How to Create Simple Homemade Gifts

Giving a gift is a nice way to show someone you are thinking of them whether it is in celebration of a special occasion or just because. Simple homemade gifts can be a thoughtful way to extend your love, are easily personalized, can be economical, and can be environmentally friendly when you use recycled materials.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Craft or baking materials, photos, etc. depending on your gift.
• Time

1. You don't have to be able to paint of draw to create simple homemade gifts of artwork. Purchase a shaped paper punch from the scrapbook department of your local craft store and punch out several pieces from scrapbook paper, magazine covers, old book pages, old sheet music, or whatever your heart desires. Arrange the punched shapes so it is visually pleasing on a plain or printed paper background of your choice and attach them with glue dots. Frame and mat it to complete your work of art. You can use favorite colors of the recipient and shapes of things the recipient likes as a special touch.

2. If you take a lot of photos search through them and find one your recipient might enjoy. It can be a landscape, a portrait of someone they love, or another subject. Have a copy printed in an enlarged size and frame it. Or take several photos and arrange them into a photo collage on a piece of acid free card stock.

3. If you have several weeks before your gift giving occasion take your camera and go hunting for letters of the alphabet. Snap photos of letters on signs that you see, letters in graffiti, letters you make out in nature (a tree branch that looks like a V for example), letters you make out in architecture, whatever catches your eyes for letters or things that resemble letters. You can use these letter photos to then make a collage of the person's name. Each letter will be unique making an interesting visual effect. Try to see if you can do a theme and have the whole name all in sign letters or all in nature letters, etc. Place each photo on an acid free background to spell out the desired name, find a suitable frame, and voila you have a one of a kind, personalized gift.

4. For a fun and simple homemade gift for a teenage girl purchase several plain, unfinished wooden bangles and decorate them. You can use paint, fibers, permanent markers, crafting wire, rubber stamps, decoupage, and whatever else you can imagine to create one of a kind bangles. The possibilities are endless.

5. It's an old idea but a goodie. Make a mixed compact disc of songs you know the recipient would enjoy and create a personalized album cover by hand or on your computer.

6. Use unlined index cards, staple them together into a little book or punch holes in them and attach them with O-rings or ribbon. Now you can make the book into a personalized coupon book, a book of reasons of why you love/like this person, a book of special quotes, a book of memories, a mini-scrapbook, or a book of poems. Decorate it or illustrate it as you feel fit.

7. Put your baking skills to good use. If you like to bake put together a platter of cookies, a pie, a cake, a tin of candies, a plate of assorted breads, or whatever your specialty is. Baked goods make nice and simple homemade gifts for both sexes and people of all ages. Homemade jam or homemade drink mixes make a nice compliment to the baked goods. Kick the gift up a notch and include hand written recipes for some of the items you are giving.

8. Young children love to draw and color. If you have old broken crayons sitting around the house you can turn them into new, multi-colored crayons that make a fun gift. There are several different methods for making these. A search online for crayon cookies or recycled crayons will produce several results. Find the best method for you. One basic method is to remove all of the crayon wrappers from the broken bits of crayons. Place the broken crayon pieces into muffin wrappers in a muffin tin. Place the tin in an oven heated between 300 and 400 F and keep a close eye on them. After the crayons have melted carefully remove them from the oven and let them cool in the tin. They will harden as they cool and form new round crayons. Once they are completely cool you can remove them from the tin. Remove them from the muffin wrappers and place them in a plastic or organza bag tied with a ribbon. Include some construction paper, printer paper, or free coloring pages printed from your computer to complete the gift.

9. If you know an avid reader you can create original bookmarks or bookplates for them. This can be done in several different ways by hand, or on your computer. You can make them as fancy or as plain as you'd like. Almost any paper crafting items you have on hand can be used for embellishing bookmarks. Just be sure to start with acid free card stock or chipboard bookmark blanks so they will be sturdy. Remember to keep them from being too thick so they won't damage the book. To make bookplates purchase blank printable sticker sheets from your local office supply store or craft store and use permanent markers or print them out on the computer.

10. Bath salts are an easy gift to make and seem luxurious to the gift recipient. It can be as simple to make as picking up some Epsom salts at your local drugstore and some skin safe fragrance oils from your local craft store. Follow the safe usage rates printed on the fragrance oil labels to scent the salt. Use the low end of the usage rates for lightly scented salts and the high end of the safe usage rate for strongly scented salts. Mix the fragrance in thoroughly. Lay the salts spread out somewhere to dry such as on a cookie sheet. After the salts are dry package them in an organza bag, a new Chinese takeout box, or a nice plastic jar. To make specialty bath salts such as bath salts from Dead Sea salt and essential oils research online for further instructions and materials.

11. Think creatively. There are so many things that you can create that will make lovely gifts. The ideas listed here are only a small sampling of what you can do. By putting some thought into it you will be able to come up with your own ideas for simple homemade gifts.

Tips & Warnings

• Look for inspiration in magazines, online, and when you're out shopping.
• Give yourself plenty of time to make your simple homemade gifts. Even though they are simple if you rush they won't turn out nearly as nice and you are more apt to make a mistake.
• Always have extra materials on hand. You may need more than you think if you run into a glitch.
• Involve your children in making the gifts and encourage them to make their own gifts for people.
• Make homemade gift wrap to keep with the theme of homemade gifts. Use brown or white kraft paper and decorate it, or wrap smell gifts with fancy scrapbook paper.
• Check out books from your local library or search out crafting or cooking websites to find instructions for more homemade gift ideas.
• Homemade gifts don't have to be limited to food, art, and crafts. You can grow plants or flowers for people. Use your computer skills to make them a website. Build them an end table. Make them a recording of your original music. Make a recording of you reading a story or telling one. Write them a song. Do what you do best.
• If you have any special skills or talents such as baking, sewing, knitting, painting, woodworking, writing, or crafting put them to good use for making gifts.
• Use care and proper safety measures anytime you use sharp objects, or while using the oven to melt or bake things in.
• Protect all surfaces from any materials that may stain or burn them.
• Supervise children if they help you or create their own gifts.