Want to sell that awesome tank graphic you drew during your last deployment, or that quilt you made while your spouse was away? Here’s how.

Home-based Crafting Moves to the Net
In the old days, if you crafted something at home, your pool of prospective buyers was usually limited to your town or county, or at most your region. Flea markets and similar events may occasionally broaden your reach, but on the whole, “local” was the rule.

As with so many other forms of commerce, the rise of the Internet transformed the marketplace for handicrafts of all kinds. Now, even an artisan in a remote village in Zimbabwe or Peru can sell his or her wares to customers internationally.

Move Over eBay
While eBay is still the “Big Kahuna” of online marketplaces, other websites have cropped up to help you sell everything from t-shirt art and clothing patterns to crosses and other items assembled from kits. (Home-based craft assembly includes many scams, so watch out. However, a few legitimate vendors exist.)

Here’s a sampling of websites that serve the home-based artisan. (For a more detailed list, including home-based craft assembly, click here.)

• ArtFire.com provides a marketplace for over 80 categories of handmade products, from “Bath & Beauty” to “Metal Craft,” “Quilts” and “Woodworking.”

• Etsy.com is one of the best-known marketplaces for handicrafts. The site launched in 2005 and already receives an estimated four million visitors monthly.

• YouCanMakeThis.com sells “how-to” eBooks written by crafters. Topics run the gamut, from boys’ clothes to photography to woodworking.    
     
Don’t Forget Craft Shows, Fairs and Malls
While the Internet broadened the marketplace for crafts, traditional venues such as craft shows and fairs shouldn’t be overlooked. They not only offer potential sales, they’re a great opportunity to network with other crafters, and form what can become long-term relationships with buyers.

“The most common questions to consider for craft fairs and shows are whether entry fees are required and whether you have to provide your own table for displays,” says crafting expert and military spouse Carrie Lee, who has her own line of clothing and yarns at Etsy, If you would like to display at a craft mall you need to determine the percentage of your sales they keep, the amount of ‘rent’ charged for your space, and whether you have to set up your own displays or whether they set them up, etc.”

To find or start discussions about crafting, visit Military.com’s forums.