Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 24, 2026

Craftster

Craftster was an online community for crafting and do it yourself (DIY) enthusiasts. Users posted pictures of craft projects, and others commented and asked questions about how it was made.

Last revised
Jun 24, 2026
Read time
≈ 2 min
Length
441 w
Citations
15
Source
Wikipedia ↗
Craftser
Type of site
Craft content / online community
FoundedMay 2000 (2000-05)
Headquarters
El Segundo, California
,
U.S.
URLhttp://www.craftster.org/
AdvertisingYes
Current statusclosed
Website closed on December 19, 2019

Craftster was an online community for crafting and do it yourself (DIY) enthusiasts.1 Users posted pictures of craft projects, and others commented and asked questions about how it was made.2

The Craftster.org website closed on December 19, 2019.

The site's tagline, "No tea cozies without irony", referred to the fact that many of the projects posted are irreverent, off-beat, humorous, clever, etc. While projects posted on the site tended to be made using traditional techniques such as knitting, crochet, cross stitch and sewing they often conveyed modern sentiments such as images of a favorite rock band, or motifs from a favorite 1980s video game.3

The site had over 190,000 registered members.4 It has been written up in publications such as Time, The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Washington Post.5 6 7 The membership was over 190,000, and readership was over 1,000,000 unique visitors per month and over 10,000,000-page views per month.8

The site has been called be one of the forces behind the renaissance of crafting among a new, young, contemporary demographic.9

History

The site was started on June 27, 2003,10 by crafter and computer programmer Leah Kramer.111213 The term "Craftster" is a portmanteau of "crafty hipster" and a nod to pioneering peer-to-peer sites Napster and Friendster.14 Prior to starting the site, Kramer was one of the organizers of the Boston Bazaar Bizarre, a yearly "punk rock craft fair", begun in 2001.15

References

References

  1. "Designer combines the nerdy with the crafty". NBC News. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016.
  2. "Pretty Crafty". Time. March 1, 2005. Archived from the original on March 4, 2005.
  3. "It's Sew Easy To Make & Mend". The Daily Record.
  4. "Get crafty for holiday gifts". Associated Press.
  5. "Feeling Crafty? Inspiration Abounds on These 5 Sites". The Washington Post. February 5, 2009.
  6. "Crafster Founder Interview". The New York Times Magazine. July 2, 2006.
  7. "Sewing Hip". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. January 9, 2008.
  8. "Statistics Center". Craftster.org. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  9. "'Alternative' crafters bring new eye to crafts". Associated Press. November 27, 2009.
  10. "Craftster.org WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info - DomainTools". WHOIS. Retrieved July 5, 2016.
  11. "Interview with Craftser Founder". sfist. Archived from the original on January 22, 2010.
  12. "Calling all craftsters". The Boston Globe. July 26, 2006. Archived from the original on April 30, 2010.
  13. "She and Kitsch Go Way Back". The Boston Globe. June 22, 2006. Archived from the original on September 25, 2011.
  14. "About Craftster". Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  15. "Crafting gets attitude". The Boston Globe(December 7, 2005). Archived from the original on May 5, 2018. Retrieved October 14, 2016.