News & Updates from Aras Wonderland

Not an easy subject. For me, age is natural, part of life, and there is Beauty in Old Age. We have a treasure that youth lacks: experience.Getting old… Laugh at it? Get grumpy, sarcastic, bitter? Living piling up lists of what we cannot do like when we were 20?

Be sad? Launch a 24/7 crusade spending our energies fighting against the undefeatable wrinkles, loose skin, fat arms and getting frustrated because we are defeated all the time?

Drop of wisdom by the Beatles Life is very short and theres no time for fussing and fighting, my friend.

I agree.No.

I am not here to preach or even question what people think. I respect everyones views on the subject. This is my story.I am here to share what was going on in my brain when I felt the need to offer new image collections for Craftsuprint but with my very personal input.

I wanted to share my feelings on the Beauty of getting old.

As simple as that.I will be 70 next year, will not go bore you with my bio, but for the purpose of this article I need to mention that in younger days I had the luck of bumping into development seminars that helped me regain my self-esteem, destroyed in childhood by bullying from family and schoolmates about being overweight and not pretty.

The seminars opened the door to a new path, a scary, frightening one because I had to face and confront my worst enemy: myself.

Because of what others said I did not love myself.

Not an easy fight, but by loving myself the way I was, warts and all, I learned to live and fight in life, with joy, to find strength within myself first.

I was in my twenties listening to people in their 70s talking about starting new adventures in life. That stuck in my brain, but I was far from 70.

Today I am virtually there.It was then when I went through a process that was not easy by any means, full of pitfalls, learning to love myself in full.

And that was the foundation to see the aging process as natural and embrace it. Everyone has their own views and opinions and this is only mine. I say hello everyday to the new me in the mirror, have a smile and wish myself a good day.

If an ache appears I just tell myself oh well, this is only part of my body, the other parts can help the aching part.

My arms are larger, no problem, a sewing machine helps me adapt my clothes if needed. And at this point I feel gratitude for being alive one more day, birth-day is every day to me and my partner, my companion in life, similar age, similar views.

Our power for being grateful for small mercies in life is strong and give us strength to cope with whatever comes.That is in a nutshell most of the inspiration behind the collections I am offering.

The collections Would you Dance with me, You are made of Stardust, Together Forever and In my heart forever are designed to touch anyone of any age with scenes that engulf many emotions, mainly companionship, trust, love, affection, beauty, tenderness, understanding and contentment.

The images are designed to be versatile, to celebrate a special occasion like an anniversary, a birthday, just gratitude, friendship and renewed vows of love or celebrate the life of someone that has crossed the portal.

Thank you for allowing me to share these thoughts with you. Even if only browsing, your visit to my shop is truly appreciated. Most grateful for that. X Aras Wonderland

The Harlequin has been with us for many centuries. It was during the 15th Century, when it took the form that we recognise these days, a bright multi-colored costume with a pattern of bright diamonds or triangular shapes.

True or not, legend is that the costume was a way to relate to poor people in medieval times who had no money to buy new clothes, so they gathered scraps, causing the outfit to end up looking like a piece of patchwork.

Jumping in time to the present, the Harlequin is as alive as ever, even in comics. I love them. Looking at them makes my spirit feel lighter, happier, as if the Harlequin said do not worry, everything is ok.

The Harlequin is witty and agile.

This is the inspiration behind my collection of Harlequins in my shop. I thought it would be suitable to bring out the Harlequin to deliver your Christmas presents. The size of the images in the collection allows to turn them quickly into cards just by cutting the page in 4 parts.

That is the reason the sheets of tags have a background.

If you need to make a card last minute for friends, family or working colleagues, you dont have to find backing papers.

The backgrounds I have designed make the focal image even more outstanding. I would like to invite you to visit and follow my shop, more Harlequins will be appearing in the following weeks.

Even if you just visit for browsing, I am most grateful for that.

Gift tags have been underestimated for a very long time, in my opinion. And in an age when everything is digital, a real present we can touch, a greeting we can hold in our hands and treasure, is becoming something rare and therefore even more special.

As a designer I decided to create something different and exclusive for Craftsuprint: oversized gift tags that will make any gift even more special in this day and age.

Sets of 4 cards on an A4 page. The idea is not to replace the precious wonderful cards, not at all.

In a world where survival is not easy, my thinking was: why not bringing a bit of surprise, of magic, a smile with large gift tags regardless of the size of the present.

Large boxes are particularly popular during Christmas, to wrap household items, large presents or toys for the young ones, so a large tag is the perfect complement.

Another way to use them is just to print different models, have them ready and spread them around the house for friends and family that visit during the Festive Season and offer them as a take away.

The tag will be, without a doubt, a treasured gift.