A special request for my newly created wearable art Recycled Vintage Christmas Light Angel Earrings came through and off they flew ~ What an honor ~ I look forward to making more dreams come true! Silent Night ~ the Holidays Happen All the Year Through… Let me design YOUR dream earrings !

Spiral Bound How to Indoor Craft and Art Project Book from Usborne … craft book howto Usborne instructions painting collage Christmas Easter art

Learn how to embellish henna design with glitter glue when making henna design Christmas ornaments from a professional henna tattoo artist in this free arts and crafts holiday video.

Jenna shares the techniques and tips to make a door wreath from some old, weathered books. It’s easy, inexpensive and fun. You probably have everything you need to make this now and at home! From expert crafter Jenna DeAngeles. More info at www.JennaDeAngeles.com.

Anyone who has ever tried giving a ‘different’ gift for Christmas will know the difficulties in finding such a thing. There are always plenty of options when looking for gifts for women due to the kind of variety and range available in the market. But how about avoiding those over crowded, over scented perfume halls, and choose something that you know she would never have thought of buying for herself.

A sculpture, an original painting, or jewellery that won’t be found in every single high street shop!

Brazilian jeweller Patricia Segrillo weaves pure 999 Brazilian Silver into the most amazing design of jewellery, with Hollywood actor Orlando Bloom amongst her collectors. Her truly unique and highly stylish jewellery is exclusive to Scotland through Artery Gallery.

Lora Leedham has taken part in a series of events and her jewellery has featured in UK and international magazines, as well as making TV appearances – one of which was worn by Camilla Parker Bowles, on live television; she has worked with fashion designers, created jewellery for charity events, exhibited at London Fashion Week, created jewellery for catwalks and has created jewellery for a number of celebrities.

The jewellery has a very feminine, fresh, organic and romantic style to it and the designs portray an emphasis on texture. Lora uses her hobby of photographing nature as a source for her inspiration. She particularly looks at the organic forms and textures of nature.

Quality and design are the two key features in Lora Leedham’s work and by incorporating an artistic element with high end materials, such as metals and Venetian glass; each piece is a luxurious accessory to compliment any outfit and make the wearer feel truly special.

Angel Neal’s jewellery collection first launched in the US with great success, before she moved back to her roots in Scotland. Her work is now sold across the world. Angel also undertakes commission work for special occasions and bridal jewellery. Notable commissions include jewellery designed for Mary Kay in the US, and celebrities in the UK, as well as featuring in many high society magazines.

Scottish figurative sculptor Ronna Elliott creates beautifully crafted female figures incorporate her own take on ladies of leisure. The titles say it all, with ‘Ladies in Waiting’, ‘Pandora’s Box’, ‘Retail Therapy’ and ‘Ladies Who Lunch’. Each figure is embellished with their own marks and patterns which are not only decorative but also symbolise metaphorical fingerprints of people who have touched us in some way, often unknowingly.

Ronna graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 2000 and shortly after set up her own studio in Hamilton. She has sold out on numerous occasions whilst exhibiting through Artery Gallery.

For men, the choices are a bit more limited out there. Do men honestly appreciate the novelty socks, Homer Simpson beer holders, and remote control toys that break before New Years day!? And how many times can you gift someone golf clubs, aftershave, a watch or a leather wallet?

Men love alternative gifts, things that no one else will have and that they can proudly show off. Handmade steel mantle clocks by Yorkshire artist Tim Fowler, molten steel figurative sculptures by Scotland’s John McPhail, intriguing ceramic face wall plaques from Crete, amazing ‘Fantasy Boat’ sculptures by Mark Smith and so much more.

Make a statement with original, affordable artworks that can be treasured for years and years. A gift that will go down an absolute treat! Artery Gallery, based in St Andrews and Crieff, Scotland, have an eclectic mix to suit all tastes in art.

