My Version of "Handmade" Gifts

Dear Reader,

Last time I wrote to you, I shared gift ideas for “readers, writers, and visual artists (plus the not-so-creative people in your life, too!)”. That gift guide was viewed almost a 1000 times and several new readers signed up to receive this newsletter! If you’re new here, welcome!

In that newsletter I mentioned that I rarely give homemade gifts even though I consider myself an artist. The reality is that hand-crafted gifts require advanced planning and execution and I tend to overthink my ideas and then procrastinate until it’s too late.

Ordering products from a company like Shutterfly has become my go-to hack for sending a “handmade” gift. I used my art for the ideas I’m about to show you but if you’re a photographer you could source your photos. If you have kids you could do family photos (we used to send calendars, mugs, and more). You could also immortalize your kids’ art.

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A few years ago it occurred to me that I could take art I’ve made throughout the year and use it to create gifts instead of trying to make new art during the chaos of the Christmas season. With this inspired thought I ordered a puzzle for my mom by uploading an image of my art to Shutterfly.

The puzzle was a success. My mom loved hers so much that she framed it and put it on the wall. Last year I ordered a different puzzle design for my mom and also ordered a puzzle for a friend. My friend occasionally sends me a photo of the puzzle, letting me know that she’s put it together—again.

As someone who has longed to get an Etsy shop up and going for years, it was pretty delightful to see my art take a field trip out of my sketchbook and inhabit other forms and spaces.

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This year I took advantage of the holiday sales at Shutterfly and tried out a few new gift ideas.

Canvas tote bags were only ten dollars so I uploaded two different designs. I’m happy to report that the canvas bags are so fun! They’re made from nice, thick material with plenty of room for library books, art supplies, etc.

All in all I love these bags as another gift option to make with my art. And for $10 it would be easy to mark them up if I wanted to sell them one day.

If I could do it over again:

• I’d tweak the words that I tried to add to the design below of the girl singing. The sketch is inspired by the Mary Oliver poem, “I worried”. I tried to add the last few lines of the poem to the bag but the writing is too small and light that it fades into the image.

• I was also impatient as I tried to get the projects ordered before the sale ended so I didn’t take the time to ask tech support (aka my graphic-designer husband) how to remove the seam from the middle of the bird collage and now I wish I would have!

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The other product I happened upon were easel calendars. A friend recently sent me a photo of an art-themed calendar and mentioned that she would love a similar calendar with my bird art. I liked the idea in theory but it was the design of the easel calendar, versus a spiral-bound flip calendar, that really won me over.

In order to create a theme for the calendar, I went through the last three to four years of my art and collected all of the birds into a folder. Looking through different mediums, from collage work to alcohol ink to Posca markers, I eventually narrowed it down to twelve birds for the calendar year.

The calendars arrived this week and I’m very satisfied with the result. I like the thick card stock they’re printed on and the small footprint they take up on a desk, while still offering a fun display of art. At the end of the year the owner of the calendar could cut the bottom part off and still end up with twelve prints to save. On sale the calendars were twenty dollars a piece, which is a great price for a one of a kind gift.

As with the bags, there are a few things I would adjust for next time.

• I would choose art proportional to the card size where the main part of the image (in this case, a bird) was the largest part of the design.

• I would remove the sketchbook seams from the few images that had them.

• I would choose the rounded corners as a nice finishing touch. (I accidentally ordered one rounded corner version and two straight corners, see below for examples).

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Making art is one of the creative acts that I do on a regular basis. While writing and teaching theater round out the rest of my creative life. Even though I only share my writing and art here in this newsletter, I know that I’m an artist.

It can get discouraging, though, to hear my work always described as “cute” or “fun”. I’m sure it’s both of those things and I’m under no delusion that I’m actually an undiscovered Claude Monet but it can still make me feel easily dismissed and insignificant. Also those words don’t represent the visceral experience of sitting down and getting glue and marker and paint on my hands.

“Cute” doesn’t describe the feeling of starting with a blank page and watching an image layer by layer take on texture and depth until it seems almost like a 3D image from a pop-up book.

“Fun” doesn’t capture the quiet that descends on my chaotic mind as I make something with my hands.

Or how the act of filling a page has saved me though the trenches of parenting young children, walking beside my ailing father, or through years of isolating health issues in my forties.

Every time I make art I feel deep gratitude to the Lord that he shaped my soul to find such joy in making things.

Putting my art out into the world, whether it’s in Good and Beautiful Things or on a 252 piece puzzle, is a way of celebrating and naming this part of myself and the way God made me to be. Even better is when it also brings joy to the person receiving the gift as well!

Now it’s your turn. Are you making any “handmade” gifts this year? What creative act/s brings quiet to your mind and body and soul?

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May you find space for beauty and art this week!

Aimee