OT: Homeade gift ideas?

[Momof2agfans]

Thanks for this thread. A lot of great ideas.

Every year the 5th graders make a snowman craft for a homeless shelter. It can be as simple, or as elaborate as you choose to make it.

Decorate a non-dairy coffee creamer cannister to look like a snowman. Can be filled with, m&m's, skittles, or miniature chocolates for the wide-mouthed ones.

My favorite gifts are still ornaments with the girls' pictures in them. I have glittered snowflakes, wreaths, etc. with their smiling faces. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[AGBoard]

What a great idea for a thread! I am getting lots of good ideas.

We have received many homemade Christmas and Holiday gifts. We usually end up copying them and making some of our own to give out to friends and family.

A beautiful ornament we were given is made out of pumpkin seeds and sprayed bright red to look like a pointsettia. It makes a great package decoration, also. I have the instructions if anyone wants it.

Last year, we gave out beautiful illuminated decorations that are easy to make. Drill a small hole in a clear glass block. Squeeze a short sting of lights into the hole, leaving the plug extended. Tie like a package with a a wide wired holiday ribbon. These can be individualized by color of bulbs, or clear lights, and by theme of ribbon. We also gave out some that were made from a glass block vase. Then, it can be used year round.

Children love to make sock snow people with knit scarves, button eyes etc, and a hat made from turning over the striped top of the sock. Very cute gifts. We made these every year in our Kindergarten. Help will be needed with the hot gluing. The children chose the twigs for arms, the scarves, and the beads and buttons for trim. Each was individual and very cute. Weight them by adding a zippie bag of sand in the bottom. They last for years.

One year, we had our kids use transfer crayons to draw pictures. We ironed them on plain aprons for the Grandmothers. Add a potholder with their handprint. The pockets on the apon were colorful material. These also last for years.

Good luck!

[crazy8]

Crocheted Snow flake ornaments.

Trivets - the kids (and my girl scouts) made these - 6" x 6" tile. We used contact paper and drew out designs - hearts, snowflakes, trees, initials. Cut out the design like a stencil and stuck it to the tile. Coat with glass etching cream. Rinse and dry. Hot glue a peice of felt to the back.

Knit hats - we bought knitting looms and made matching hats for Aunt/Uncle/cousins. Even my 5 year old could help with these. (Mom would wrap the yarn and he would flip it.)

Holiday throw pillows - I overlap two pieces of fabric for the back so that the covers are removable and washable. Then I can make more covers for different holidays throughout the year. (Covers take a lot less storage space than multiple pillows)

Candy wreath - take a metal coat hanger and twist it into a small circle (approx 6"-8" diameter). Tie peppermints, salt water taffy, or any other small individually wrapped candy onto the wreath with curling ribbon.

I also buy simple ornament kits (last year beaded angels, 04-safety pin bead trees, 03-mini ski hats, etc) for the kids to make and we ribbon them onto presents to help decorate our wrapping job.

Tins of homemade carmel corn or pupppy chow (chex cereal coated with chocolate - peanut butter - powdered sugar. (A neighbor used large coffee cans with lids, painted it to look like Santa's head - made a cloth santa hat and glued it to the lid.)

My sil gave us some homemade candy of some sort last year and labeled it reindeer droppings. My kids loved it. [img]wink.gif[/img]

[Hquads4]

This is a great thread. Let's see for the kids first chirstmas we took crayola washable paint and did handprints. Then I cut around the hand prints & scrapbboked them onto an 8 x 10 sheet of paper, matted & framed them. This went to the grandparents and one special godmother. It the center of the paged I wrote The Quad Squad and the date. They loved that. The most difficult part was getting 4 7 month olds to cooperate for the handprints.

I've also had the kids use the same paint and do a garden of flowers with fingerprints. I embelished the picture by adding the flower stems & leaves. Then I framed those as well. Everyone loved those.

For my nieces & nephews I try to cross stitch something for a baby gift or baptism. I've also done lots of baby bibs, & last year bookmarks for my DD and my niece who is only 9 months older. Both girls love to read so this was perfect.

For the school teachers we do the cookies, or brownie mixes in a Jar. Those are always a hit. Then since I have 2 in a class we do a Hot Chocolate mug set. The kids pick out a cute christmas mug, last year it was a tall latte mug. Then we put in prepacked hot chocolate and a candy cane. But we have also done hot cider packages as well. There are some great hot Chocolate varieties out there. And then I tie a piece of clear or even blue cellophane around it, add a bow & an ornament. Most of the teachers have kept these at school so that they can warm themselves up after they have been on recess duty.

