Craft Life

 How to Wrap a Present the Easy Way 1 Hi there! You are on the hunt for gift wrapping tips and tricks and have found your way here to Parade Handmade where our business is gifts and gifting ideas. I will therefore endeavor to give you an idea of what's to come so you can skip to that part if you need to... ======== Skip to the end for a list of questions to ask in preparation for wrapping! & Skip to.. Part 2  Alternative gift wrap ideas.. Part 3  Chord, string or ribbon etc. Part 4 How to wrap...

On the Subject of Discovering Unique and Quirky Gifts We love quirky gifts at Parade Handmade. It is what we are all about. The freedom of creation and the freedom to follow where the path takes you. Practicality plays a part but not always in preference for unusual gifts and unique gifts. If gifting is not your forte you may appreciate some pointers in the quest for these desirable things.. It is not as difficult as you may think but you do have to put your thinking cap on. Remember, price is not always as good indicator and neither is...

The Expected Gift Lets start with the 'expected gift'. You know what I mean. The ones that are partially or mainly needed and simply pose as gifts such as the mobile phone upgrade or the replacement earphones, screen protector or Winter boots etc... Where these things bring you a little bit of excitement and thrills, they don't really strike a special chord even if they are the exact edition or model you imagine. They are what you would buy for yourself given the chance. So there is no real surprise factor or uniqueness factor either. You see? These kinds of...

Gnomes in the Attic   If you look up 'gnome' online and synonyms of that word you will find that gnomes, elves, gonks and goblins amongst others are all lumped into the same category. It is even suggested the terms are interchangeable. I find that hard to believe as each has fairly distinct characteristics and of course some similarities.   To my knowledge Christmas elves are often slim nimble and busy little creatures with pointy hats and pointy shoes with big buckles and they wear a sort of tracksuit with a pointed peplum ending below the waist which comes down...

The Beauty of Handmade Christmas Cards There is an elusive fuzzy warm feeling around Christmas and all that is Christmas if you allow yourself to distill it from all of the cynicism that abounds. Humans gravitate toward happy fuzzy warmth in order to balance some of the harsh realities of life. These days with social media internet, radio and television, every bit of news about the whole world and all the suffering that entails, is blasted at us from all sides. We are overwhelmed and/or saturated by all we are expected to process, care about, respond to, believe and achieve....