Skip to main content

Hand Making Holiday Gifts Part Three

Today we're going to talk about unusual gifts you can obtain or hand make for cheap.

Since thrifting online over the past year I've learned that certain stores like Kohl's donate shoes they have on display after the stock is depleted. I've gotten two pair of sneakers that were new with tags (one still had the plastic diplay insert still in it) for a tenth of the price I would have paid for them retail. Thrifting is also how I got these brand new $78.00 Reebok Jorie LT Athletic Slip Resistant Work Shoes for my guy but only paid $13.00 for them.

Now, how is that handmade? It isn't, but it did take up a lot of my time. I had to watch the shoe listings on ShopGoodwill.com for about a month, searching and checking them every day to see if I could find a pair of shoes for him that were new, in his size and well-made. This wasn't a problem for me because I'm on the computer for work every day anyway. Then, at the end, someone else bid on them. The other bidder dropped out after I upped my bid to my max. No one else challenged me, so I got them for the price I wanted to pay -- but I had to monitor the auction until the last second.

Think about using your hobbies and who among your recipients shares them. For example, I got these purses at a local quilt show I attended for very cheap ($5 or less). They were made by makers belonging to the guild who ran the show, and thus were one of a kind, and buying them supported the guild. I stuffed them with fabric from my stash and gave them to quilter and sewist friends (and I told them they had come from the show.)

You can do the same thing with other hobbies. If you and your recipient crochet or knit, gift some yarn from your stash in a basket you buy or make for them. If you both love plants, start some clippings in a pot to share with them (over the summer our niece gave us a little tree her dad had started, which we loved.) Same thing with gardening -- put some food you've grown in a dish or basket and add some seed packets.

Try something new with your gifting. Last year I thrifted a lot of mostly vintage pearl costume jewelry for $16.00 that I used to make these little Christmas trees. It was just an idea I had, and I wasn't sure it would work. The trees came out better than I ever imagined so I'm going to make some this year as gifts (also in that lot I discovered almost $300.00 of real pearl jewelry that I was able to use as gifts last year.)

Finally, keep on the lookout for bargain-priced personalized gifts. Every year I make my guy a calendar for next year with pictures of our favorite people and things we did over the last twelve months. I get it from Shutterfly, which usually offers a free calendar every year before the holidays (you just have to pay shipping.) So for about ten bucks I can create an inexpensive gift out of memories that we can enjoy next year. Other personalized gifts I've made: coffee mugs, large prints of special pics (which I frame), Christmas ornaments, and mini photo albums (you can get the little brag book variety at Dollar Tree for $1.25.)

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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.
Post a Comment
Read more

In Progress

I promised myself I would show you the good, bad and ugly of my cleaning this year. This is what it looks like when you dump thirty years' worth of stashed fabric on the floor -- and oy, what a pain in the butt to pick up again! This is what it looks like after it's been sorted, folded and placed in containers, which took me about a week. Now the hard part is to downsize my stash by at least half, I think (that's my goal, anyway.) I've already e-mailed the president of the local quilting guild, a local friend who is a quilter, and a public school art teacher I know to see if I can donate some of the excess to them. The rest will go to Goodwill. Already I've reduced my vintage textiles from two bins to one, and my scraps from three bins to one. It's probably the hardest clean-out I've done, which is why I saved it until last. I know I have too much fabric, more than I can use in my lifetime -- but at the same time, I love it. So I have to...
Post a Comment
Read more

Downsizing

This was my fabric stash once I sorted everything -- 22 full bins. I spent a day taking out and boxing up what I could part with, with the goal of trying to reduce it by half, so I'd have 11 bins. I was very strict with myself, and removed everything that for one reason or another I was sure I wouldn't be able to use. This is what I ended up with -- 12 bins of fabric that I'm keeping. It's not quite half, but close enough. Half of what I took out went to a local quilter friend, a school and Goodwill. These four tightly-packed bins will be going to the local quilting guild once I make arrangements with them for a drop-off place. I am relieved and a little sad and now determined to control my impulses to thrift more fabric. I don't want to do this again, so until I use up six bins, I can't for any reason bring any new fabric into the house.
Post a Comment
Read more