101 pressies to make!

[Thomzo]

Take a cardboard box and cover with fabric. Then sew (or glue) sequins or beads on. Pretty jewellery or storage box.

Sow some herb seeds now for Christmas giving - take cuttings of geraniums or other house plants to grow on.

If you give a plant make up a book of how to care for it.

Hand made cushions such as patchwork or beaded/embroidered).

For blokes - unpick an old tie and use it as a template for a new one (do guys wear ties these days?)

Zoe

[snapdragon]

lol ina!
sadly i dont think the offer of home-made presents included one for me with my wishlist of more storage... i.e. house or garden bigger than a shoebox
Tally

a Pocket wall
dowel rods, brass eyelets, two or more cup hooks, a curtain/fabric from charity shop or freecycle; stitch rows of pockets of various sizes in matching, toning or contrasting fabric across it in rows, could also use net curtain as the pockets if you want to see the contents. Make single deep hem at the bottom and a double hem at the top, thread the dowel through the lower hem and the lower of the top two, and fix eyelets to the top of the section, screw cuphooks to wall at the same distances as the eyelets, hook on - fill pockets
make one in fully washable fabrics for the kitchen and/or bathroom and in colours to match your curtains in the posh area (lounge?)

tip - dont hang too high

[hedgewitch]

I always give gifts in jars (soup mixes, biscuit and cake mixes)
and plants - everyone loves plants (don't they??)


Another good idea is to print out vouchers.
You can have vouchers for:

baby sitting
gardening
lifts in the car (popular with teens)

The possibilities are endless.

[shae]

I'm doing the same thing this year, but I've decided that I can do swaps with other people, to make the most of their crafty talents as well.
So far I've swapped for:
Excellent condition second hand childrens book (for nephew and niece)
a beaded bookmarK (for my sister)
Knitted socks x2 (for my mum and sister)
Some beautiful mounted pictures of my children (for my mum)
Luckily most birthdays aren't till later in the year, so I've still got time to plan.

[mrsflibble]

I can't stand giving plants as gifts to anyone other than those family members or friends who I know will care for them. I hate to think of them being mistreated!!

[LBR]

Lip balm
Dry skin salve
Medicinal salves
Crocheted lap blankets, leg warmers, scarves
Special baked goods
Home-made meal for someone on a special diet
Haircuts
Back rubs
Doing a chore for someone that s/he usually does and doesn't care for
Write a poem or song in honor of someone and read/sing it to them and give them the written version

[ninjascarecrows]

a good idea for a pressie for someone who likes cooking is to dry lots of herbs and present them nicely in a jars with a piece of ribbon round it or a selection of different herbs and spices in a box (cover with wrapping paper or decorate with old leaves, pressed flowers etc) it can be quite nice to write a recipe on a label to give them a start of how to use it, bay leaves, dried chillies, oregano, in fact you could probably put together a fab bbq marinade making kit or italian marinade kit much like the ones you see in numerous department stores on the run up to christmas but much nicer!! in fact lots of department stores seem to put together pathetic 'hamper style' gift sets when i'm sure the stuff we all produce at home is far superiour!!

i like to paint silly cartoons on things , or decorate them with dried flowers or decoupage, i quite often refurbish small items that i've found in skips or from freecycle. i got a hardly used wooden broom and painted cartoon chickens all up the handle for my friend sally and she was delighted.

if your're making pressies for teengers knitting or sewing phone/ipod socks is an idea

lastly the present i've been most pleased with recently was my brother and sister in laws one year wedding anniversary gift. i brewed some mead the week after their wedding (the "honeymoon" drink) and having cleaned up the bottle nicely with a proper cap etc i have written the reading i did at their wedding on the label, i've given them instuctions to lay it down till their tenth wedding anniversary (which from my experience is how long it takes for my mead to become really good). i thought it was a good way to link their wedding day to now and to the future. a friend of mine was given some "port" type home made wine as a christening gift to be layed down till her 21st birthday, it was superb! and i think a fantastic idea. ( and if your home brewing is bad you have 10-21 years to think of an excuse not to be there when the bottle is opened )

the trick with all home made gifts is to have a good thought process behind it ,well that's the same for any gift really how many times are you given gifts that make you vaguely wonder if they wrapped up the wrong thing! it's sad, because inevitably these gifts go to waste, or if you are me they end up on freecycle!! so if you know someone moving into a new home put together a collection of home saved seed which suits their new environment, be it salad to go on the patio, or a selection of herb seeds with a nice set of cleaned up and hand painted flowerpots to go on their window sill (see if you can bring them over to the ish darkside ) if they don't have a garden. .

the major thing with getting sceptics to be happy with home made gifts is really good presentation. i save pretty and interesting shapped jars when i see them especially for things i want to give as gifts, when i make batches of jam or chutney i always make sure one or two jars are particularly nice looking ones, through out the year i pick up "pretty things" as i see them, shells, pressed flowers, leaves, feathers, beads, bits of old ribbons, scraps of material etc, i'm always getting called magpie! but i stash them all away for when it comes to putting presents together so i can make them look really nice and dare i say it "professional"

ok i think that's probably enough now, i could probably go on for hours!
so the short list:

-"themed Hampers" containing home made pickles,dryed herbs, flavoured oils, jams etc
- repainted and refurbished and decorated second hand items (do it well and they'll never know!!)
- mobile phone socks/ipod socks
-home brewed long keeping wines to commemorate events
- home saved seed kits with pretty hand painted flowerpots to bring non ish people over to the dark side mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha

jo

[ninjascarecrows]

sorry, have just realised i have repeated some ideas but my excuse is i have 2am potato sorting fever

[jim]

Last year I wrote up all the interesting walks we'd done and included a sketch map -checked against the relevant OS Explorer. My lady took digital photos of them and we put them together using Word. We listed nearby pubs with comment on quality of beer, food and service at the end of each section.

Finally we printed them out and bound them with a personalized front cover using a comb binder and presented family and friends with their own copies for Christmas. They were so well received that we can't think what to do this year,

Love and Peace
Jim

[prison break fan]

I have really enjoyed reading all these brilliant ideas, just wish I could "change" all my family and friends to people like you!! pbf

[jim]

Bugger changing THEM, just be yourself and give according to your convictions. Your principled stand against consumerism MIGHT just win converts. (Halelujah brother!)

Love and Peace
Jim

[Big Al]

how about candles ??

[sleepyowl]

A staff I have 3 pieces of tree drying out at the moment 2 hazel 1 birch