The Reason

There are two reasons I love to make gifts myself for holidays…Birthdays, Valentine’s Day, Christmas, etc.

1. I feel the consumerism that surrounds Christmas and every other holiday has spun out of control. And I’m not the only one…this popped up this December. We all know what each holiday is about and why it exists, but we continue to throw store-bought gifts at them. I believe our love is more thoroughly shown through the time we spend, the memories we make, the love we share.
2. I enjoy it. There is a certain sense of accomplishment involved and my heart and soul goes into everything I make, large or small. Each gift is made especially for that certain someone and, usually, is the perfect choice for them. At least, I hope so!

I made over 30 gifts this year! I know, I know. But some gifts I made in multiples for kids, most were fairly simple, and some aren’t pictured here, like the now-infamous “marshmallow shooter”…this one was a real hit! Some are not my own design, but I adjusted the tutorials to suit my materials or time constraints. I DO want to give credit where credit is due, though. And I highly recommend all of these gifts, because they brought smiles, laughter, and appreciation from my friends and family. It was truly awesome!

The Tutorials

• Marshmallow Shooter
  Cost – $2.60. We adjusted the mouth piece, sanded the inner edges and painted them a sleek black. Also included the “plans” with instructions on the back as a gift tag. I was sure to send this gift to at least two kids and one 20-something, which elicited an all-out marshmallow war! My evil plan worked perfectly
• Tile Coasters
  Cost – $2.05. I used a multitude of different decorative papers I had on hand, including vintage magazines and free print-outs I found online. These took more time because of drying time in between the layers of glue. I also substituted furniture pads (small round ones) in the corners rather than felting the entire bottoms. Worked out really well – great gift for couples and families!
• Phone Case (original)
  Cost – nothing (had everything on hand). Made with a simple single crochet stitch, lined with cotton, edged with embroidery floss, and decorated with old t-shirt scraps and buttons.
• Sewing Jar
  Cost – $3.00 (bought jar, had sewing notions on hand). Making the top was a bit tricky, had to try twice to get it right, but finally got it to work. The rest is just putting lovely sewing material inside and labeling it. Done…my mom loved it!
• Gingerbread Playdough
  Cost – nothing (had everything on hand). So quick and easy! And smells amazing. Some basic kitchen ingredients, a labeled jar, and some old cookie cutters – genius! I heard the kids broke out the playdough the second they opened the gifts. Yay!
• Duct Tape Wallet
  Cost – $3.99 (unless you want to do a color combo). This is a bit more time consuming, but it’s really cool! My daughter and I even cut out shapes (which is not easy) to decorate the front of the wallet and then decided to throw in a $5 bill for the recipient Two gifts in one!
• Wool Bobby Pins
  Cost – $2.00 (used wool scraps). This uses needle felting, so you must have a needle felting kit of some kind to do this, but they are fairly inexpensive. I made a LOT of these and gifted two sets to the teen girls in my family. They turned out very well and were very well-received!
• Emergency Purse Kit
  Cost – nothing (main ingredient: Altoids tin) What can I say? We eat a lot of mints. Modge podged <– (new verb) a mint tin inside and out, then made a small sewing kit, dropped in some loose change, hair ties, aspirin, a cough drop, band-aid, and a bobby pin or two. You can’t believe how much use this gets! I have one in my purse too
• Crocheted Slouchy Hat (loosely adapted from this tutorial)
  Cost – $3.29 (or yarn on hand). This one takes crochet time and adjustments, but I made three and they all were a little different, but really cute! Hats that teenage girls will actually WEAR!
• T-shirt Infinity Scarf (original)
  Cost – nothing (recycled t-shirts.) Gather a few colorful t-shirts, cut large squares (same width), sew pieces together in a long rectangle, then sew lengthwise make a tube, then sew the ends together. It’s soft, it’s stretchy, and it’s colorful – so fun.
• Capelet (original)
  Cost – this would cost MORE than $5 to make because you would need 4-6 skeins of yarn, depending on length, but I wanted to show it because I’m so proud of it! Crocheted from two large rectangles, then sewn together halfway up short sides. Added a large permanent wood button and cinched the other side as embellishment. My 15 year old daughter was IN LOVE.
• Photo Jar
  Cost – nothing (a small jar & printed photo). This one is the simplest of them all, inspired from a photo on Pinterest. I sent a one pic of each of my daughters in small jars to their grandfather. Makes a sweet, unique gift for someone special.

Now, I know that you may not have all the materials on hand, like I did, for some of these projects, but even if you had to go out and buy the materials….they should still fall under $5, as long as you’re good at finding a bargain! Old t-shirts from Goodwill for $1.99, yarn on sale for $2.29, old jars from the thrift store….easy peasy! There aren’t any expensive “ingredients” in these gift tutorials. Have fun…try some out and let me know what you think!

So, show your love – in a BIG {homemade} way!

Warmly, Rachel

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