Easy and Inexpensive DIY Christmas Gifts
If you’ve had the kind of year I’ve had - along with most of America - then you are probably looking for Christmas gift ideas that won’t brake the bank any more than it already is. Handmade gifts are a great way to save some money this Christmas. What’s even better, the work and thought that goes into these gifts will always mean more to the recipient than any store-bought gift.
Put your heart into any gift you make, and I promise, you’ll love and savor every moment of giving it.
Here’s a few of the gifts I’ve made for loved ones over the years. I hope you can find some inspiration for your own special creations for friends and family.
A Historical Collage for History Buffs
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
- An empty frame (choose whatever size you want)
- No more than five sheets of photo paper and a couple of sheets of letter sized paper for any text printing
- Scissors and Adhesive
I made this for my husband for his 29th birthday last year. He’s a big civil war history buff and LOVES Ken Burns’ Civil War documentary. I wanted to make something for him that would pay tribute to his passion and interest. You’re looking at the result.
You can easily recreate something similar for any sort of historical subject because of great access to photos. The best thing about Civil War photos: almost all of them now reside in the public domain. You can find a ton of great historical images that you will have access to right over the internet. The Library of Congress is the best place to start your search.
Next, I chose about 30 of my favorite images and saved them all to one folder on my desktop. You don’t have to use that many different photos in your collage, but you definitely want to choose enough for a nice variety.
The next step will depend on what kind of photo editing software you use. Under the different printing options in most editing programs, you’ll find an option of printing a contact sheet of multiple photos. Basically, you are creating mini-sized images in order to fit lots onto one collage. If you use Adobe Creative Suite 2 or 3, like I do, Adobe Bridge makes this super easy. All you have to do is open Bridge and locate the folder of your selected photos. Select all the items in the folder. Then click on the ‘Tools’ dropdown menu and go to Photoshop — you’ll see the contact sheet option. Select it, and it’ll bring up all the different options for creating your contact sheet. Depending on how big or small you want the images, you can fit a ton of photos on just two to four sheets of photo paper.
After you’ve got your images printed out - and then cut out - play with a good arrangement to fit inside whatever frame you’ve chosen. You may want to include some sort of text, poem or passage relating to your photos like I did in this one. In Ken Burns’ documentary, there’s a segment where a soldier’s love letter to his wife is read. I chose my favorite portions of Sullivan Ballou’s letter to use as the center of my collage.
The end result is a really stunning celebration of your loved one’s historical interest.
A Set of Notecards for Paper Lovers
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
- A set of blank notecards or card stock paper cut and folded to the size you want.
- A stamp with the design of your choice
- An ink pad
- Scrap paper (all colors and patterns)
- Scissors and adhesive
- Embossing powder and heat gun (OPTIONAL)
The set of tree cards pictured are currently listed in my etsy shop. You can easily create a set yourself, and you’ll have a wonderful, unique Christmas gift.
You’ll need to start with a set of blank notecards (how many cards is your preference). Or, if you’ve already got some solid colored card stock paper in your stash, cut and fold to create the card size you want.
Next, gather all the different scrap papers you’ve saved and start to mix and match colors and patterns that compliment each other. Now, you can start to layer. Cut your scrap paper into rectangles that are 1/2″ smaller than the previous layer on all sides. Use your adhesive to layer as many papers as you want to on one single card. On my these cards, I only layered two different papers on each because my stamp was so large.
After you’ve layered each card, cover your stamp in ink and apply it to the top layer of paper on each card. If you already own a heat gun, apply embossing powder to the wet ink after stamping, and use your heat gun to create a great texture for your image.
Anyone on your shopping list is sure to appreciate one-of-a-kind, handmade cards created especially for them.
A NEAT ALTERNATIVE: If you’ve got alphabet letter stamps, personalize the cards with the person’s name or initials.
A Hand-Stamped Bib for the Little Ones
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
- A solid color baby bib
- 2-3 colors of craft paint
- Foam craft paint brush
- Foam alphabet letter stamps (and any other image or design stamps you want to use)
I made these two bibs for one of my best friends after she found out she was having twins! (Laura Kennedy and Mary Morgan are here now, too!) If you’re stuck for ideas, feel free to steal my blame-it-on-the-dog-or-cat concept.
This one may be the easiest project on the list. Take your plain, solid color bib and plot out any text with your stamps to be sure of spacing and that everything fits. Next, apply a modest amount of paint to your foam brush and gently dab the first letter stamp to coat it with the paint. Lightly press the stamp to your bib. Apply even pressure to the back of the stamp to ensure you get a complete image. Then, lift the stamp straight up, being careful not to smear the paint and distort your image.
Follow the same process with each letter of your message, one by one. After you’ve spelled out your text, go back with a different color paint and stamp your accent images or designs.
