CHRISTMAS GIFT IDEA THREAD

With Christmas just around the corner I got to thinking it might be a good idea to start a thread with links to the things you will be crafting for others as gifts. Might help give us all ideas!

Of course there are always gift certificates to sb.com Superstore (plug plug) (think since I gave a "plug" Megan will make this a sticky thread? )

So, just post your ideas and links here for all to share! And thanks if you do!

I have attached two links here for the library....one is for Christmas quotes and the other is for Christmas titles. You might be able to use them on your projects!

X-mas quotes

X-mas Titles

CAN'T WAIT TO SEE WHAT YOU COME UP WITH!!

Here is a cute one I saved from hdsue:

Cute French Frie Boxes

And another one from Lauren Reid:

Christmas Ornament

i was thinking of making my mother a grandmother memory box and using a plain phoo box i bought from michaels and redoing it if any one has made one can you send me a link PLEASE i have never altered anything before and it would be great for some ideas
love this thread idea

Ooh, I love that Christmas ornament one! Thanks for that idea!

I love that french fry box, can you post directions/instructions on the thread somewhere or pm me please!!

I agree - can I get the instructions for the ff box?

For gifts - I'm making covers for pocket planners, calanders, and checkbooks for the ladies. Haven't come up with anything for the guys. For my mil and sil I'm going to take name badge holders and make a mini album of the kids. Recipe album for my grandma...and that's all the projects at the moment .

Toy Box Album
This is what I am making for my bf's dd. Inside is a chipboard album and will have photos of her favourite toys.

I am amking my calendars as usual! I've been working on them all year and they are winding down to being done!

I always like to crochet christmas ornaments, fridgies, or dishcloths.

Also, you can get clear glass ornaments from Michael's or AC Moore and let your imagination run wild with those. My eldest daughter has painted one per year for the past 7 years and this year my youngest will be doing the same! :-D

Also, my daughter made a bird-feeder ornament one year in girlscouts. They took a baloon, wrapped it with twine and glued the twine on. They then popped the balloon leaving a twine ball, cut out a hold and filled it with some grass (the fake kind you always see around easter) and a toy bird.

It's adorable and has been on our tree every year since!

About the French Frie Box:

I found this in hdsue's gallery. You would have to ask her about a pattern. I thought I might just make one up from looking at the photo, or maybe go to McDonald's and ask for an empty box!

I just uploaded a French Fry box pattern to my gallery, for those of you looking for one. I made three different sizes, Sm, Med, and Large, and they are super cute!!
Here is the link:
French Fry box pattern

Thanks so much for the French Fry pattern. It looks easy to make and super-cute!

I'm going to get some Christmas colors cardstock at Michaels and make a bunch and decorate with Christmas ribbons and stamps. (8-1/2 x 11 packs are on sale this week for $1.99)

I was thinking about some of those bg lunch pails. Here are a few ideas.

Card holder/organizer- Decorate the outside and little tabbed dividers. Have one divider that holds postage stamps. I would make some sort of little pocket on it. Then have one tab that is for addresses. If you make it for a friend or family member that might not have all of the current family addies include them there. Then the other dividers would be by month. Maybe even have a list on each one for occasions during that month. Things like bdays and anniversaries. I might even include a stack of hand made cards and envelopes.

Recipe holder- decorate it the outside. The inside could just have dividers for the recipient to fill. You could fill it with favorite recipes. Or you could add one recipe for a yummy treat that you love and a small bag of the treat (I am thinking fudge or cookies!). Oh, you could also include a gift card for a grocery store on the inside.

I had this thread saved. It was posted by Luv2scrapTN.

Gift Basket Ideas

What, in the name of good common sense, would you put in a french fry box besides french fries? Those are so cute, but I don't know if that's something I could do without knowing what to put in them.

I was thinking of making all kinds of things this year (money is pretty tight) and we are drawing names as a new tradition, but I'd love to give each person just a little something from my heart.
I thought about a calendar for my sister and brother and their families. And now I'm stumped. Anyone know where I can get calendars that you craft on? I'm very confused.

i was thinking you could put cookies in it line the inside with wax paper

Good idea!! Or small wrapped candies and hang them like ornaments! The small ones would be good for that!

Here is a link to an ornament I made last year for gifts (actually my 6 yr. old helped make them for her teachers). They look difficult but are so easy. Directions are under the pic in my gallery...Stamped Glass Ball Ornament

HI,
i just want to thank all the ladies with great ideas...this is going to be my first yr making x-mas gift myself..

i wanted to make calendars and i have no idea how to do ...... i would really appreciate if someone can post instructions how to make them... thank you all.......

• shanismom Said:

You cna buy pre-printed calendar bases from Close to My Heart (email me if interested), Leaving Prints, Karen Foster , Stampin Up, and a few other companies. Then you just stamp or decorate the pages.

