DIY Holiday Gift Planner
Due to the recent economi–recession (whew I can finally say it!), I’ve been re-thinking my holiday gift giving. So instead of the usual trinkets picked up at craft fairs, this year I’m committed to only using what I already have, along with things I can buy at the grocery store, for the majority of holiday presents. Can I do it? See below for the full breakdown of what I’m doing, along with my timeline. I’m also including a couple inspirational links for DIY gift giving. Because even though the thought counts, the objects count too!
1. Dried Lavender, Rose and Chamomile Sachets: These tiny bags of fragrant dried herbs can be used for underwear, socks and linens, or even stuffed into particularly smelly shoes. You can buy scraps from your local fabric store at a discount, or you can go even more extreme and use scraps of your old clothes. I have a bunch of dresses with cute patterns that I no longer wear, and I’ll be using these for my sachets. My food co-op in Brooklyn has lavendar, rose buds, and chamomile available for bulk purchase. I’m sure any good local tea store would have the same. In addition to using cute fabric, I’m also going to use a bunch of felt I’ve had lying around forever to monogram the sachets, like this. Who knew that making a monogram was as easy as printing out a font and cutting it? One other idea is to make a heatable neck pad by adding rice and elongating the shape. These are supposed to be especially good for those of us who sit in front of computers all day.
3 weeks before:
Pick out fabrics + felt colors, find and download fonts, buy innards for sachets
2 weeks before:
Cut out monograms, stitch onto one side of sachets. Sew/glue other sides together.
1 week before:
Stuff sachets. Sew together remaining seams. Tie with ribbon.
2. Lavender Sea Salt Caramels: I got the idea from this post over at Design*Sponge. These boxes and caramels are so adorable that you’d be hard-pressed to find someone not charmed by them. I figure I can use up the rest of the lavender from the sachet project and make these taste a little more interesting. And luckily, I have a huge store of sea salt given to me by my mom. However, I probably can’t afford to buy fancy paper for the boxes, as seen in the link, but living in NYC has the advantage of having free subway maps constantly at your disposal. These fold-out maps are ubiquitous, and seem to be made of a similar heavy-weight paperstock. If you’re a member of AAA, you can get maps from them for free too. I plan on using old ribbons to tie them up with.
3 weeks before:
Stock up on maps, practice making boxes
2 weeks before:
Make boxes and cut waxed paper for wrapping caramels
1 week before:
Make and wrap caramels
3. Illustrations, Massage, etc: While the above presents account for 95% of people on my list, there are still a few special persons who need something a little extra. For those special presents, I’m drawing on the resourcefulness of my friends. I’m trading them my services for theirs. For a friend who is a massage therapist, we’re trading an hour of massage for my help on her finances. Another one of my friends is drawing a custom illustration of the family dog in exchange for a home-cooked meal. You would be surprised at how many people jump at the chance to trade services. And similarly, you would be surprised at what you can offer people- pet sitting, painting nails, cooking. Sometimes just a plate of gooey brownies will do the trick.
That’s my plan. I’ll keep you updated, with pictures, when everything starts to materialize. Here a couple of great DIY links:
1. Derek and Lauren of The Curiosity Shoppe have a great weekly post on Design*Sponge with tons of great ideas. Click Here.
2. Martha Stewart, the queen of all crafts, has a comprehensive guide to edible gift making here.
3. Craftzine has a great list of fun holiday themed projects here.
What are you giving this holiday season? How are you changing your holiday spending because of the recession? Do you have any tried-and-true DIY presents that are sure to be a hit? Please share!
Photo credit: stock.xchng.
Andrea: You have more patience and talent than most people with your DIY plans. Great ideas. For years I made my own Christmas cards… although this year I’m probably going to go the store bought route. Personally, I’m always a fan of edible gifts… especially after Martha raised the bar with her holiday baking ideas.
One caveat for crafters- don’t be like me!
I had this *brilliant* idea to make 3 quilts for Xmas presents this year. My embroidery block of the month site I like had cutesy “blessings” for quilters each month. I decided to make blocks/quilts for my mom, mother in law and sister in law as they are all quilters like me. At the 11th hour, I am frantically working on the 3rd quilt top- and none of them will be quilted in time for gifting. I will likely be able to present the quilts, but then oopsie- have to take them back for another month or so to finish up.
Not to mention the 4th quilt that’s on my unfinished object (UFO) pile for me to keep for myself!
Andrea, I love the idea of making candy boxes out of subway maps. And the idea of swapping services is brilliant. I have a friend in hair school right now. We’re talking about swapping haircuts for meals.