The Holiday Handmade Crusade is a year-round craft-a-long/crusade that encourages participants to craft holiday gifts bit by bit each month. The Holiday Handmade Crusade aims to fight the holiday big box retail machine and take back the true meaning of the holidays with needle and thread, yarn and hook, one handmade gift at a time!
The story of how it all began/HHC Manifesto
Friends, Craftsters, Countrymen, lend me your ears...
Do you love Christmas? I don't. I hate it.
HAHAHAHAHA Yeah right!
Seriously though, let me share a little story with you.
Once upon a time there was a stunningly beautiful, totally modest, girl who loved absolutely everything about Christmas. For years, said girl was a sucker for advertising and a slave to the Mecca of Capitalism - the mall.
One day she took up knitting. Then sewing. Then cooking. Suddenly, she was obsessed with transforming herself into a craftastic domestic goddess. She was 21 years old.
When it came to be Christmas time that year she decided that the mall sucked because she could never find anything there that was a) affordable, b) not a cheaply made piece of crap or c) meaningful enough to give as a gift.
That's when our beautiful heroine found a craft-a-long thread on Craftster all about crafting your Christmas gifts bit by bit over the course of the year.
She solemnly vowed to do so, and the next year she was leading the aforementioned thread, and the next, and the next.
Fast forward to today.
If you haven't figured it out yet, I am your Christmas heroine! The Holiday Handmade Crusade is a year-round craft-a-long that I founded in order to spread my crafty gospel throughout the land.
How the Holiday Handmade Crusade Works
1. Craft at least one gift each month. You may choose the follow the suggested theme, or ignore it completely, as long as you craft.
2. Post a picture of that item somewhere online. You must mention Holiday Handmade Crusade in the description - I need all of you to help spread the crafty gospel!
3. Comment on Post #4 (SEE BELOW) each month linking to the picture of your gift.
BONUS ENTRIES: New this year, I will accept bonus entries. If you blog, upload to Flickr, tweet on Twitter or update your Facebook status linking to your Holiday Handmade Crusade finished item, I will accept each of those as an entry. You must link to each of those updates in a separate comment, meaning you can comment/enter the raffle a MAXIMUM of 4 times each month.
4. I will choose a raffle winner the last day of each month. Prizes=INCENTIVE to craft early!
EXCITING CH-CH-CH-CHANGES for 2011
As many of you know, HHC is a complete labor of love. In the past, it has consumed lots of creativity and time. Last year, this consumption reached a bit of a breaking point, and that pesky little thing "real life"got in the way of my HHC ambitions. Damn.
So, this year I am reaching out to crafty friends and family to lend their creativity here on Geek+Nerd. Guest bloggers will post four Mondays out of each month...
Post 1: Will introduce the monthly HHC theme, and feature an interview introducing the guest blogger.
Post 2 and 3: Will be wild cards! These posts could be tutorials, recipes, favorite holiday music mixes, stories of holiday memories, the possibilities are endless!
Post 4: Will be the guest blogger's sign off, and announcement of the HHC raffle prize of the month.
I hope that you will join me to take back Christmas from the mall with our loving, crafty hands!
Much Love,
Your Craftastic Christmas Crusader
