When we had no kids and Sunday afternoons were a long string of free hours to fill, Heather and I embarked on silly craft projects. In the early part of this decade, I lead her from duct tape purse to sock dogs.
Now, my crafts are usually kid-centric and often unfinished. Julian and I did manage to paint some stars on a plain thermal shirt yesterday with fabric paint and a stencil. It was finished and he wore it that day.
My point is: I love me a handmade gift. I hope I find time to work on some this coming season.
Gift ideas I’ve shared in the past:
- Memory Game – put personalized photos on wood blocks and make it into a game.
- Create a Princess Tutu – this is pretty much a no-sew project!
- Sew a quick newborn hat from a t-shirt
- Create a personalized paper banner
- Embellish a shirt or other item with felt and floss.
Feel free to post comments with links to your projects.
Last year we did the Memory game thing a little differently. We simply went to the thrift store, scored 2 old Memory games and picked out a bunch of pics of family. We bought sheets of sticker material and had our photos printed on them in the correct size. Using my scrapbooking tools, we cut out the pics and stuck them on the used pieces from the game. We found a new box that was the correct size and made a label that said “Smith Family Memory Game” . My parents and in-laws loved it! The cousins did too – it was a lot of fun to see their faces when they realized we included pics of them =) Everyone assumed we had it custom made or something but it was relatively easy and cost less than $5!
Sister, you sell me short. I believe the sock dogs were your idea but some of the others were mine…duct tape, totally me. Kids pants, me. So if by “lead” you mean you were fully in charge of figuring out execution rather than conceived the idea but no more… ok, maybe you did lead.
I am a former art teacher turned freelance writer, mommy blogger and columnist. I just wanted to chime in and tell you how much I appreciate your work on this site!
I LOVE your ideas!
Thanks for sharing with all of us!!