Personalized Christmas Ornaments-Then and Now

My how times have changed! I ran across this picture of myself and a good friend, Jackie Biele, at one of my first craft shows in 1982. In the first picture I am the one on the left, and yes much younger! The next picture is almost thirty years later with my grandson Trevin.

I displayed my ornaments on a board covered in black felt. As you can see, I only had a small selection. When I started making bread dough ornaments, never did I dream I would still be doing it thirty one years later! Usually crafts come in style and after a while they go out, but with personalized Christmas ornaments they have only grown and become more popular over the years. What I strive to do is follow the trends of Christmas ornaments to keep them in style and popular with design and color. It is always a challenge-which I love. I subscribe to just about every magazine and many trade journals. It involves shopping and going to market to see what is trending.

In 2005 a great opportunity was presented to me. Rudolph and Me, one of the leading wholesale Christmas companies, asked  me to join their team as an ornament designer. Now my designs can be seen throughout the world.

I thought it would be fun to show you some of my very first ornaments that I made so you can see how they have changed. Can you guess which one is the newest?

What I encourage everyone to do is follow your dreams-you never know where they might lead.