Ideas for Homemade Christmas Gifts Needed

For Grandmas
Fleece pillows or Fleece blankets
Two pices of fleece, I used one patterned and one plain
Cut both in the same shaoe, I cut hearts
Place one on top of teh otehr
cut about 1-1 1/2 inches in about 1 inch wide, make a fringe
Tie the patterned end with a plain piece.
Near the end fill with stuffing.
Finish tieing

For a blanket buy two pieces fleece the same size
Cut edges and tie frnge

Candles

plain white candles
white tissue paper
stamps
stamp pads
blowdryer

Stamp the white tissue paper
cut out tissue around stamp
place on cand;e
Blow dry the candle wax until the tissue melts inot the candle

This works better with a stamp embosser.

Its summer get some berries and make freezer jam.

One year the kids and I made coaster I bought inexpensive ceramic tile. Then the kids stamped them and we baked them to set the pain. Then i took and used a spray sealer added felt to the bottom and everyone loved them so the next year we went up a size and made trivets.

Google a recipe for salt dough. You can use cookie cutters, or just your own sculpting talent, to make individual, unique gifts for family members. They can be intended for Christmas Tree ornaments or general wall hangings. You are limited only by your own imagination. You can also use this recipe to make a cast of your kids' hands or feet.

Almost every year I make MASON jar treats. One year it was brownies in a jar, another was hot cocoa mix in a jar, also cookie mix in a jar. The least expensive thing & easiest to make is caramel sauce for dipping fruit or what ever. You can also search online for jar recipies.

Here are 2 of the recipies I have used:

Caramel Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 (or more) can(s) of sweetened condensed milk

Peal off the label & place the UNOPENED can in the bottom of a very deep pot or stock pot. Cover with water so that the water is 3-4 inches above the can(s). Bring the water to a boil & boil steadily for 4 hours.
NEVER let the water get to the top of the can(s) as this could cause the can(s) to explode.
After the 4 hours is up, remove the can with tonge & place on a wire rack to cool. Be assured, the can will not explode. Refrigerate. When the can is cold open & you will have soft caramel.
It is awesome & great for dipping apples! If you like you could give them apples to go with it.

Friendship brownies/ brownies in a jar
2 ¼ c. sugar
2/3 c. cocoa powder (after this layer clean jar w/ paper towel)
½ c. chocolate chips
¼ c. nuts (pecans, walnuts, ect.) OR extra chips
1 ¼ c. flour (mixed with 1 tsp. baking powder & 1 tsp. salt)

Layer all above ingredients in order in a wide mouth 1 qt. canning jar. Pack them tightly (tap jar on counter). You may want to cut out a circle of white cardboard to place between nuts & flour mixture to keep them from sifting down.
Baking Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350.
Empty jar of brownie mix into a lg. bowl. Use hands (or a spoon) to blend thoroughly. Add 1 ½ sticks butter or margarine (melted), 4 eggs (lightly beaten) & 1 tsp. vanilla. Spread batter into a greased 13x9 inch pan. Bake for 30 min. or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely in pan & cut into 2” squares.
Makes 24 brownies.

For the brownies I make a little note saying how to mix & bake them & tie it with ribbon around the lid.

God bless!

This year I am making a Daily "thinking of you" Jar for all the women close to me in my life (moms, sisters, aunts)... it is 365 well wishes, Bible passages, and other qoutes put on small pieces of paper and folded. They reciever starts on Jan 1st and takes one "thinking of you" papers out and read it, in hopes it brings them comfort, laughter or love and just letting them know I am thinking of them year round. I have seen these online but bought a variety of cool jars from Good-Will and typing up 365 sayings on my computer to print out, then I will cut them apart, fold & put in them in the jars. I have started collection the qoutes in May, still have a ways to go, so fingers crossed I make it in time :)

Other homemade stuff I have done in the past is cookies, fudge, soap (but might be costly to start up unless you find a kit on sale in a craft store), jemlery (hard to make it look really nice), pottery... here is a website that I have gotten ideas from in the past: http://www.semicolonblog.com/?p=2846

Crochet?
I did a bunch of scarves once... for the kids.
They loved it!
Just a simple crochet stitch using the basic chain stitch one... that is all I could do!

All you need is yarn and a crochet hook.
You don't have to buy a whole lot of stuff to make a scarf.

Even cookies can be expensive... buying all the ingredients, and then how will you package it? Then buying that too etc.

