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 fun and easy recipes, party ideas, DIY home decor and travel tips to help you live a more creative life!

Amy Locurto – DIY Lifestyle and Food blogger from Dallas, Texas

What started in July 2008 as a blog about creative things I did at home with my kids, Living Locurto has since turned into a popular DIY lifestyle blog featuring delicious simple recipes, whimsical party ideas and easy DIY home decor crafts!

Today, you will find easy recipes, party ideas, fun crafts, DIY home decor and travel tips. As a social media influencer, Amy’s online fanbase currently totals over 750,000 people.

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 teenage son and daughter along with a very fat cat and new kitten! My son actually shares a lot of content on our Facebook page. He’s known as Jack, the snarky teenage summer intern 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. Deadlines were tough, clients demanding, life was hectic and sleep was scarce! I started a blog as a creative outlet to save my sanity.

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 blog full-time, along with being a business coach specializing in Pinterest strategy.

I enjoy traveling, teaching other businesses how to market their business on Pinterest, speaking and doing freelance creative work for other brands and publications.

As Seen In

Amy has been featured in numerous print magazines, web sites, morning TV talk shows and newspapers such as Woman’s Day, Better Homes & Gardens, Cosmopolitan, US Weekly, and more!

• Tamron USA
• D Magazine
• Parents Magazine
• CBS This Morning
• Studio 512 – TV segment
• Better Homes & Gardens Magazine Feature
• Apartment Therapy Interview
• Blogger Genius Podcast Interview
• 50 Favorite Design & DIY Bloggers
• Top U.S. Women’s Websites
• Cosmopolitan
• Country Living
• People
• Wayfair
• Women’s Day
• Dallas Morning News

Amy Locurto’s Products & Courses

My current and past products include:

• Amy’s Circle – Pinterest Growth Tools and Courses for Bloggers and Online Business Owners
• The Living Locurto Fun Club ~ A private membership with access to creative printable designs.
• The Elf Ideas Shop ~ Cute printable designs for your sneaky Christmas elf!
• Party with Amy Locurto ~ A line of papers and embellishments designed for American Crafts.

Travel Passion

A few years ago, I promised to take my kids to a new U.S. city each year. With my travel passion, that one city has turned into dozens! We travel all over the place now making life one fun adventure! I’m a HUGE Outlander fan, so one of our most recent family trips was with National Geographic to Scotland. What an amazing journey!

Find me on:  Pinterest  |   Facebook  |  Instagram   |  YouTube  |  Twitter

Interested in working with me on a creative job or speaking event? Please visit the –> PR Inquiry page. 

 

Get to know me by listening to my interview on the Blogger Genius Podcast.

Follow our travels on the Travel Fun Adventures Instagram Feed.

---

Beyond Living Locurto

Besides the traveling, managing this blog and my design firm, I also enjoy creating products! You can join the Living Locurto Fun Club to get access to an exclusive printable library of goodies.

Find my printable party collections in the shop, Printables by Amy, and a signature line of paper products, Party with Amy Locurto, through American Crafts.

You can also find me sharing all things about chickens over on my Chickens are Fun Facebook page!

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!!