This year we're giving simple gifts so that we have more time to actually spend with people. And the gifts we're DIYing? They're all easy, simple and practical.
1. An herb garden or succulent arrangement: Herbs will keep your friend's kitchen filled with life while a succulent arrangement is perfect for a table centerpiece or a nice hello at the door.
2. A Pamper Basket: fill a basket or a bag with homemade body scrubs and soaks in pretty weck canning jars (available at Heath Ceramics). Or just buy some nice things for the bath and call it a day.
3. Personalized Stationery: A couple of years back we bought some Crane notecards and simply printed out some personalized cards to give our friend Jamie. We kept it simple and just had each card read" Un Petit Mot de Jamie" or "Merci" or "Hello". She loved it and we were proud of our simple achievement without coss or time getting out of control.
4. Coupons for Labor or Favors: This year we (well, I) discussed with my mom that I didn't feel that I should give her any more stuff (since my gramma died mom absorbed a lot of the things from gramma's house that we couldn't let go of) and that instead I would help her either finish a project or get rid of something for the next couple of christmas's and birthdays. I could make it more official with a coupon book.
5. Something for the Table: If you're any good at sewing, find some great fabric and make a simple tablecloth or some of these coasters. Add in some DIY linen spray for when the tablecloth needs to get ironed!
What DIY Gifts are you giving this year? Anything that's mainly practical?
(Images: oo Irene oo from LA Flickr Pool, Thomas J Story for Sunset Magazine, Crane Paper, BEst DIY Coasters)
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The DIY herb garden is genius.
fabric coupons for a dedicated quilter; vegetable seeds and a spade for the avid gardener (this would be the gift that keeps on giving!). I love the idea of labor coupons so I'll give "Free Babysitting" coupons.
My friends and I had a DIY holiday party yesterday. We made slipper socks, pepper jelly, sugar scrub, and tile picture coasters. The coasters were the biggest hit. There is a company in town who sells coaster tiles with images of local hot spots' signs on them at local festivals for $13 a coaster (crazy I know). I took pictures of some of those same places- Fox Theatre, the Varsity, the Big Chicken, Clermont Lounge etc.. and we decopaged them to the 32 cent tiles then sprayed waterproofing spray over it. Looks the same and cost about 40 cents a coaster.
I like to give food baskets with items I make from either items I grow on my little balcony or concocted in the kitchen. Tomato sauce, pesto sauce, cookie mixture, candied pecans, pomanders, etc.
Love the herb basket!
We're making sets of cloth napkins for people. They're easy, pretty, and environmentally friendly.
I'm sewing a Christmas stocking for my honey (trying to do a modernish-looking crazy quilt in green and red--that's the plan, anyway!) And it looks like I'm going to sew a bag for my father to hang on his walker for his stuff.
Eh I made salt scrub for people one year. It all ended up stuck in the jars in a calcified sticky mess. Sometimes crafts are evil.
Canoe in Portland also has the Weck jars. https://www.canoeonline.net/shop/index.php?id=2108
I make a small recipe book with my favourite recipes for my mum.
Made a batch of great soup and bottled it up in canning jars with a tie of raffia and a custom label on the top. Just about enough for two bowls.
Notecards are a great idea! I'm smitten with the herb basket, might have to put together some of those in the future.
This year we're giving homemade preserves, soap, truffles, and knit goods - shhh, don't tell.
i found a great piece of vintage toile and i'm making pillows for my close friend.
Herb basket is a lovely idea.
i'm making these for a few of my girl friends: http://www.purlbee.com/daisy-stitch-hand-warmers/
you are ALL such good guys. very inspiring.
thanks for posting my basket!!
you can see my flickr's page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/glaukopis//
or read my blog:
http://viviralaitaliana.blogspot.com/
:)
irenita_glaukopis: The herb basket is terrific! What is rolled up in the white rolls?
My family has a deal that presents are not to be a big deal or stressful so a lot of us craft. One year, I made sleep pants for everyone, my brother and his kids made wine charms, my sister made cloth napkins (dead simple, take little fabric so you can afford to splash out on something luxe--she got heavy cotton with crewel embroidery on it...beautiful!), my sister and brother in law made trivets out of tiles they'd bought on holiday in Portugal (one tile on a piece of cedar). Last year, our other sister gave everyone a food gift (many she'd made)and an item to go with, made by her husband the woodturner--I got steel-cut oats with a wooden "spurtle" a special stir stick for oats.
...and we've done bath bombs, homemade soaps, homemade chocolates, card and envelope sets with photos on front, homemade ornaments (large glass balls, sprinkle in sparkles, package with strips of beautiful Japanese paper, and a couple of metallic markers and add instructions for each family member to write a wish on their strip of paper, and put it in the ornament...or they could write a favourite memory). My brother did an ornament filled with bits of printed out family pix, cut up, words on paper etc--as you shook the ball, you got different family "moments" from the year past.
@ keira: it's paper! ;) you can read it starting from here step by step:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/glaukopis/4159774648/in/set-72157622814343241/
I forgot to tell you all about my other blog -in english-
http://irene-out-there.blogspot.com/
thanks for passing by!
I'm making some Children's CD's from original vintage 60's era LP's, 2 of them I did already about 2 years or so ago, just replicating for a 2 YO great nephew and 2 new ones I did this fall for the sone of good friends whom I am his "borrowed" uncle (and a funny one at that), one I've had, the other I had to find, which I did last summer to replace a copy I've had for years that's trashed and the cover missing. Both in near mint condition as far as the LP goes, covers have some wear on the edges however.
I may be putting together a gift basket of some kind for my oldest sister and if I had a sewing machine handy that isn't at my Mom's I might've made aprons. Oh well.
And I should add that I may give out a photograph or two, printed up and framed but we'll see. I might work on a musical my middle sister did in HS that was unusually well done when they did a great production of an old Buxley Berkley production, No, No, Nannette where my sister was one of the leads that my Dad recorded onto reel to reel, it's all on the PC, needs processing and then put to CD but I have the EQ curve figured out more or less so doing it should not be an issue. Time will tell what/how far I get w/ all these projects as the big day barrels down on us. :-)
I think I might make my SIL some reusable sandwich wraps...
This year my mom made CDs for each of her children filled with scanned pictures from our childhoods all the way up to the present day (some she pulled from Facebook). She had put it together as a slideshow. We all laughed so hard watching them, we nearly cried. There was a picture of my older brother holding me (as a tiny baby) upside down by the ankles, like a hunting trophy. There were pictures of my little brother eating yogurt in the bathtub or on the potty chair. It was hilarious and our spouses got a big kick out of it, too.
It struck me as something that would be a great gift for an old friend as well-- I have some really hilarious pictures of my friends from high school, and back then we were using 35mm cameras, so we don't have copies of each others pics.