How to Choose Corporate Gifts

The earlier trend of just giving away any item as corporate gifts to employees and clients doesn't hold any good. Now the companies research a lot about what to give as corporate gifts as these gifts are associated with brand loyalty and client as well as employee satisfaction.


Times have gone when cheap items were searched for in the market as corporate gifts. Although, cost efficiency is observed today also but the difference between cheap and inexpensive has got very clear. Inexpensive but quality gifts can only serve the purpose for which these corporate gifts are given. So the first and foremost rule is to give quality gifts- they may be expensive or inexpensive dependent upon the company's budget limitations.

Secondly, Its better to surprise the employees or clients by giving some rare gifts instead of the usual gifts that are given now for years together. Some of such items are wireless computer mouse, customized spa sets, wine accessories, puzzles and games, chocolates or cookies imprinted with 'Thank you', some eco friendly gifts, high tech gadgets, gift cards among others. The underlying notion is to bring the “Wow!” feeling after getting the gift.

There is sometimes a dilemma among the company management about selecting corporate gifts that have popular brand names associated with them and non- brand name corporate gifts. The answer lies on the circumstances of the individual companies. However, there advantages unique to bot the options. Choosing a popular brand associates one's company with the popular brand resulting in higher respect. More often than not, brands produce high quality products. Many people prefer popular brands and they'll sure use the gift having popular brand names instead of dumping them away in some corner of their homes. This ensures mileage to the company's logo also.

As far as non- brand name corporate gifts are concerned, they are inexpensive alternatives. And as long as the gift has high perceived value, the brand name will not matter. Many a times non-brand items are almost identical in their construction and considerably cheaper than their branded cousin. Also rare gift items can also be easily found as brands usually stick to the most popular gifts and don't introduce original items.

Musical Instrument Competition: 25 New Instruments Created

There has something new happened for the music lovers. They'll be now able to hear some more good music produced by 25 new innovative musical instruments that competed against each other at the first annual Guthman Musical Instrument Competition.

The 'Silent Drum' invented by Jaime Oliver won the first prize. The winning drum has a flexible drum head which forms black shapes in front of a white background when pressed by fingers. The shapes are recorded by a video camera and sent to a laptop where Max/MSP software turns the shapes into sound in real time.

The Second prize was won by 'GuitarBot' devised by Eric Singer. The instrument not only performs guitar parts for Lemur (League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots), but can also perform complex solo compositions.

The third prize went to David Wessel, a Berkeley University professor and an electronic music veteran, who performed on the 'Slabs'. Slabs is an interface for the Max/MSP audio program having touchpads sensitive to fingertip pressures.

There were many other innovative musical instruments. One of them made drum and bass sounds by running fabric through lasers. Yet another mounted a keyboard on a motorcycle engine while another contestant made an instrument inspired by solving a Sodoku puzzle using wooden blocks.

The contest for discovering the best ideas for innovative musical instruments was organized by Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology and Harmonix, the company that gave the popular video games 'Guitar Hero' and 'Rock Band'. More than 60 musicians, inventors and hobbyists applied for the competition. 25 applicants were given an opportunity to show off musical instruments devised by them. The prizes included $5,000 for first place; $3,000 for second place; and $2,000 for third place. Apart from the three top prizes, a copy of Rock Band video game was awarded to the winners of fourth, fifth and sixth places.

The competing musical instruments were evaluated by an expert panel of judges based on musicality, design and engineering. The Judges included Eran Egozy, who is the co-founder of Harmonix Music Systems; Parag Chordia, who is Georgia Tech Professor; and Digital music expert Eliot Van Buskirk, who is an author, columnist and blogger writing for technology magazine Wired that has presented a photo gallery of musical instruments, with description about how each instrument works as well as samples of the music each of them produces.

Tips for Buying Kitchen Furniture

Kitchen is a very important part of any house and its beauty is also significant for the overall home decor. Therefore, the kitchen furniture should be chosen with great concern. Here are some tips for buying kitchen furniture.

