Homemade Christmas Gifts - Fernley,NV

how about some home made eco friendly tub and tile cleaner, baking soda some scent, and some powdered soap. Add a sponge, and tie with a bow and you are done (use an old jar).

I am all about consumables. I hate giving/ getting stuff.

Mix up the dry ingredients for a choc chip pancake breakfast, have the kids write the recipie, put in a bag, tie with a bow and you are done.

Best,
F. B.

A super easy one that we made one year was bookmarks. Cut ribbon to length and glue gun fun buttons on the ends on both front and back. Top of the bookmark had a smaller button stacked on a bigger one, bottom just had one smaller button.

We have also made a lot of ornaments. One year was with perler beads. My favorite was last year when we painted three bottle caps (okay, they were beer bottle caps - you can still see the brand on the back!) white on the inside and strung three of them together to make snowmen. Faces and buttons were sharpied on the inside.

I found this a couple of days ago and thought it was very clever. I'm not a huge fan of Christmas art projects. It seems that many end up being something that goes into the trash. These I'd keep. http://ohhonestly.net/tag/christmas-tree-cutout/

ETA: My rule of thumb is: If I wouldn't buy it to decorate my home, I'm not making it to give to someone else. Try to use colors and styles you know will be appreciated by each of them. Last year I made beautiful tile coasters. I chose designs for each that I knew the recipient would love, and matched their style. They were very well received. Here's the link to how to make them. Bonus...the total cost is pretty cheap! :-) I made each person a set of 4 matching coasters. http://www.curbly.com/users/diy-maven/posts/6125-curbly-v...

We paint mini canvas pictures.

Ornaments we paint.

Clear glass ornaments. We stuff cute things inside like a bit of colored
sand, mini shells etc.

Stepping stones (made of plaster, marbles pushed in, painted)

We paint & personalize mugs.

Framed photos of the kids taken in cute places.

I'm stealing the coaster idea.

Do they need to carry stuff? In our area, you buy your grocery bags or bring them, so my grandmother appreciated a canvass tote bag from DD last year.

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Do they need to carry stuff? In our area, you buy your grocery bags or bring them, so my grandmother appreciated a canvass tote bag from DD last year.

I would do the calendar every year because people need calendars every year and they are such a nice keepsake.

Last year we made homemade soap -they sell kits. This year we are making home made vanilla, and we are making bees wax candle sticks.

Hand print flower pots or vases with forced paperwhite bulbs (or Amaryllis if you want to splurge).

My mother recently asked for drink coasters for Christmas. Sooo, I am enlisting my kids to help make them.

I found some cute ideas on Pinterest. You can modge podge pictures of the kids on the coasters or use decorative scrapbooking paper. I already have on hand most of the items needed for this project. All I had to do was purchase the 4x4 tiles from Lowes at .16 a piece. It is a very inexpensive,cute and useful gift. I ended up buying a bunch of tiles so I can make sets for numerous friends as well. I will include a package of hot cocoa with each.

It is fun to pick out paper with print specific for each family. Hawaiian print for our friends that we travel with to Hawaii. Print with the letter of their last name, sports, owls, etc.

Something else that is simple is to take a photo of your kids or family and modge podge it onto an art canvas. I made a huge one of our family that sits on our mantle. The photo enlarged at Costco was a couple bucks. I bought the canvas on sale for 7 bucks. It is awesome!! Those canvased prints are pretty pricey...but you can make a homemade one on the cheap so easily.

Merry Christmas!!

homemade soap...put it in some pretty material and tie it with a ribbon.

One year we made a special gift for my dad. He was getting pretty frail, and although he used to love to cook, he was no longer able to. But he still had lots of friends, neighbors, favorite doctor and staff, mailman, nursing home chaplain who visited him, etc.

We knew he missed baking holiday treats, so my husband, who is a great baker, made wonderful cinnamon rolls for my dad - not to eat, but to hand out as gifts. I wrapped two to a package (got pretty bakery wrapping bags at the dollar store, they're also available at Hobby Lobby and cake decorating places), tied them with a beautiful ribbon and a tag identifying what they were and who they were from, and presented them all in a basket to my dad.

He loved passing out homemade treats to special people. Of course they knew he hadn't baked them, but they realized someone who loved him had provided him with baked goods so he didn't miss passing out treats. He just beamed as he took his basket with him to doctors' appointments, and when he was able to give a gift to special visitors.

So maybe if you have an older person who no longer bakes but still loves the joy of giving, you can make cookies or muffins or rolls and package them for distributing. Often they don't need "stuff" but they still want to participate in giving gifts and just aren't able (due to age, illness or they downsized to a small apartment or assisted living space and don't have all those rolling pins and counter space anymore) to pass out the traditional cookies and baked goods and treats.

Christy Lee - I saw that craft as well. I am modifying it a bit as a family gift and using the name of each kiddo as a 'branch' on a larger tree if that makes sense. If it goes smoothly, I will make one with ALL the names for each kiddo and the 'grand' parentals!

TY so much for sharing.

I will be keeping tuned for more ideas!

We are having out girls decorate baskets. We went to a crafts store and bought wicker baskets, fake flowers, ribbon and other decorative items and are having them make a basket for each of my wife's siblings.

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We are having out girls decorate baskets. We went to a crafts store and bought wicker baskets, fake flowers, ribbon and other decorative items and are having them make a basket for each of my wife's siblings.

Decorated canning jars with all the ingredients for cookies or brownies. (google cookie mix in a jar to see what I mean)

A couple of years ago, we made hand print plates. I bought a couple of white, oven safe plates from the dollar store and some Sharpie markers of all colors. I drew an outline of their hand on the plate and they helped decorate the rest with the markers. Then I baked it on a low setting for about 20 minutes or so. These came out great and the grandparents proudly display the plates all year round.
Last year, we made pine cone Christmas trees. We have a huge pine tree in our yard that drops enormous cones. I bought some of those shiny mardi gras beads at the dollar store and cut them up. The kids glued them on to the cones with tacky glue and then sprinkled with glitter. I sprayed the finished product with spray glue. These looked great too and they had a blast making them.
Not sure what I am going to do this year, but I'm getting good ideas here! :)

Have you checked out Pinterest? There are some really cute ideas on that site!

One thing daughter and I always did yearly were applesauce ornaments. Loved them!

Enjoy!!

In my sons art class, they just made the decorative name that Christy Lee suggested....it looks so cool. What a neat idea to do for Christmas!!

We are paiting canvas pictures for family this year. I got everything for it on sale from Michael's and it was probably $45 for everything...that covse 10 families. We are also going to make a peppermint ornament to go with each one.

For Mother's Day last year the kids each decorated a flower pot for my mom - they still look great!

Do the relatives all drink coffee? If so, I think flavored powdered creamers would be really fun and the kids could decorate the containers. The recipes are online if you google them. Good luck!

potholders! My kids love making them and I do use the ones they made... Or Christmas tree decorations? Another good one which isn't so homemade but they could likely help on the computer is a wall hanging photo calendar. We use Shutterfly. My parents love it. Different pic each month and I think you can do more fancy than that.