For one reason or another, many of you will be making some gifts.  Maybe you can’t afford to purchase gifts.  Maybe you just want to add a handmade touch to your gift-giving.  Maybe it’s the last minute, you forgot to purchase a gift, and you have supplies on hand but not finished items.  Whatever your reasons for wanting/needing to craft gifts, I hope you’ll find some useful ideas here.

(And if you’re planning to make some and buy others, or if you’d just rather purchase your gifts, check out the rest of the gift guide.  There are some pretty neat products/companies here that I discovered while putting it together.)

Obviously, there are hundreds (thousands? millions?) of tutorials and patterns “out there,” and I can’t possibly link to them all!  What you’ll find here is a list of ideas for things that can be crafted, with one or a few links to specific tutorials.

(By the way, most of these should be relatively simple.  I’ve assumed that if you have mad skills in some particular area, you have no shortage of things you can sew, knit, or whatever your specialty is.  This list is for the rest of us so, while there might be simple sewing, knitting, or crochet skills required for some, there’s nothing too involved.)

• Joshua basket kit {Combine a copy of Celebrations of Faith with a collection of stones and a permanent marker.}
• personalized game {Monopoly-like example}
• celebrate plate {I like this service.}
• baked goods {I’m sure you can come up with your own, but here is Allrecipes’ dessert section.  If you really need inspiration, search Pinterest!}
• popcorn seasonings for movie nights {recipe1, recipe2, ranch,}
• mixes for baking together {Try cornbread mix with chili mix (and a can of beans) + a brownie or cookie mix.}
• puzzle {Maybe use something like this or this to put a map of a special location on it?}
• scrapbooking or genealogy kit/finish-it-yourself album {how to get started scrapbooking, charts, printable trees, forms and charts}

Back to the gift guide