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Gift Ideas ... the GROWING LIST ...add your ideas/instructions here!

48K views 138 replies 90 participants last post by  Xenia V 
#1 ·
Gift Ideas - A List ...
I put this together with the last two years of being online...I'm sure I could add more to it by now, since I haven't added to it since last holiday season, so feel free to add your ideas!!!


1. Candles- Make candles and or buy candles and decorate them with dried flowers, using melted parafen wax to make them stick!
2. Create a cookbook with your favorite recipes and recipes you've collected online
3. Cookies, Jams, Breads, etc
4. Jelly, Applesauce, Salsa, Herb Vinegar, Oils
5. Lavender dream pillows
6. Calender with pics of your family and or friends
7. Bath Salts, tub tea etc.
8. Homemade soaps FUN to make
9. Build a puppet stage and make puppets
10. Build a simple dollhouse
11. Make fleece throws
12. Pillows and blankets for living room
13. Dolls for children are fun to make! Free instructions online
14. Basket, stuffed with a strand of white lights inside, put dried flowers and eucalyptus out the top of the basket and a simple fabric bow at top
15. Make Paper, or buy pretty paper and make envelopes, creating a stationary set!
16. Photos in decorated frames make great gifts
17. Brownies or Cookies in a jar! Layered
18. Quillow (quilt that folds into a small pocket and becomes a pillow)
19. Scarves, hats
20. Paint flower pots, give them as gifts with some seeds and a trowel for children
21. Placemats and napkins from cloth
22. Weave a basket!
23. Bead jewelry
24. Buy a wooden rack/tray/decoration from the craft store, and paint it, decorate it, get creative!
25. Take some shells and fill them with wax and candle wicks, viola...candles by the shore!
26. Bath kit or massage kits
27. Liquors
28. Bath Bombs
29. Caligraphy (frame a saying, poem, or song)
30. Personalize a journal. Buy a blank book for $3 at the bookstore and insert old postcards, pictures, sayings, poems, whatever! Make it special!
31. Learning boards -you could make a montessori style board set for very cheap that teaches how to do buttons, zippers, velcro, snaps etc. You just cut these things off of old clothing and either sew them together onto a fabric cube, stuffed with poly fill, or tack them onto small boards with furniture tacks. You could paint the backs with numbers, letters etc.
32. Doll slings are still kind of fun in cool prints!
33. Or treasure sacks in some print the boys will like with little inexpensive gifts such as coloring books, clay, etc.
34. You can give a child age 3-7 a homemade clay set with the ingredients needed, instructions, and a tool or two to use with it. Then the child can make their own clay, then play with it!
35. A dress up / magic box is a decorated box with homemade simple costumes (a cape, a silly hat, glasses etc). You could put together a theme of some sort and give it as a gift
36. Make a photo album alphabet style book for a child.
Make a simple book with paper and string or buy one premade and write a letter on each page in lower case. Then glue photos of real life objects from THEIR lives that they know to help with the phonic connection!
You can use puffy paint or felt for the letters to give them a texture for learning purposes.
 
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#102 ·
I thought I'd add to the list a few things I'm doing this year as gifts:

Cloth Grocery Bags. I have over 60 of them sitting on my kitchen table waiting to get handles attached. If I had it to do over I'd redesign it so that the handles are done differently. Too late now! Anyway, after I get done sewing them we intend to tye dye the bags and then make a little pouch that will fit 5 cloth bags per pouch. These gifts are going to extended families.

Sock Monkey My girls are getting one each in their stocking this year.

Kitchen Play Things We are doing a kitchen theme for my eldest daughter and I plan on making her food from felt. As well as an apron and mittens.

Kimono Shirts All you need is one yard of fabric and 2 yards of that binding tape. (it's late... what is that stuff called?)

Dust Mop. I saw this linked somewhere else in MDC and thought it would make great gifts for my mom, sisters, and grandma. Plus it's just a simple perl/knit pattern. Even *I* could do it.


