How to Make Baby Gift Tags

Make a homemade gift tag for a gift that you plan to give to a baby or expectant parents. Handmade gift tags are more personal and thoughtful and oftentimes more meaningful to the recipient. This also gives you the opportunity to be creative and make something for the baby's scrapbook or memory box, even if you don't usually make crafts. A homemade baby gift tag will complement a handmade gift for the baby, as well.

Cut out a piece of colorful paper, such as scrapbooking paper, with craft scissors that leave a decorative edge. The paper should be smaller than the business card or cardstock to allow the edges to frame the colored paper. Make two or three different layers using different colors or patterns for more decoration, if you desire.

2

Glue the layer (or layers) of colorful paper to the business card or card stock. Center the paper, unless you want an abstract look.

3

Write your message, or a simple "to" and "from," in the center of the gift tag, if you have nice penmanship. If not, consider asking someone else to do it. Or use a computer with a nice font to write out your message and print it out.

4

Punch a hole into the top center or corner of the gift tag. Use a decorative-shaped hole-puncher if you have one.

5

Thread your ribbon through the hole and tie it, leaving two longer ends of the ribbon to tie to the gift back or ribbon on a package. The color of the ribbon should complement the gift tag, as well as the wrapping paper or gift bag.

6

Place stickers or stamp decorative images on the back of the gift tag that coordinate with the packaging, decorative paper, nursery theme or other relevant theme. For example, if it's a baby shower gift and the shower's theme is teddy bears, stamp a teddy bear on the back.

By Janece Bass

How to Make Handmade Gift Boxes

When you want to give a gift an extra special touch, try making your own gift boxes to decorate or wrap. Made from paper and tape, they're much cheaper than buying gift boxes from the store. Create a variety of sizes to accommodate all the gifts on your list and take some of the expense out of gift giving. Use decorative paper, if you're short on time, or use white paper you can decorate yourself when you've got more time to spend on this project.

1. 1
   Cut out two squares or rectangles to the desired box size from card stock or another heavyweight paper.
2. 2
   Trim 1/8 inch off each side of one of the pieces of paper. This is the bottom of the box. The uncut piece will make the top of the box.
3. 3
   Take the top of the box and fold the top side down to the middle. Crease the fold so it will be visible when you unfold the paper. Unfold the top side and repeat this with each side of the box.
4. 4
   Cut along the vertical crease lines made on the top and bottom edges of the paper. Cut up the line until it runs into the horizontal crease. Stop cutting when you reach this point. There should be two lines on each side. Only cut the top and bottoms sides, do not cut the lines on the right and left sides.
5. 5
   Fold the two tabs created from making these cuts up and in toward each other and tape or glue them together. Repeat this with the other side.
6. 6
   Fold the remaining tab up and over the two tabs you taped together. Tape or glue it in place. Repeat on the other side of the box. This creates the top of your box.
7. 7
   Repeat the same procedure for the bottom of the box. Slide the bottom into the top. If it does not fit, unfold it and trim another 1/8 inch off each side.

By Jessica Reed

making a hand made item and want to know where to sell them online?

Making Handmade Items and Need To Know Where To Sell Them Online?
Good News for You! There are many folks throughout our wonderful country who make things from clothing and costumes, to cards and scrapbooks; from handmade invitations and personalized posters, to handbags, jewelry, wall decorations and more! Some of these folks sell their crafts at a local, annual church bazaar or a neighborhood art festival, and others sell them through word-of-mouth advertising. It is a powerful thing when a friend tells a friend, who turns around and tells another friend!
Some people may want to sell their crafts and creations online, but is it cost effective to open your own website if you only make a few things here and there? Well, you don’t have to open your own website, if you don’t want to; you can sell your crafts through another big site, where many people gather, to buy and sell…crafts and anything that is handmade! There is this wonderful website called Etsy, and you can actually enter through my area… http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7721158 where you will see my profile. By the way, allow me to introduce myself, my name is Father Time, and I have been writing for ages. (IF you join Etsy, please tell them that I referred you...Thanks!)
One of the things that I write is greeting card verses, and I have compiled an e-book of verse that folks can use inside their own handmade cards. My e-book is listed for sale on that site, listed above, and they have thousands of other great items made by people everywhere! Be sure to check it out, particularly if you have something handmade to sell!
As a published writer of over thirty years, I am also getting busier these days by writing for hire, as a ghost writer, for people who have their own websites and need some good articles written for the purposes of article marketing! If you need something like that, please be sure to visit http://www.fathertimepublishing.com/default.php?cPath=2540890
Whether you create your own website, or sell through a site such as Etsy, the main thing is that you can be a self-employed entrepreneur, selling your own crafts, and you can reach the world via the internet! Good Luck to you and Many Blessings!

Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/crafts-articles/making-handmade-items-and-need-to-know-where-to-sell-them-online-1049952.html#ixzz147vrNIFB
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Handmade Birthday Gift - Learn To Make Greeting Cards With Buttons

It is quite happy for people to receive a handmade card which is composed of messages about greeting or love. In this era, many people would like to use the computer to do the things that they like. They will not want to use their hands to write something and they will just think that writing something is silly because they type better than write. If you do not want your kids to abandon writing at such a young age, you should teach them the culture of writing, such as writing some cards.
It is actually a kind of art based education. With this kind education, you kids are likely to be more interested in making something on their own instead of buying a lot of things which could waste money. They will know that handmade birthday gift is better than expensive gifts so that they will not try to be materialistic.
If your kids want to make some interesting cards instead of a simple and boring plain card, you can teach them how to make a card with buttons. First, you can fold a card or paper into half. If you are going to send this card to the others by mail, you need to fit the letter to the envelope.
Therefore, you can measure the size of the envelope and cut your paper to fit it. You may use ruler and pencils to mark the cutting line before you use a pair of scissors to do so. As mentioned above, this kind of work is an art based education. Therefore, you need to work hard to teach your kids that planning is important before we do anything.
After that, you can further cut your paper to make some special shapes. If you want to make a holly leave shape of card so that it could represent winter, figure out the shape of holly leave and cut the card in this way. If your kids love animals, you can also teach them to cut the card in the corresponding shapes. Of course, your kids may not understand a lot about the actual shape of those animals and they may not know how to cut it well. You should do research beforehand and teach them whenever necessary.
Then, you can try to find whether there are buttons in your home which could be used to make the card. You should try to find strong glues to attach the buttons in position. You can also add ribbons or bows to this card so that things will be beautiful.
This kind of design could also be used as a handmade birthday gift indeed. You may teach your kids that they could make use of this kind of gift to express their love to the receiver.
Therefore, you should remind them to leave spaces for writing some words on the cards if you know that your kids are going to send this kind of card to the others with message included. And you should remind that the buttons should not be crowded at one side or otherwise the card will bend.

By Hosea Lim

Reasons to Buy Handmade Sterling Silver Earrings Instead of Gold

Handmade sterling silver earrings can look amazingly beautiful and make a perfect addition to any wardrobe. They can be dressed up for a night on the town or dressed down for a day of family fun with the kids. When buying jewelry, many people go back and forth between the choices of gold and sterling silver. There are many reasons why you should choose the sterling earrings over the gold ones.
Sterling silver is an alloy. This means that it is a mixture of metals. In the case of sterling silver the mixture is usually copper or nickel and silver. The look of sterling pieces, though, is completely that of silver and the other metals are not noticeable. If you are jewelry shopping then there are many reasons why you would want to choose handmade silver earrings instead of gold. Here is a look at the top 4 advantages of buying silver instead of gold jewelry.
Advantage #1: Strength.
Sterling silver, being a combination of metals, is made quite strong. This piece will not break easily and will last for years. Sometimes with gold, the durability comes into question. The gold may wear down over time and just not be as strong as it once was. That is not a worry with sterling.
Advantage #2: Availability
Handmade sterling silver earrings are going to be much easier to find than handmade gold earrings. The reason is that this is available in large quantities, while gold is quite limited. If you need a new pair of earrings then you will easily be able to find sterling ones almost anywhere that you go to shop for jewelry. Since they are handmade, you know that the earrings will be finely crafted and look just as amazing as gold earrings, so making the choice of silver is a much better option when you don't want to spend days looking for earrings.
Advantage #3: Options
It comes in a wide range of different jewelry pieces. If you don't' want handmade sterling silver earrings then that is fine. You can easily get other pieces made of sterling.
Advantage #4: Cost
The biggest reason why most people choose to buy silver over gold is the cost. Sterling silver is more easily accessible and therefore it costs much less than gold, which is not so easy to find. It is made to fit any budget. You will likely be able to find handmade silver earrings that won't break your budget, but if you were to look for gold ones then you might have to shell out quite a bit of cash to get them. In the end it looks just as amazing as gold, so the price is often the deciding factor.

It is easy to see that choosing handmade sterling silver earrings is the right choice. If you want jewelry that is going to be durable, easy to find, offer many styles and not cost a fortune then sterling silver the right choice for you. You simply can't get these great advantages from gold.

Nicole Roberts Each piece of Handmade Sterling Silver Earrings on our web site bearsilver.com is acquired direct from artists indicated. While their jewelry is not inexpensive we do all that we can to offer you the lowest possible price for this unique art form while enabling the artists to earn a substantial living. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nicole_Roberts

