Budget Holiday Gifts from Compugraph Designs
Compugraph Designs Products
Compugraph Designs is a company that creates graphic images to decorate t-shirts, coffee mugs, canvas bags, stuffed animals, neck ties and many other products. We also design fabric and have some illustrated children's books. These items are available on line at several different sites.
Gifts of high value but low price
Money has never exactly been flowing for me. When I was younger, I could get away with giving people hand made gifts. When I was a student at FIT (Fashion Institute Technology), I was taking jewelry design classes so I was able to make some nice gifts (silver rings and necklaces, and even a white gold and diamond necklace for my Mom's 50th -- golden -- birthday).
When I got a bit older, I was working for AT&T and, while I did make a bit more money, I still didn't have a lot of extra money to spend on gifts for my loved ones. My sister had just gotten married and her oldest daughter was born while I worked there. My brother has just gotten married and inherited two children and they had a third while I was there.
So I had more people I needed to buy for. And, that was ok when I was at AT&T. AT&T, when I was there, had several days a week where they would invite vendors to sell their "wares" downstairs, near the cafeteria. I recall buying a wooden sign for my niece which was engraved with her Hebrew name on the back (I drew it out and the artist who created the piece just copied what I wrote).
Now, I have to come up with some unique gifts for family and friends. So I buy my own designs from my own on-line shops. I have some examples here of unique gifts that are under $25.
The Princess Who Wanted to be Beautiful
One of my first short stories, "The Princess Who Wanted to be Beautiful" started out as a bedtime story for the children of a close friend. I had been worrying about the "Disney Syndrome" whereby all the heroes are beautiful and all the ugly people are villains. This is a story about a princess who has heard that all princesses are beautiful and doesn't think she is beautiful. She decides to go to a wizard and ask him to make her beautiful but along the way she makes some friends and learns a lesson about herself.
The Gold Star
One of my short stories, "The Gold Star" is now available in illustrated form. The story is about a young boy named Shmuel who helps a poor man without the man knowing.
Compugraph Designs Art Now Site
"Art Now" is another "Print on Demand" site. This canvas bag is part of our collection. Click on the picture to see the entire site.