Anyone making Christmas gifts this year?

[sisterpine]

Greetings from Montana! Just thinking, if you all are making some Christmas gifts this year perhaps I could sneak a peek in your brain and get some ideas for myself! So...how bout a list of things handmade going out this year for Christmas! thanks, Kathleen

[Dawndra]

There is a thread on the Families board about this very topic... you might have to go back a few pages, but it's there...

I'll be making twined rag rugs, a quilt, flavored hot cocoa to give away...

[westbrook]

Fleece coats, baskets (with jam, bread, wine, and butter), baskets (with aloofa, goat milk soap, and goat milk lotion), recipe books of our families recipes, Christmas ornaments that I make. The sons in the Army will get boxes of cookies, cakes, candies.

[cowboy joe]

Baskets filled with homemade jams, hot peppers, cake in a cup and cookie trays are in store for family & friends this year. Might add some other hand crafted items if there is enough time.

[sue currin]

I am doing pen and inks this year, making my frames and mats. I am doing apple butter and mapel syurp for the ones that i don't have to ship, because they weigh so much, my daddy use to give away country ham, every body wanted his ham, he was so good at curing it.

[Maura]

I used to make jam, notecards, mittens, and other stuff. Now, everybody wants my soap. I just made some with a couple of friends yesterday and had a lovely afternoon. I'll be making more this coming week. I'm also doing a little sewing and knitting.

[RenieB]

I have knitted twenty tube hats for the family and a couple of friends. Now I am working on knitted socks. They all snowmobile and these hats and socks will really help keep them warmer. I will probably add some gifts in jars, like cookie mixes etc. We just can't buy for all the family and I think it is much more fun making stuff for them. Oh I also have a bunch of Christmas mugs I picked up last year and they will be given with hot chocolate mix or hot cider mix. We plan of placing all in large gift bags.

RenieB

[Jen H]

I've got all sorts of throw blankets either planned or already on the loom. Every family on my list gets one blanket - 17 in all.

[Dawndra]

WOW.. that's a lot of blankets!

[Jan Sears]

I am making laundry bags out of material I got on sale. One for each kid. Each bag will have a tag attached which I will make out of white duck material which will say something like "Bobby's rotten socks". I will make them so they can hang it somewhere in hopes that they will use it instead of the floor. For some of the young girls I was thinking of photocopying a Little House on the Prairie Christmas story where Mary & Laura each get tin cups, a candy cane, red mitts & a heart shaped decorated cookie. I would then give them a copy of the story with all the aforementioned items. I am also making apple crumb pies. I get folks to save me there foil pie plates all year round & buy apples in season.

[limey]

Dawndra - did you ever post the instructions for making twined rugs? If so, I must have missed it. I would be really interested in them. Thanks, Diane

[Dawndra]

not yet... I know Iknow... I need to... someone found a book in their library about it... I'll try to get the directions on...

[Jo]

There are ideas on the HGTV site and hit the craft site and there is also a recyle page with lots of ideas, I would post it, but I couldn't get it to work. I can go in off my favorites but i couldn't get it to work off a site.
The other place with crafts is the better homes and garden site
www.bhg.com
Kitchen ideas
www..suite101.com/article.cfm/7596/54715
Hope this will give a few ideas......

[MelissaW]

I'm making spa baskets for all the ladies (homemade soap, bath salts, bath milk, and some inexpensive candles etc.). I think I'll do football goodie baskets for the guys with lots of tasty goodies and a homemade neck pillow (or safe projectile to throw at the TV in the event that their team is losing!). I'm stumped on what to make for my teenaged nephews. They're not used to getting things that don't light up or make noise!

[coventry49]

Last year I made homemade fudge for everyone and it was a huge hit. I was thinking of doing cheesecake this season, but everyone wants my fudge again, so I guess that's what I'll do.

[Urban Dreamer]

last year i made homemade gift tags that were constructed of those little beads with letters on them. i got a bag of mixed beads with stars and other christmasy colors and made little nametags. they were a big hit and when people took them off their gift they hung them on the tree.

also for something creative, i got a giant bucket of 1/2" sized foam pre-cut letters and wrote out sayings and names and stuck them right on the wrapping paper.

i often give photo albums from family trips or other photos I have taken, framed or matted. I'm also a photographer, but people generally love photos.

each year (it's become somewhat of a tradition now) i take plastic or cardboard tubes and put a champagne party popper inside, rigged up with duct tape and stuff. i toss in some chocolates, confetti, little sayings and other trinkets and basically they're like those new years 'crackers' only homemade.

[Nette]

Peanut brittle, homemade bread, and one lone hand-knit Christmas stocking. My brother and his wife have helped me a lot this year during the renovation of my grandmother's farmhouse, so I wanted to do something special for them. They have a spectacular treehouse that overlooks the pasture for our milk cows. My plan is to knit a stocking with a picture of the treehouse (bedecked with a Christmas wreath) with the woods and sky in the background, and use Holstein cow buttons in the green pasture below. This is a pattern I made up using a barn, so I figure it won't be too hard to adapt it to the treehouse.

[Leay]

Cheap baskets with a bottle of homemade vinegarette, home-made applesauce, jalapeno mustard and home-made candles. I'm making my two grand-nieces and grand-nephew those fleece blankets that have the ties all around them. Haven't started them yet but they look really easy and should go fast.
Leay

[westbrook]

I have one question.......

How do I get on everyone's Christmas List?

[Mrs_stuart]

My 12 year old dd is making bird feeders. We cut a limp out of a silver leaf maple tree and she hacked it up into 18 inch sections, had dad drill in 1 1/4 inch spots with a paddle bit (2 holes on each side about 1/2 inch deep). she then attached a eye hook on the top. She is enclosing a recipe of bird suet to make and fill into the holes. She has made 4 and is going to make 2 more. ( i hope she is gonna give her ol' mom one )

My dd is also making a cross stitch for her grandma.

I am giving lots of handmade lye soaps, bath fizzing bombs, body scrubs, jams, jellies and of course, my personal fav...cookies. I love to make cookies and i love give them away.

Belinda