Handmade Candles - Classic Candles to Buy Online

Handmade candles of course are nothing new, the first were produced out of necessity.
It seems hard to believe to us in this day and age that to have light you could not just flick a switch and have the magic of electricity provide all the light you could ever want. Perhaps gas light was not quite so convenient, there was the need to use a taper or other form of lighter to ignite the gas having first turned the knob to get the gas to flow. Also gas was noisier and flickered which did not always make reading a book or newspaper a pleasurable experience. Where today we occasionally have to change a light bulb in the days of gas it was the very delicate gas mantle that seemed to explode the first time it was ever lit but then was fine until you accidently touched it, and the gentlest of touches at that, to see it disintegrate into dust before your very eyes!
But everything is relative as they say. Gas lighting to us may not seem very convenient or practical but it was a whole lot better than what went before. Just imagine those first handmade candles that were created from animal fat. The smell of fat being rendered is not the nicest odour so you can imagine what it must have been like to be sitting having the family meal as the wick burned down through the animal fat. Delightful!
Thankfully technology moved on in candle manufacture to produce something more pleasurable to use but let us not forget that the vast majority of people would not have been able to afford lighting produced using the better materials.
From those early days and far from ideal days many different candles have been produced, wide selection of shapes and sizes, colours to blend in with your home colour scheme, insect repellent for outdoor use to keep those annoying insects at bay and thankfully ones that are smokeless and dripless. It seems strange to think that the highest quality are those that are handmade which almost seems like we have gone right back to the beginning, but of course it is the material that they are mad from that makes all the difference.
Handmade candles do not come any better than beeswax dinner candles.
That seems like a bold statement but what we are talking about are candles that are 100% bees wax and poured by hand.
When you open the box it is obvious that they are not made from ordinary wax.
Removing the paper from each one that is individually wrapped reveals an elegant candle that looks too good to burn.
They look really well in a candelabra used purely for decorative purposes but lit they add a bit of class to any room or occasion.
You can buy smokeless candles that are also dripless. Being non drip there is the bonus that most of the wax is burnt and not wasted by pouring down the side and making a mess of your table setting. Candles with these credentials are first class, of that there is little doubt. But add handmade and beeswax into the equation and you have something so fine that anyone would be proud to display as their dinner table centrepiece.
Although these handmade candles are smokeless there is the delicate scent of bees wax that does not overpower when used for a dinner party or indeed an intimate and romantic dinner for two.
As you might expect, custom made candles manufactured totally from bees wax and individually made by hand definitely will not be cheap. But quality comes at a price and there can be no question that these are of a high calibre and can only be classed as top of the range.
Where to buy handmade candles? It can be difficult to source genuine handmade candles but there is such a variety of candles to buy online so you should find that a good quality candle shop or store including them in their offered range.

Handmade candles are part of a range of quality smokeless dripless candles Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Rodger_Cresswell

Making Your Own Handmade Stoneware Pottery

Making of handmade pottery started way back in 25,000 BC and it is considered as the oldest craft. The first ever pottery made was a handmade pottery vessel for holding water. In Egypt, about 3,000 - 4,000 BC potteries were hand carved as during those times, the pottery wheel has not been invented yet. But when it was created, pottery has evolved. New forms were made and potteries are more symmetrical.
Hand crafting pottery is still practiced up to date. There are thousands of potters making handmade pottery worldwide. Handmade Pottery still serves it functional purpose moreover; it is also a form of expressing artistry. There are many techniques and styles used by modern potters yet they are still making use of the basics. Because of these changes, handmade stoneware with unique appearance was developed.
Handmade stoneware pottery is famous for its non-porous texture and scratch resistant features. There are times that porcelain is believed to be a type of stoneware pottery but porcelain is white and often transparent. There are two options to make beautiful stoneware, with or without pottery wheel although the former is much preferred.
Before starting making your handmade stoneware, equipments and other items needed should be prepared and these are the following: apron, clay, water, gaze, brushes and pottery wheel. You also have to choose a working that is flat, smooth and wide enough for ease of working.
To make handmade stoneware pottery, follow these simple steps.
Air bubbles should be removed from the clay by wedging, kneading and throwing. Then for conformity of the set pieces, the clay should be weighed but prior to it, by wedging. Stoneware pottery is often made of clay that is heavy in mixture to have greater pottery strength. You also have to choose what color you will use. Colors of clay range from beige to white tones but the common are brownish to grayish.
Mold the handmade stoneware to your desired shape. After which, apply glaze over the handmade pottery once it dried up. Glaze can either be prepared or purchased depending on the potter's liking. The glaze will serve as the coating of your handmade stoneware. It also acts as sealant to preserve the richness of color and texture.
The handmade stoneware is then placed into the kiln. High temperatures are often fired to stoneware to enhance its colors. However, if dull colors are desired, low temperatures can be used. Moreover, firing at high temperature gives the hard finish look of the handmade pottery.
Making handmade pottery is an art. Typically, these handmade stoneware pottery are durable that will certainly last even if the potter who made it has passed away. In every pottery there is a story left unspoken, thus it will be a good heirloom to future generations especially if you hand crafted it personally.

MadeItMyself is a rapidly growing, unique and fun artisan online marketplace that lets you post your handmade creations and share them with the rest of the world. MadeItMyself provides endless possibilities for the people who love art and originality and want to make a good living from their respective trades. http://www.madeitmyself.com/ (c) Article Copyright - MadeitMyself.com. Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Marianne_Navarro