• Plan before you buy. The size of kitchen, your and family's taste and preference, requirement, color, style, budget- all have to be pre decided with a scope for little (only a little) flexibility, say in budget.
• Some items are essential such as kitchen rack, table, dinnerware etc. Include them essentially in your buying plan.
• Some other items are optional like kitchen cart, kitchen cabinet etc. Plan for them if required and to the extent your budget allows for them.
  
• Kitchen is a risk prone zone, try to buy furniture having fireproof finishes.
• The kitchen furniture should match your home decor theme. An antique kitchen table looks odd with contemporary furniture in other parts of the house.
• When staying in rented house, go for a free standing kitchen instead of a fitted kitchen.
• Select a reliable furniture supplier and also ensure yourself about the after sales services.

Whether you go for an all new kitchen or for remodeling kitchen, always plan properly and act accordingly.

Collecting Perfumes? Know How to Preserve them!

Whether you collect perfumes for their beautiful bottles or for fragrances, you can lengthen their life with a little consideration. Here is a guide on how to preserve perfumes!

• Keep the perfume away from heat, light, oxygen, dust and dirt. All of them can change its smell character.
• Store perfume in the original bottle. Avoid decanting it into other bottle or spray atomizer.
• Keep the perfume bottle inside its box and store it in a dark closet, dresser drawer, or other covered box.
• Don't keep perfume bottles in refrigerator. Humidity can cause changes in various ingredients of perfume and can destroy the bottle atomizer’s mechanism rendering it unusable or making it spray non-stop.
• If possible, always opt for perfume bottles with spray dispensers rather than open bottle. This will prevent excessive oxygen exposure. Sprays also protect perfume liquid from dust and other organic compounds.
• Keep the bottle clean. Wipe it with alcohol occasionally to keep dirt & dust from entering into the bottle.

It's true that collectibles are for display but avoid displaying your perfume collection in hallway or some other room where there is enough of sunlight. Store them inside a cupboard for displaying to only limited number of your close friends. That's the price of collecting such a delicate and expensive material!

And yes wearing perfumes occasionally will be wise as the shelf life of any perfume is about five years, which you can prolong a little with proper storage and care. However, whenever, a perfume is spent, you can always collect the bottle, they are exclusive too!

Customized Backing Papers Available for Free Download

Papers are not only an essential stationery items, but they are an important craft supply also. There are many types of papers that are used in various crafts and as support for making crafts. Backing paper is one of them which can now be made in customized form as desired by the crafts persons and this is all for free.


In one of their press releases, the website “Free Craft Downloads” have announced the launch of their "Backing Paper Builder". This is an online system which allows you to make your own customized backing papers in 3 different sizes and 2 different orientations. The website intends to develop this further over the coming months by adding different backing templates. They are also experimenting with different fonts, the latest additions were sets of “Wing Dings”, allowing different types of symbols instead of words for giving special effects. Backing papers are very useful for many art works, especially framed artwork and making of greeting cards.

How to Make Tassels

Tassel, simply defined, is a dangling ornament made by laying parallel a bunch of cords or threads of even length and fastening them at one end. They can be seen everywhere- on handbags, belts, shoes, bracelets. They are, in fact, one of many significant arts and craft supplies used for decoration and style. Here is the simple technique for making basic tassel.

Materials Required

Yarn: Approximately 32 yards is needed to create a 6 inch tassel. Thick yarns like chenille & raffia produces chunkier tassel and thinner ones like rayon, cotton, or embroidery threads result in more fine tassels.
Cardboard: It should be a little stiff & wider than the intended length of tassel.
Tapestry needle: It has a blunt edge with a large eye.
Scissors: Small & sleek sewing scissors for lighter materials, while a more sophisticated multi-purpose scissors for heavier yarns.

Instructions for making Tassel

• Lay a short piece of yarn along the full length of cardboard. If desired, you can tape this string.
• Wind the remaining yarn around the width of the cardboard till the desired thickness.
• Bring the ends of the short yarn together and tie it tightly so that one end of the tassel is gathered.
• Slip the scissors between the opposite (untied) end of the yarn and the cardboard, cutting the untied side slowly and evenly.
• Wind some yarn around the neck of the tassel and tie it tightly by knotting it.
• Use the tapestry needle to hide the ends of this thread within the tassel.
• Now, trim the ends of the tassel to get a neat and perfect tassel.

