Every holiday is remembered by the colors and symbols that represent it. For instance, the baby Jesus, a Christmas tree, manger scenes, Santa, Frosty the Snowman, and the color red and green can all invoke Christmas memories. Another example is Valentine’s Day, which is represented by angels, cupids, hearts, flowers, stuffed animals, and the colors red, pink, and white. You have quite a few opportunities to earn money crafting for these, as well as other religious and secular holidays, both American, and non-American.
Holiday crafting is a very lucrative business because everyone is always looking for both new and traditional decorations to display during celebration time. You job would be to provide the most aesthetically appealing handmade holiday crafts as possible. This point cannot be stressed enough, and you probably can remember seeing crafts designed for the holidays that were the ugliest that you have ever seen. Therefore, research your market by observing what you see in people’s homes and offer something that is comparable to that. You can also look through craft magazines and view new crafting trends by way of the Internet.
Another way to determine which craft items would sell would be to also look in contemporary interior decorating catalogs. If you page through those types of publications and think to yourself that you could make some of the items shown, you are well on your way to a lucrative venture. This type of business requires you to be as up-to-date with home decorating fashions as possible. If you have a naturally innovative brain, and are constantly coming up with new ideas, take some of your best ideas to the market.
Once you have seen what crafts people are buying and selling it is time to get to work. You can write yourself a plan of action, which would include compiling a list of all the items you will need to make the items that you plan to sell. Not only that, but it will include what your current product line will be. It is best to start with a few quality items, from which you can create many variations, and then work from there. You never know, you could end up expanding your business into another nationally known greeting cards and gifts outfit.
You may also be able to create large quantities of items, which you can sell to other crafters who are interesting in helping you market your work. In this case, your major responsibility would just be to concentrate on making your craft, and you will have someone of whom you would pay a commission be in charge of this. This is a great opportunity for you.
If you are not sure what type of crafts to make, just remember all the times you have walked into craft stores, thinking you were going to buy something, and then decided to go home and make it because that would be cheaper for you. If you have done this, you may have a place to start. Although, you may want to check out the legal aspects of re-creating work, in case that work that you have created has a registered patent. Chances are it will not since each hand-crafted item is created as a one off unique piece. However, better to be safe than sorry, and that necessitates that you protect yourself legally.
The best way to make sure you are ready for the holiday demands is to start processing your crafts several months in advance. If you do this, you will have less worry and stress when you receive about ten orders on Christmas Eve, and you have hardly any time to make the items. You may not be able to make all items ahead of time, such as baked goods, refrigerated items, or other weather sensitive items right away, but do the best you can. You also want to make sure that you stock up on all the supplies that you need such as baskets, wrapping paper, printing paper, cardstock paper, knitting yard, wreath branches, or whatever you need to make your holiday creations.
If you are still not sure what types of crafts will sell best, you can join online crafting communities and find out for yourself. Not only that, but you can attend craft booths and notice which ones are the most crowded. This will give you an indication of what would sell and what would not. Eventually you could have a million dollar venture if you work hard enough, and that means working every single day on developing your craft, sometimes for many years.