Ideas for Homemade Christmas Gifts

Hi N. (speaking of Christmas)

I Googled "home made Christmas gift ideas" and came up with a lot of really good information.

This one inspired me:

http://familycrafts.about.com/cs/giftgiving/a/120400a.htm

Good Luck!

MrsV

A few things I have done that are very nice and inexpensive.... Homemade personalized stationary, Wooden painted crafts with nice sayings on it (I usually duplicate ideas I've seen at craft fairs,etc. that are easy and cheap to make), a "movie night in a bag" - find a movie from WalMart from the clearance bin and get a few glass bottles of cream soda or root beer and a package of microwave popcorn. Homemade cookie or brownie mix in a jar with a ribbon. You can make all the gifts for under $10 each. Good luck and have fun!

This year I am giving magnets - I went to a stain glass store, and bought glass blobs (sure they have a fancy name) that are the glass dropped onto a flat surface when hot - they are the size of a silver dollar, flat on back slightly domed on top, and clear. They were $0.25 each. I have done small photos of the children for relatives, printed out their heads the size of the blobs, and my aunts dogs, since she has no children. For people who are not related, I have used photographs of the monuments on Mmonument Ave. in Richmond, but any great photographs could be used that match someone's hobby, etc. Even their monogram done in Microsoft Office, then printed the right size. Then just glue it on the back of the glass circle, and glue a round magnet on the back. You could give them a set of 4 or 6 for the their fridge. Just find a pretty way to package them!

If you are already going to be doing the cooking/baking, make cut out cookies and attach a cookie cutter (or cutters) to the gift with a nice ribbon. Or add one small ornament to breads, etc. with nice ribbon. A very inexpensive ornament is the glass balls and you can use a metallic pen to write something nice, it could even double as your gift tag. Have fun! I love that people still will make homemade gifts. They are definitely the kind I prefer to receive and I like that people are saving money.

We have been making homemade holiday gifts for family ever since our now 6 year old daughter was born.
Some thoughts....
You can do a handprint ornament -- you can buy the clay at a craft store and stick yur baby's hand or foot in it and paint it.
How about painting your baby's hand or foot and doing a print on paper. write their name and the date and find a cute quote....to attache to it. Place it in an inexpensive frame and voila!
One of my favorites...take a few pictures -- print them - $.19 each online! - and modge podge them onto clear plain ornaments you can purchase at a craft store. Embellish with glitter or other sparkly items. Attach a ribbon and voila!
Good Luck! M.

Last year I made caramel apples dipped in white chocolate covered in cinnamon and sugar. It made the best gift.

- You must use Granny smith apples they are the best tasting for this. Try to make sure they are not bruised.
- Purchase cookie sticks, and holiday colored ribbon from the craft store
- Purchase Clear cellophane or holiday decorated cellophane party favor/treat bags from either the craft store or party store.
- I also purchased mini-holiday cards that included a string to tie around the bag from Walmart for really cheap.
- Purchase a few bags of caramels, white chocolate morsels, and cinnamon & sugar, depending on how many apples you are making.

- Wash the apples and remove stem. Stab cookie stick into top of apple and place in refrigerator to chill. (This will make the caramel set quickly after dipping)
- Melt caramels and dip apples. Place apples on wax paper covered cookie sheet and place back in fridge until the caramel is hard and the apple pops off the wax paper fairly easily.
- Melt chocolate in a double boiler and dip apples (previously covered in caramel) and sprinkle heavily with cinnamon & sugar. Place on wax paper covered cookie sheet and refrigerate until cold and set.
- Place finished apple in cellophane bag, tie ribbon, card and there you go. Ready to give as a gift.

These apples taste like apple pie when you eat them, they are very very yummy and make a great gift. All of the items are really inexpensive considering how many apples you can make out of them.

Responses so far are as if you asked for gifts that children could make or you could make for children, but I am assuming you are asking for ideas for gifts for "everyone" meaning family and friends of all ages. One idea which has never failed to please has been making a personalized 'elegant' ornament for the tree. If you buy a dozen frosted or matte colored ball ornaments at a place like Lowe's you pay very little. You then buy one puff paint in gold and one in silver for writing the first names on each ball with the year on the reverse side, and some wired ribbon to carefully feed through the hanger of the ball and fashion into a stiff bow. If you choose very carefully so colors match well, the effect is beautiful (much like ornaments selling for about $15-20 each!)and each of your ornaments costs about $1-2 when completed. Many people still have these ornaments I made over a decade ago and say they still value them! There are also 100s of ideas in magazines,from canning your own fruits and vegetables to presenting soups or pickled items in a lovely container, a package of coupons you deisgn such that the recipient can use them for odd jobs you will perform (babysitting, hairstyling, grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, carpooling, tax prep, etc etc) and every craft imaginable. Have fun and happy holidays.

One year I made beeswax candles. You can get the sheets of beeswax at a craft store, along with string for the wick. I just rolled 'em up, tied up two together with a pretty ribbon, and had a nice gift!

If you crochet, you can also make simple scarves. The craft stores generally have some type of yarn on sale at any given time.

You can also make frames...get plain wood unfinished frames, then decorate with paint & your choice of embellishments.

Have fun!

ball ornaments with a hand print of your son with his name and the date you made it. also you can find scrapbook calendars that you just put picture in of your boy or of anyone that the receiving party might enjoy looking at all year through.

