About Amy Locurto

Hi I’m Amy Locurto! I believe we all need a LOT more happiness in our world. My mission with Living Locurto is to share easy recipes and fun party ideas to help you live a more creative life. Let’s celebrate both the little and big things as much as possible!

About Living Locurto

Living Locurto is in its 15th year and now a popular DIY lifestyle blog featuring thousands of videos and posts about fun entertaining ideas, delicious easy recipes, party food trends and unique gift ideas.

Amy Locurto – DIY Lifestyle and Food blogger

Amy is a creative entrepreneur, influencer, business coach, social media consultant who lives in Dallas, Texas with her husband John, son Jack (20), daughter Siena (16) and rescue cat Oliver (2).

Her family has all been a part of Living Locurto throughout the years and is a good sport indulging her love of Disney.

Amy has a B.F.A in Graphic Design from Oklahoma State University and started her career as an Art Director for Fossil before becoming an entrepreneur. By the mid 1990’s she became one of the first women in design to create websites in Dallas and eventually opened her own design firm creating award winning branding for various brands and Fortune 500 companies.

When she heard about blogging, she jumped in headfirst sharing DIY party ideas and used her graphic design experience to open an online shop, becoming one of the pioneers of the printable download. Eventually Amy added recipes and partnered with hundreds of brands such as Coca-Cola, Disney, Sam’s Club, Warners Bros Pictures, Pinterest, Borden Cheese, Tidy Cats, Hallmark and many more.

Quick Stats

Amy’s Background

I was born in Missouri, but grew up in the small town of Pawhuska, Oklahoma. After college, I moved to Texas where I met my husband and started a family. We now have a son in college and teenage daughter along with our crazy cat. My son actually shared a lot of content on our Facebook page. He was known as Jack, the snarky teenage summer intern for a while and nicknamed “Mr. Spinach” by one of my favorite readers. Ha!

With a Fine Arts Degree in Graphic Design, I worked for various companies in Dallas as an art director and in 1999 took a huge leap to open my own graphic design firm. My new company grew quickly! It was exciting, but I was working very long hours while also trying to raise two small children. Life was hectic and sleep was scarce! I started a blog as a creative outlet for the fun things I did with my kids.

Over the years since starting Living Locurto (finely named after my love of Ricky Martin’s song Livin’ La Vida Loca aka “Living La Vida Locurto“), I gave up all design clients to be a full-time creator at Living Locurto and coach/consultant at Amy’s Circle.

Travel Passion

Instead of summer camps, I promised to take my kids to a new U.S. city each year. With my travel passion, that one city each summer turned into dozens! We travel all over the place now making life one fun adventure! I’m a HUGE Outlander fan, so our family trip with National Geographic to Scotland was definitely one of my favorites. What an amazing journey!

• Get to know me by listening to my interview on the Blogger Genius Podcast.
• Follow our travels on the Travel Fun Adventures Instagram Feed.

Contact Us

Have a question? Please scroll down to see the FAQ’s before emailing. Contact Amy

Frequently Asked Questions

What paper do you use?

My favorite paper is Red River Paper, they specialize in ink jet papers. The 60lb Polar Matte is awesome, it produces really bright images.

I also really like double sided matte paper for when I print on both sides. Epson and Staples brands are both good. You can always find several packages of sticker paper on my shelves as well.

What were you doing when you decided to create your own business?

I started my career as an Art Director for Fossil in the early ’90s. I was in charge of photography styling and design for the catalog, designed watches, belt buckles, key fobs, and packaging, and even worked on some design for the retail stores. Then the internet boom came, so I moved into a career focused mainly on internet design and marketing materials for large businesses.

How do you do all that you do?

I don’t sleep much! Seriously… I only get about 5-6 hours of shut eye a night. My husband helps out a lot too:-) Now that my kids are older, I have them working for me as much as possible. But that is getting harder and harder to do with their busy schedules.

What is your favorite pastime besides arts and crafts?

I love to travel, photography, reading, yoga, and tennis (used to play, not anymore!). Hip Hop dance class is a blast too. Love to read too? Find me here on Goodreads.com.

How do you make your printables? Are they original drawings or stock? How can I do what you do myself?

All of my designs but a few are original and usually hand drawn, then scanned and traced in Adobe Illustrator. I have gotten pretty good with drawing directly in Illustrator, so some designs I whip out pretty quickly.

Unless you’re a professional designer, you don’t need Illustrator. I’m on the hunt for affordable drawing programs because I get this question so much. Right now, I have been recommending Photoshop Elements. You can download free trials of Adobe programs at Adobe.com.

How do you stay so organized?

I AM NOT an organized person! I have good intentions of staying organized, but never follow through:-) It’s the artist in me that works best in clutter I guess. I do love my personal planner though, it’s a life saver!!