December 06: Make some cool holiday gifts!
December 4, 2006 at 2:32 pm | In getcrafty column, projects to do |I keep seeing all these great handmade tutorials all over the place for making everything from cards and holiday decorations to presents for everyone on your list… so I’ve put together links to a bunch of free online how-to projects for you to check out, if you haven’t already spotted them. Happy DIYing!
*now updated with new projects at the top of the sections, with more to come!
Decorations and Embellishments
elf stitchette by Hillary Lang, mirror garland by Kathy Cano Murillo, dreidel by Star Wars Kids Crafts, and soft tree by Stephanie Barnes
The CRAFT blog has cool new tutorials for making paper stars, a video for stylishly wrapping presents with fabric, DIY gift tags, and fun-fur mini tabletop trees. And One Hour Craft is offering a gold star for the top of your Christmas tree how-to.
Crafty Chica created a new collage wrapping paper project that’s super-customizable! Kiddley has a ton of cool kid-friendly decorations to make: a gumdrop wreath, paper garlands, Christmas pinatas, a pom-pom garland, and a paper doll/ornament.
Natalie has posted some amazing new projects over at the CRAFT blog — a Santa peanut ornament, stenciled holiday cards, crocheted snowflakes, photo ornaments, Star Wars holiday collage cards, and a MAKE magazine podcast on making woodcut cards… wow!
Alicia of Posie Gets Cozy wrote up a beautifully photographed tutorial on making your own Santa Lucia dolls this week. And Cake + Pie has a very cute stockings how-to, including the finishing touches.
Here’s a big list of all the CRAFT magazine how-to project podcasts to date, including a pom-pom tree and garland, and a MAKE podcast on making woodcut cards.
I also added a how-to for a quick and easy flower ornament this week. And One Hour Craft has a new yo-yo ornament project up as well!
Sarah sent in a great tutorial on making a button tree by embellishing a styrofoam cone with pearls, beads, buttons, and broken jewelry from your stash. Cute photos are here.
Hillary Lang has posted a Wee Wonderfuls Stitchette elf pattern on her site… so adorable. She’s also shown how to make adorable ornaments and decorations using cotton balls, of all things!
Kathy Cano Murillo, AKA Crafty Chica, has a gorgeous round-up of past holiday projects on her blog — everything from mini mirror garlands to glittered cards, ornaments, and boxes to make your holidays sparkle!
Anh-Minh posted an amazing Plexiglass photo display that could look incredible with your favorite photos or vintage holiday cards.
CRAFT magazine’s site has a projects page with free downloadable how-tos and patterns — the bird stencils would look great on cards or windows! You can even get their new patterns automatically delivered podcast-style via iTunes. Plus, the holiday projects section of their amazing blog has all kinds of ornament how-tos — I love the Star Wars dreidel and ornament especially!
Stephanie Barnes of Little Birds Handmade has published her pattern for making simple, beautiful soft trees — download it and make a forest in all different sizes and fabrics.
And Sunset magazine has put together a lovely mix of articles on making wreaths and garlands, easy ornaments (I love the photo ones in particular), mod paper ornaments, centerpieces and table toppers, creating your own gift wrap, and making a modern menorah and advent calendar. Sunset is one of my favorite magazines — it’s very crafty!
Gifts
boyfriend hat by Bleu Arts, bath salts by Susan Beal, kanzashi by Maria Binns, and silhouette necklace by Abigail Percy
A new round of amazing projects are up on the CRAFT blog: tutorials for making stuffed animals, solid perfume, v-stitch scarves, and coin cufflinks.
One Hour Craft has a tutorial for making a quick, adjustable bracelet, and Vickie Howell added a new holiday-themed knitting needles roll to her site this week. And Christina Loff wrote up a great snow globes how-to using miniature figurines and baby-food jars.
The CRAFT blog recently posted a tutorial for twisted-wire tree branch earrings.
Cutting Edge is offering a pattern for a fleece pocket scarf, appliqued with snowflakes. And Laural of thimble.ca has an inspiring project index, offering tutorials on some of her cutest projects, from a zippered pouch to a super-simple belt. Check out her recipes, too!
Sunset also has recipes up for cocoa in a jar — classic, Mexican, peppermint and mocha. Don’t miss their Gifts from the Kitchen section — spices, liqueurs, and delicious things to bake. And then there’s a fun soaps projects to make, too.
Leah Kramer of craftster posted a round-up of fabulous gift ideas from the site, all using basic techniques — decoupage, soaps, marble magnets, and etched glass.
Check out the Craftster winter holidays forum for lots of ideas, too. And of course there are inspiring how-tos all over the boards — check out this row-counter bracelet tutorial by skutterat — the perfect gift for all the hard-core knitters in your life!
Speaking of knitting, why not try making Aunt Purl’s Easy Knitted Felted Bracelet Bag? It takes less than two hours, start to finish! Ansley of Bleu Arts has posted a Rolled Brim Boyfriend Hat pattern too, as well as a great lip balm tutorial. If you want to whip up some bath salts or salt scrub to go with it for a whole bath and beauty package, I just posted an easy tutorial for making two kinds — coffee-cinnamon and green tea-ginger.
