Skip to main content

Make It Yourself

As we head into December, here are ten ideas for easy handmade gifts:

Cookie Exchange: If you live close to your friends invite them over for a cookie exchange. Basically everyone bakes a set amount of their favorite cookies, and these are exchanged at the gathering by lottery, sharing a little from each batch with everyone, or however you want to do it. You can also exchange recipes, too. My neighbor did this once and it was wonderful.

Favorite Recipe Cookbook: For my favorite person I found a copy of my favorite cookbook from a vintage bookseller (yes, I am that old) and went through it making notes on all the recipes I used, how I tweaked them, etc.

Ornament: There are probably a million free tutorials on how to make your own holiday ornaments, so do some research online. I like to make hanging pomanders, which smell heavenly and are biodegradable after the holidays.

Mug Rugs: If you sew, making up a set of mug rugs is simple and easy; I add these every year to my food gift baskets. If you'd like to do something fancy, here are 22 free patterns.

Placemats: A bit bigger than mug rugs, placemats are a welcome gift for anyone with a wood dining table. Here are 60+ free patterns.

Stocking: You can buy an inexpensive Christmas stocking at a dollar store, or make one yourself, and fill it with candy, cookies, fruit, or whatever you can fit inside.

Tablecloth: You'll need to discreetly measure your recipient's dining table, but making a table cloth is pretty simple: hem all four sides of a durable fabric a few inches larger on all sides than the table top, and you're done. I used curtain fabric remnants for mine.

Themed Basket: If you have some leftover baskets, or can find some at your craft or dollar store, make your own themed gift basket. Some ideas: Movie Night (popcorn, a DVD, some sodas and a box of movie theater candy); Cozy Afternoon (a good book, pretty mug, hot chocolate mix, marshmallows and a small package of cookies); and Dear Diary (a blank journal, pretty pen, decorative tape, stickers, mixed media supplies.)

Tree Skirt: If you have time, make a skirt for someone's Christmas tree. There are plenty of tutorials online, even a few that are no-sew. It's also something people rarely give to others, so it will probably be a nice surprise.

Wreath: There are so many ways to make wreaths I won't even try to list them, but they're a fairly easy craft project. Here are 70+ ideas to inspire you.

Banner image credit: Harshahars from Pixabay

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gifts

This is a story that starts out very sadly, so if you're depressed by the holidays you might want to skip the first part. As far back as I can remember I've dreaded the holidays. Being poor, having constant family troubles and belonging to a strict religion made that time of year always pretty unhappy. I just hunkered down and hoped to get through without being yelled at or punished because I didn't do something I was expected to do, like sit in church for hours without moving or making a sound while a priest spoke mass in Latin. Gifts were uniformly disappointing, too. My mother usually gave me dolls or socks or underwear for Christmas. I understand now as an adult that she was doing the best she could, and trying to save money at the same time, but as a kid I'd been told good children got what they wanted for Christmas. I was a pretty good kid, but while my friends received new bikes and cool toys and lots of treats from Santa, I didn't. I thought San
Post a Comment
Read more

We Have Backsplash!

Yesterday my guy and I decided to chose this natural stone as the backsplash tiles for our new kitchen counters (which will be in the same quartz I'm holding at the bottom of the photo.) Since all the bids for installing the backsplash came in very high my guy is going to put it in himself; he's done a bit of tile work in the past, too. I swear there is nothing this guy can't do. :)
Post a Comment
Read more

Detoxing Results

For twenty-four hours I left these five vintage cigar boxes sit with detoxing agents (baking soda, coffee grinds, dryer sheets, vinegar and Febreze) inside them to see which worked best to remove the tobacco/storage odors that came with them. I then removed the agents and did a sniff test. Before we get into the results, a reminder: none of what I do is ever meant to be expert advice, as I am certainly not an expert at anything. Follow my methods at your own risk, and please first consult an actual antique expert conservator or restorer to detox items that have value for you. Okay, let's see how my experiment worked. Baking soda (left) did nothing to remove the odors. I think if I let it sit for a longer period of time it might have done something, but for a 24-hour test it was a complete fail. Coffee grinds (right) removed 100% of the odors, and left behind definite coffee scent. I like that and think it goes very well with wood, but if you don't like the smel
Post a Comment
Read more