In today’s economy, using the Internet as a means for income is a logical idea. Designing a personal website to sell handmade crafts from home is one way to get noticed and bring in additional income, since millions of people around the country shop online every day. They’re looking for goods, products and crafts.Those who make crafts find that the many resources on the Internet turn out to be very valuable as well as convenient. For more details www.greateducationonline.com Tools, beads in every color of the rainbow, design ideas and inspirations for crafts or other handmade items can be found on the Internet.Purchasing goods from a craft website allows crafters to save money, since its possible to purchase large or bulk amounts at wholesale price. Both men and women can find a multitude of resources to sell their homemade goods online as well.No matter what type of craft you design or sell, there is someone out there who will want to buy it. From crafters who create wood art to crafting jewelry by hand, listing it in auction sites or placing it online within your own personal webpage allows others to shop and purchase what they like.Many shoppers like to find unique gifts to give friends and family, especially around birthdays and holidays, and look online to save the hassle of walking around the mall and still not being able to find anything.In most cases, designing your own personal webpage to sell handmade crafts is free, but some of the more advanced sites will charge a fee for your domain name. Remember also that you may need to pay yearly fees for website registration.There are a few things to remember when designing a site so that customers find it easy to navigate, shop and pick up those wonderful handmade items you’ve worked so hard to create.The first thing to think of is accessibility. Since there are thousands of other pages selling crafts, you need to make yours stand head and shoulders about the crowd. It needs to be user friendly. Utilize optimized keywords and phrases to help search engines find you. Keep graphics and other extras to a minimum in order to cut down on load time.Graphic load times should usually be under 10 seconds to accommodate anyone’s Internet speed. For more details www.greatindustrialguide.com  The one thing Internet users hate the most is a long wait time for a website to load. They will promptly leave your page and move on to other sites.Keep the pages looking professional. Selling arts and crafts is essentially your home business, so make sure that your site looks well maintained and offers a good indication of the quality of your work. Add contact information so that potential customers are able to reach you and ask questions about crafts prior to purchase.Try and incorporate a way for customers to not only browse what you have in stock, but also to order and purchase online. Today’s Internet shoppers want to browse, shop, buy and pay for their goods at the same time, so offering easy and secure payment processing shows you are able to offer them full service for satisfaction.The final step to making sure your arts and crafts sell successfully on the web is to market and advertise your goods. With thousands of pages of competition, you need to make your site stand out and offer what no one else does.During the busiest shopping times of the year like Christmas, offer discounts or specials that allow customers to buy goods and receive a coupon or offer on something else. Those looking for a good deal will utilize your marketing techniques so that it ends up being advantageous to you.http://www.arts-crafts-for-all.comhttp://www.activities-little-fingers.com

Christmas tree

• Rather than buying a real tree thats been cut down, transported and then thrown away, purchase a large potted plant or small tree that can be used each year as your evergreen Christmas tree.

• You could always purchase an artificial tree that can be reused for many years, these range from 10 pounds to over 100 pounds. Ours actually looks real!

• If you buy a real tree, pay the Woodland Trust or a different organization to plant one in its place!

Christmas Decorations

• If you have evergreen shrubs and trees – to make sure you have an annual supply of eco-friendly Christmas decorations why not do some of your pruning just before Christmas and use the choice bits for inside? If you have not got any evergreens but have a garden ask for some of these plants as Christmas presents. They may take a few years to grow but then all you will need to do is harvest in December and be as creative as you like.

• Make a homemade wreath using branches trimmed from your garden or somebody elses.

• Purchase handmade decor made from recycled or eco-friendly materials. If possible by Fair trade as well, as they are a great way to support the disadvantaged. While some of these crafts may not be from recycled materials they provide much needed income to needy individuals.

• Ivy is good to drape around pictures, windows and the base of Christmas trees, it will hide the wires of the tree lights. There is as far as I know no substitute for electric fairy lights but as they last for years and use very little power, their impact is relatively low and they do look great.

• One of the advantages of using natural decorations is that after Christmas they do not need to go in the bin they can enter your normal garden waste on the compost heap.

Christmas tree ornaments

• Make homemade ornaments from (painted) pinecones, painted eggshells, crushed (colored) aluminum foil, paper chains, paper snowflakes, old CDs and more!

• Decorate a doll as an angel.

• Do an online search for recycled or homemade tree ornaments for numerous ideas or purchase these recycled or eco-friendly tree ornaments if you cant be bothered to make them.

Gifts

• Buy a subscription to an organisation working to make the world a better place such as the RSPB, RSPCA or Oxfam.

• If you are buying a present that uses batteries make sure the person you are buying it for has a battery charger and buy rechargeable batteries.

• Buy a homemade present, bird table, compost bin. Chocolate cakes often go down very well!

Gift wrap

• Collect extra photocopies or no longer needed papers from work for your children to draw on the back.

• Use colored pictures from your childrens colouring books.

• Use leftover pieces of fabric or wallpaper.

• Use recycled paper.

• Put the gift inside another gift such as a decorative tin, nice wooden box etc.

• Use gift wrap, gift bags and gift boxes, ribbon and bows from last Christmas or previous celebrations. Leave the tags blank on the gifts you are giving so that they can be reused.

Greeting cards & gift tags

• Send an e-card.

• Make a greeting card or tag from scrap paper, fabric or wallpaper.

• Make cards or tags from pieces of food box.

Packing material

• Use saved packing material such as foam or bubble wrap.

• Crush up newspaper into loose balls. This is cheap, quick and lightweight! This is our preferred method for box filler.

After the New Year

• Find out where you can recycle your real Christmas tree or Christmas cards, local councils and supermarkets are a good place to start. They will turn your trees into mulch for use in parks and public gardens.

• Use any wrapping paper that is no longer reusable for shelf liners or craft projects.

• Save boxes, gift bags, wrapping, filler, ribbons and bows for future gift wrapping or craft projects. Give them away to friends, neighbours etc if you have too many to keep.