Good, uncomplicated crafts for family members for Christmas?

I want to do all homemade things as gifts for family members (my sisters and their families, and my bro and his, and then my parents). I think I'm going to get into wool needle felting (because it looks so easy!) and make a few things for a couple of different people. But I don't want to give everyone the same thing. A couple of years ago I got plain wooden boxes and stained and stenciled designs on them for the females in my family, along with a couple of hemp necklaces I made. And then another year I made crocheted hats for everyone. Now I'm out of ideas.

Does anyone have any ideas? I was thinking for the kids in the family, I could make felt storyboards and people/animals/food for them. That's pretty easy, right?

Ideas? Ideas? Come on! Help an uncreative mama out!

[BHope]

I've been making bendy dolls for my daughters stockings. Each doll takes about 15 minutes (not including the time it takes to think up design ideas for clothes. lol.) They're super affordable too. I think the biggest expense was the wooden beads for their heads. You could make a family set for each kiddo and make a felt bag to carry them in.

An image of what I mean can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/princes...ble/240401799/

Another thing I'm doing (super cheap) is that I'm sanding down wooden clothes pegs ( the kind without the hinge.) I'm going to paint a face and feet on them, and then wax them for a finish. I'm entertaining the idea of making simple tube clothes to add as an accessory, but do not plan on getting too elaborate. After all my girls are still rather young. They'd ruin any "fancy" clothes I could create.

I found wooden boxes at the dollar tree that come already hinged and latchable. My plan is to paint the girl's name on the top of the boxes and line the insides with wool felt. I'll put the peg-people inside the box for keeping and wrap it all up as one gift. Not including the price of black paint the entire gift will be less than $2.00 per child.

For my parents and sisters I'm going to try and make a heritage tree. Similar to this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/marycarmensvi/492694004/

We only do family gifts for people outside of our immediate family. So the heritage trees will be a family gift for my sister and her family, my mom and dad, and my younger sister.

[klpmommy]

I am planning on making shape crayons for the kids- melting crayons into candy molds- I ordered dinosaur molds off of ebay (of course it had to be dinosaurs) & am going to experiement with them soon. I think my kids will find that cool.

[Aisling]

Originally Posted by klpmommy

I am planning on making shape crayons for the kids- melting crayons into candy molds- I ordered dinosaur molds off of ebay (of course it had to be dinosaurs) & am going to experiement with them soon. I think my kids will find that cool.

Great idea!

Such great ideas, ladies!!

Manda, what is the body of the bendy dolls and do you make the clothes? And is the hair yarn? It's hard for me to tell.

[Psyche]

I think I'm going to make knotted fleece blankets for my co workers this year. Last year I didn't homemade peanut brittle and hot cocoa mix in a jar.

Baked goods are always good, especially complicated things like tortes (I think those can get expensive though)

Gifts in a jar (soup mixes, drink mixes, etc) are good as well.

[BHope]

The basic "ingredients" to bendy dolls are pipe cleaners, embroidery floss, a wooden bead for the head, and glue.

The picture I linked has a basic tutorial: http://www.flickr.com/photos/princes...n/photostream/

Side note: I use two pipe cleaners to make a larger "mommy" and "daddy" doll. Tutorial here: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index...y;threadid=942

These are some things that I've figured out: 1) Use 6 ply embroidery floss, create a loop in the middle and then wrap all 12 strings. You get better, more even, coverage that way. 2) Hold the floss between your fingers and twist the pipe cleaner. If you try to hold the pipe cleaner and twist the floss you'll struggle with pipe cleaner hairs poking through. Plus, it's just faster to twist the pipe cleaner. Ask me how I know.

Use your embroidery floss for hair. (Or maybe you've got something better? I'm working with limited resources.) Just gather up a bunch, tie it in the center, and poke the tied part down into the hole of the wooden bead. Making sure to add glue before you start poking. lol.

I've found that once I'm done wrapping the bendy arms and legs, that it's nice to go back over the torso with a second color. It gives the doll some "under clothes" and makes it easy to do fairy bendies. For fairy bendies you can use an acorn as a little cap, fake flower petals as a fairy skirt, and flower petals as wings.

