giving handmade and handmade gift tags

Since 2011 is my year to GSD...I hope to have many handmade gifts prepared for the holiday season. One of the hardest parts of the handmade gifting for me is the actual giving. The making is the easy part...the giving is tough. I always worry that
a)the person will hate it
b)the person will think i am cheap
c)the person will have no idea how much time, work, and money went into the project.

I saw a commercial last year that had a guy saying...nobody really wants handmade gifts for the holidays. I also read articles online and watched a news segment about comments made by Mo Rocha about handmade sweaters. He was called out by knitters nationwide for a casual complaint he made on a NPR radio show (I think it was Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me) about handmade sweaters being itchy. Cheap yarn is itchy. Good yarn is so soft and lovely.  I think advertisers and people with bad memories of gifts made from cheap supplies tarnish the handmade gifting and further exacerbate my worrying cycle. See a,b,c above. Repeat.

I am always looking for new gift ideas so I can give my gifts without worry of all of the above. I recently read a great little book called Gifted: Lovely Little Things to Knit and Crochet. It has great projects and bonus: a recipe for homemade hot chocolate mix. I think I might just have to gift that to myself. Hot chocolate, chai tea, and coffee make the winter season so much more bearable. I also discovered this great website for a product line called Knitterella. The gift tags are just adorably sassy. I am going to order some of these to go with my gifts this season.