The sky really is the limit with this one when you think creatively.
A Shoe-Inspired Work of Art for the Fashion Gurus
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
- A blank pre-stretched canvas (any size you want)
- A stack of old magazines
- Scissors
- Modge Podge
- Foam Craft Paint Brush
- Markers and paint pens
This is one of my favorite gifts I’ve ever made. I did this art piece for my little sister. She collects “shoe things.”
I glanced through a bunch of old magazines I had sitting around, and cut out all different kinds of images of shoes. Once I had enough to cover the canvas with no white space showing, I adhered them with my foam brush and some Modge Podge. Then, I covered them with a second coat and let it dry.
Next, I took all sorts of markers, pens and paints, and added my own little designs and accents to all the images — swirls, patters, fashion-type words. I drew one large shoe in the bottom right corner, and covered it with Sex in the City quotes about shoes. Finally, I came back with one last coat of Modge Podge to top it off.
Anyone can paste a few magazine clippings. What makes this idea so much more unique is the doodles and colors added to the top for a more artistic look.
LOTS OF OPTIONS: You could utilize this concept using a ton of different images as your subject matter. Consider concepts or things that you find pictured all throughout the magazines you have stacked up at your house.
A Cute Tote for Girly Girls
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
- A solid color tote bag
- 2-3 colors of craft paint
- Foam craft paint brush
- Foam alphabet letter stamps (and any other image or design stamps you want to use)
You probably noticed the supplies needed for this one are quite similar to the hand-stamped bibs. That’s because you’ll follow the same process — just on a different item.
I made this for my mother-in-law (her granddaughters call her Lolly). She loves it because it’s the perfect size for her to tote a packed lunch to work. It’s also a great gift for little girlies and boys — perfect for an overnight bag when sleeping over at a friend’s house.
QUICK NOTE: Don’t fret if you don’t have alphabet stamps. To avoid going out and buying them, you can also take a paint brush and paint your message right on the bag. That’s what I did here.
A Creative Collection of Picture Memories for Just About Anyone
One gift you can almost never go wrong with: pictures.
There are so many creative ways to display and utilize a collection of photographic memories. Mix and match photos with scrapbook paper and embellishments. Buy the ‘guts’ of a battery operated clock to turn your photos into a working time piece. Pair photos with your favorite quote(s) to create an inspirational picture collage.
Once again, the creative options are endless.
Six Secrets to Self-Taught Sewing Success
So, I was sort of a hippie in college. Okay, okay, I was a lot of a hippie in college.
In the summer of 2001, I decided to hit the road to follow the jam band I loved so much — 15 shows in one month! Well, if I was going to feasibly be able to do this, I needed a way to make some money along the way. Because it was going to take some money to travel the country and see 15 concerts. Hmmm……what could I do? Sell hippie clothes!
One problem. I didn’t know how to make patchwork hippie clothing. I would have to learn how to sew in order to do that. With almost two months until my cross-country-concert venture, that’s exactly what I did. By the time I departed for my trip, I was a sewing fool. As a result, I had a nice little inventory of patchwork wares to take and sell on the road.
And, guess what? I taught myself how to do it all. How? Well, I’m going to break it down for you with my Six Secrets to Self-Taught Sewing Success. I promise you can teach yourself just as easily as I did.
1. Recruit a capable mentor for one good Q&A session.
After I decided to pursue the craft of sewing, lucky for me, I had a mom with a sewing machine and lots of sewing know-how.
Now, I don’t want you to think you have to search out a master seamstress to show you all the basics. It is the basics. All you need is someone who knows their way around a sewing machine.
My Sewing 101 session with my mom lasted all of about 15 minutes. You might wonder how I could even get anything out of that? Well that’s the key: I got EXACTLY what I needed — nothing more, nothing less.
In those 15 minutes, my mom showed me how to wind the bobbin, thread the needle and sew a seam. Oh and most importantly, she showed me how to use a seam ripper. More about that one later…
2. Start with the easy projects first.
And, when I say easy, I mean outrageously, ridiculously easy.
Pillows. Napkins. Table Runners. Placemats. Are you catching my drift? Straight seams and nothing fancy. Do as many of these as you can to start. It’ll give you a chance to get comfortable with the machine you are using, and you’ll also start to get comfortable with all the “basics” you’ve just learned.
Refining these fundamentals will make it so much easier when you decide to move on to more challenging projects.
3. Look to sewing books and the Internet for tips and tutorials.
When I first started exploring my sewing talents, books became an invaluable resource for me. As I mastered those super-easy projects, I started looking for new projects that required more than just sewing in a straight line. And there are so many great books out there that can get you going.
Let me tell you a little lesson I learned about sewing books: when you are a beginner, there’s not a bad book out there. In every single book you’ll find some pearl of wisdom you have not soaked up just yet.
