I wanted to share my article with my readers and also provide the link for the published one. Enjoy!
Homemade Gifts for the Holidays!
Is it
just me, or has this whole holiday season thing gotten way out of control? I'm pretty sure that a year is still as long
as it used to be, so why does the season seem to be arriving earlier and
earlier each year? The cynical side of
me wants to blame the big retailers, the ones who bank on our lemming-like
behavior to overflow their coffers each fall. When I was a kid (not as long ago as this rant
is making me sound) holiday decorations and merchandise didn't appear until
after Thanksgiving. Nowadays it is
common for retailers to start pushing their wares well before Halloween, and
many people have already finished shopping by Thanksgiving night, thanks to
Black Friday (excuse me, Thursday). While
I can’t control the commerciality of the holidays, there is at least one
tradition that I refuse to relinquish, and that is the tradition of sharing
handmade gifts with my family and friends.
About
five years ago I started creating my own Christmas cards and before I knew it I
was making hand-made greeting cards for almost every occasion. The response to
my cards was phenomenal, and soon Taylormadecards4u was born. Then, about three
years ago I started my blog, Taylormardecards4u.com, where I am able to share card
creations, offer tutorials, and review products. I have since expanded my
handmade items to include altered art, wall hangings, memory boxes, and various
other items. I have also been privileged to be a participant on many design
teams both as a member and a guest designer. In November and December of 2014 I
was published in an online magazine, Scrapbooking.com,
and will have some new items featured in Just
Steampunk, coming out November 2015.
As a
practitioner of handmade arts, I fully support the community of my fellow
artists and purchase from them regularly.
My real mission, however, is to convince the average consumer that
buying handmade is well worth their time and money, and helps build a stronger
community for us all.
You can find many of my handmade items over at my etsy store and now on Amazon Handmade.
No comments:
Post a Comment