This is only a basic tassel. Let your imagination fly to make advanced variations to produce decorative tassels and use them on your handbags, curtains or for any other decoration. You can even make earrings with tassels.

Silver Craft- Basic Techniques for Working with Silver

Silver is extremely malleable and ductile and as such, it is highly preferred by silversmiths for making silverware and silver jewelery. Silver craft takes years to learn as an apprentice to a silversmith, or in some college or university offering such courses. Perfection comes only with practice. However, the basic techniques can be learned by anyone who has patience, and the right tools!


Piercing: Silver is cut to form a basic shape or to make a decorative pattern with a piercing saw. When creating a pattern, a small hole is drilled in the silver sheet to allow the blade of the saw to be positioned. The blade is then attached to the piercing saw, under tension. Blades can be coarse allowing fast cutting or very fine for detailed work. The blades are delicate and can be easily snapped. As such, work must be done slowly. The blade is held vertically and metal is moved slowly to make curves or corners. Blades are also lubricated by passing them through beeswax, which makes cutting smoother. The work is supported on a bench peg which is screwed to a workbench having a V cut into it so that both the sides of the cut are supported. Small shavings of metal called lemel are collected from under the piercing onto a leather or paper cloth, which are then recycled into new silver.

Soldering: Pieces of silver are joined by soldering. Silver solder, that comes in various alloy mixes but mainly containing silver, is used for soldering. Silver solder melts at a very high temperature and so a blow torch is used. The temperature required to melt silver solder is very close to the temperature at which the piece being worked upon would itself melt. To manage the temperatures, soldering and other torch work is usually done in darkness so that the color of the metal, as it heats, can be used to measure the temperature of the piece. Silver solder come in soft, medium and hard versions having lower, higher and highest melting points. Pieces where multiple soldering is required use hard solder at first, and work down the grades with subsequent soldering so that each addition does not melt or distort the previous one. Lead solder should never be used as its high temperatures cause the solder to run all over the silver, damaging and making it useless.

Annealing: The more a piece is worked, the harder and more brittle it becomes. Repeated annealing keeps silver soft, malleable and easier to work with. It is done with a torch in darkness. Silver is heated until it gives soft pinkish red glow, which is the point just before melting. The piece is then immediately cooled in cold water, which freezes the molecules into the alignment they were in when almost molten, and thus makes it easier to work. However, working with a torch leaves fire stain on silver which is removed by pickling.

Pickling: Fire stained silver piece is placed in acid bath, mostly sulphuric acid, to remove any oxidization before working on it. Pickling salts are used for works done on smaller scale. The pickling solution is kept warm to speed the process. The piece is then rinsed in running water, and cleaned with pumice powder to remove any remaining traces.

Shaping: The work is shaped into finished form in many ways, depending on the desired shape. Tubular shapes like rings and bangles are formed on mandrels that are held in a vice, while the annealed metal is hammered with a mallet of wood or hide. Bowls and other such curved pieces are domed on leather sandbags, wooden or metal doming blocks, using wooden or shaped metal hammers.

Polishing: Polishing is a long process, where a piece is rubbed with progressively finer wet and dry papers to remove any tool marks. It can then be wheel polished, polished with a fine polishing mop on a pendant drill, or barrel polished, where it is soaked in a soap solution with steel shot and rotated for 10 minutes or so. Polishing makes the piece smooth and shiny, free of all marks.

These were the basic techniques of silver craft. Silversmith, however, adopt many other advanced techniques also like hand fabrication, lost wax casting, die striking, and electroforming etc. For beginners, initially its better to work in a base metal such as brass or copper, as they are much cheaper metals to allow for mistakes.

How to Make Sand Sculpture

Summer time is the beach time. And if you want to make it a fun time too, there's nothing great than making a sand sculpture. It will take only some time, patience and tools, apart from, of course, sand- and you can make sand sculpture that can compete with any professional sand sculptor's work.

Tools Needed for Sand Sculpture

You'll need only some basic tools that can be collected from kitchen or your home tool sets.

Shovel: A long-handled shovel with a small scoop is a must.

