Hello,

Let me start by saying a big thanks to everyone who's joined us so far.  This site is still brand spanking new and we hope it'll grow and grow with everyones support.  I'd like to let everyone know that they are free to talk about whatever they want on Craft Social.  It doesn't matter if you're not a CD ROM user or that you've never brought a Little Big Tree product.

This is a craft social network... and it is designed to bring crafters together from all corners of the internet.  A crafting home!

The Craft Social isn't here to sell you stuff - it's simply for you to use in whatever way you choose.  Please use the forums to start any kind of discussion you want, about any kind of product you wish.  There are no strings attached - honest.  We desperately needed a new website anyway and Tim found out he could do all this cool stuff and we thought - why not!

So how do you use it then?  Where do I start!

• Firstly you can set up your profile to tell everyone about yourself and what interests you. 

• You can create albums of photos and decide if you want to keep them private or share them by making them public.  If you make them public other Craft Social members will be able to see them in the Craft Social gallery and comment on them.  

• You can add status updates (a lot like Facebook) which tells people what you're working on right now or simply to state how much you hate Mondays. 

• If you like something someone has to say or you know them already you can send other members a friends request. Once you have friends you can e-mail them directly - we're even working on an instant messaging feature so you can chat live to them!

What is the best way of meeting new people here?

The forums are a bit bare right now and we'd like people to jump in and get the ball rolling.  At the moment it feels like a party and everyones waiting for the 1st person to get on the dance floor!  I can pretty much guarantee you'll get responses to any new threads you start. 

If you want to start a new thread (discussion) simply click on one of the topics and you'll see a little green tab that says 'new thread'  ...just click that, type what you want to say and post!  Simple.

Groups

You can set groups up for anything (but ideally craft related).  You can make your groups public (meaning anyone can join) or private (meaning others can only join by invitation). 

Groups are great if you want to talk about something specific. 

As an example: If you're into ATC's you can start or join an ATC group. Anyone in, or joining this group will be into creating ATC's... so there will always be at least one thing you have in common!  As a part of this group you can arrange ATC swaps, challenges, chat about whats going on, create group photo albums to share your work and even create an events shedule with dates, information and locations.

 

Events

are amazing. 

You can create an event just for you and your friends (by invite), or for a group or open to everyone.

If you're part of a group you can create an events list that lets everyone know what, where and when. 

As an example a group has just been set up called "Art Journaling Prompts".  If that group wanted to, they could create an event schedule to remind everyone involved...

• what the current theme is
• what the rules are
• or maybe a deadline for a challenge

If you're arranging a get together, enter the address and postcode for the event page to show the location on a Google Map!

 

I'll put all of this info into the support section  so you can refer back to it at any point.

I'll leave it at that for now as there's quite a lot to read.  I'm currently trying to do some demonstration videos, which is a lot harder than you'd think!  When they get posted please be gentle with me and bear in mind that although it sounds like i'm chatting to you i'm actually in a room on my own talking to myself!  I feel like a proper plonker!

Take care for now

Rebecca