How do the featured projects, blogs and crafty superstars get chosen?

Cat and Tom choose them. I know a few of the crafty superstars and blogs that they've chosen have been people that they've met and were impressed with. A few of them are from my city and Cat and Tom stayed here over the summer. As for featured projects, I suspect they are either from crafty superstars, Cat herself, popular crafts or crafts that really caught Tom and Cat's eye.

At least that is my general impression.

I have always wondered the same Nikki...hahaha

i did notice with the projects that they seemed to be either cat morely or fashion stuff, but the blogs confused me when some of them say make this with a pattern on whatever website, but there was nothing on the site.

I've never had a problem finding the Tutorials on the Blogs, I use them all the time lol

The Featured Projects seem to be either by the Superstar of the month, Cat, or just a really cool project that everyone seems to like and Cat thinks it should be up there

The Blog and Superstars are all other hard-core crafters with their own very established blogs or businesses! They are so cool! I bet Cat and Tom are subscribed to a thousand blogs keeping an eye out for amazing crafters and projects, lol.

for the featured project, I think it is anything that they happen to see that looks interesting
like my tshirt was chosen, I don't have a blog, don't really advertise/show off my CO&K account or projects (all I do is put them up and tag them properly), so it's possible that you don't have to be incredibly popular or really well known to be featured

I was also sent an email telling me I was featured, nothing about how I was found though

the latest one that sticks in my mind is http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/blog/edible-spray-paint
i kinda want to see more food and plushies/cushions as featured projects, a bit more variety.

I'm glad you asked this Nikki, cause I've always wondered how the choose the featured project. Sometimes I find the tutorials choosen are a bit technical like the 'perched harmonies necklace' thats currently featured.

The featured project always seems to be a project I have never seen before, which makes no sense to me because I check the latest projects every single day.. It's been my goal since I joined the site to get a featured project but it hasn't happened yet, even when I was so sure my project would be a hit..

Rawr, I did the same, was so excited when I published my first project, now I barely expect people to like them, I don't make fashion items or common things.

I think a big factor is the main picture for your project

you'd want a good, high quality picture (can be obtained with lots of bright light outdoors) and an even background/something that doesn't take too much away from the project itself

and even if it doesn't look that great in real life, the picture should make the project look like it can be sold in stores

just what I gathered from what's been featured

yeah it seems that way
on a slightly different note, can we see who won previous competitions?

i thought the featured projects are projects that got many faves in a short time or projects from "crafty superstars"
and i agree with rawr.rawr, sometimes i´ve never seen the project before, but i´m on here every day and even check the first four sites to be (almost) sure i don´t miss a new project...
i can understand that lots of the fearured projects are food, jewelry, plushies, altered clothes etc because many people like that/can be done easily, but i really enjoyed the "fully sewn" projects, like the anthropologie bag. and maybe they can change the feature "requirements" that even creation could be featured, there are a lot of awesome creations on here with no how-tos for whatever reasons, i think they also deserve a place somewhere

I agree with So LaLa, it would be good if creations could be featured too. I often find that many people (including myself) post creations when they have got the pattern from elsewhere (like someone elses blog) and because you can add a link to a project, something can be posted as a creation can actually be a how-to. I think when people are searching they can be put off from clicking on something when it isn't labelled as a how-to.

I was wondering if people are quite generous with what they favourite? I think I'm quite liberal with mine and will favourite something if I think someone has done a good job, even if I know I won't try and make it myself. Cause I know I can always use the list function to organise the things I want to actually make in such a way that I can find things easily and don't have to trawl through my favouites every time. I was wondering if other people do the same? Or if people only favourite projects that they are actually gonna recreate?

i fave stuff i like, most i *want* to do myself but 99% i won't. some i think i'll make in the future (like baby stuff) and others i think id like to make but dont have the room/materials/skill. some creations are awesome, i think some people just want to show others what they have made, or dont want people to know how it was done in case they copy it and make money from it.