Handmade Christmas Gifts and Projects

I love making people handmade gifts.  I did a lot of that this year.  But, because I stink at photography, I actually forgot to take photos of most of the things I made!  

Fortunately, most of the ideas came from either pinterest or blogs I frequent.  So in case any of you are interested in some good gift ideas (for next year?) I thought I’d link them up here.  I am so thankful for all the crafty folks who blog out there – I am good at replicating things I see, but not so good at thinking them up myself!

🙂

Get your glue gun ready!

Ceramic Tile Coasters

First, we made Christmas coasters for teacher gifts.  They were simple, turned out really cute, and were quite inexpensive.  We found ceramic tiles at the local Habitat for Humanity Restore for 10 cents each!  Can’t beat that!  Used scrapbooking paper, glue, felt, and ModPodge that I already had on hand.  Tutorial here.

Sign Post

Made this entryway sign post for my porch. 

Since this wasn’t a gift and I still have it, I could take a photo!  Again, quite easy and I’m excited about it because I can use it year-round.  I made a Christmas sign, a Thanksgiving sign, and a generic welcome sign (wood scraps and hardware came from the Restore, and the fence-post topper thingy came from Lowe’s).  Used paint I already had.  Got the idea for the sign post here.  I also used this idea for hand-painting letters.  It worked great.

Craft Stick Nativity

I made three of these handmade nativity scenes – gave two away and kept one for myself!  So easy and took only about 1 hour to finish one.  Used paint and fabric I already had.  Bought the wooden materials at Michael’s and the moss sheets at the Dollar Tree – spent about $10 – that made these three and I have some materials left over.  Tutorial here.  One thing I did differently was to use wooden pieces for the bodies rather than clay pots and I like the way it turned out.

My favorite memory from making these was that my 4 year old helped me paint some of the body pieces – she giggled when she said “I am painting God!”.  She meant the baby Jesus – but it was too cute.

Letter Photo Art

Made one of these for my niece.  Bought scrap wood from Home Depot (and had them cut it for me!) and frames from the Dollar Tree.  Again, I used paint I already had.  Instead of hot gluing the frames to the wood, though, I used hot glue and velcro tabs to attach the frames.  I wanted her to have the option of changing out the letters and putting photos in it in the future.  Great gift – fairly easy and inexpensive.  It seemed like picking out the letters, editing and printing them took the most time!

Scrabble Tile Ornaments

My nephew and his fiancee love to play scrabble.  So I made these Christmas ornaments for them.  One for each of them with their names, and one with their wedding date on it.  As long as you can find a scrabble game at a thrift store for cheap, you’re good to go!!  (and I got some of the tiles, including the numbers, from a friend who was willing to share!  Thanks!)  Instructions here.

White Chocolate Snack Mix

This is a favorite in our home, and perfect for gifting.  Put it in a cute little snack bag and it makes a great gift accompaniment.  (we gave this to the kids’ teachers as well!)

6 cups rice or corn chex (or a mixture of the two!)

3 cups cheerios

1 cup dry roasted peanuts

1 cup pretzel twists

12 ounces m&ms

1 pound white chocolate

Mix first 5 ingredients in large bowl.  Melt white chocolate using the microwave or a double boiler.  Pour over mixture and stir to coat.  Spread out on waxed paper covered cookie sheets until chocolate is hardened and mixture is cool.  Store in an airtight container. 

Be careful because this stuff is addicting!! 

DIY Campfire Starters

I made DIY campfire starters for my hubby and brother-in-law.  We seriously have the worst time starting campfires when we’re camping!  Last summer I had to make an emergency trip to the campground store for firestarters, and at 1.50 a pop, that was my inspiration for making my own!  Survivors we are not.  But DIYers, yes!

These were simple to make – I have two monstrous evergreens in my front yard that drop copious amounts of needles.  So I used those and some old candles I already had.  Genious idea to use egg cartons! 

This makes a great gift for a camping-kinda guy, paired with a camping lighter.  I found some instructions here.  They smell delicious.

(I did find instructions elsewhere that used dryer lint.  I tried that first – but I won’t tell you what I thought they looked like when they were done.  Not exactly gift-worthy.  So I went with the pine needles!)

Melting Snowman Cookies

We made these for my kids’ classmates.  They were a huge hit.  Definitely fun for the kids to decorate, too.  I used my own sugar cookie and frosting recipe.  Inspiration was found here.

Framed Christmas Tree / Scripture Art

My friends got these for Christmas.  Free printable found here, with some scrapbook paper and ribbon I had on hand, and some classy frames from the Dollar Tree.  Wish I’d made one for myself!

Whew!  Lots of ideas here – hopefully they’re helpful to you!  Did you make any handmade gifts or decor for Christmas??  Care to share a link?