One of my favorite sites for inspiration, CraftyPod, has amazing podcasts and projects, including plenty sorted by type: check out all the Holiday Crafts, Bead Crafts, and Paper Crafts Sister Diane has put together.
The wonderfully redesigned not martha site has a great things to make section, including projects like wineglass charms and party crackers. And for the sewers on your list, how about a darling little wrist pincushion from My Little Mochi?
Whip-up has a fabulous collection of tutorials up, including a customizable silhouette necklace by Abigail Percy and beaded bracelet by Linques Design.
Maria Binns’s One Hour Craft has an incredible array of quick projects to make — look through the categories (like the All Time Favourites and Great as Presents sections) for projects like Kanzashi cloth flowers and customized stamps.
One Hour Craft has a great list of kids’ craft projects too, and don’t miss the fun Arts and Crafts projects over at Kiddley, collected by Claire of Loobylu.
Finishing Touches
I just added a few gift wrapping 101 ideas for recycled present packaging.
Adorn has some pretty handmade projects up from their print issues, too — crochet some little flowers or make some paper-covered boxes… perfect to add to your handmade gifts. Also, be sure to take a spin around Nice Package on flickr for tons of inventive ideas on wrapping and packaging all your presents this year.
I would love to update with more ideas so please e-mail me (susanstars at yahoo dot com) or comment and I’ll add your suggestions… happy handmade holidays!
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Wow, what a great crafty holiday round-up, Susan! My bookmark list is now overflowing from all the excellent links.
Comment by Marisa — December 5, 2006 #
wow! What a great list of links.
I have put my own how-to for button trees, if anyone has button overflow. http://mamanjackjack.blogspot.com/2006/11/so-you-wanna-make-button-tree.html Photos here:http://mamanjackjack.blogspot.com/2006/11/button-button.html
There are so many cute things in the new Cutting Edge magazine, and there is a free felt scarf project here:
http://www.cuttingedgemag.com/freeproject.php
Comment by Sarah — December 5, 2006 #
Wow, these are great little gifts for Christmas!
Comment by xylaphonic — December 5, 2006 #
Thanks for the mention. Will come back and visit your blog in my holidays!
Cheers
Mia
Comment by mariabinns — December 5, 2006 #
I’m so glad you guys like the ideas! There are so many creative projects out there… I’m really excited to spotlight the ones I’ve found so far.
Sarah, thank so much for your links — I updated and added them both, plus some cute projects from thimble.ca.
I’ll keep updating as I get more suggestions, too!
Comment by Susan — December 6, 2006 #
[...] For more how-to ideas, check out the holiday gift ideas round-up I posted a few days ago, too! [...]
Pingback by Make it: quick and easy flower ornament! « West Coast Crafty — December 8, 2006 #
Wow! This is so cool. Thanks for all of the information!
Comment by Ally — December 21, 2006 #
The dreidel is very nice and so is the flower. Cool ideas.
Comment by truckerswife — December 22, 2006 #
Hi,
Love your site!
I have a fairly new craft site, and I’d like to invite you to add any craft articles or patterns (your own or those you are legally entitled to submit) to my article directory at http://www.joannes-crafts.com/index.php or with regard to patterns, to the main site at http://www.joannes-crafts.com (click on Contact Us to submit a pattern).
Blessings,
Joanne
Comment by Joanne Martell — January 5, 2007 #
Peace people
We love you
Comment by HelloWorld — April 28, 2007 #
Thanks for sharing your idea to us. Really is cool.
Comment by Diane — August 15, 2007 #
WOW! What a great collection of crafts. There are so many gift ideas it’s got my head spinning.
Comment by The Holiday Gift Guy — October 6, 2007 #
[...] here at whip-up, and on the subject, I’m planning to repost an updated/expanded version of my December 2006 holiday crafts mega-post, which was a lot of fun to do last [...]
Pingback by Holiday craft picks, whip-up style! « West Coast Crafty — December 5, 2007 #
[...] holidays, projects to do | I’m so busy this week that I thought I’d do a re-post from last year’s (Dec 06) getcrafty column with the list of fun handmade holiday projects I put together then. Disclaimer: I haven’t had [...]
Pingback by Handmade holiday crafts, part 2! « West Coast Crafty — December 13, 2007 #
i love that red necklace with the buck, i wanna make/buy it. it looks amazing.
Comment by marcella — December 24, 2007 #
Wow! Those are really nice looking crafts that’s definitely worth trying. The bath salts jar looks……unique
Comment by maurice — February 14, 2008 #
I have always been a tech geek and have been searching for a cool way to display all my digital photos that are now currently stuck on my computer. I know there are digital picture frames that you can use all year, but, I was looking for a way to display them during the holidays, especially Christmas. I could only find one kind of digital photo ornament on the market and they only came in 3 colors and were round, kind of boring. Then the other day I came across a brand new digital photo ornament that is not even available yet, but the company is taking pre-orders and will start shipping in June ‘08. The digital photo ornaments are amazing and come in all shapes and sizes and they have free shipping. Every ornament also comes with a free digital picture frame to use year round. You just take out the LCD from the back of the ornament and insert into the frame, pretty cool idea! Go check them out http://www.thedigitalgiftshop.com
Comment by Leonard — May 1, 2008 #