I have a few other things that I'm doing. Okay, who'm I kidding. A LOT of other things. But it's late and my typing is bothering the baby.
 
#103 ·
havent yet read the whole thread, but saw this awesome idea the other day and thought i'd share it here too
how about creating a little softie and making a blog from someplace like blogger (or giving them a paper journal to keep with it) and encourage them to take this little guy with them throughout the next year, and record his travels and adventures
 
#104 ·
I saw this cute idea last year at a craft fair, it was a cloth book if you will that had to felt paper dolls , think slightly padded ginger bread boy and girl and then a whole bunch of felt clothes to "dress" them in. It was so darling and should be fairly easy to make. I am hopeing to make a set for for my almost 2 yr old!
 
#105 ·
I am going to make my daughter and nephews no-sew fleece blankets since they have all outgrown their baby blankies at this point.

I am also going to make my mother one of the rice pillows mentioned in this thread and some handmade greeting cards.

And now I am going to subscribe to this thread for more great ideas!
 
#106 ·
First of all KOODO'S on three years for one thread. Second I am going to make everyone rice/corn hot/cold pads. Should be fairly simple and cheap. Corn and rice don't cost much. And sheesh all grown ups have pains right. For the kids and our cold house I will be making fleece slippers. Won't cost a dime since I have oodles and oodles of fleece.
 
#107 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by gnysgrl View Post
For the kids and our cold house I will be making fleece slippers. Won't cost a dime since I have oodles and oodles of fleece.

Oooohhh....fleece slippers. They sound heavenly. Do tell!


Also,
to MDC!
 
#109 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by gnysgrl View Post
Thanx for the welcome.

I am going to use this pattern for fleece socks that I found online.
http://216.25.11.234/familyphotos/se...ecebooties.pdf
It is a PDF but it has sizes from infant to adult.
I actually had a request from my 13 y/o son for some warm slippers.
Ask and ye shall receive.
thanks for the link! What a great idea for all the fleece I have lying around!
 
#112 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by gnysgrl View Post
Here is another idea. Shot glass candles. Shot glasses or other glasses can be used and can be found at thrift stores fairly cheap. Here is a link on how to do it for those of us that do not know how.
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Shot-Glass-Candles
What a great idea! Let's see I can make this for my brother and sister-in-law for their bar, and all of my brothers.

Thank you for posting this. You have helped me figure out a big chunk of my list!
 
#115 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Jennisee View Post
This isn't nearly as crafty as other people's suggestions, but you can Tivo TV shows, miniseries, etc. and then burn to DVD. It requires some planning, but you can give someone an entire season of their favorite TV show with the commercials edited out.

My brother Tivo'ed the "Into The West" miniseries for me, and we're going to give it to my dad for Christmas. We're actually going to have to copy them to VHS, and I'd like to put all the tapes in a decorative box. Maybe I could even make a themed gift out of it--add a jar of home-canned baked beans, some homemade jerky, a homemade hand salve (and call it something like Cowboy Salve :LOL ), and a bandana-type handkerchief.
I did something like this for my dad last year. They don't have cable or satellite and he is always bummed in winter when it gets dark so early and he can't go out and putter all evening. So I taped all kinds of shows that I knew my dad would like. Then I made him all sorts of snacks too. He really liked it and I'm going to do the same thing this year. I am also going to make him some bath stuff because when he does come in from plowing the driveway or working outside he likes to soak to warm up.
 
#116 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Fairy4tmama View Post
Any one have tips on sending holiday baked goods in the mail I want to make some cookies, brownies and gingerbreads to send to relatives back east, how should I package it? Do some things ship better than others?
Breads (banana, cranberry, etc) frozen, then shipped work much better than cookies. Gingersnaps may ship well.My experience is that cookies often arrive stale, where bread comes tasty
 
#117 ·
Thanks mamas for all these awesome ideas!! I am so excited abt making some very cool stuff this year.
Here's some things I have to add:
Chocolate Cherry scrub (from wholesale supplies plus):
1 c brown sugar
1/4 c apricot oil
1T honey
20 to 25 drops choolate cherry fragrance oil
Mix all ingredients and spoon into desired container
Makes 8 oz
Sounds yummy doesn't it??

