Gateway to the Artistic!

Emma and Elsie from A Beautiful Mess

The weather isn't the only thing that's hot in Missouri.  The show-me state is home to wonderful art, craft and design bloggers. Here are some of the best:

A Beautiful Mess - Elsie and Emma believe in taking time each day to make something pretty. They believe in lifelong learning. Most of all, they believe that life doesn't need to be perfect to be beautiful. On A Beautiful Mess you'll find daily inspiration for crafts, recipes, fashion and decor.

Whitney Scott Photography - Once there was a girl who loved photography (but for some reason felt she should deny her artistic inclinations and pursue a Masters degree in Psychology) One day while surfing the internet when she should have been working, she met a boy (who wasn’t into photography, but was into computers… hence, the internet). Together David and Whitney are magic and their blog is filled with amazing images and insights.

One Canoe Two - Carrie and Beth are childhood friends who always loved to draw. Now the two are all grown-up and work together as professional illustrators, designers and printers. The name 1canoe2 comes from years of the two dreaming up big ideas around a campfire and floating down a spring-fed Missouri river in a canoe. Two girls, one canoe. One canoe, two.

Paper Muse Press - Dedicated to all the lovely things that surround and inspire, Emily, Sarah and Rowena are constantly on the hunt for pretty, inspirational things.  Their blog features DIY tutorials, indie finds, event inspiration, art and illustrations, recipes, and a lot of other lovely things.

Hammerpress - Founded in 1994 by Brady Vest after attending the Kansas City Art Institute, they make all sorts of really nice letterpress greeting cards, posters, art prints and other paper goods.

Ampersand Design Studio - Carrie & Morgan's mission is always to create looks and lives that are creative, harmonious and happy. Their shared aesthetic — fresh, innovative, and energized by shots of surprising color—infuses everything they do.

Skunkboy -  Here you will find fashion, crafty things, music, and more.  Katie hopes to always leave people feeling inspired and encouraged when they pop by her corner of the internet.

Sincerely, Kinsey - Kinsey is a photographer planted knee deep in the Midwest. At Sincerely Kinsey you can expect to find photographs from recent shoots, craft projects and fashion inspiration. Her goal is to inspire individuals who aspire to live a creative lifestyle.

Danny Joe Gibson - Danny is a fine artist in Missouri and this Tumblr page is 100% visual and presents his art and inspiration through a set of unique and quirky eyes.

Handmaker of Things - Emily specializes in floral design and jewelry and accessory design. On her blog, she shares her latest work, things that inspire her and a peek into her everyday world.

These are only a few of the craft and design blogs in Missouri.  Do you have a favorite?

The Blogosphere and Twitterverse

Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networking sites make it easy and fun to follow the most innovative thinkers in any field.  The best information is in the blogs, but your friends on Twitter and Facebook will help you find it.

Over the past decade, blogs have evolved from online journals into a mainstream publishing tool. There are more than 125 million separate blogs and highly creative people are some of the most prolific bloggers. Whatever your interests, someone is blogging about it and some of the blogs are excellent.  Bloggers are typically the most educated and passionate people in their field.

Several sites, including Technorati.com index blogs and this is a good way to initially find some blogs to follow.  Many professional journalists and professional writers are also bloggers. So when you read a great book or an interesting magazine column, be sure to check out the author’s blog. Bloggers also tend to follow and comment on other blogs, so an interesting comment may link to a new source of knowledge and inspiration.

When you are following several blogs, it quickly becomes unwieldy to visit each site individually to discover if it has been updated.  Set up an RSS reader page and use the RSS button at each blog site to set up an automatic headline feed to your reader.  That makes it easy to spend only a few minutes each day to see which blogs have been updated and decide which articles you want to read.

Searching on Technorati.com and reviewing RSS feeds are good sources of information.  Your friends are a better source. Who are the most interesting people you know?  Chances are, they are interesting online as well.  People who are intellectually curious have a talent for finding interesting information and sharing links to it on their own Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn pages. If you follow them on Twitter, friend them on Facebook, or contact them on LinkedIn, they become your news sources and news filters.

Twitter is the best way to find new sources of information because most Twitter users allow anyone to follow them and the “retweet” feature makes it easy for people to share the most interesting tweets.  When one of the people you follow retweets something interesting, you can choose to follow the original tweeter to gain more of their insights.  If it turns out that someone you follow generates a lot of useless or uninteresting tweets, it is easy to unfollow them.

This process works in both directions.  When you find a particularly interesting article, share the link on your page.  Your friends will appreciate it, and if they share it too, it might bring you new followers which you can choose to follow yourself.

It is important to set aside time every day to follow your social networks and read the best blogs in your field.  Then turn everything off before beginning your real creative work . Focus your full attention on your own project.

What are your favorite blogs?  How do you keep track of the latest trends?