Homemade Gifts

champys

G-G wrote: »

Woo - I love homemade gifts, no-one ever gives them to me tho..

Likewise! Only my cousin in Switzerland sends me a fabulous home-made Christmas card each year, which is something I still want to learn how to do....

meanmarie

I think that homemade gifts are really lovely and have just got some good ideas here. I think that it is lovely to get something that someone has put time and effort into making...I have been doing fluffy scarves for a couple of years and they have been much appreciated...have also baked and made hats and, if I remember in time I do some plant cuttings in the summer and pass them on in a painted pot at Christmas...plan on sowing some lemon, lime pips soon to have slightly more exotic looking plants than fuchsia for Christmas.

Marie

FZwanab

I made some of nigella's fudge and some shortbread cookies as gifts and they went down a treat although some said with their expanding waistlines they shouldn't be eating them, but ate them anyway!! ( I think I would use milk choc as opposed to the 70% cocoa next time as it was very rich)

princesspoppypop

Hi everyone,

For years I have totally over spent on totally commercialised gifts, people forget these things too quickly.

So now Im really into making homemade gifts.

I love visiting small country villages that have handcrafted housey bits then trying to copy the things I have seen.

So far Im in the middle of making my Mum a skinny scarf out of Sirdar Firefly wool. Its looking really good. ( For Mothers Day)

Im going to have a go at making my Mum and Sis some jewellery- although buying the wire clippers is looking expensive.

Also Im working on patchwork cushion covers - I cut up a duvet cover that I didnt like and am stiching hexagonal shapes of the material together.

Then... Im going to make some scented heart shaped pomanders/door hangers and attach gingham ribbon onto these to hang then up.

Im sooo excited about my projects.

I used to go to a open house craft party where the lady set up a table in the dining room and displayed her hand crafted goods. It was brilliant.

She would do one at Easter and one at Xmas and sold loads of stuff cos she didnt massively over price things like most smaller shops do.

mrs-moneypenny

i belong to a book forum and we did a christmas card exchange (where we each sent 5 cards off) i made bookmarks and popped inside the cards, they went down really well. everyone who recieved one was impressed with it.

they only cost pennies to make as id picked the silks adia fabric and backing felts up at the card boot during the summer.
christmas before this one i knited a mr bean teddy for our youngest, he loves it and knitted about 5 scarves as gifts they went down well



I agree you have to be careful who you give hm gifts to i spent an age on what i thought was a beautiful cross stitch picture, and its never been seen since. I regularly go round the relatives house who i made it for.

mary43

Princesspoppypop..............wish we had somewhere round here that taught craft stuff. We've got a card craft shop that has a class in cardmaking every week but at £7 a time I can do without that. I always make my own anyway and they might not be as good as some but it gives me pleasure making them.
Not very good at cakes and things.............if I'm honest I'm rubbish at that sort of thing. I've done pressed leaf/flower pictures in the past and made up baskets of dried herbs wrapped in gingham bags.
I can do water colours...........well sort of........and did some of those one christmas then got out of the habit of it. Must try this year and be a bit creative with some of my presents. I've bought quite a few already from the charity shops to keep the cost down and I could always add something I've made myself to the baskets............it's having an idea what to do that becomes the problem. I can't knit because of problems I had with my wrists and not the best at sewing either.
I'll have to keep watching for ideas.

princesspoppypop

Hi Mary,

I live in Co Durham and we have a craft shop that does demonstrations in jewellery making and card crafts, but to be honest I usually watch QVC and Ideal World for card ideas. Although I do prefer making up my own unique designs. I recently bought a craft mag and it had 2 free decoupage sheets with it. Ive made two beautiful cards, which Im putting away for Mothers day for my Mum and my boyfriends Mum. I paid £2.99 for mag and was going to try decoupage but found the kits expensive, a simple sheet in Boyes was £3.99. I figure Ive got a bargain there as Ive had a go at decoupage with the free sheets and made some lovely cards (which for a simple Mothers Day card in the shops is at least £1 for something nice) Plus Ive got the mag crammed full of projects to make.

Mellika

NickiM wrote: »

Sorry, not read all of this, but I sometimes make montages/collages for friends with photos, glitter, nice bits of fabric, quotes and things and put them in a nice frame

Just wanted to say, I do this too, and it always goes down really well - even with my SIL+family who are very stuck-up and materialistic (and loaded!)

Steve-o

Queenie wrote: »

Another thing I have done in tighter times when I really haven't had the money - is to turn to humour! My brother in law got a "Belly Button Blowdryer" (a straw with poem stuck to a card). Another male friend got "Essex Boy Home Made Bubble Bath" (a tin of baked beans with my own design label stuck over the top of the original with clipart added).

I'm afraid that I'm going to steal those two ideas, and not even credit you as the inventor to the recipients. :rotfl:

I hate throwing away boxes that things come in, and when I read that section I remembered that I have a plain box that is the perfect size for a straw. With some printed out cover art to make a sleeve, it'll be the perfect gift for my friend in Aus. Thanks!

apinnyon

I made my female friends and relatives fabric corsages like these http://blairpeter.typepad.com/weblog/2006/05/simple_corsage_.html
last year. I used fabric from my scrap bag and some I bought from ebay. I tried to use colours that would match clothing / bags they had. They went down really well as they are fashionable at the moment. I've been getting requests to make them for people all year.