The perfect universal gift!!!

I was developing some badge ideas to give out at our event,when i came across a really nice quote

"a hug is a great gift, one size fits all and its easy to exchange"

i thought this was a great idea so i have made little badges to encourage people to get cuddling this christmas! :) exchanging love this festive season instead of cash!

lets Steal back christmas!

This was an idea I was working with early on in the project about stealing back the spirit of Christmas from the crazy commercial frenzy that it has become and doing what you want and enjoy to celebrate it! I wanted to use the Grinch in maybe a positive way to hint at the 'stealing back part' last year I made an alternative angel for our Christmas tree an as I wasn’t much in the spirit of Christmas then I made a Grinch :) I wanted to take this idea but put the positive spin on it so I created there little Grinch templates you can download and make yourself for your tree the card he's holding is left blank for your own personal message to you could even make him and pop him in a card for some one! 

Spending time not money

So I have been working on this idea as part of our event on ways of not spending money this Christmas, there is so much of a pressure to and it’s really unnecessary! The value of something that has been hand crafted or thought about is so much more than something that is just bought to get a present out of the way!

And I have done my research yes the big question is, can money buy happiness?. . 

 And I can say I have an answer for you professor Richard Wiseman explored this theory in his book '59 seconds, think a little change a lot' and the conclusion was..

To buy experiences not goods "experiences promote one of the most effective happiness inducing behaviours-spending time with others" so I was exploring the idea of sort of time gift cards or 'I owe yous' where you promise someone your time spending it and not necessarily money and this could be for anything a trip to the cinema or the pub...? or just even an evening of completely devoted to them to do whatever they choose! again its open to your personality and the person you are giving it to what you promise but I think it’s a nice idea and it really brings back the spirit of Christmas to a being a time of happiness and spending time with the people you like. 

With the money issue being a student I have worked out by Christmas time that I will just about have the money for the bus home! so I am very interested in researching alternative Christmas ideas but it’s not just a way of opting out of purchasing

I want to make the little favours or cards thoughtful!and with the explanation heres what i have been working on, How happy would you be to get a tea-bag for Christmas?...

ok these are very much in the development stage but they’re going to be my little handmade cards which emphasise my point of the importance of spending qualiTEA time at Christmas they have a lovely warm inviting cup of tea on the front and inside a tea bag and importantly an explanation! I’m working on the wording too but basically they will say how this year I am spending my time and with this little card comes a promise of qualiTEA time!!  I’m going to work on them, just wanted to post up the idea first but I hope you enjoy them as their meant to be silly and just a way to make someone smile this Christmas!

what a Cracking idea!!

So being 'craftED' we couldn’t just send out any invitation to our event no! We decided to make our own hand made Christmas crackers in a way to send our invitations out with a bang! So people get all the joy and pun of pulling a cracker but inside get all the information they need about our event.

test cracker the final ones will have our logo on them

But this idea also transfers in to our alternative gifts section they really are not hard to do although fiddly (and well say after 30 you may find it a tad arduous), but they are a nice little gift idea say for a select few friends or family members, why not tailor make some for yours you can choose whatever paper you want!
 You can go ultra modern or choose a nice Christmas paper for granny the traditional greens and red...? Or jazz it up a little perhaps a funky bit of leopard print or polka dots? Its really up to you and just like the indie enveloped the possibilities are endless!! And can be ethical you can choose to recycle paper and make them out of some of that! How about that a guilt free cracker!

and the filing is up to you it can be a simple gift a few chocolates, i mean who needs another nail file or those plastic fish fortune tellers “oh look the tail moved that means your destined to travel”
 but the real 'cracker' will be a nice hand written little note inside making it personal and priceless! So get cracking this Christmas whit a 'craftdED Cracker' (sorry about the puns they really are unavoidable in a post about crackers)

Oh and a downloadable template for the crackers is coming up soon as soon as the official website is up and running

i have been experimenting with different materials with the cracker and i used a piece of red acetate i got in 'craft world' in town, it works really well you can see into the cracker which may spoil the surprise but i filled this one with little golden sweets and a note on black paper and its kinda of nice you can see inside

looking at it it does look like christmas packaging from 'Anne summers' for a pair of novelty knickers .... gift idea there perhaps? i have an aunt that every year buys underwear at Christmas so why not be a bit inventive and put them in a cracker! :)

i also made a little one out of funky foam which is really nice too!! perhaps as a little gift for a child? my cousin has has a baby recently so it might be nice to have a little funky foam cracker with the babies name on it which could be put on the tree as a decoration, im really just experimenting at the minute and you can create so much form such a simple idea so download our template and see what you can come up with too!