We've done this for the Dance & Tumbling teachers, and our busdriver as well and they get excited. With thier busy schedules this saves them time and the kids love to help do the shopping and fill the jars.

This year my DD & I are going to take polar fleece scraps and make Snuggle Sacks for a few special girls dolls. This will be fun for my DD.

And for 2 of the big Cardinals fans that we know are getting copies of a picture we took from the Arch that shows half of the New Busch Stadium and half of the old. Those will get matted & framed.

I'm all for making gifts or gift baskets because I think that they are more personal. I can't wait to see what other ideas everyone has.

[Felicity_Fan85]

Oh, I forgot about this. If anyone lives near enough to Deerfield, Mass. you could go to Yankee Candle there (my favorite one since its so big and I love the Christmas section) and dip some candles. They're relatively cheap and fun to make. I have a taper that I made, a Santa that a friend gave me, and my dad and dipped a squirrel and snowman. They're cute!

Or you could probably find a kit or just buy wax and find direction online of how to make them at home using a pot, a can, etc.

[AGcrazy]

Wow these are some great idea, you guys! One year I did polar fleece throws for everyone, well the couples anyway. Two yards is plenty for a nice snuggly size blanket and to make it a little more durable than having plain edges, I used my serger and made a nice finished edge on it using 4 cones of thread instead of 3 like I use on doll clothes. Everyone loved them, even my niece who was still at home that year and loved orange--she got a very orange couch throw, lol. I was too late to get this crazy lady bug print I knew she would have loved!

This year I was hoping to do flannel PJ pants for the kids in my brothers' two families. I have surfing monkeys on blue that might work ok for the boys (would a 13 yo think that was stupid? I can find him something else if I need to) and monkeys on lime green for the girls. Now just to find the time! [img]eek.gif[/img]

[thepidget]

I don't typically do homemade Christmas presents since they can be so time-consuming, but I do agree that some homemade gifts can mean much more than store-bought items.

One thing that I think would be a good idea is to make homemade Christmas ornaments and decorations for people. (Like things to hang on the tree, embroidered stockings, wreaths and swags, nicely decorated Christmas cards, etc. And, best of all, some of these items will last for a long time, so they can be enjoyed every Christmas.)

There should be some sites online (including Martha Stewart's) that may provide good ideas. Last year I gave my parents several things for the holidays, including a 3-D paper ornament that I made by hand. My mom said that was her favorite gift of all. [img]wink.gif[/img]

<font color="#33CCCC" size="1">[ October 26, 2006 12:15 AM: Message edited by: pidgetgirl ]</font>

[muppetquilter]

This year I did small scrapbook/photo albums for extended family members using Shutterfly. They have codes for 20% off and free shipping with great regularity. It took some time to pick photos, upload them and all that but then I did one album, saved it under a second name and just made a few changes to personalize the albums for each family member. It was fun and not terribly time consuming. My niece and nephew are getting books with pictures from their visit this summer, my parents get pictures of the kids from the past year, my MIL's book is pictures from my niece and nephews' visit because it was the first time all the grandkids were together in one place.

My kids have made ornaments for the relatives. My oldest wrote and illustrated a holiday storybook last year-- I made copies for relatives and it was a big hit.

This year I got a set of small pots (for plants) that have paper inserts. The kids will draw pictures on the inserts and the pots will be sent with either a seed packet or an indoor bulb.

[dianasmama]

I LOVE the idea of the ornaments, myself, but I have an Aunt who would never put anything on her tree except for her own "themed" ornaments. Everything "matches" on her xmas tree. I find it kind of boring, personally, but oh well. Maybe she'll think differently now that she has grandchildren who might want to give her an ornament.

One year, my cousin made us all some kind of resin covered coasters with pictures underneath. She said they were a lot of work, but they were really cool!

This year I need to think of something little Diana can make for her aunts and grandmas, but that's easy to ship now that we're out of state. I'm thinking of the cute loopy potholders, she loves to make those, and shipping would be easy!

Laurie

ps...last year we made decopaged clipboards for her class teacher, piano and ballet teachers and her favorite aunt and uncle. Those were all a bit hit. Just get a clipboard, decopage on whatever theme you like, for my brother it was all about football. And you can decorate the clip handle with buttons and ribbons, etc. She had a lot of fun making those.

[MomofFelicityFan]

I love all the ideas you all have and I will be borrrowing them this year. Tari, I have a 16 year old son and the crazier the print on the pj bottoms the better. He has some yellow ones with all different colors of monkeys