Another thing you can do it print the calendar pages on your computer and then decorate them. Take them to Kinko's or one of those copy stores and they will bind them for about $2-5 each.

Provo Craft makes an inexpensive binding tool like th eone they have at Kinko-s if you want to invest in that sort of thing--I think it is about $40.

You could also bind it with ribbon or some binder rings--the Crop A Dile will punch through all your page like butter or you can just use an eyelet punch to make holes int he pages. It might look nice if you finish the holes with eyelets too.

I have done pocket calendars before too--you can get these from any store for 50 cents to about $1. Just pull it out of the plastic cover, decorate the paper cover and reinsert int he plastic. A friend of mine hasa Precious Moments one she did not like so she coverdd and decoarted the cover adn now it is her own.

HTH

What great ideas. That little bird-feeder ornament sounds adorable. TFS all ideas.

• michele54 Said:

How about candies in the frenh fry box? Just put a cello bag inside, fill with candy, and tie the top with raffia or ribbon. You can customize it to each person my putting their favorite candy in them. You can also do snowman poop (marshmallows) or reindeer poop (raisins), or coal (black jelly beans). Organized Christmas .com has some cut printables for each of those and these are fun stocking stuffers.

You couls alos make mini cards and put a few in each, like a birthday card, thank you and so on for them to use throughout the year. You can use scraps to make the cards.

As far as calendars, I posted a long list for another person. Close to mY heart has several sizs from wall size down to reminder size.

HTH

• craftgirl Said:

I bet you could make your own pattern by using an old french fry box--just take it apart and then trace a non-greasy pattern from it. Or if you just ask, I bet any fast food place would give you one.

I usually make alot of stuff at Christmas. Every year I bake for everyone--this is a family tradition that has been passed down for several generations. My recipes are top secret and everyone has their favorites---like my Uncle always gets his very own box of fudge! The cookies actually cost me about $200 to make beucase I make them for so many people. SO I have to keep the packaging cheap or I woudl go broke!

My mom always put these in those Xmas tins you can get for a few dollars each but when you are talking 20 poeple, that gets expensive. Last year I did altered paint cans for everyone. The year before my daughter and I stamped snowflakes on kraft paper gift bags and attached a handmade ornament to each. The year before I covered formula and outmeal cans with kraft paper and did stencils and stamping on each. Everyone can't wait to see what I make each year and it does not cost alot. This year I am stamping and decorating tote boxes from Close to My Heart to put my cookies in.

Besides cookies, I have made other items. I made boxes of cards from scraps for my family members two years ago. Everyone loved it and now they want more cards. I made scrapbooks for my parents and sister. Mini books for other people. Lunchboxes with planners and other goodies inside. I even sold a bunch of planners on ebay and earned $1000 last year to put towards Christmas. I did alteredt paint cans filled with bath goodies for some of my friends--you can get bath puffs adn gloves at the dollar store, then get smaples from bath & body works and fill the paint can. This costs about $10 per person.

You can make coloring books for kids in your fmaily--there are tons of free pages to download off the internet and you can make the cover personalized.

Hope those ideas help--I have lots of pics of stuff I have made in my gallery.

I hesitate to put this on here since some of my friends frequent this site. I'm hoping though that you can come up with more suggestions.

What I am doing is making or altering a CD holder and making CD's with files that my scrapbooking friends will find useful. I have some freeware programs like a graph paper printing program and a freeware giftwrap program (it prints typed words on a diagonal). The latter one was made by a cyber friend of mine - you select the font, font size and colour, type your message and it prints the whole page with your short message on the diagonal. I will do a CD with categorized free fonts or links to free fonts and a free font viewer program. I want to do a CD with links to websites that might be useful like templates, clipart, stamping and embossing, iris folding techniques etc.

It's going to take awhile to organize this but any suggestions on programs or items to add would be great.

How about some free fonts?

Love this thread. I just saw in oriental trading co some of those paper note cubes that are blank white. I thought that I might stamp on the side and personalize with teacher's names. Also in catalog were blank checkbook covers and other items. Now, with this thread, my head is swimming!

Wow, chococat, you sure make a lot of stuff! And what wonderful ideas! I think my DD and I will have tons of fun trying to pull this together. Thanks for the great ideas. I'm going to look at your gallery and see what you've got there to give me some inspiration (good grief, my brain is so fried! I couldn't remember how to spell "inspiration"!!!

And now work is going to interfere with my new ideas! How rude!

I used Clip art from PCCrafter on Iron on Transfer paper and made my Daycare kids Night Shirts out of Mens Hanes white T-Shirts. They loved them.,,

Just found this thread... What a great idea! I'm always looking for inspirations for Christmas gifts.

Anyway, I remember reading somewhere in this board about altering candles by putting pictures on them, but I can't find the thread. Does anybody have a step-by-step instruction for that? Thanks a lot!

