I believe a homemade gift is a great way to let someone
know you put time and thought and love into them personally. Anyone can make
homemade gifts. It can be something as simple as a few items bought and put into
a pretty decorated container or more complex such as sewing, crocheting or
knitting a special item for them. Gifts from the kitchen are always appreciated
and often a very frugal option.
If you are short on ideas this year perhaps some of the following gifts will
help spark your own creativity.
Homemade Bookmarks and a Book: You can make
bookmarks on your computer using a program such as Word or Works. Set the paper
to “landscape” and use text boxes or tables to make them the size you want. Add
graphics or after printing them out decorate them yourself. Take them to a
printing place such as Kinko’s and have them laminated and then cut them out.
Picture collage of your family
Personalized Calendars: I did this one year for different members of my
family. I asked for pictures from other family members and had a different
picture for each month of the year. I gave these to grandparents, aunts and
uncles.
Refrigerator Magnets
~seashells with wiggly eyes
~photo magnets: heavy card stock or cardboard with a photo of your children or
family, magnet strip on the back. Or you can purchase the ready made photo
magnet holders. Or make a small padded frame.
Christmas Ornaments
Desk Set: decorate the outside of a can for a pencil holder and make
personalized paper and envelopes on your computer.
If you crochet or knit there are hundreds of free patterns
on the internet for everything from wash cloths (very simple to knit or crochet
and would go perfect in a gift basket of goodies from your kitchen), to scarves,
ponchos, shawls and afghans.
Gifts of Writing
They can be your own, your children’s or someone else’s writings. Some ideas for
this are:
A favorite poem: (written by you or just one you enjoy) Print it on pretty paper
with a pretty font and frame it.
Recipe Collections: Compile recipes and print them out, take them to a
printers such as Kinko’s to be bound. Some options for these homemade cookbooks
are: Family Favorites: ask aunts, uncles, parents, grandparents for their
favorite recipes. Your Own Collection: They could be your own favorite recipes. You could
compile a collection of a certain type of recipe such as cookie recipes and
maybe add a cookie mix or a batch of fresh cookies to go along with the book.
You could do the same with bread recipes or your favorite crockpot recipes and a
bean soup mix that could be made in the crock pot.
An album of family photos sprinkled writing, poems and cute sayings.
Decorate the front of the album in any way you choose.
Bath Products
These can be put in pretty containers or bags.
Gifts from the Kitchen
Food gifts are always a great hit. They can be a cookie platter, drink mixes,
cookie mixes, bean soup mixes. One of my favorites is strawberry honey and a
loaf of bread. Or make some grape jelly to go with the bread. Easy to do and
tastes so good!
Ultimately the real value in a homemade gift is the love,
thought and time that was put into it. Your family member or friend will feel
loved and thought of.
