10 Ideas for Homemade Gifts

Gifts made by your own hands are not only something original and unavailable in shops, but are also filled with warmth and the heartbeat of their maker. Moreover, they require no great material investment, as they can be made from the most ordinary things found right at home. Of course, creative inspiration, patience and time are required - and in my opinion, time in today's rush has become such a rarity that we rarely dedicate it to anyone or anything. Perhaps Christmas or New Year is exactly the quiet time to devote your attention and time to your loved ones by handmaking a small, heartfelt little gift.

I offer a few interesting ideas for creating a homemade gift.

A surprise jar for the lady of the house.

Required: a transparent container, a colourful ribbon and a piece of coloured cardboard, which can be used both for writing a greeting and for indicating the contents of the jar. For the filling, various coloured dried fruits can be chosen, for example dried apples, plums, pumpkin, candied peel, pineapple, raisins, etc., or various grains, rice, dried peas and beans of different sizes and colours can be used. The main thing is to pour all this filling into the jar in layers, taking care that each layer contrasts as much as possible with the adjacent one. The jar is then closed by tying a decorative ribbon around the lid.

You can also cover the jar lid with a cut-out piece of thematic, colourful fabric and then tie it with a ribbon. Finally, attach a greeting card, which need not be elaborate - a simple piece of stiff paper will do. The result is a visually pleasing and practically useful household gift.

The fragrant decoration.

A very simple little gift - a fragrant orange ball that can be hung either on a Christmas tree branch or indoors. Required: an orange, a bright orange stiff and fairly thin ribbon, a handful of cloves. Tie the ribbon around the orange as shown in the drawing below, forming a kind of hanging ball. Then push the cloves in with the sharp end down and the flower end outward, evenly covering the entire surface of the orange. The decoration is ready!

Photo mosaic.

Choose a favourite and successful photo on the computer, apply a black-and-white or exposure effect to it in a graphics program. Then print this photo on a sheet of white transparent paper. Cut the photo into nine equal squares. Nine plain white (though they need not be white) tiles are needed; coat them with paper glue and carefully place the cut photo pieces on each tile. Allow to dry. To enable the mosaic to be hung on the wall, glue the tiles in the appropriate sequence onto a thin wooden frame, with a hanging hook fitted. More substantial work, but what satisfaction at the end - and a beautiful, personalised wall decoration!

The light cup.

Required: the stubs of half-burned candles, which everyone surely has accumulated somewhere at home; then a wick thread; and finally the key to making it a success - a unique, antique little cup. This will take some effort to find, either in the attic where leftover pieces from old, cracked tea sets that are no longer usable may be stored - sets which, as an heirloom from great-grandmother, one feels reluctant to throw away - or at a flea market, or, if you can afford a slightly more upscale purchase, at an antique shop.

The melted wax must be poured into the cup with the wick thread placed in the middle. An aroma can also be added to the candle by dropping in some essential oil while melting the wax. The wax can also be coloured, or a dried flower placed inside it.

Fruit bowl with a musical twist.

If you search well, you will find vinyl records stored somewhere at home that no one listens to anymore, simply because there is no longer even a player for them. What to do - the march of technological progress continues apace. Such a record can simply be transformed into an original fruit bowl by heating it in the oven and, once the edges soften, folding them upward in various artistic curves.

When presenting the gift, it can be filled with tangerines, gingerbread biscuits or sweets.

An oriental lantern.

Required: fairly thick red paper with a gold oriental pattern. This can either be purchased, taken from some packaging, or an ornament can be drawn by yourself with a gold marker. Cut out a shape of the following form (see drawing below), join the ends together and thread through a fairly thick red yarn. At the bottom end of the lantern's thread, a red or gold tassel can be formed or attached.

Simple cards.

Without spending money on buying expensive cards, they can be very simply crafted yourself using imagination, scissors, glue, two-colour paper and a craft knife. Moreover, small gift tags that can be attached, tied or pinned to a little gift are just as easy to make. (See a few ideas in the photograph.)

Soft blocks.

If you have a sewing machine on hand, it will not be at all difficult to make this type of gift - in a larger format it can be a useful floor cushion for adults, in a smaller format a safe toy for children that causes no bruises. Only six squares of different bright-coloured fabric are needed, to be sewn together and filled with something soft, such as polyester. Fabric need not be specially bought or selected - each square can have its own pattern and colour combination. Moreover, the squares can be cut from unwanted pieces of clothing that were about to be thrown away.

Golden pear.

This gift will not be edible, but will serve beautifully as a festive table decoration, and the gold gleaming in candlelight will lend it a particular splendour.

Take a pear, coat it thoroughly with glue and allow it to stand for 30–60 minutes. Then take gold metal leaf sheets, unevenly distribute them on the pear and, pressing slightly, allow them to adhere to the skin. Then smooth with a brush and remove the excess leaf pieces that have not stuck.

 

 

To make a gilded pear, gold beads available in shops can also be used as the decorative material, glued evenly all around the fruit leaving only the stem, which can be painted with gold metallic paint.

Tasteful and personalised wrapping.

This option I came across and cannot help but recommend. The wrapping uses the most simple things available in any household - a button, a clothes peg, paper twine, a small piece of non-fraying fabric or leather. The main thing is to coordinate all of this in a unified colour palette, and elegant wrapping is ready.

A book, a planner for the coming year, a compact disc, a box of chocolates and similar items can be wrapped this way. In any case, the first impression upon seeing the wrapping you have put effort into will be full of pleasant surprise at the moment of giving.