These are in no particular order, mostly because I'm too lazy to rank them in my head...
1. Homemade scrapbooks - I mean DUH. When I have time, I love throwing these together. Now that time is tighter, I take advantage of free online photo books on sites like Snapfish, Shutterfly, Kodak and Winkflash.
2. A family picture in a nice frame - I'm always on the hunt for frames on sale. I have a stash of them to hand out to aunts, cousins and grandparents on a whim. This has become my standard "extended family" gift for Christmas.
3. Baked Goods - I love baking, so a morning bake-a-thon to whip up some neighbor gifts is more of a joy than a burden for me. My favorites are Martha Stewart's Chocolate Crackle Cookies, Chocolate Krispie Treats, Chocolate Oat Bars, Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies, Sugar Cookies and white or dark chocolate covered pretzels, which are sometimes sprinkled with peppermint pieces. And I've found the best Banana Bread, Zucchini Bread and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffin recipes on the planet, so they need to be shared with the masses!
4. Personalized Coupons - This could sound cheesy, but you don't have to make coupons like, "good for one free hug." Who wouldn't want a coupon for an evening of free babysitting? Or two hours of house cleaning or yard work for a new mom or elderly neighbor? For your spouse, you can always do "good for one back rub" or a "get out of dishes free" coupon. For the kids, you could come up with things like "dessert without finishing dinner" or "good for a $5 spending spree at Target."
5. Handmade stationary - I did this last year for my kids' teacher's gifts. I realize teachers would far prefer gift cards to a bunch of cheap stuff like this, but last year, gift cards weren't in the budget. Personalized stationary and homemade flower pens in a $.75 clearance vase...those were in the budget.
6. A collection of greeting cards - I know not everyone's crafty, so getting a stack of ready-to-give birthday cards, get well cards and thank you notes tied into a giant ribbon with a bow on top...this gift is always very well received. In fact, I don't do it often enough. Making cards is as fun for me as scrapbooking, but much quicker and I get to use all of my leftover bits and pieces of paper, ribbon and embellishments. So this is cheap to give, the receiver saves money on greeting cards and they're fun to create!
7. Gifts-in-a-Jar - We've all seen the cute cookie mixes, soup mixes and cocoa with marshmallows on top, but there are tons of recipes for random things like play doh, potpourri, even dog treats, bath oils and bath salts. I recently saw a jar of "candy cane bath salts" that was layered with red and white stripes of bath salt and scented with peppermint.
8. Ornaments - When I was single, I bought a bunch of plain glass balls and painted them with snowmen, flower scenes, dots and swirls. Some were personalized with a family name in glitter...I tried to get creative with it and give each person a variety of ornaments. Again, I'm sure there are tons of ideas all over the internet for this one. Nowadays, my kids make the ornaments and annually, I give photo frame ornaments with each child's picture in them.
9. Month-by-Month Personalized Calendars - There are plenty of sites that offer templates to create calendars and they'll print them for you. Traditionally, I've just printed them myself from home. One year, I had less time and more money, so I put them together on Kinko's website and they turned out nice. (Much nicer than homemade, but I'm sure they're getting thrown out annually, so I'm not sure that it matters!)
VistaPrint has a great new promotion going on, including a free photo wall calendar (shipping is $5.67), 250 free business cards (shipping is $5.67), 140 free return address labels (shipping is $3.07), a free tote bag (shipping is $5.67), 100 free holiday postcards or 10 free photo cards (shipping is $4.62 for each) and a free photo flip book or 10 free folded holiday cards (shipping is $6 for each).
10. Themed baskets - This could be a bunch of bath items, a kitchen-themed basket with a cute holiday accessory, a movie basket with a DVD, microwave popcorn, soda and theater candy, or a chunky coffee mug filled with homemade cocoa, a peppermint stick and a Starbuck's gift card.
These are all of my go-to homemade gift items. Anything amazing out there that I left out? (For those who sew, your list will be twice as long!)
1. Homemade scrapbooks - I mean DUH. When I have time, I love throwing these together. Now that time is tighter, I take advantage of free online photo books on sites like Snapfish, Shutterfly, Kodak and Winkflash.
2. A family picture in a nice frame - I'm always on the hunt for frames on sale. I have a stash of them to hand out to aunts, cousins and grandparents on a whim. This has become my standard "extended family" gift for Christmas.
