My name is Amanda Formaro, proud mother to four wonderful grown children, living in the Midwest state of Wisconsin. I love to cook, bake and be creative. I worked full time in finance until my third child was three months old then quit to stay home and raise my kids. As much as I loved being a mom, graham crackers and diapers just weren’t enough and my creative mind was going stir crazy.
For a long time it was just me, but in recent years it’s become a family affair with my daughter, daughter-in-law, and son’s girlfriend joining The Creative Team.
My Internet Story
Back in 1997, I got on the Internet when it was still pretty young. At that time, AOL and GeoCities were the prominent names; Google and Facebook weren’t even around yet. A month later I created a website called FamilyCorner.com. I developed it over the years, teaching myself HTML, networking with other webmasters and growing it into a profitable business. I sold that site in November of 2007 and began blogging six months later.
Throughout the years I’ve shared my creativity through other companies, magazines, and websites. I worked as the craft expert for Disney’s Kaboose.com (AKA Spoonful.com), and created fun kid’s crafts for them from 2005-2010. A few years later I developed over 300 projects for Disney’s Spoonful as well. Since then those sites have been closed and some of my projects were moved to Disney Family.
I have been published by many online magazines, including SheKnows.com and Family.com. You may have seen my work in Parents Magazine, Redbook, Mixing Bowl magazine, The Chicago Tribune (where I had a craft column for 18 months), Womans Day, and several others. I also worked as a designer for DecoArt and several other brands. I’ve worked for and with numerous companies and sites, such as General Mills, Yahoo, Kix Cereal, I Love to Create, and many more.
My Books
My published series (Readers Digest Children’s Publications) of 5 craft books for kids is called The Mania Series. Those books include:
- Duct Tape Mania
- Rubber Band Mania
- Paper Fun Mania
- Button Mania: Buttons, Bottlecaps, and Beyond!
- Star Wars Mania
My Branded Craft Kits
I developed some super fun kid’s craft kits through S&S Worldwide. They include:
- Ladybug Pack
- Foil Pack
- Monster, Alien and Robot Pack
I also have a food blog where I love to share my recipe creations called Amanda’s Cookin’ and I own a large craft library site called Fun Family Crafts.
The Creative Team
When I started this craft blog in September of 2008, I had no idea what it would grow into. Now I’m proud to say that not only has my daughter and daughter in-law both joined me, my son’s girlfriend is part of the team as well!
Kristen Rittmer, Editorial Manager
Kristen is my 26-year old daughter and the Editorial Manager for Amanda’s Cookin’ and Crafts by Amanda. She handles all content for both websites, including the planning and developing for new content on both. She loves to create fun, cute food like her Unicorn Freakshakes and her Cookie Monster and Elmo Cookies.
After several conversations with her about her old job, I knew she HAD to come work with me. She joined the team in January of 2017 and hasn’t looked back!
Taylor Strickland, Social Media Manager
In 2018 my son’s long time girlfriend, Taylor joined the team as a part time employee. As a college student she had a double major (crazy smart girl!) and one of those was social media.
In 2019 she joined the team full time and is an integral part of the marketing efforts of this business. She handles all of our Pinterest and Facebook strategies as well as keeping up on the latest trends on Instagram.
I couldn’t be happier to have her on the team!
Lindsay Opas, Virtual Assistant
There are a lot of behind the scenes things that go into a successful blog. Making sure we are tracking popular posts, getting them back into the social media stream, keeping up with our community, and so much more.
While Lindsay has a thriving full time career, she is able to work from home as a part-time member of the team in the evenings and on weekends. This is something we truly love about the blogging world, the freedom that it affords us!
I love having all three of these amazing women on my team!
My hope is that I am successful in sharing my love for creating via this blog. I love to hear from all of you and hope you will continue to comment on my posts and share your thoughts!
How to Contact Us
If you have questions, feedback, or need help with anything please email us at [email protected]
I hope you enjoy Crafts by Amanda and will either follow the blog, or subscribe by email. Talk to you soon!