For inspiration check out: http://www.weefolkstudio.com/

Thanks so much, Manda!

How are you going to make the tree?

[klpmommy]

Originally Posted by gentlebirth

Great idea!

i totally stole it from marzipan's swap pkg

[BHope]

I love the crayon idea. I've seen similar ideas using left over crayons all melted together. I thought about doing it for my girls, but I'm not certain I'm ready to give them crayons. Not after the mural they scribbled on my living room wall.

As far as the tree goes, I'm still brainstorming the idea. I think all I'll need as far as supplies go is:

• a 6 ft piece of 1x12 pine. (Should be more than enough for three trees.)
• a jigsaw
• drill
• paints
• two sizes of brush. (including a very fine brush that I'm hoping to just borrow from my dad.)
• wooden egg beads
• and a couple dowel rods.
  

I've gone back and forth between just painting it with acrylic or doing something with stains. If I do the acrylic I'll mirror the example picture, but just choose different colors. If I stain it, I may decide to not go into as much detail on the "people" and instead do something more waldorfy in style.

I think I may end up just doing acrylic because they really aren't toys and I shouldn't have to worry about someone putting it in their mouth.

The little people can be painted from the egg shaped wooden beads. I saw something that should work the last time I was at JoAnns.

[2sunshines]

subbing because I"m moving towards handmade gifts at Christmas.

I just learned to crochet so I made dd a little purse. I'm also thinking of crocheting some doll clothes for her.

Originally Posted by B Hope

As far as the tree goes, I'm still brainstorming the idea. I think all I'll need as far as supplies go is:

• a 6 ft piece of 1x12 pine. (Should be more than enough for three trees.)
• a jigsaw
• drill
• paints
• two sizes of brush. (including a very fine brush that I'm hoping to just borrow from my dad.)
• wooden egg beads
• and a couple dowel rods.
  

I've gone back and forth between just painting it with acrylic or doing something with stains. If I do the acrylic I'll mirror the example picture, but just choose different colors. If I stain it, I may decide to not go into as much detail on the "people" and instead do something more waldorfy in style.

I think I may end up just doing acrylic because they really aren't toys and I shouldn't have to worry about someone putting it in their mouth.

The little people can be painted from the egg shaped wooden beads. I saw something that should work the last time I was at JoAnns.

Yeah, I don't care for the colors of the tree on the link. It looks too jungle-y for me, lol. I will make mine look more woodsy if I end up doing the trees and also, I think instead of that shape tree, I will do a pine tree shape instead because it'll be easier. And then I'll just give each "person" their own hair and eye color to make it more personal.

Thanks so much for all these ideas! I still need more though to take care of the rest of the fam!

[Mother of Sons]

I've done a lot of homemade gifts.

one I did a few years ago for the women was a prayer box. I got nice boxes with hinged lids from the dollar store and then I put in a journal and a nice pen, a votive candle in a holder, a nail and a small piece of wood. I might have had a couple of other things in there too but I can't remember off hand. It didn't cost much at all but was meaningful.

Glycerin soaps are pretty inexpensive too. One really easy one is to get a round mold and a silk flower. Pour the clear soap into the mold and then push the flower into it (stem side up) Let that harden a little and then add a little more if needed to cover the stem. It comes out really pretty.

[Aisling]

MOS, that flower in the soap idea sounds so pretty!

[monkeylicious]

i've done the fleece blankets, as well as (pre-children) homespun rag quilts, and painted ornaments, painted trays, and decopage (sp?)trays (using the plain wood trays from michaels)... but this year, i was thinking about painted silhouettes using the kid's profiles like i saw on martha the other day

http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/...extfmt=default

it looked pretty easy. i think the hard parts will be getting a good profile shot of each kid and then getting that shot the right size and printed out for the canvas. i'm thinking i would do my brothers 2 kids for their family and then all 4 grandkids for my parents... unfortunately i don't think my in-laws would appreciate this type of thing... (i'll probably order another set of coasters using pictures from the past year for them - easier anyways!)