Don’t forget to pop over to the Pinterest board on Handmade Gift Ideas for a wide range of cool projects that might get your brainstorming a little electrified!
Here are two gift-making categories we’ve used again and again:
1) Freezer paper stencilling. Here’s a link to a tutorial. What’s cool about this is that it allows you to use a stencil to decorate any cloth. It’s easy and broadly give-able. Even people who don’t think they’re ‘artistic’ have great success with it. You can print or draw any shape as an outline and get it right. Then you transfer it to freezer paper (Canadians you’re looking for butcher’s paper and it will be brown here, not white). We just tape the outline to the window and then tape the freezer paper over it. Then trace it. Cutting it out with the exacto knift can be a matter of patience, but again, no scary ‘artist skills’ are needed.
Here’s a picture of a t-shirt done by my husband for our son the first year we were playing with the technique.
We’ve had huge success using those makeup sponges and doing colour-mixing on the surface of the cloth. And when I say we, I mean my daughter. She’s done amazing (truly amazing) t-shirts over the years, and the effect she got for the flame spouted by a dragon was epic. I don’t think we have a picture of it, unfortunately.
Think about it: the edge of a pillow case, pyjama pants, funky geeky T-shirts, curtains, aprons, tablecloths, napkins, tote bags …all sorts of people – even people who are hard to give to – use things made of cloth.
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2) Do I even need to mention giving food? Snacks. Sweets. Bean soup mix in a mason jar. Pinterest is so full of these gifts that I won’t go into detail. But I urge you to use the 3 Steps to Fantastic Homemade Gifts brainstorming worksheets I posted the other week to come up with food gifts that really match up to your recipient’s interests. Give your athlete friend high-protein energy bars. Give an overworked friend 3 casseroles for the freezer. Give your cooking friend homemade ingredients like infused oils or flavoured salts.
Happy making!
Are there types of handmade gifts you turn to again and again?