Early explorations into crafting social circles

I've been having a look around at who is out there, and what they are doing. There are, as expected, LOADS of people making and selling handmade stuff, including cards and other things I am thinking about.
Twitter has been a great way to find them already! And I'm looking at other ways of networking with likeminded people.

Obviously I've already started a blog, and set up a twitter account, and I've also started to save useful links to Delicious.com so I can keep track of interesting websites I find and hopefully share links with other people who are tagging stuff I will find useful as well. And I've started posting a few photos of things I have made for friends and family to a Flickr stream.

It feels a bit odd trying to break into new online social circles. It feels a bit like being a party where you don't know anyone but you are fairly sure you would be interested in what most the people there have to say. Especially as these people could be anywhere in the world, and you're not sure if what goes in in the USA, for example, is the same as what goes on here in the UK. Can I buy and sell on the same sites they can? Do they use the same terminology used over here? Do the same rules apply with copyright etc?

As well as learning my craft I have a lot to learn about how to connect with other crafters, where to buy supplies from that it's OK to use to make items for sale, how to avoid breaching copyright, how best to package items for dispatch, and more and more and more.

It's all starting to feel a bit scary, so I'm going to stop thinking about that now and instead show you a pic of  a Halloween card I made last October...

In the beginning...

Well, here's my first ever post on the Monkey Mementos blog. I've been thinking about doing this for a while, and now seems a good time to start setting up social networking so it's all here ready and waiting when I am in a position to start selling my cards.

I've been making cards for family and friends for a little while and people seem to like them so I'm wondering now whether I can sell them. This blog is here to keep track of how things are going and hopefully to share some ideas and get some feedback on what I make.

Here's a wedding card I made for my cousin recently to give an idea of what I'm talking about...though I've made things in many different styles - they are not all pink fluffy!


I would really appreciate any comments and feedback, positive or negative, as I am here to learn and to develop cards and crafts, hopefully to a point where they are good enough to sell.