I am not a crafty person. My parents used to make craft-y stuff when I was a kid, and they tried to include me in the family fun. But it always came to the point where someone else had to either re-do or finish my craft project to make it look halfway decent. SO, although I want to have a simpler, more homey Christmas (also less expensive), I can’t really do craft projects that take any level of artistic ability or coordination. (You should have seen my strand on the macrame plant hanger that my family made together.) The following ideas are for the rest of us, those of us whose scrapbooks look like a five year old got into the glue and pictures and whose prowess with needle and thread is nonexistent.
There are already more than 100 ideas here because many of the links contain more than one idea. However, the last thirty slots are for you. If you post about an easy, doable homemade gift idea at your blog, leave a comment with a link, and if I think I could even make a stab at completing your project or suggestion, I’ll add it to the list.
1. The Headmistress at the Common Room says you can make your own dry erase boards.
2. Change the tradition and give to others.
3. Make your own body care products.
4. Give some pumpkin pie play dough.
5. Make a felt board.
6. Frame a favorite illustration.
7. Ian’s Seven Inexpensive Christmas Gifts.
8. Ian’s 10 Simple and Inexpensive Christmas Gift Ideas.
9. Make a friend a Wordle.
10. Cards from calendars.
11. Paper toys to print and make. More paper toys.
12. Another Headmistress find: make a terrarium.
13. 10 handmade Christmas gifts.
14. Begin a genealogy notebook.
15. Cookbook with your favorite recipes.
16. Clothespin people.
17. Spend time instead of money.
18. Make your own calendar.
19. Sponsor a Compassion child.
20. Decorative canned cookies.
22. Cookies, cookies, cookies!
23. Ribbon bulletin board.
24. Decorated notebooks.
25. Homemade Christmas spice bundles.
26. Print a paper iPod cover.
27. Print a poster, any size.
28. Free business card maker.
29. Lots more printables.
30. Canned cakes baked with love.
31. Easy ribbon headband.
32. Cookie of the month club.
33. Playing card notebooks.
34. Sock puppets.
35. Stationery Box Video Tutorial.
36. Assemble a play detective kit.
37. Mason jar soap dispenser.
38. Give someone a button jar or a button picture.
39. Baked recycled crayons.
40. Give a book with a handmade ribbon bookmark.
41. Recipe scrapbook.
42. Vintage button kitchen curtains.
43. Spice boxes.
44. Photo sticker labels.
45. Remember Ramona’s tin can stilts?
46. Give lessons in something that you know and your gift recipient wants to learn: guitar lessons, Spanish lessons, knitting lessons, cooking lessons, whatever you know.
47. Fill an old trunk or suitcase with fun clothing, hats and gaudy jewelry for your children to play dress-up.
48. Heat and eat dinners.
49. Friday night at the movies bowl.
50. Family Alphabet book.
51. Best Hot Cocoa Mix.
52. Make a muffin mix.
53. Encourage-mints: a jar of encouraging quotes.
54. Read a favorite book onto CD.
55. London in a Box —or some other place in a box sent to someone who’s homesick for or fascinated by the place where you live or a place you’ve been able to visit. For Texas, I’d send some chili mix or salsa, a bag of pecans, a few post cards, maybe iced tea mix, a key ring or something else from the Texas Store.
56. Blue goo and homemade finger paint.
57. Make a field-bag from recycled clothing.
58. Tutorial for making a felt flowered pomander. I might be able to do this one although it’s stretching the limits of my crafting abilities. Anything that requires a tutorial with multiple steps —and cutting and glue—would be a stretch for me.
59. Lots of Gifts in a Jar from Organized Christmas.
60. Adult Journal Jar. I am going to make one of these for someone I know who may or may not read here. So I can’t tell you who it is, but it’s definitely going to happen.
