12 Days of Christmas // Day 6 // Why's Personalization Important?

Welcome to Day 6 of the party! How are y'all enjoying yourselves? Aren't there some pretty awesome posts coming up? Also...anyone see the super cool, super amazing giveaway that Faith's hosting? If not...you'd better go check out her blog! Here, I'll even help you get started and give you the link to her blog ;)

Today I bring to you...a hack in writing calligraphy. 

To start off, you're gonna want to grab a piece of paper and a pen and sharpie marker. The sharpie marker is optional, but it does make it easier - sometimes. Also, if you do decide to go for the sharpie, make sure it's the fine tip. 

Using the pen, write some words down; cursive works the best. Don't be afraid of making mistakes. If you go slow, your lines will end up kinda shaky. Just let the ink flow from the pen and just write. Ok so that's easier said than done, especially when you're a perfectionist (*points to self*) but try not to worry too much about it.

Once you've got the words written down, write a second line along any downward stroke on the word.

The rest of the lines maaayy look like they need to be thickened or made darker - but don't darken them. That'll ruin the effect of the final product later.

Once you've got those second lines drawn, start filling them it! And - try to stay within the lines. We're going back to the days of colouring pages y'all! ;)

So, the reason I said that sharpie marker helps but sometimes doesn't, is because of this. When you're filling in the lines, Sharpie makes it go a lot faster. However, especially depending on the type of paper you use, the marker will sometimes bleed out so then your curves aren't as smooth as you'd like. You can probably see some of that on that "J". So if you don't mind taking a bit more time, you can always use an ink pen too.

And another fun font you can use...if you use caps and then again drawing lines along any downward stroke on the word and just leave it like that.

And you're done! Super easy and super fun too. It does take a bit more time than if you were to just write a Christmas card, but hey. That's what makes it even more special, right?

Which brings me to a question I've had this year: Why is Personalization So Important?

It's the season where everyone's buying gifts for people - friends, family, the lady at the post office, your next door neighbour, etc. I've always liked writing cards (sometimes rather lengthy ones xD) to people whenever I give them a gift, but this year especially, I wondered if I could personalize the gifts themselves. 

Why? Well, you know the saying "time is precious and can not be bought"? Well, I believe that it's not how much money or how big the gift is that makes it special...it's how much time you spend on it. That's what makes homemade gifts so special to me, because I know that a person spent their time, precious time that once used can never be used again, on it. 

Now I'm not saying buying gifts is bad. No indeedy. But how do you buy gifts? There's a difference between grabbing a random thing off a shelf to stick in a bag and actually taking the time to look for the right gift. 

So this Christmas season when you're buying and wrapping those gifts - remember the true motive for it...and the reason behind it. Nothing can compare to the ultimately precious and amazing gift that God gave to the world, but we can use that as an example as to what we should follow. Let's not just give a gift because we have to or because everyone else is doing it. Let's give gifts to show people how special they are to you and to show how much you love them. 

Because that's the whole meaning of Christmas. Right?