Muslin tea bath bags:
put herbal teas in a small muslim bag, steep in your hot bath, very relaxing

Solid perfume:
1 oz beeswax granules
8 oz petroleum jelly
1 T fragrance oil of your choice (I'm using some called birthday cake!)
Mix together, pour into small pots

Basic lip balm:
2 tsp beeswax granules
1 tsp refined cocoa butter
1 T sweet almond oil
3 drops vit E oil
1 tsp petroleum jelly
1 drop flavor oil of choice ( i'm using bubblegum)

Melt the beeswax granules and sweet almond oil in micro on low heat. Stir in cocoa butter, vit E oil and petr. jelly until melted. Add flavor oil, then pour into lip containers.

I'm also making some soaps, some lavender rice bags. I'm knitting my mom an eyeglass case and zippered pouch for her purse ( got the idea from Martha Stewarts holiday issue). Making the kids each a no sew fleece blanket according to their interests. Oldest dd is getting an elvis theme. Her blanket is buttery yellow, and I'm sewing on some elvis ribbon I found and some elvis patches. DD 2 will probably get a princessy one, and my boy will prob get one with cars or trucks all over it. I got some pretty canvas with an english looking old fashioned little girl playing print on it, and sewed up my niece a simple purse (she's 3). I had some cowboy cordoroy material left over from something, and I made my nephew an adorable set of 4 bean bags. Very simple to do. I'm knitting my son some bean bags, and they are super soft, but they take a bit longer than using material.

Thats all for now, I love this thread!
 
#119 ·
I did memory boards for my nieces last year (ages 5-15). They turned out great -- I wish I would have taken photos. They were easy and fun to make. If anyone wants a how-to, pm me.

This year I am doing hearth baskets (with firestarter pinecones, pinecones that turn the fire flames all different colors, fatwood, and matches) and
homemade Irish cream.
 
#120 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Scout View Post
I did memory boards for my nieces last year (ages 5-15). They turned out great -- I wish I would have taken photos. They were easy and fun to make. If anyone wants a how-to, pm me.

This year I am doing hearth baskets (with firestarter pinecones, pinecones that turn the fire flames all different colors, fatwood, and matches) and
homemade Irish cream.
Recipe for the Irish Cream please

What's a memory board?
 
#122 ·
Homemade Irish cream
14 oz. Irish whiskey
14 oz. Eagle sweetened condensed milk
1 C. (1/2 pint) whipping cream
4 eggs
2 Tbs. chocolate syrup
2 tsp. instant coffee
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. almond

Combine all ingredients in a blender. Consume within 7 days (that hasn't ever really been a problem here!).

Enjoy!
 
#123 ·
My son came up with this idea for "I Spy" fanatics. He made a collage with shells, buttons, sequins, tissue, foam shapes, pasta, etc. The collage was done on a self-adhesive rectangle so when he was done he sprinkled every remaining sticky part with glitter. Then he and I sat down and made up rhyming verses to go with the board he had made. He was very thrilled with the results.
 
#126 ·
I am making a batik silk scarf for my newest SIL using this technique I saw on TV:

http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/cr_lin...229339,00.html

I have a big ol' playsilk, undyed, that I was given and my son doesn't have any interest in. So I will dye that. She is a ladybug maniac, so I will make the ladybug pattern either w/a cookie cutter or w/2 biscuit cutters bent to shape. And then dye red, w/a stash of Koolaid I found on crazy sale (like 5 cents a packet at the salvage store). So, a gorgeous gift plus it will cost less than a quarter to make!
 
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