One source that wasn’t as superfluous when I got started is all the great crafting and sewing blogs there are today. You’ll find an extraordinary amount of tips and tutorials from some very talented bloggers. Here are a few good ones to get you started:
Whip Up: Handcrafted in a Hectic World
4. Examine the way your own clothes and other sewn items are constructed.
This lesson was invaluable for me. As I started to pursue those more advanced projects, I would try and choose items I already had. That way, I had a completed example right in front of me.
When it comes to books and other published tutorials - no matter how great the writing or images - it’s hard to grasp two-dimensional instructions for making a three-dimensional thing. That’s where your finished product comes in handy. Turning a shirt or a bag inside out and inspecting the seams will often help answer a lot of your questions and clear up any confusion.
Once you start sewing more, you start thinking like a seamstress without even realizing it. You’ll be amazed at how skilled you start to get at visualizing certain sewing projects.
5. Your new best friend: the SEAM RIPPER.
Do yourself one HUGE favor before you dive in and explore the world of self-taught sewing: buy a seam ripper. Hell, buy two or three. It never hurts to have back-ups.
I honestly believe it’s the best little sewing tool of all time. We all make mistakes at some point or another. Even the most skilled in the craft of sewing will make a boo-boo here and there. A seam ripper makes those mistakes a whole lot easier to deal with - because you actually can deal with, and fix, your mistakes.
Don’t beat yourself up about any slip-ups you may have. I had a LOT when I first started. But, in the end, all those errors really helped me learn and get better. It’s called trial and error for a reason.
And, just take a look at the level my sewing got to in only a couple of years. Check out my flickr set of wares I sewed and sold.
6. Keep learning and seeking sewing knowledge.
The greatest thing about sewing is there’s always something new to learn. New projects, new techniques and new technology. If you get bored with what your doing, pursue something new. You’ll always find fresh new ideas out there. And, no matter what they are, the experience alone will do nothing but help you hone and refine your sewing skills.
My Guest Post at DIYBride.com
Khris Cochran is the wonderful author of the DIY Bride book and blog. I snagged a copy of her book in a giveaway she had, and have been inspired by it ever since.
Khris was gracious enough to let me share how I was able to create 175 of my wedding invitations for only $102. You can read my post here.
You Might Just Surprise Yourself
So, I haven’t TOUCHED my knitting needles in at least three years. And to be honest, it’s not like I was ever I master at knitting in the first place.
I was perusing the aisles at Tuesday Morning a couple of weeks ago and spotted two balls of the most gorgeous yarn I’d seen in quite some time. I threw it in my cart. I put it back on the shelf two different times before I finally grabbed it on my way to the register at the front of the store.
Knitting? I’ve already got so many crafting and writing projects to keep me busy. Why should I waste my time on something I’m sure I’ve forgotten how to do?
I can’t tell you how glad I am that I fought off that voice of negativity and bought some beautiful yarn. If I had given in to the pessimist inside, I would have created this beautiful pouch out of that beautiful yarn:
My Point?
Of course I have one!
The worst “creativity killer” we encounter is none other than that lovely mug we see in the mirror each day. Negative thoughts have more power than we often realize. That’s what makes them so dangerous.
Pessimistic thoughts have this uncanny ability to find that one loose thread dangling from our sweater. It may start with just a few small inches coming loose. But as soon as one negative thought grabs hold of that thread, everything comes unraveled much quicker and easier than you anticipated.
Fight Your Negative Judgments
Don’t give into negativity today. Prove your pessimist wrong and do something those negative opinions tell you that you can’t do. And do it well.
How will you prove those negative thoughts wrong?
Scrapbooking Wedding Milestones
A few Saturdays ago, the FedEx Man brought a HUGE box for us.
Crap! What did I order and immediately forget about? And, what story can I make up for Josh’s benefit to get myself out of trouble? Wait, oh yeah, we’re getting married in August. Presents are part of this whole gig. Whew!
Once I snapped out of the mini drama I played out in my head, I was able to enjoy the moment. And, I must say it really did feel like a rite of passage of sorts. Or maybe even a point of no return. You’ve opened the first gift, no turning back now…mwahhhhahahaha!
Anyway, we tore right into that bad boy, found the card and discovered that lovely Mrs. Leslie Willis was the one responsible for christening us into the official “we ARE really getting married” club. Yeah, she pretty much rocks harder than anyone else could only hope to rock. Thanks, woman!
Well, our wedding-planning-stress-relief kit is awesome. And, you know I had to scrapbook this lovely little milestone in the marriage process.
I had the perfect bright, colorful striped paper to compliment the pitcher too!
Crafty Valentine Tutorial
Check out my tutorial article for the Jackson Free Press. It’s my own small attempt to help personalize such an overly-commercialized holiday. 
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