Do you have any baby food jars or other small jars around? You can buy real vanilla beans (this will set you back $8-$10 but you will get a lot of gifts from them). you can put a whole one in or snip in 1/2. Put some sugar in the jar and put in the vanilla bean. Close the lid tightly and put a cute ribbon or scrap of fabric on the top. The vanilla will infuse the sugar and is WONDERFUL in coffee. Also, you can buy a pack of plastic spoons, some clear tiny bags and some ribbon. Melt chocolate chips (think different flavors too), let cool so as not to be too hot for plastic, dip the plastic spoons in a few times for a thick layer of chocolate. Let cool on wax paper. Cover with the baggies and tie with ribbon. Awesome spoons to stir coffee, hot chocolate, etc. Check out places on the internet. There are a million ideas!!

Hi N.,
You can buy very inexpensive wooden ornaments (or picture frames or boxes) for often less than a dollar at craft stores like Michaels or Joanne Fabrics. Then you can either paint them, color them with markers, decoupage, glue photos to them, whatever. There are lots of possibilities, and they'd be nice to add to your food gifts. Have fun!

I have made lots of different ornaments with the kids over the years. One I had them color on some cardstock and then cut it into elongated star shapes and laminated. Another I cut out triagles of cardboard and spray painted them gold and then did handprints of green and red (with some glitter in the paint). Also, Michaels has plaster ornaments that your child can paint and if you cover with hairspray and glitter after are quite lovely. Be creative and use what you already have.

Blown Egg ornaments... easy, cheap, and beautiful.

I'm also making all my Christmas presents this year. I went to the second hand store and bought picture frames. I paid $.99-$1.49 each frame. Then I went to Ben Franklin Craft supply store and bought Acrylic paints. Again $.99-$1.49 each. . I also went and cut tree branches and grape vine . I used a glue gun and made what I call Fairy Furniture.. the most expensive part was the glue gun.. The last project that I worked took a Little expense. About $5.00. I bought paper mache from Ben Franklins and fun fabrics from the second hand store again. I made finger puppets. I made them for adults and children. You can buy hats ,lace ,feathers,and small do dads at Ben Franklins. If they Don't have a Ben Franklin try a Micheal's Art ans Supply.

I always make homemade ornaments. I take a picture of my two kids and print it out using the wallet size option. I usually take it in front of a Christmas tree. I then cut it out in a circle and hot glue it to the back of a small grapevine wreath ($0.10 at Michaels). I then cut two pieces of thin holiday ribbon (11 inches). One I thread through the top and tie to use as a hanger and then other I tie into a bow and glue to the bottom. It doesn't take long and doesn't cost much. I usually use a 40 or 50% off coupon for the ribbon and can make about 10 for under $5. Some of my family actually display them all year long. You can also make gifts in a jar (just google it).

One of my cousins made ice cream cone christmas ornaments last year. They were very pretty and cheap to make, but it looked very nice. She took styrophome balls and rolled them in glue then in red glitter, she then hot glued them to the old style cake cones that you can get for $1.00 per box. One fairly reasonable idea if you get too tired to do all that baking is an ice cream sundae basket with the ornament. I think you cold include toppings, a scoop, sprinkles, cherries, and banana's with a basket for under $10.00. You can usually find pretty good coupons for the smuckers toppings and if you see a good coupon you can usually get extras through ebay or swap sites.

It seems around Christmas time magazines offer lots of great gift ideas like home made holiday jams. I have a recipe (but I can't seem to locate it right now) that uses canned cranberry relish and orange marmelade to make a nice holiday jam. It would be a cheap and fun way to make something special that you can't buy in the stores. Google for similar ideas.

Also, if you are interested in doing something cute and fun (not sure if the gift ideas are supposed to be kid-ish or mature) you can use your child's thumb print to make cute little note cards. Take a bunch of plain paper, cut it in half (8.5 X 11 becomes 8.5 X 5.5) and then fold in half. Go to the library and check out one of those thumbprint books (like author Ed Emberley) and construct some cute note cards. People can use them for little notes, thank you cards, etc. I use my kids thumb prints and write the year and "original artwork by ______" on the bottom of the back side. Especially if the child helped draw or color some of the picture. You can usually go to Kinkos and find envelopes to fit.

Good luck.
Liz

Hi N.,
One thing that I did last year that we are going to continue to do is hand print reindeer. I traced my kids hands (the older ones did it themselves) and used Popsicle sticks to make them. Use a hot glue gun and make a V shape with the sticks, then add a pom pom for the nose and wiggly eyes to make the face of the reindeer. Then take your child's hand prints and glue them onto the top of each stick. Add a ribbon to hang it and there you go. I let each of my kids paint and decorate their hands before adding them to the reindeer so that they could give them a personal touch.

Another thing that I did while working in day care was for our gifts to the parents. I used the same idea with their hands. Traced (or painted their hands and had them place their hands on two different colors of construction paper (I used red and green), you will need about 6 hands of each color. Then make a picture frame from Popsicle sticks and glue the hands around the frame. Then you can either add a picture of your little one, or put another piece of paper in the middle with the child's name and the year on it. And if you are really up for it, you could use the child's feet. The parents that I used this idea for really loved them!

These are just a couple of things that I have done in the past.

Hope it helps getting the creative juices going!

One year I did cross stitch ornaments - you can get the supplies and patterns at most craft stores. This year, I'm making a couple scarves. These are a little time consuming, so you may want to do something quicker, like the wood painting or cooking.