Homemade Birthday Gifts

Buy some cute juvenile fabric and make them a box of bean bags. We have a whole bucket of them (about a 3 inch square) and my kids love them. Some are Spiderman, some are Spongebob, some are bright solid colors. They can throw them in a big bowl or play catch with them. Raffi sings a song, I think it is called, Throw the Bean Bag and Catch. It is also a fun activity to do with bean bags.

We make a lot of our gifts for each other in our family. Here are some of the gifts we've made and received: burn CDs or movies, tye-dyed tshirts (personalize any shirt with iron-on printer paper of designs or photos you made on computer), the fleece tie blankets are always a favorite, dress up kit-use "real" items like clothes, watches, shoes, ties, hats, phones, cameras from goodwill, homemade playdoh kit - ingrediants & recipe for playdoh or make in advance to pack in kit (flour,salt,oil+water), cookie cutters), a science kit - ingrediants and supplies for different experiments like film canister rockets, gak, drinking straw planes (can find many ideas on internet)....hope some of these help or spark your own ideas! J.

One of the coolest things my kids got for Christmas is a snowman kit in a wooden box. It has a felt hat, scarf, and corncob pipe. The eyes, mouth and buttons are made out of wood with wooden dowels so the kids can stick them into the snowman. It would be pretty easy to make. The wooden box that holds it is the same type you could find at the dollar store and paint in a winter theme.

My kids also love dress up stuff. They play knights, Star Wars, pirates, cowboys, and WWII. Their knight stuff is all home made...chain mail vests from frozen OJ lids, swords made from wood and PVC we had in the garage, shields made out of plywood from other completed projects, and helmets spray painted silver from old milk jugs. Pirate clothing is easy to make from old pieces of material if you can sew.

Good luck! Let us know what you come up with.

M.

My sis-in-law sewed capes with the first letter of their name on the back of them. They were "super hero capes." Turned out cute.

Well, things that we have gotten that I like or thought about making are;
1. Fleece blankets (the two diff. layers that tie together)
2. Personlized toothbrushes and holders
3. Hooded towels (made with a bath towel and a hand towel folded and sewn on top for a hood)

those are the off the top of my head...I'll update if I think of anymore! And kudos to your for handcrafted gifts...our world is so materialistic lately that it scares me!
~L.

I'd go with the fleece blankets. You can get the material--almost anything you want, or there are kits. My MIL did this for my kids and they LOVE them!!!!

An apron with pockets is an easy sewing project. It can be a full or half apron. You could even find things at the $ store to fill it. Or if the boys are like my son, they would love their own tape, small notepad, pen, etc. He loves to have his own office supplies. I have made an apron and have it posted on etsy. You are more than welcome to copy it. www.lollitotshop.com I have also seen an idea for a craypron. It is the same idea, but with a lot of small pockets to put crayons in. You could also give a couple of large sheets of butcher paper for them to color on. Hope that helps.

I think photo albums are always great. fill it with pics of your nephews with all of your family members and maybe a funny story or something with each picture.