Carving Tools: Simple tools- masonry trowels, spatulas, apple corers, chisels, Popsicle sticks, spoons, knives, pastry brushes, melon ballers- all will do.

Spray bottle with water: You'll need it to keep the surface wet to avoid crumbling.

Bucket: You might need it to carry water for making sand more wet.

Finding the Right Location

You need a good location where you can get fine-grained, silty sand as it works the best. Search for the high-tide line, a spot where the darker, wet sand shifts to white sand that blows easily. Set up your construction site just up hill from it. You'll have to dig a hole down to the water table. If you dig too far from the shoreline you'll have to dig a very deep hole but if it's too close, it might get wiped out by waves or incoming tides. Also ensure an easily accessible water source, you might have to bring some from time to time.

Test the sand by picking up a fistful of wet sand and compress it into a ball or a roll. When released and rolled, if it remains fairly intact, it'll work but if it disintegrates, it's not good for sand sculpture. An alternative option for digging a hole is to mix the sand and water in a bucket and build out of it instead.

Basic Methods for Building Sand Sculptures

Compaction is what make sand stand. There are three basic ways to compact sand- softpack, Handstacking, and using forms.

Softpack: packing and patting moist sand into a mound that roughly resembles the shape you want to make.

Handstacking: Setting the wet sand with gentle pressures by hand helps one achieve higher structures while letting water and gravity do the compacting.

Forms: Using some kind of mold or frame is good for getting perfect shapes. Forms can be anything like a wooden box or plastic trash can with no bottom.

Professional sand sculptors generally use a combination of all the three methods.

Construction of Sand Sculpture

Use your hands to scoop out a large doublehandful of very wet sand from the bottom of the hole. Pull the sand towards you. Move the sand fast so that the water is not lost before reaching its destination. Start making your sand structure, say a castle, on top of the mound of sand that has been dug from the hole.

For making towers, flatten the wet sand into pancakes by jiggling them with gentle pressure with the aim of distributing the water consistently through the patty so it settles into and binds to the patty below. Stack sand patties piled on top of each other. Use smaller handfuls at higher portions so that the tower tapers at the top and doesn't get top-heavy and fall over before carving is started.

For making walls, hold the sides of wet sand between flattened hands and jiggle so that the sand takes a brick shape. Lay bricks end to end for the required length of the wall, then lay another layer on top, repeating until you reach the desired height.

Carving the Sand Sculpture

When the rough structure is ready for carving, start working from the top. Work down, and always carve outward to retain structural integrity. Remove like amounts of sand from all sides of the sculpture. Never attempt to complete one side at a time. First build a simple shape as the main structure and add sand later for other structures.
Admire your creation and if you are afraid that your sand sculpture will be washed away, then you can also make permanent sand sculpture. Just give it a try and keep your creation forever!

Lighting to Emphasize Interior Decoration

When designing your interiors, you have to be vigilant about balancing all the elements. Lighting is also one of the important elements for interior decoration. Any room can be given versatile effects and moods through proper lighting.

• Whenever deciding on interior lighting for a room, ask yourself some questions such as what type of mood should the lighting create? What different activities will take place in the room? What decorative elements have to be highlighted?
• Five to ten light sources in each room are enough to create an inviting atmosphere.
• To make a room interesting, use light sources at varying heights. This will add depth by creating separate areas of light and shade.
• Also allow varying intensities of light. Add dimmer switches or use three-way bulbs in lamps for flexible lighting. Alternate switching patterns among general lighting, task lights, lamps, and accent lighting can also be used. For instance, while reading, you'll need task lighting but when hosting guests, you'll want to be able to switch off the task lights and turn on the accent lights.
• Too much even light gives dull effect to a room. Give contrast or shadow, or a combination of both, to avoid boring and depressed feeling in the room.
• When there is heavily textured fabric, stone wall or grooved timber in a room, use texture in lighting too. Strong direct light have a flattening effect which cancels all textures, so avoid it when texture is the consideration.
• Dark colors absorb light. Use more lighting in rooms having dark colors than in the rooms with light colors.
• Lighting collections with similar finish and style for pendants, chandeliers,
  wall-mounted sconces, floor and table lamps are available to make your work simple. Using such collection in a room gives a unified look.
• For sophisticated and flexible lighting solution, you can go for curved track lighting.