Funky foam cracker

eco envelopes

So here’s what I have been working on, some ethical packaging for all our Christmas needs!

And here is my first lot, have you ever longed for a more creative and exciting envelope? a colourful alternative to the default manila?

Well I have just the thing 'ecco envelopes' are crafted from 100% recycled material!

If like me you are a hoarder of magazines you can finally put them to good use! here is my collection of "indie envelopes" named so as they are cut out of old copies of NME, the free posters are perfect too! andbecause their glossy they are going to hold up better under the postage process!

The great thing is they can be tailored to suit anybody NME might not be your cup of tea, so why not try other popular titles such as 'Take a break', 'Heat, 'vogue'' ... 'Nuts'? It’s really up to you the possibilities are endless so get creative!!

It is a great way of recycling and really they are a piece of art in themselves! And i can see them brightening up any postmans day!

Oh and a note for next year (as I’m guessing you have not kept you old wrapping paper) why not hold on to them and craft some Christmassy envelopes for next year’s cards :)

I have made up some templates to cut around to make it extra easy for you to make your own and i will have them posted up soon, oh and the templates will be in the online version of our craft packs too! All organised and packaged up nicely to get you sorted to get crafty this christmas!

Christmas event location finalised

So the location for our Christmas event has been decided we have managed to get Bookfinders on University Road! It is a fantastic little book shop/cafe with plenty of vintage charm!

You can come along and get a nice cup of coffee in the cosy setting, have a browse at the books (you may even get some gift ideas as the store is hailed for being a specialist in rare and second-hand books)

Our Christmas craft event will be held on the 7th of December and we will update on times and other little details a little later on, but for now we have our location and we are pretty excited about getting things set up! The venue is perfect and no stranger to the arts is has held poetry evenings and is a lovely charming place not unlike the shop in 'Black Books' minus the disgruntled shop keeper though! the lady who owns the shop is called Mary and is very nice and far more welcoming and a great help with getting our event up and running!

so thats all for now keep posted for updates on what we are doing, creating and planning!!

The nightmare!!.... before christmas

So just a quick first post we are 'Crafted' we consist of 4 design students at University of Ulster and it is our aim to battle the consumerist Christmas that has become and to strip it all back down to enjoying the season!!  We are currently organising an event to take place in December where we will be setting out to help the good people of Belfast to have an alternative Christmas to the mad consumer driven one that is already upon us.

 Why?
It happens every year the end of October the fake blood and monkey nut shells have barley been cleaned up from old hallows eve before the tinsel and selections boxes have graced the shelves of the seasonal isles of our local supermarkets.

And thus begins the chaotic avalanche of Christmas adverts reminding us to buy early and buy lots!. And we get the usual " it seems to start earlier every year" and for me it does I work for a certain large supermarket chain, whom in September started the radio ad instore "I know its too early to start talking about Christmas but..." and continued to talk about Christmas throughout September.

But this tradition I discovered through some research can be blamed on the war! It seems presents for the troops had to be purchased early in order for them to be shipped over in time and merchants saw this as an opportunity to remind people to buy earlier and earlier and along the years this tradition has been upheld to this very day.

So we don’t think it’s really fair all this pressure to buy and spend and consume at Christmas to quote a smart man "A debt is for life not just for Christmas"
So we want to educate people on ways to celebrate Christmas in a more enjoyable and valuable way this blog will be updated with our suggestions, and what we are currently working on, events in the area etc to get into the Christmas spirit!!

Thats all for now but i will be back, with some of our festive suggestions very soon!!