Photograph courtesy of Cut Out and Keep
Cut Out + Keep, the online craft community has just celebrated the 30,000th member joining the site! For a site which began as a personal craft blog for journalist Cat Morley and has been custom built for the purpose of sharing craft tutorials, this online hub of arts, crafts and entertainment is leading the way in the craft craze. Members and celebrity ‘Crafty Superstars’ inspire fellow creatives by posting their own sewing, baking and making efforts to the site. And with 15,000+ step-by-step tutorials to chose from ranging from a ‘burlesque bustle skirt’ to rainbow cupcakes, there’s lots to learn and little to lose. And the fun doesn’t end there. Cut Out + Keep’s blog, competitions, chat board and online magazine, Snippets inject further fashion, music, art and craft kudos in to the site.
Photograph courtesy of Cut Out and Keep
Cut Out + Keep creator, Cat Morley tells us her about her amazing journey:
If you had asked me in high school what I wanted to be when I was older, I wouldn’t have been able to give you a straight answer. Today, I’m 24, living in London (my favourite city in the whole wide world) and somehow I’ve ended up with my dream job.
While I was at university in Scotland, I started a blog called Cut Out + keep where I would post tutorials for the crafts I was making. After posting over 250 projects, the site had become really popular, so with the help of my web designer boyfriend Tom, we turned the site in to a community where everyone could make and share step-by-step tutorials. By the time I graduated, CO+K had become a full-time job and today, the site hosts over 15,000 projects for making every imaginable type of craft – cooking, sewing, paper craft, jewelery, fashion… you name it! Every morning I wake up to discover all the amazing new projects that have been added over night and I’m still amazed by how unique and creative they are.
Photograph courtesy of Cut Out and Keep
I have always love being crafty and creative. When I was young, I used to help my Mum sew my Halloween costumes and loved cooking up a storm in the kitchen and feeding my family. When I went to university, I studied computer art and got really in to film making. I also started working as a journalist and photographer for a couple of music magazines. When I started CO+K, I wanted to combine all of my passions, so with the help of a bunch of super creative writers I had found online, we started Snippets, an online entertainment magazine to accompany the site. Snippets has allowed me to meet some amazing people and interview my heroes, including bands like Placebo, Chicks On Speed and Ladytron, comedians Adam & Joe, and even my favourite comic book character, Emily Strange.
Photograph courtesy of Cut Out and Keep
Our members tend to be young, hip and love to show off their individual style. We get a lot of tutorials for revamping and customising clothes, making personalised gifts and recycling and re purposing junk and unwanted items. The most popular projects have been a recipe for baking rainbow coloured cupcakes , turning a jumper in to a skirt , a tutorial for sewing a guitar shaped bag and melting a vinyl record in to a bowl. The nice thing about the site is there is a project that everyone can make, from really complex sculpting to simply applying homemade designs to t-shirts, shoes and accessories to personalise their wardrobe. We also have a section called Crafty Superstars, where creative celebrities and the big names of craft share some of their expert projects.
Photograph courtesy of Cut Out and Keep
I really love living in London, it’s so vibrant and exciting and there’s always something going on. I like to hunt through the event listings in Time Out and head to all the free events. I also love walking and seeing where I end up and what new places I discover. I live in Maida Vale, which is so pretty with the canal running through it and there’s lots of good brunch spots (check out Plan 9 – an American run cafe that does tasty pancakes on a Tuesday). I also love hanging out in Soho, the South Bank and shopping in Camden and Brick Lane.
Photograph courtesy of Cut Out and Keep
I’m really looking forward to seeing what 2010 will bring for the site – hopefully thousands of amazing projects, interviews with exciting celebrities and maybe a couple of adventures overseas. I have never been or wanted to be a businesswoman and never thought that I would end up working for myself. I would encourage anyone and everyone to peruse their dream job, because if I can do it anyone can!
Photograph courtesy of Cut Out and Keep
What Cat likes:
Art: There’s an amazing Parisian artist called Nathalie Lecroc who is painting women handbags and their contents. She plans to paint 1001 and then publish a book of them all.
Music: Bright Eyes, Ben Kweller, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Martha Wainwright and the Manic Street Preachers.
Blog: 1000 Awesome Things
Website: Stumbleupon.com – it leads to so many wonderful finds (I have mine set to show crafts and recipes).
Shop: Muiji – it always has such awesome stuff and it has made me really organised.
Food: Sushi.
Drink: Absinthe, root beer or alcoholic hazelnut milkshakes.
Papers or printed magazines: Bust, Venus & Amelia’s Magazine of course.
What I would like for Christmas is: A Vivienne Westwood tiara, which is a pair of horns encrusted with crystals.
Tags:
Art Fashion Textile Designer, Baking, bi-monthly, Community Art, craft, cupcakes, Decorating, design, entertainment, jewellery, magazine, makers, Old Craft Techniques, painting, recycling, textile, tutorials
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