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.)

• bookmarks {corner, magnetic, patchwork, elastic}
• book cover {basic, pieced, reversible, ruffled}
• reading journal/log {(Also see the book covers!) topics, printable, more complex ring-bound option, pages for kids}
• chain for reading glasses {hang-up tutorial, chain tutorial, tutorial for both}
• marking kit {decorate mint or other small tin and add sticky notes, a golf-sized pencil, etc.}
• bookplates {printables1, printables2, printables3, links to various printables  (Print onto label sheets.)}
• book weight {tutorial1, tutorial2}

Back to the gift guide