiday Giveaway... a super fun and easy Gift Box you can make for gift giving AND an opportunity to be Queen for the Day on Wee Folk Art. Intrigued? We hope so. We'll talk more about it later in the week.

Okay... think I covered everything I wanted to mention. Have a lovely weekend!

Super quick "poke". I know many of our readers have Etsy and Etsy type stores where they sell lovely handmade items. I want to encourage ANY and EVERYONE that does to get their shops listed on our Handmade Holiday Directory. It's FREE, it's FUN, and it is a wonderful way to introduce your shop to other Wee Folk Art readers. I am also FaceBooking about different items daily. So, read over the rules, and join us in making this Holiday Season truly a Handmade Holiday!

Yesterday we posted our new FAQs. It is rather lengthy and a bit messy looking to keep up on our main page (we would rather see Fairy Dancing) so it has been tucked away neatly. We encourage our readers to take the time to peruse our FAQs at their leisure... found here or in our top menu bar.

Getting me to write up our FAQ was like pulling teeth!!! Who wants to dink with legalese when there’s crafting to be done? I think I have finally finished it up, however, and this is our “official blog” introducing them… our Frequently Asked Questions. In the future, if you have a question, please check here first. Hopefully, we’ll have included your answer. If not, as always, feel free to email us at weefolkart@yahoo.com or leave a comment. If any info in the FAQ changes or if we add additional content, we’ll highlight those in a blog. Please take the time to read through our FAQ. I would hate to think I invested the time doing this for naught! So… go grab a cup of coffee or stronger libation if FAQs bore you, and meander through. If you think of a question we left out or if our answers are unclear, please, please, please speak up! So here goes!

Who are you guys? Wee Folk Art is a mother/daughter team with a mutual love of crafting and the gentle art of homemaking. With the "wee folks" in mind, most of our crafting is focused on children. We do, however, throw in crafts for the home, self or yummy recipes just to keep it interesting. I am Kimara, the "sage" mother, and have a degree in elementary education and home economics, which I received just this side of the dark ages! Michelle, the "innovative" daughter, earned her degree in fine arts from a rival university in the much less distant past, majoring in graphic arts and photography. We are both stay-at-home moms, guess I’m now a stay-at-home gammy, that spend our days homeschooling and crafting. We both share a belief that less is often better, as long as the less has quality. We hope that is reflected in our crafts.

How do you make money on your designs? Uh… we don’t. This is one of those questions we get asked a lot. People find it hard to believe that we give away everything and sell nothing. Our rationale is simple. We are trying to simplify our lives and become more responsible consumers. We know there are a lot of other people out there trying to do the same thing, and we support their efforts. By offering free directions and patterns, we hope to encourage and support others that want safe, inexpensive and high quality items for their children and their homes. So, it is our plan to never sell patterns on our site, and to continue to share projects that enhance our lives, and hopefully those of others.

All of your patterns say Copyright. What does that mean? All of our patterns and directions are original. Although the “concepts” cannot be copyrighted… hey, who would own the copyright on a doll or a coaster, BUT, the patterns, directions, PDFs, and photos ARE copyrighted. In a nutshell, nothing from our website can be copied without our permission.

We do give permission for people to copy patterns and directions for their own use. We do give permission for people to use one or two of our photos online if there is a direct link back to us. Our photos, directions and PDFs should NEVER be downloaded directly to your site or altered in any way. If you wish to use our materials in another manner, please email us for permission at weefolkart@yahoo.com .

