Hand Making Holiday Gifts Part One

I promised to show you some ideas for handmade gifts, and I'm going to use for examples things I'v actually made as gifts. Upfront disclaimer: I try to make most of my gifts every holiday season, and I regularly thrift gifts, too. It's a way to avoid spending too much during the holidays, which is always a good thing.

With the first idea the packaging is actually the gift I made. Someone will be opening this Christmas is this pair of Ray Ban sunglasses from a Thred Up fun box with a quilted case I sewed for them. I found the free pattern for the case online here, and it only took an hour. I had on hand all the materials, too, so it cost nothing but my time. You can find an inexpensive fun pair of sunglasses for less than $5 at Wal-Mart, or even cheaper at Dollar Tree.

This linen junk journal I made back in September was a 100% recycled project, as it has a cover made from an old stitch practice piece, a vintage kitchen towel for the lining that I had on hand, and pages I made from pretty papers and cardstock I've saved over the years. It was a gift to myself, but you can make one of these for a family member or friend who likes to journal. Here's a really good blog post from House of Mahalo on how to make many different kinds.

If you're good with words but not particularly crafty, why not set up a blind date with a book as a gift? Here's the one I bought myself from Writer's Block, an independent book store in Winter Garden. It came wrapped in brown paper with a postcard describing the premise, which didn't sound like anything I'd ever read, so I thought, why not? I actually enjoyed my blind date so much I bought another novel by the author. If your recipient isn't a huge reader, try a blind date with a music CD, a movie DVD, or a cookbook.

Stay tuned to the blog for Part Two, when I'll tell you about some of the food gifts I give every year.

Comments

Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.

Goodwill Gamble #2 Arrives

My second Goodwill gamble arrived; this is one I paid ten bucks for last month. Just inside the lid was a big roll of plastic mesh that I think is for latchhook work. In the auction listing it looked like fabric to me, so that was unexpected. Someone at the seller's end was nice enough to put a note on this pinned fabric. I'll put on my gloves before I take it out to inspect it. The embroidered green fabric turned out to be 1-1/2 yards of sequinned and three-dimensional designer fabric. I'll guess this cost somewhere between $20.00 to $30.00 a yard, and it's in pristine condition. But here's a shot of everything in the lot, which is mostly crafty odds and ends with a small amount of cotton fabrics, a large amount of synethetic fabrics, and some other surprises. The original owner of these was probably a Catholic school teacher; these beads, crosses and medallions are the kind of rosary kits for kids to make at Sunday school or Bible camp (and s...

Love Means This

Invested in a couple of hand-dyed bundles from one of my favorite fabric artists. This one said "Make me into something for Valentine's Day." So I went for a quilted and embellished tote. I kept thinking about what love means to me as I worked on it. Here's the finished tote. Although I was tempted to embellish with beads and pins, I got sick and only felt well enough to do a little stitching every night. As I worked I thought about how often love seems disappointing to us, especially when it fails to live up to our expectations. But now that I've experienced love in many forms, I can say that it's made me a better person than I might have been without it. Love is a precious thing, and should be appreciated in all its forms. I am very grateful for the love of my guy, my child and my friends who have stuck with me all these years. That's you two, in case you're wondering. :) Also finally found something to do with a ve...

Valerean

Search This Blog