I made sets of cute little note cards and put matching liners in ready-made envelopes I got at Office Depot. Then I got Pentel RSVP pens and altered them to match.

They are the kind of pens with the clear barrel. You can take them apart, wrap ribbon around the ink cartridge and secure with a glue dot, then put them back together. Then you tie ribbons on the cap. I also used some self-adhesive rhinestones to decorate the cap. Very, very cute and so simple.

I made 8 sets for my many "grown-up girls" in the family.

Here is the link to the altered candles... I found it the other day, and I think I am going to try it and see how it turns out.

Altered Candles

Rachel

Altered coasters is another idea. Start with a small ceramic tile. You can buy these for $1 at Lowe's, Home Depot, etc. Some tile store will give you a few as samples. Cover with the paper of your choice, wrapping a small piece around the back on each side. Cut a piece of felt to cover the back. Decorate the top any way you want. Think of it as a mini layout. When you are finished cover it with a couple layers of Mod Podge or similar product to seal it. These would make great gifts for Grandparents with pictures of each grandkid on a separate coaster.

Here is a scan of an example of the sets of cards and pens I made. Sorry for the quality of the scan, but you can get the idea. I made them to match, but these colors scanned better.

Handmade note card, lined envelope, and decorated pen

This thread is such a great idea! I used to make a lot of ornaments, and will have to dig some out and take pics. My idea for this year is to actually make ornaments out of old CD's - so I guess that would be "altered CD's". Just seemed like a good "base" for the ornament, and I saw someone do an altered CD on a LO, but for the life of me can't remember who (sorry whoever you are!!).

I am LOVING this thread! So many great ideas that I don't know where to start!

This looks pretty darn cute!!

Conversation Tray

WOWIE!!!!! I WAS AWAY FROM MY PUTER SINCE I MADE THIS THREAD AND HOPING Y'ALL WERE LOVING IT!!! NOW WITH ALL THESE GREAT IDEAS, I KNOW YOU DO!!! WAAAA HOOOOO!!! KEEP THOSE IDEAS COMING! DON'T FORGET TO POST PICTURES...THEY ARE REALLY HELPFUL TO OTHERS!

This is such an awesome thread!! I have already picked up some great ideas!! Thanks so much!

Here is another one that looks really cute and easy. It is a paper bowl - not paper mache', but made of cardstock.

The patterns have to be enlarged, so I just went to Kinkos and did that. The one they show in the picture is sort of plain, but I think you could easily embellish it with ribbons, etc. to really jazz it up.


http://www.marthastewart.com/page.jhtml?type=content&id=channel184648&site=

Rachel - I love those candles, I saw hers before, but I want to make some, they would be a great gift. Wouldn't the persone receiving it be so surprised when they see a picture on it?

I have only altered 2 frames and a soup can! But I did finish one frame last night for a Christmas gift. It's the $1 frame at Michaels and it's so cute! I have to add a photo to my gallery still. But for the price they are worth it!

I'm making an advent calendar for my MIL (it's actually for her bday which also falls in Dec). It's a flip calendar and will have various holiday pics from over the years on all of the 25 pages. I figured that way she can get it out year after year at Christmas time and enjoy looking back on the pictures from past years.

I'm also making a box to hold cards for my mom. I'm going to include as many cards as I have time to make in it as well. She loves handmade cards but is not into crafting herself so I think she'll like it.

For my kids I"m putting together a special 8x8 album for each of them that shows their growth month to month from the 1st year of their life. My youngest won't get hers this year since she's still in the 1st year of her life, but the boys will get theirs at least I hope!! I don't know if I'm going to have enough time to get all of this done!

Another idea I considered was altering a kleenex box cover. I've seen this done before and it's so cute. There are probably some in the gallery and I've seen kleenex box covers that can be altered in oriental trading mags.

what did you make the soup can for i am curious never heard of altering a soup can

up the chimney

I love the FF box! What a great teacher's gift idea!! You could put about anything small in them. I always get my kids a gift from "Santa Mouse" that they find hanging on the tree Christmas morning. I could put things like hot wheels, lip gloss, makeup, gameboy games, or just about anything little in them! Thank you!!! One thing I did last year is make motebooks for everyone. Super easy! I just took a composition notebook and covered it with pp and used ribbon to tie in the middle. I attached an envelope on the inside for reciepts. I use mine every year to keep track of my Christmas reciepts for exchanges and so on. It's a great way to keep track of what you have and still need for everyone on your list. I will post a picture soon.

Here is another great idea from a recent thread:


Paper Flowers in a Vase - Cute, Cute!

thast is cute

Those flowers in a vase are SO cute, what a neat idea !!

• luv2scrap1968 Said:

Wow! This doesn't sound complicated at all! Thanks for the link, Rachel!

Bumping back up. Don't want this thread to get lost before Christmas!