Homemade Gift Ideas: Clay, Cards, Cookies, Candies

Homemade gifts, big and small help show you care with a personal touch. Every year I try to make something for family and close friends, like a DVD of a reunion, something hand-sewn for the kitchen. Small clay ornaments, like the ones above, can be a gift in itself, or a decoration on the top of a gift. I made these to my kids as a way to help build enough ornaments for when they move out.

Consumables are always popular with teachers and friends who already have everything they need. Sugar cookies are a winner for locals, but they don't ship well. This year I made candied pecans for my family. For every 3 cups of shelled pecans, you'll need one egg white whipped with a drizzle of water, to coat the pecans before stirring in a mixture of 3 cups of sugar, with about a teaspoon of cinnamon and some salt. Bake at 250 for an hour on a large baking sheet, stirring every 15 minutes.

My most popular gift this Christmas was note cards of people's houses It was a trick to get pictures of far flung houses to use as source material. I had to text teenage niece, or brother-in-laws for help on this project for houses outside my town. My sweet husband scanned my pen and ink drawings, added a family name below in Illustrator, and then had them printed at Staples. I'm always looking for new ideas for gifts that might show love for the following year.

Screen Printed Note Cards

note cards I made by screen printing with a paper stencil of a bird

It's always a good idea to keep note cards on hand for last minute invites, "thank you"s, and "thinking of you"s. They also make nice gifts if you bundle a set of five or ten, and that's what I did last year for my family members.  Once I came up with the idea, it was easy to cut paper stencils, tape them on the back of a silk screen, print them onto pieces of card stock, and tie with ribbon in stacks with matching envelopes.

Student image of bird on a branch. We used special heat sensitive ink that disappears when you touch it.

The white of the paper becomes the white of the penguin.

For my students this year, I emailed my friend Matt Forrest images of student bird drawings, and he created screens for them.  We then used paper stencils for a second run, so my students could learn how to print two colors on the same image.

We had an assembly line. One student put the card stock down, one lowered the screen and printed, a 3rd removed.