This month we are talking about lessons learned from seasons past, one big thing I learned from last November’s Holiday Survival theme is that at this time of year many makers/entrepreneurs invest most of their holiday prep time into production and leave marketing, promotion, and advertising to the last minute. Last year I made a plan to encourage shopping handmade for the holidays and support the talent of our community through some creative cross promotion. We’ll be doing that with a sidebar pop up shop + featured posts to show off some of our makers,  the launch of a collaborative letterpress calendar by OMHG members, a fun Pin Party to share our products & we’ll wrap everything up with a community gift guide followed by a little winter vacation!

Here is how to join in the handmade goodness:

• Sign up for the Holiday Pop Up Shop! From November 15-December 15, makers will take over the sidebar of OMHG and let our community shop their work in a series of featured posts showcasing their products. Click here to visit the sales page to get all the details & nab your $85 ad + featured post! If you are an OMHG member visit the Cross Promotion & Marketing forum to get your 50% off discount code. For the rest of us let’s help spread the goodness this year by visiting, sharing, and supporting the creative businesses in our community!
• Prepare yourselves and mark your soon-to-be-outdated-calendars for the pre-sale launch of our collaborative 2014 letterpress calendar on November 13. We combined forces in the forums to create 12 prints exploring the theme of community- entirely imagined, designed, and printed by our talented OMHG members. Get one for yourself, for your friends, for your local community hall, heck-get one for everybody you know! Here is a sneak peek of what we’ve been working on together:

(Left to right: Darice Pauselius, Shauna Panczyszyn, Sara DiMantova, Sam Osborne)

• Be sure to participate in our Gift Guide Pin Party where you can connect with us & possibly be featured in our gift guide by pinning your products and sharing other indie businesses with our community!
• In early December we’ll publish our Community Gift Guide & OMHG will take a little vacation from posting + #OMHG chats until December 30th while Chris & I celebrate our birthdays, 11 years of togetherness and the holidays with our family.
• Spread the word!

We have such a creative & busy season ahead of us-I’m excited to share my favourite time of year with all of you and invest my holiday money in supporting our community by shopping your beautiful creations!

Do you have an idea for a great collaborative holiday promotion or way to support makers & indie biz this year? Planning on joining in any of our OMHG fun? Let us know in the comments!