61. Ivy’s Coloring Page Search Engine. Make a coloring book for someone you love.
62. Pony bead coasters.
63. Child’s sewing box.
64. Whole Foods: Gifts from the Kitchen with printable gift tags and recipes.
65. Printable bookmarks.
66. Book purse. Actually, I’m sure this one is way beyond my abilities, but I surely would like to have one. Hint, hint.
67. Origami mini-books. Maybe for stockings?
68. Paper patchwork notebook covers.
69. Give Poetry for Christmas by Violet Nesdoly.
70. Homemade With Love has lots of easy ideas including a hand-decorated platter, a no-sew fleece poncho, stationery, and a cup of tulip bulbs.
71. CD envelopes for those homemade mix CD’s.
72. Homemade books for gifts.
73. Making blank books from old book covers.
74. Homemade gifts for dads, sons, and sons-in-law.
75. Cardboard frisbee.
76. Altered Books. Books made into works of art! If you’re an artist or even a wannabe artist, this art form looks like something you could enjoy doing for your family or friends.
77. Melissa Wiley’s Snuggleblanket. This one is borderline, requires some sewing, but I figure some of you can handle it, even if I can’t.
78. Several good ideas for free or nearly free gifts at the blog Mom Laughs.
79. Pencil and drawing pad holder. Another one that requires a bit of sewing ability. I only wish I could sew at times like this –when I see something cute that I could make if only I had the skilz. But I don’t, and I won’t, and so if you do, make me one.
80. Homemade stickers. Looks a little messy. but fun.
81. Miss Rumphius Seed Packets. Based on the book by Barbara Cooney, what a great idea! You could give a copy of the book along with the seed packets. And for a bonus, here are some more literature based crafts.
82. An oobleck to go with Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss.
83. Bead and Button teacup.
84. Paper Bag Scrapbook.
85. Decoupage Puzzle Blocks.
86. Build a lovely wooden bench out of old chairs.
87. Pear Jam.
88. Recycled sweater dress
89. Wall-mounted magnetic spice rack.
90. Candygram. This idea is for a birthday gift, but it could be customized for any holiday gift.
91.Make your own dry erase boards—in a lovely frame.
92. A set of lovely display/storage containers.
93. Framed paper silhouettes.
C’mon, don’t be shy. Leave a comment with your favorite homemade Christmas gift idea for the craftily handicapped to give, and I’ll add it to the list. Our motto is:
People who can’t do macrame need to give Christmas gifts, too!
Hey Sherry, thanks for linking the poetry article!
And what a great idea. I’ll be posting a link to this on my blog. 🙂
These will come in VERY handy. The (then) 5-year-old helped with “Soup in a jar.” There are cookbooks with recipe ideas, but essentially, you layer the dry ingredients in a jar and type up a recipe card on the computer so that the recipient knows how to put it together and what ingredients to add.
thank you for including my field bag tutorial!
here’s another low-craft tutorial i did:
http://www.whiteoakschool.com/camp-creek-blog/2007/11/25/tutorial-cd-envelope.html
and here’s one from a crafty genius that yes, requires sewing, but also inspires a lot of great less-crafty ideas:
http://www.greenkitchen.com/blog/2008/02/kids-sweater-apron-tutorial.html
you said: The following ideas are for the rest of us, those of us whose scrapbooks look like a five year old got into the glue and pictures and whose prowess with needle and thread is nonexistent.
LOL- I am so craft-impaired. I never even started a scrapbook because I *knew* it was not my thing. I attempted to learn to crochet and instead fell asleep trying. Ugh. The only “crafty” thing I truly enjoy is making soap – but when I cut them into bars they don’t look normal.
Thanks for all these wonderful links. I’m sorry I have nothing to add.
What an abundance of great ideas! My kids make gifts for all the relatives; I’m going to ask the older two to peruse your list so they can get crafting. Thanks for compiling this.