I know your patterns are on PDFs, but it would sure make my life easier if you turned all your directions into PDFs. Any plans to do that? I realize that it is not always convenient to have your computer right next to you while crafting. That is why we give permission for people to copy patterns for their own use. We only put "patterns" on PDFs... things that need to be cut out or that have detailed stitching. Creating PDFs takes more time, and we'd personally rather spend our time designing and crafting :) Also, we do have people that misuse our designs... downloading them to their own site without even crediting the designs to us, and PDFs would make it far easier for them to do so. Our best suggestion is to use the “Print Friendly Version”. If you click on the title of the blog or directions, when the page comes up, directly below the title and to the right, you will see the words “Print Friendly Version”. If you click that, you will get rid of all the “junk” on either side that you don’t need, and it will print a version that will be easy to use. And not to worry, we do not take our patterns down. It will be here the next time you need it!

Can we link to your website? Absolutely! As a matter of fact we LOVE being linked to. It is the “bestest” way to make new friends. You can either link to us in a blog or incorporate one of our totally sweet buttons on your site. And, thank you for wanting to share our site with your friends! And, now for some total hypocrisy…

Will you Link Share? You may have noticed we do not maintain a blog roll, and seldom link to another site. That is not the nature of our blog. There are so many wonderful blogs out there that we deal with every day, we would feel awful if we didn’t include all our friends and their fabulous blogs. So, instead of hurting anyone’s feelings, we chose instead not to link to other sites. (Hardly seems fair, does it, when we encourage others to link to us?)

Having just said that… there are two ways that you can be linked to on our blog. When you post a comment, if you have a website and you include your URL, when people click on your name, they will be taken to your blog. And, on the same note, if you become a registered user, you may include a link to your site in your signature. (This is the main reason we maintain registered users.) Of course, this does involve posting comments :) Your link can be to a personal blog, Flickr account or your business’ website, BUT, it is not meant to be used solely for the purposes of advertising. Comments made with the express purpose of personal gain will be removed.

Wee Folk Art does have a Face Book account. There, I link to our readers’ websites all the time. So, although we don’t link to other sites on Wee Folk Art, I just might link to your website on Face Book!

I think your website is great and I just gave you an award. Will you pass it on? We have received many awards from our readers and are touched each and every time we do. We always take time to acknowledge them and say “thank you” but trust me when I tell you, I’m a weak link! I’m always the killjoy who breaks chain letters and emails. So, please, please, please, do not take it personally if we don’t play along, pass along awards or post our accolades on the site. I am just such a slacker when it comes to those things… but an appreciative slacker!

Can I sell items made from projects on your website? Here's our "official" stand on the topic. At this time the answer is yes, but with a contingency. You must give credit to Wee Folk Art as the designers and include a link to our website. Bear in mind, that WE do not sell our patterns, but offer them for free. So, in the spirit of sharing, we ask that you provide the same opportunity to others and respect our creative sensibilities! Sounds fair, right? To make it easier, Michelle made a PDF of our business cards. You can download them HERE. Just print them, cut along the guidelines, and you’re good to go. If you are selling items you made with our patterns, you now have a handy dandy little card you can include with your projects!

Speaking of business cards… If you are in love with Wee Folk Art and find yourself incessantly talking about us to anyone who will listen, feel free to print some off a few of our cards to share with friends. You can take comfort in knowing you’ll be carrying a little gnome in your wallet everywhere you go!

How do you handle criticism? If I find a mistake do you want to know about it? The answer is, yes, of course, especially in our tutorials. As all of our patterns and directions so cleverly state:

We are sharing patterns we have designed and made for our own children, families and friends. Every effort is made to share information in a clear and accurate manner. We offer preemptive apologies for any mistakes that may be made. Please let us know via comments or emails if you stumble upon a mistake or if you encounter directions that leave you scratching your head! We will rectify the situation as soon as humanly possible!

Please remember, we are turning out patterns at an alarming rate… and without a net! (AKA editors!) So, if you notice a typo, just grin and know we actually are decent spellers, and that spelling mistakes just slip past us sometimes. We can live with a few typos. But, if we’ve left out a step in the directions, mislabeled a stitch, or have done anything else that impacts the quality of a project, please let us know immediately. I suppose, in that respect, our readers are our editors! It is best to post a comment under the offending post. We check comments more frequently than emails.