For me, the LEAST expensive gifts are those that don't require buying a whole bunch of ingredients/supplies for... So, to cut costs= using stuff you already have... or turning something you have into something else....
Because even "home-made" gifts, can be expensive.... depending on the supplies needed, if you don't have it already.... and also, the QUANTITY of people you have to make it for.... it can really add up.
That is why, I did crochet scarves! Just yarn from Walmart or something, on sale, and a crochet hook! Fast and easy.

Good luck,
Susan

One year we did t-shirts with our kids pictures on them for all of the grandparents and great grandparents. They loved them. I bought a kit from Office Max where you could print a picture off onto it then iron onto the shirt. It was about $15 I think if I remember correctly, then I just looked around for some reasonably priced shirts, which I found mostly at Wal-mart and Kohl's. We still have plenty of the special paper left for more projects. You could do these for the canvas bags or aprons. I think anything with grandkid pics for grandparents, you can't go wrong!

Something else we did when we were on a tight budget was to print "coupons" that we made up. For example one said: Good for 1 housecleaning. We made a little book out of them.

One year I made ornaments for the family with my daughter's hand print on them. I bought a large red heart shaped ornament at the craft store (I think it was $1) and painted her hand with dark green acrylic paint. I pressed her hand onto the ornament and let it dry. On the back I wrote "Merry Christmas 2008, Love XXX" with a black paint pen. They were ADORABLE, and cost me about $1.25 each! I think I made 10 of them and we kept one for our tree. It's still my favorite ornament!

I crochet some gifts. This year I plan to crochet some wash cloths for my in-laws because my father in law has gone on and on about some they received as gifts years ago coming apart from use and age. One year I crocheted hunter orange toboggans for all of the men on my Christmas List.

My father in law has made up picture albums of our kids and given them to us for a Christmas Present.

I have recieved home canned goods as Christmas Presents from both my in-laws and, when I worked before kids, from my co-workers.

Here is some ideas:

http://familycrafts.about.com/od/giftstomake/tp/HomeMadeG...

http://www.budget101.com/christmas.htm

those cookies/brownies in a jar are always fun! get a big clear jar, layer all the dry ingredients so it looks nice, add ribbons/fabric over top of the lid to look festive. Add a cute card with the baking instructions... super easy to make, fairly inexpensive, and hey, who doesn't like cookies?

Make Brownies in a Jar! I did one Christmas and everyone LOVED them!! Look up recipes on allrecipes.com, cooks.com, or recipezaar.com.

Print cute labels for the wet ingredients, and put the dry in Mason jars. If you have some fabric, cut it into squares or circles bigger than the seal so it hangs over and put some raffia or ribbon around the top and Voila!

I have two "Gifts in a Bag" books: one for Dips, one for Hot Drinks. I also have "Gifts in a Jar: One Dish Meals." PM me if you want a few recipes.

Baked goods are really nice. I have a friend who gives me fudge every year. And every year, I look forward to that special treat. Think of something you can make and then freeze, or the opposite freeze and than bake.

I've made scrapbooks for close friends and family. They seemed to enjoy them.

check out marthastewart.com There are some great ideas on that site in all kinds of price ranges. And many of them have wiggle room so you can personalize it your own way.

Hi,

If you are talking about gifts to give others, you could always purchase some of the jelly jars and fill them with the dry ingredients for cookies or homemade hot chocolate along with the recipe for the remaining ingredients to add (eggs, butter, etc.) put a nice cloth cover on top and it makes a really thoughtful gift. If you are thinking about something for your spouse, what about a photo album of both of you and your child in a kind of "Through the years" theme. You could buy an inexpensive photo album and use photos that you already have and write little captions under each photos. You could also do that for other family members.

I hope these ideas have helped!

All the best to you and your family.

I would check out the websites for Family Fun Magazine, Better Homes & Garden and Martha Stewart for inspiration.

I have a in-home day care and we make hand print ornaments for our parents each year. Very inexpensive, less than $1 a ornament if you buy the bulbs at Target, Walmart or Kmart. Here is a link to the directions.

http://outsidetheblue.wordpress.com/2008/12/07/snowmen-or...

Renee

"Foamies" are really trendy right now. At any craft store you can find foam stickers, foam paper, foam magnetic picture frames, foam bookmarks, doorhangers, etc. Whatever you choose, also buy stickers to personalize and decorate them. The foam picture frames are great. Put a cute picture of the kids in it and decorate the frame part with adhesive rhinetone studs found at craft stores.