3. Baked Goods - I love baking, so a morning bake-a-thon to whip up some neighbor gifts is more of a joy than a burden for me. My favorites are Martha Stewart's Chocolate Crackle Cookies, Chocolate Krispie Treats, Chocolate Oat Bars, Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies, Sugar Cookies and white or dark chocolate covered pretzels, which are sometimes sprinkled with peppermint pieces. And I've found the best Banana Bread, Zucchini Bread and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffin recipes on the planet, so they need to be shared with the masses!
4. Personalized Coupons - This could sound cheesy, but you don't have to make coupons like, "good for one free hug." Who wouldn't want a coupon for an evening of free babysitting? Or two hours of house cleaning or yard work for a new mom or elderly neighbor? For your spouse, you can always do "good for one back rub" or a "get out of dishes free" coupon. For the kids, you could come up with things like "dessert without finishing dinner" or "good for a $5 spending spree at Target."
5. Handmade stationary - I did this last year for my kids' teacher's gifts. I realize teachers would far prefer gift cards to a bunch of cheap stuff like this, but last year, gift cards weren't in the budget. Personalized stationary and homemade flower pens in a $.75 clearance vase...those were in the budget.
6. A collection of greeting cards - I know not everyone's crafty, so getting a stack of ready-to-give birthday cards, get well cards and thank you notes tied into a giant ribbon with a bow on top...this gift is always very well received. In fact, I don't do it often enough. Making cards is as fun for me as scrapbooking, but much quicker and I get to use all of my leftover bits and pieces of paper, ribbon and embellishments. So this is cheap to give, the receiver saves money on greeting cards and they're fun to create!
7. Gifts-in-a-Jar - We've all seen the cute cookie mixes, soup mixes and cocoa with marshmallows on top, but there are tons of recipes for random things like play doh, potpourri, even dog treats, bath oils and bath salts. I recently saw a jar of "candy cane bath salts" that was layered with red and white stripes of bath salt and scented with peppermint.
8. Ornaments - When I was single, I bought a bunch of plain glass balls and painted them with snowmen, flower scenes, dots and swirls. Some were personalized with a family name in glitter...I tried to get creative with it and give each person a variety of ornaments. Again, I'm sure there are tons of ideas all over the internet for this one. Nowadays, my kids make the ornaments and annually, I give photo frame ornaments with each child's picture in them.
9. Month-by-Month Personalized Calendars - There are plenty of sites that offer templates to create calendars and they'll print them for you. Traditionally, I've just printed them myself from home. One year, I had less time and more money, so I put them together on Kinko's website and they turned out nice. (Much nicer than homemade, but I'm sure they're getting thrown out annually, so I'm not sure that it matters!)
VistaPrint has a great new promotion going on, including a free photo wall calendar (shipping is $5.67), 250 free business cards (shipping is $5.67), 140 free return address labels (shipping is $3.07), a free tote bag (shipping is $5.67), 100 free holiday postcards or 10 free photo cards (shipping is $4.62 for each) and a free photo flip book or 10 free folded holiday cards (shipping is $6 for each).
10. Themed baskets - This could be a bunch of bath items, a kitchen-themed basket with a cute holiday accessory, a movie basket with a DVD, microwave popcorn, soda and theater candy, or a chunky coffee mug filled with homemade cocoa, a peppermint stick and a Starbuck's gift card.
These are all of my go-to homemade gift items. Anything amazing out there that I left out? (For those who sew, your list will be twice as long!)
Posts
3 comments:
We are a little tight on money this year since hubs is started his own business so "conventional" presents aren't really happening. This year I am making homemade cocoa mix in a jar to give to teachers, family and friends. In fact, I just completed them this morning! So excited about them!
I also make homemade ornaments every year for the grandparents and one for us of the kiddos (last year was handprints, this year will be a felt photo craft.
http://crafts.kaboose.com/felt-photo-frame-ornaments.html
I used to make my own cards...two kids have put a dent in my crafty time lately so we are doing photo cards this year instead.
I venture to bet that most people like these gifts far better than any other thing that I can find in the store!
Oh, I forgot...I am also making homemade hand sanitizer to add to my packages for the teachers, family and friends. Who doesn't love a hand sanitizer that is eco-friendly and not fully of toxic chemicals, right?!?!?
I like the personalized calendars and also the personalized coupons - e.g. for a cinema night, a brunch, a trip to a special place...
Post a Comment