Hello! I'm back! Thankfully, I am having a much better week (so far!) than last week!!! I'm super excited to bring you this weeks Crafty Connections. I think you'll find the following links helpful and inspirational!

Each and every week I scour the interwebs and gather the best tutorials, tips, and informative links to help with your handmade craft business. In addition, I’ll post links to cool crafty DIY projects, and blogs I think are worth following. I hope you find something useful and helpful! If so, please let me know. I would LOVE your feedback!

20 Ways to Skyrocket Your Motivation

by Matt Biddulph, via flickr
One of the reasons why people don’t follow through on their goals is because they lose their motivation along the way.

15 Things an Artist Should Never Say

by shewatchedthesky, via flickr
Oh, I've been guilty of saying almost every one of these...

20 Personal Brand Building and Monitoring Tools You Don’t Want to Miss

by SaraCarr66, via flickr
With the social media realm being at our fingertips and larger each and every day, there are a plethora of tools to assist in building our personal brands, monitoring them and promoting them.

Writing a Business Plan
Do you have the feeling it might be time for the next step but you’re not sure what that next step is? Are you getting comfortable with your art/craft/thing but a little part of you wonders if you’re missing the opportunity to stretch a little?

Handling Copyright Issues

by florenceforrest, via flickr
How to handle when you discover someone ripping off your work.

DIY-Paper-Craft Sugar Posy Cake
by Rosie from Sweetapolita, via Paper*Cakes Finds
Gorgeous eye candy, and seems really easy to do! What a simple and fun addition to add to your next plain birthday cake or cupcakes!

If you know of any good handmade craft marketing resources I should include in the next Crafty Connections post please don’t hesitate to email me, or leave the link(s) in the comments section! I would love to be able to share these great resources with everyone! Thank you so much!

-April
http://www.creativeapples.etsy.com