Use cookie cutters to trace patterns onto the foam paper, cut them out, decorate them with the adhesive rhinestone studs or any kind of stickers really, and put a 3M adhesive magnet on the back for great fridge magnet gifts. Or use a hole puncher to punch a hole in the top, put a ribbon through it and you have an ornament. Use a cookie cutter snowman and trace it onto the foam paper, cut out and glue your child's picture onto the face of the snowman, then cut out and glue on a black top hat. Punch a hole through the top hat, add ribbon and you have another kind of ornament!

Help your child to make their handprint on 8 x 10 paper in primary colors with their name and age and frame it in a dollar store frame.

Craft stores also sell clay handprint kits that come with ribbon to turn them into ornaments.

Cool I love this idea.
1. Do the 12 days of Christmas in a Christmas tree pattern. If you can purhase a cheap frame that would be great. I would purchase the frame first so you know before hand the size.
2. get those little paper mache boxes at Michael's. One year I made 22 separte containers. Each with a beautiful Christmas scene. The boxes I think are $1 ea.
3. I get the polymer clay and have made pins. My favorite was when I made gingerbread men pins the kids teachers loved them.

if you can, photographs are a great way to go. buy some special frames, you can do really well at someplace like marshalls or tj maxx or kohls (sale now, i just got a bunch yesterday) and make up something really thoughtful.

Here's a pretty cheap and cute gift. I plan to make them for teachers and friends this year. Some $1 stores carry the items, or check walmart, garage sales etc... Glass cake plate, or desert plate.

Get a fancy or plain clear glass plate. I usually get the desert size and a glass sundae cup or thick clear short candle stick. Glue the two together with glass glue. You can give it as is, or add a desert to it. This year I'm getting even more creative and adding fun stuff to the inside (such as red/green/white balls) for a little pop before I glue them.

Good luck.

Personally, as a giver and a reciever, baked goods are always well recieved, and those layered "gift in a jar" things are neat too. This year, we had a garden, and we are canning tomatos and sauce, and plan an making some tomato jam or relish too, and will be giving some as gifts.

I work with polymer clay, and make ornaments and nativity sets, and they can all be personalized with names, etc, or made in the shape of a figure the reciever likes - I made an Elmo on a sled for my daughter last year, and personalized it with her name and the date. If you enjoyed working with modeling clay or play dough as a kid, it would be a fun hobby for you.

Hand print ornaments from the kids are always a hit with the grandparetns and some aunts and uncles.

Personalized picture frames with pictures of the kdis or the whole family will be nice for relatives, too.

Have you seen the loom knitters, like Knifty Knitter? You can make quick and easy shawls, lap blankets , scarves ( even those magice tube scarves) and wash cloths and hot pads, hats for babies all the way up to adults. If you want patterns for free, I have a bunch i could scan for you, just private message me.

scented bath salts or home made beauty treatments would be good, like a body scrub etc. - just like th egift in a jar thing, you cna find recipes for these things on the internet, just search "home made beauty treatments" or variations thereof.

Good Luck!

Jessie

What do you like to do that is crafty?

I second the mason jar treats -- they are pretty, useful, and yummy. I love homemade food goodies. I made homemade peppermint patties one year for my dad & he loved them. I can send you the recipe if you're interested.

You can also do something like a "soup of the month" (soup is good because you can make a really big batch and divvy it up amongst several recipients; or bread of month, etc.) -- present the gift recipient with the first "month's gift" and a certificate or set of coupons.

For DH, I give him a set of coupons good for things like a foot massage, his choice of dessert, coupon for lasagna (he loves it) or homemade gyros, etc.

If you knit or crochet, knitting a light shawl or wrap for the fashion conscious girls is appreciated, or knitting warm hats/scarves/mittens for the boys.

We don't get to see family as much as we'd like to, so we sometimes give "event coupons" for the younger nieces/nephews. For example, my one nephew is train-crazy, and we gave him a homemade gift certificate for a day trip to Entertrainment (a train "fun park" near Cinci), and when the weather got warmer in the spring, we took him and paid his way (we saved money by packing our lunch, picnic style, with - mostly - his choice of foods).

If you get adventurous, you can make soap or lotion or or tub teas or lip balm or bath bombs (tub teas, lip balm & bath bombs are probably the easiest, in that order).

If you already have scrapbooking/stamping supplies you could make cards - birthday, thinking of you, congratulations, etc. My mom loves to get these kinds of gifts so she has nice cards to give throughout the year.