Women and Crafts Business

As International Women's Day passes by, it interests me how women can be figured in the global business of handicrafts. As I make an attempt to find out certain related facts, I am amazed to see that women engaged in home based occupations contribute 1/3 to the global economy.



According to the World Bank statistics, women make up 40% of the total population. In the recent times, most of these women are working from their homes. The highest percentage of such women workers can be found in textiles & clothing, food processing, and handicrafts sectors. As such handicrafts is a big segment where women workers are engaged as income generating force. According to a recent international study conducted by the United Nations Population Fund, the income generated by home workers is equivalent to 1/3 of the global economy. Its actual value is more than 4000 trillion dollars annually. However, this income can not be felt as this kind of work is not included in calculation of the national incomes.

What's more important is that such home based businesses by women are not only prevalent in developing countries, but also in other European Countries and United States as well. An international study reveals that approximately 46% of home business owners in the United States are women whose income exceeds those working in offices by 28%. This can be attributed to the fact that a woman who works from home saves much of her income as opposed to a woman who works outside. The office workers spend about 40% of their income on appearance and conveyance.

Where To Find Inexpensive Art and Craft Supplies

You are a Hobbyist and find crafts very fulfilling. However, engaging in arts is also expensive. What to do then? Where to go for cheap art and craft supplies? May be somewhere mentioned in the following list!

Local Library: For old, colorful magazines and books that can be used in collage, mixed media and altered art.

Recycle Groups: Join the groups in your area on some recycle websites. You might get a bag of fabric scraps or some old leather item for your next project.

Online Communities for Classifieds: Check the network of online communities, featuring free online classified advertisements. You might get something at lower prices.

Thrift and Resell Stores: Most of them have a section of art and craft supplies. Otherwise too, you might find other items that you can turn into craft supplies especially when you need fabric or books.

Family, Friends, and Neighbors: Check with them. Exchange items among yourselves. What is a waste for them, might be useful for you and vice versa.

Local Shops and Decorators: Upholstery, furniture shops and decorators might be willing to sell their scrap to you at very low prices. Don't hesitate to ask them though politely. Grocery shops can also give you wooden crates etc.

Local Dollar Store: Not all will be quality material but it's a good location to look at and stock up on some basics like paint brushes and storage containers.

Children's Discarded Stationary: Look into the discarded stationary items, pencil boxes, bags etc. of you own or relatives, friend's children. You might find craft paper, crayons, paints etc. from there.

Discount Websites: There are many discount websites. Check them, see what online bargains can you get. You might find promotional codes and free shipping offers, saving yourself a lots of money.

Art Investment- Good or Bad!

You are an admirer of fine arts. Do you collect handicraft, paintings or sculptures or any other artworks just to get an undefined satisfaction or as an investment too? Well, art as an investment has become popular in the recent past. However, there are supporters as well as opponents of the trend who give arguments for and against investing in art.

What's good in Art Investment

• Uncertain stock market returns, interest rates at their lowest in decades, and shaky property market has lead people to find alternative investment options- investing in art is one of them. The rise in demand and consequently in prices, is definitely a good news for people who collect art.
• Although there's no certainty that prices will continue to rise, at least art will give pleasure and an emotional dividend by giving the chance to call oneself a collector.
• From 1875 to 2000, art has outplayed fixed income, but has been defeated by equities. However, in the past 2 years or so, in the wake of stock market losses, art has surpassed equities.
• Reports say that global art market avoids crash, even in times of economic downturn.

Why Art Investment is Bad

• Art market is illiquid. Buying and selling art works is not so easy as the trade shares.
• Art market is also non-transparent and unregulated. The history of ownership and condition of a piece has to be checked before investing money.
• Art goes in and out of fashion and the prices may move up and down very quickly.
• If selling art, one has to pay many taxes.
• Critics argue that art can't be considered as financial asset as it disregards traditional benchmarks of financial analysis. Price determination is at the mercy of erratic public taste that follows no financial logic.
• Works of art don't generate any income though they lead to storage and associated costs.
• In short-term, market volatility is relatively high when compared with other classes of asset.

