Great Christmas ideas!

In response to my last blog entry, my dear friend Stephanie thought of some really awesome, yet inexpensive gift ideas and I wanted to share them with you! Here they are:

*Placemats, cloth napkins, or tabble runners. They are all super easy to make, and very cheap if you get the fabric at a discount home fabric place. They usually have the wider bolts of fabric, so you only need like a yard and half for 8 placemats.

*I'm making my boys personalized letters right now. I bought big 10" tall cardboard papermache letters at a craft store for $1.50 and then I am going to piant them a plain color and then paint on things that they love like tanks, helicopters, stuff like that. Or a soccer ball for nathan. Anyway, they are going to be for their trophy shelves in their room.

*It's super easy to make a nice wall hanging for someone. I print out a poem I think they would love on Velum (5x7), usually it might have some kind of nice border around it. Then I mount it on a shiny piece of cardstock/cardboard (gold, bronze, silver) that is 8x10. Then I mount that in a matted frame (11x14) It's really easy, my printer can print on velum (it's just inkjet but just make sure to let it dry for a while (like an hour) otherwise it will smudge. Or you can take it to Kinko's and they will print it for like $.10-$1.00 depending if you want color or not. And a simple way to make a cheap frame look nicer, especially like a $1 store or a wal-mart cheapy is to get one that is a really plain solid color and just sand the very edge, so the wood grain show through. You could easily do this project for under $5 and it is personalized for the person you love.

*My kids love soap that is personalized. You can melt regular soap in the microwave and then pour it into a mold and put a little Mc Donald's toy or action figure half way into it. Or you can buy the soap and mold plain from a craft store and put a few drops of fragrance oils in it too. I have a kit for this from a lady I used to live by in utah. But she even had little confettis and curliey-q's that we would put into clear soap. It's not a big deal kind of present but it makes a fun stocking stuffer or something fun for your kids to give to a friend. You can experiemtn with different colors and do layered ones too, all you have to do is let each layer cool in the fridge before you pour a different color.

*Ken loves a blanket I made for us one of our very first Christmas. I hate to put it on my bed now because it doesn't match the colors, but I'm thinking of doing another one. In fabric paint I painted on (it looks like embroidery) a 3 line poem about him feeling love in my arms or something like that. I can look at it if you want and get it exactly. But he has absolutely loved that blanket. I should really make another one.

*My kids love fun pillowcases, and blankets too. But a new pillowcase that reflects what they are into at the moment is super easy. They don't care if it doesn't match their bedding at the moment.

*Dress up clothes for stuffed animals is always fun. I'm going to be doing that for Rose this year.

*Things with pictures is really nice. Like photo albums, or a photo collage. Or even cute ways to display souvenirs. Ken really really loves things like that, that remind us of stuff we did as a family or as a couple. He just likes to see things in our home that will remind him of good times because he is usually pretty focused but whenever he see it then he smiles or tells me about it. Like I just bought a $1 hurricane glass jar and put sand and shells from our Anniversary trip that we collected. That was pretty much our only souvenir from our whole trip, other then pictures. Or I put together a photo album that is only pictures of us and there is a cutout in the front that has a picture of us too, so that sits on top of our entertainment armoire in our room.

*The boys love having just a huge basket and put all sorts of stuff to organize things that are special to them. Like a binder and plastic sleaves for all their pokemon cards (you buy the sleeves by page protectors and they are way cheap). A plastic container for special lego builds. They really like it when I get them something that protects things that are special to them and helps them preserve it too. Like putting their Pinewood Derby Cars in a small plastic case (you buy it at a craft store).

I would STILL love to hear what else you all come up with, so keep the ideas roll'n!