I've been helping out as a volunteer at UK Handmade for a few years now, one of the perks is a little free advertising now and again, including a reserved spot in the UK Handmade Christmas Showcase!
However, my sewing machine is on vacation and I won't be selling any of my handmade coin purses and bead kits this Christmas, not even a single craft fair! (purse tutorial here if you fancy a go yourself!) I'm concentrating on the day job and any free time goes to Craft Blog UK!
I had a chat with Karen Jinks at UK Handmade this morning that went a little like this.
Karen - "Hey Hilary, why haven't you emailed over your Christmas showcase item yet?"
Me - "Umm, but I have nothing to showcase... sigh :(
*lightbulb*
Me - ...but I know some people who might be interested in a bit of free advertising!"
Karen - "OK, you have until tomorrow to choose someone!"
(imagine, scary finger wagging and stern "deadline imminent Miss Pullen" voice... not really, she's lovely of course and was very up for this 11th hour giveaway!)Showcase Spot Giveaway!
So, I'm donating my showcase spot to one lucky Craft Blog UK reader instead! Yes, Woohoo indeed! The showcase goes live on the 7th of November, perfect timing for the gift giving season!
It's such a fantastic prize! The winter showcase is all about Christmas and Christmas gift ideas. The deadline for entries to this giveaway will be tomorrow at 12pm - that's just 24hrs to enter - so get cracking and read the rules below - entry is super simple!
What is the UK Handmade Showcase?
Just in case any of you are scratching your heads, UK Handmade is a community of crafters that produce an online magazine all about craft and the handmade lifestyle, the winter issue is launched tomorrow!
The showcases are one of the ways they fund all of the hard work and keep the site running. They charge £10 for a space in a gallery of themed images that link directly to a makers online shop. (excellent value for money)
The UK Handmade Showcase closed for applications on the 23rd of October. If you didn't have the time, or didn't have the spare cash to apply - now is your chance to win some very high quality free advertising!
Take a look at previous showcase the Wonder of Wool to see the format and the quality of submissions.
Some stats to pique your interest -
- The UK Handmade website sees an average of 45,000 page views per month, this figure is set to rocket over the gift giving season.
- The UK Handmade community has over 3,000 members
- UK Handmade has a highly engaged facebook page with over 6,500 fans
- UK Handmade has a twitter following of over 6,800, and a loyal team that regularly retweets and shares content to their own networks.
Eligibility to enter
You need to be able to tick these boxes!
- I'm a craftsman based in the UK
- I have good quality images of my work ready to send over
- I make Christmas items, or items suitable for Christmas gifts (use common sense please!)
- I have not already applied for a space (good on you if you have, but sorry the items must all be from different makers)
Karen tells me successful applicants will be informed over the next few days, they have had lots of fantastic submissions.
- Leave a comment below including a link to the item, either at Flickr, your website or other market place listing - please also tell us a little bit about yourself. The link must go to the item you want in the showcase and not just your homepage.
(I have a good spam filter that may go on overdrive with all the links, so if your comment doesn't show immediately don't worry I'll be checking the filter and manually approving them!) - Tweet, facebook or blog, to let people know you have entered with a link to this blog post!
- I'll add entries to a Showcase Competition Entries facebook album as they are received - a little extra free publicity for your work!
- Deadline is 12 noon November 1st (UK time, UK entrants only)
Email me if you get stuck! I'm at haptree at gmail dot com
- A winner will be chosen at random by me using a random number generator
Dark, blurred images, or images with dodgy backgrounds won't be accepted I'm afraid, so please check your images against previous showcases for a guide on accepted quality.
Whilst I have permission from UK Handmade to run this competition their word is final.
I will be in touch with the winner tomorrow afternoon! Eeeeeeeeep!