How to do Wise Art Investment

• Art investment is risky only if the investment period is too short. Long-term investment, say for 10 years and more, gives good annual average returns. The only prerequisite is to invest in high quality art.
• It's better to deal with reputable galleries or dealers and invest in something you like & won't mind keeping it for a few years, rather than something you don't like but just want as an investment.
• If you are a novice collector, gather knowledge and train your eyes by visiting art fairs, galleries and preferably, student shows. Get lots of information from Internet.
• If that doesn't suffice, hire independent art advisers for selecting and managing a collection. Some of them work at private banks. Galleries too offer advisory service as a sideline to their main business.
• If you sell some art works, consult tax advisors about how to save on it. If a couple buys the work, its good to invest in the name of the person in the lower tax bracket.
• Generate income from artworks by lending them to galleries.
• UK-based Fine Art Management Services launched Fine Art Fund, a private equity-backed venture aimed at pension funds and university endowments. It hopes to raise $350 inn, locked in for 10 years, to invest in a portfolio of top-quality art. The fund managers are banking on those investors who have seen some of their biggest holdings go down as the value of a quality arts will never go down to zero. Fine Art Fund also plans to solve the problem of lack of dividend income in this type of investment by renting out its art. This can be taken advantage of by wealthy private investors.

Quilling- Amazing Craft For Making Paper Sculpture

Inexpensive item like paper can be used to make amazing paper sculpture that are unbelievably fine. There are many such paper crafts that make it possible. One of them is Quilling which, although, is a centuries old craft but somehow got extinct. However, this art of paper quilling has again become popular, thanks to the creativity of the people of our times.


What is Quilling

Quilling is the art of combining narrow strips of paper into beautiful arrangements. It is the art of rolling, shaping, gluing and decorating strips of paper. It is also known as paper filigree or paper quilling. The important fact is that it can be done with very simple tools.

Tools Needed for Quilling

Some basic tools needed for quilling are paper, glue, tweezers and scissors.

Stripes of Paper: Quilling papers can be found at any arts and crafts store or you can cut your own at the initial stages from scrap paper just to make your hands habitual with quilling! The ready made quilling paper comes in narrow i.e. 1/16 inch, standard i.e. 1/8 inch, wide i.e. ¼ inch and extra wide i.e. ½ inch. The length of these strips range from 17 to 25 inches. You can find a variety of colors including metallic, two toned and graduated tones. However, ideal paper is the one that rolls easily and smoothly, and holds its shape well when released.

Glue: The glue should be white craft glue that dries clear. A small glue bottle with a nozzle makes it easy to apply the glue exactly where you want. While working, keep the bottle upside down in a small jar with a scrap of wet paper towel in the bottom.

Tweezers: Eyebrow tweezers work well to hold paper strips. However, you can even get tweezers with narrow point, as fine as possible, without any ridged surface that could crumple the paper. They can be found at any good crafts store.

Sharp scissors: required for trimming ends of strips, fringing flowers etc.

A flat surface: to work on, preferably plastic or something similar.

You can even get a quilling tool which is a long needle with a slot in the end. This needle is set into a handle. The paper is inserted in the slot, pulled to its end, and the tool is rotated in the hand while the other hand gently guides the paper until all is wound around the needle. The paper is slipped off the tool, either before or after adding a dab of glue to the end. Many shapes thus created are then combined to form a design. Afterwards, as you are comfortable with the art, you can use a needle tool. The larger the handle on the tool, the less strain and stress on the hand.

How to do quilling

In the beginning, you can start making some of the simple designs. A V-shape design involves folding the strip of paper in half and rolling the ends of the outside of the paper around the quill. You have to roll the paper away from the inner crease. Feelers involve rolling only part of the strip of paper. You leave the rest of the strip straight. You can make this design by folding the strip in half or by using an in-folded strip. Coiling the paper loosely or very tightly around the quill will make a peacock eye. A petal can be made in the same way by bending the pinched part to one side. Follow the paper quilling instructions to make fabulous paper sculptures!