And on that same note... our "DISCLAIMER"!
We make every effort to share patterns and directions as accurately as possible. DUH, right? But we are human, although I often long for superhuman powers, and as humans, mistakes will be made. Before beginning any of our patterns, think of yourself as a Beta Tester. We do not have a staff, editors or even volunteers that are crafting our projects before we share them. YOU are the first to have a go at them. As such, other than a heartfelt apology, we accept no responsibility for mistakes made, or in an extreme circumstance, for time or supplies wasted. Please tackle our projects in the same manner that we are sharing them, with a spirit of goodwill and global friendship! 

Who designed your blog and where is it hosted? Who takes care of your personal computer issues? Or… Nitty Gritty blog talk! For those of you who don’t “know” me, I meet my darling Tim on Match.com eight years ago. In my profile, when asked what I was looking for in a man, I said… “MUST be able to repair my computer!” True story! Since that day, the man has been dinking around in my computer. I have him changing things and writing new programs as often as I have him move perennials! I say… “I want…” he says… “Not a problem.” How lucky am I? He tells me, and I have to take his word at this, that we are hosted on Host Gator, and our platform is Drupal.

As for the absolutely adorable web design… that is all Michelle! She has a degree in graphic arts and definitely has an eye for detail. She frets over things I can’t discern, but since the final product is flawless, I can only assume the Devil’s in the detail! Can’t argue with success, right?

Can we advertise on your site? This is a topic that we’ve toss around on almost a daily basis for the past couple of months. As time has gone by and our readership has increased, so has the request of advertisers. (The few businesses you do see on our site are shops that we frequent and are not true sponsors.) Here’s our conundrum. Wee Folk Art has become a full time job, and a considerable amount of money is spent on craft supplies. It WOULD be nice to offset some of our expenses, and perhaps justify to our significant others why crafting takes precedence over cleaning! At the same time, we want to maintain the integrity and “feel” of Wee Folk Art. So, after MUCH thought and deliberation, we have decided that we will accept sponsors. Over the next few months we will be working out some bugs, but at no time should you ever experience a reduction in the Wee Folk Art experience. Here is the information that is being shared with perspective sponsors:

We are excited to invite sponsors to join us on Wee Folk Art. We see this as a wonderful opportunity to share with our readers, quality products and services that compliment our love of crafting and homemaking. In this spirit, we are looking for sponsors whose presence on our site will be an asset to our readers and whose companies (no matter how large or small) exhibit a similar desire to support well crafted, homemade, and natural products for our children and homes.

We will be selective in our choice of sponsors, including only those who provide products or services we ourselves would use or feel comfortable recommending to our readers. This may include (but is not limited to) craft supplies and fabric, natural toys, homemade items, attachment parenting products, Montessori or Waldorf educational items, natural bath & body supplies, books, art supplies, etc.

If you would like to be considered for a sponsorship position on our site or have any questions, please send an email with your name, company/blog/shop name, web address and a brief description of your products to michelle@weefolkart.com .

Contact Information:

Email Kimara: weefolkart@yahoo.com
Email Michelle: michelle@weefolkart.com

Wee Folk Art Flickr Group
Wee Folk Art on Face Book

Snail Mail:
PO Box 5033
Brighton, MI   48116

You made it through. Good for you and thanks for taking the time. Whew!

We are excited to invite sponsors to join us on Wee Folk Art. We see this as a wonderful opportunity to share with our readers, quality products and services that compliment our love of crafting and homemaking. In this spirit, we are looking for sponsors whose presence on our site will be an asset to our readers and whose companies (no matter how large or small) exhibit a similar desire to support well crafted, homemade, and natural products for our children and homes.

We will be selective in our choice of sponsors, including only those who provide products or services we ourselves would use or feel comfortable recommending to our readers. This may include (but is not limited to) craft supplies and fabric, natural toys, homemade items, attachment parenting products, Montessori or Waldorf educational items, natural bath & body supplies, books, art supplies, etc.

