Crafting insights - the world according to a creator

I grew up in a big family in a small farming town in the Philippines. Life was simple then. People worked hard to put food on the table and send their kids to school. Christmas was always special. It was one of the very few celebration holidays we had. It was a time for extended family gatherings, feasts, and gift giving. It was a time for forgiveness, reaching out to people, and kindness all around. Here in America, where I have spent Christmases for the past 35 years, the celebration has been a bit different. Being way from my big family, Christmas is now a...

People have been sending and receiving Christmas greeting cards for a long time. This tradition started in the 1800s, when a prominent educator and patron of the arts in England, Sir Henry Cole, became exhausted from receiving and reading holiday letters. So, Sir Cole and his artist friend John Horsley came up with a 3-panel card design, for brief holiday greetings. This has evolved into what we continue to send to friends and loved ones -- Christmas cards.  As technology advanced, it seems that Christmas card designs have become limitless. Virtual cards came into the limelight a few years ago. They were fashionable for a little...

Upcycling is a form of recycling, meaning that waste materials do not end up in the landfill, and instead are re-purposed or put back in the supply chain as raw materials for creating new and useable products. Paper, cardboards, glass containers, wood, metal, and textile continue to comprise the bulk of our household wastes. While not all these are recyclable under the common recycling practices, they can be upcycled. This will then result in less consumption of new raw materials.  Here's are examples of upcycled glass containers I decorated. Can you guess what kind of product these used to contain? Each...