Oh I read this JUST at the right time! I love making my house smell wonderful with mulling spices. When I linked to #25, I was in the midst of making my co-op order from our food wholesaler. Spices! Boinnnng – my brain went into alert! I added to my order and I have all my bread-and-butter gifts figured out. In my mind I’m doing handstands, flips, sky-high cheers.
This is such a blessing, since I have two grandbabies coming at Christmas: one due on Christmas Eve, and the other due Christmas Day.
Now here’s one I did years ago, to the chagrin of my oldest son. I made homemade Pan spread (equivalent of Pam) with a recipe from a camp cook: equal parts vegetable oil, Crisco, and flour. Mix with mixer. I put it in little pint jars and tied a pastry brush on top. Son: “MOTH-ER! I can’t BE-LIEVE you put grease in a jar and call it a gift!” My friends loved it, though. At least, they said they did 😉
Thanks for the link, this is an awesome list and will be checking out each and every one. I am trying to stick to a more homemade Christmas. no shortage of ideas here, Thanks for your hard work in putting this list together,
Love your list!
Here are two things I have made and given for Christmas:
– Poppycock: http://vnesdoly.blogspot.com/2004/12/gift-to-make.html
– Antipasto: http://vnesdoly.blogspot.com/2005/12/antipasto.html
Thanks for the hat tip! Your blog looks fabulous. 😉 I didn’t know you were in Houston! I’ll be there for Thanksgiving Week! 🙂 We should get together and have coffee some time. I’m meeting up with Marshie when I’m there this time. Would be neat to have a blog-coffee/tea-party in H-town.
Thanks for the link, Sherry… you’ve already sent 33 people my way with your listing at #10… glad you liked the idea. It really is for craft-impaired people – I’m just that way, too! Blessings. Katherine
I’m back to say that I’ve made 4 dozen spice sachets (#24) and have one simmering on the oven. It makes the house smell soooo good. And I’m so happy to have a token to give people to express my gratitude for their place in my life.
Thanks, Sherry, for all your work in putting this together.
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Share your heart with others on a deeper level this year through homemade, personalized gifts for everyone on your list.
During the Great Depression, everyone HAD to use their ingenuity to create gifts conveying their heartfelt love. Here’s some ideas to get you thinking. You could even make a couple of these homemade gifts for each person on your list.
I have some personalized homemade gifts on my blog this week
http://momlaughs.blogspot.com/2008/12/free-or-nearly-free-meaningful.html
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Now that is a list. It’s actually the best list that I have found yet. Most stop at 10,12,and a few 20. I’d try the recipe book idea if i was a better cook. I’ll look at it a few more times before I decide what to try. Thanks.
Great ideas for gifts and saving money in this economy.
For those who want to make simple jewelry for gifts, check out my course Jewelry Selling Secrets at http://www.kameronkay.com
Cheers and Happy Beading!
Kameron
Thanks for putting this list together! I found a lot of great ideas outside of making ornaments or cookies that I think family members would really like. Happy Holidays!
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Gourmet homemade caramel corn – with freebie labels for packaging your caramel corn. Danger: this stuff is HIGHLY addictive so store out of sight.
http://www.intimateweddings.com/blog/homemade-caramel-corn-diy-favors-and-gifts/
Awesome ideas. I will definitely need to try a few of these out. I also found this article with some great ideas for an edible DIY christmas gift.
/www.life123.com/holidays/christmas/homemade-holiday-gifts/go-nuts-for-the-holidays.shtml
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This is a great list, and I really appreciate the traffic you’ve sent my way!
I’ve also got a last minute gift idea of 3 minute microwave fudge recipe that cooks in 3 minutes, sets in about ten or fifteen, and I have a cute way to package it. And here are some other last minute gift recipes.
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If you are looking for gift ideas, there is a great place to find out about that. At outofgiftbox.com, you can find ideas about all the occasions. You will also find gifts for every age group, gender and people with different interests.
Yay!
My frisbee made number 75!
Thanks!
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ummm all these ideas sucked and most of them didnt make sense be better off buying somethng.
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