If you would like to be considered for a sponsorship position on our site or have any questions, please send an email with your name, company/blog/shop name, web address and a brief description of your products to michelle@weefolkart.com.

We get asked all the time about the tools we use while crafting. We are trying to compile a list of the items we feel are a must haves as well as some of the nice to haves ;). The format of this page may change as we play with it... but here a a few favorites to get it started.

A couple of our most frequently asked questions are... "Can we sell items we make with your patterns?" and "What does copyright mean?" We are in the process of finishing up Wee Folk Art's official "Q & A" link, which will answer those questions and a bunch more. In the meantime, we've been having a discussion with one of readers who asked if we could send her some business cards so she could hand them out at a bazaar where she will be selling some items she made with our patterns. It got us to thinking two things: First, we really need to finish our Q & As. It will save us tons of time :) And, we should share a PDF of our business cards for anyone that needs them or just wants to carry some Wee Folk Art in her pocket :) 

Here is an excerpt from our Q & As that address these two questions:

All of your patterns say Copyright. What does that mean? All of our patterns and directions are original. Although the “concepts” cannot be copyrighted… hey, who would own the copyright on a doll or a coaster? BUT, the patterns, directions, PDFs, and photos ARE copyrighted. In a nutshell, nothing from our website can be copied without our permission.

We do give permission for people to copy patterns for their own use. We do give permission for people to use one or two of our photos online if there is a direct link back to us. Our photos, directions and PDFs should never be downloaded directly to your site. If you wish to use our materials in any other way, please email us for permission at weefolkart@yahoo.com.

Can we link to your website? Absolutely! As a matter of fact we LOVE being linked to. It is the “bestest” way to make new friends. You can either link to us in a blog or incorporate one of our totally sweet buttons on your site that can be found HERE. And, thank you for wanting to share our site with your friends!

Can I sell items made from projects on your website? Here's our "official" stand on the topic. The answer is yes, but with a contingency. We ask that you give credit to Wee Folk Art as the designers and include a link to our website. Bear in mind, that WE do not sell our patterns, but offer them for free. So, in the spirit of sharing, we ask that you provide the same opportunity to others and respect our creative sensibilities! Sounds fair, right? To make it easier, Michelle made a PDF of our business cards. You can download them HERE. Just print them, cut along the guidelines, and you’re good to go. If you are selling items you made with our patterns, you now have a handy dandy little card you can include with your projects! (Or if you feel inclined to hand them out to friends, why, Thank You!) 

Hope that answers questions for lots of people BUT don't hesitate to email us a weefolkart@yahoo.com if you have any other questions or comments.
 

Are you one of our regular readers? Do you have a Facebook account  or just want to see what's going on? If so, click on over to Wee Folk Art's new Facebook Page. Facebook gives us a chance to share things that don't totally fit our blog's format. So... if you're looking for a "Wee Bit" more of "Wee Folk", why not become a fan? We'd love to have you! Just click on the link below or at the top of the left column. See you there!

Just letting everyone know Michelle and I will be "off" this weekend. All 5 of our children will be home, and there will be much merriment ensuing! Adam, from South Carolina, flew in last night, Drew and his wife Meghan will be driving in today, and our youngest, Mike, and his new girlfriend, Katie, who we'll be meeting for the first time (and we can't wait... Fairy wanted to know what she likes to play and if she has pierced ears? What more do you need to know about someone, right?) will be in tomorrow. We'll be having a big picnic here on Sunday with other family members joining us. (I will point out... instead of cleaning this week like I should have, I was busy crafting... not a surprise to my children, that grew up with a mom easily distracted by creative pursuits!) Anyway... we are looking forward to frolicking fun, and hope your families have an equally enjoyable and safe holiday weekend, and we'll be back on Tuesday.