Hi, I love looking at your blog and looking for inspiration on new projects but its my mums 40th birthday and I want to make her something special and don’t really know what to do she’s not really into jewelry and i’ve got a mental block. Can you suggest anything ?
I can tell you from experience what I’ve given as gifts that have been really special and well received.
- The first sounds cheap and corny but I’ve done it several times and it has gotten the biggest positive reaction of all: a list of reasons I love someone. If you are having a party be prepared to read it out loud! I just did this for my mom on mother’s day and my best friend for her birthday. So think up forty reasons (funny, little things, big things) why you love your mom and she will always treasure it long after all the other gifts have been thrown away.
- Other ideas are books you make (simple book binding or just glue on an image/photo onto a notebook) here: truebluemeandyou.tumblr.com/tagged/books
- You could make one of those maps of where your mom was born, lived, lives now etc… with a roundup of ideas for that here.
- I love this jersey no sew scarf made from a square of material and just cut and fringed here.
- Easy and cheap sugar scrubs here.
- I put all the cheap but thoughtful gift ideas I liked the best here: truebluemeandyou.tumblr.com/tagged/gift
Any suggestions from the creative people on Tumblr?
- nuestrahermana said: For the person with the question about presents for their mother: Last year I made a “spa” pack with hand knit colorful washcloths, handmade soap, lotion bars & lip balm. Here are some easy suggestions: DIY sugared pecans, soy wax candles in recycled tea cups/mason jars/jars, DIY resin charms are SUPER easy and themed gift baskets are fabulous too! :) Good luck!
- maddisnow answered: Maybe make a decoritve picture frame or some sort of wall art?
- mamaguru answered: My sister just turned 40. I made a book with 40 reasons she’s wonderful and 40 things to look forward to. She loved it.
- a-forest-grew answered: What about home decor type things?
- suchan0utrage answered: I have done the list also, but instead I got a deck of cards and printed each one out, then glued them to the back of each card.
- authoredadornmentsshop answered: Maybe you could take an old picture of her/your family and blow it up and frame it or something.
- sk8itange answered: Vintage book clutch you have great tutorials on that,and if you do it with a twist of a book cover made by you that would be a great gift.
- jaz0ful answered: You could do like a voucher book with things she can reedeem like a foot rub, a dinner cooked by you and just little things that don’t cost
- aboutshed answered: I would log onto Pinterest and search terms for DIY gifts, or “turning 40” etc. Also try entering in some of your mom’s interests and search.
truebluemeandyou: Crafty or Thoughtful Gifts for College. Dollar Store Crafts just got asked this very same question here (where you can see her readers’ suggestions) and I commented using some of my readers’ suggestions (making many many grammatical errors as it’s 2:30am and I’m sleepy). Any new suggestions?
fuxwitutoo asked you: 2012-02-21 16:29
So my little sister is graduating high school soon and I wanted to get a jump on making her a present. I wanted to make her something that she might actually be able to use at college though, not just something pretty. Do you have any ideas for a pretty but still useful thing for a new college kid?
My answer:
I emailed some friends in college and their moms because I was stumped by this question. Also, I don’t know what your skill set is crafting wise. Their suggestions:
- Throw pillow for dorm bed. You could iron on anything you wanted using an injet printer and inkjet fusible fabric.
- Laundry sack - a good drawstring bag tutorial just came up yesterday by The Gunny Sack and has the trendy red cross on it here.
- Some sort of decorative carrier for toiletries since you have to schelp them to the bathroom. You could buy a generic one from the Dollar Store (even one to hold cleaning supplies) and paint it, add stickers, etc…
- Small Decorative bulletin board/white erase board you can buy at the Dollar Store and then decorate.
- One mom said she bought her daughter “Stay Calm and Carry on” stuff because her daughter is always so stressed out. You could generate your own with the keep calm generator I posted about here, and again use fusible fabric (from staples, Michaels, etc…) you run through your inkjet printer to put on pillows, laundry bags etc…
- Small Jewelry Box/Makeup Organizer. Look in hardware stores (small tackle boxes are good), Michaels etc… and personalize it.
- Small Photo Album of friends, family and pets she’ll miss - also Dollar Store or Michaels with coupon.
Suggestions from my incredibly crafty Tumblr friends:
- sherlockcat answered: Fleece knotted fringe blankets in her new college colors. The kind where you take two layers of polar fleece, fringe the edges and knot!
- maniacalmadhra said: Patchwork quilt are always cute and very home like :) my friend is making one for me when I move.
- beatingheart answered: Paint or mod podge a wood storage box (shoebox size to trunk size) & fill w/ her favorite goodies. Then she can reuse for her own purposes.
- coraforest answered: Photo calendars are a great way to display photos, they can be made online, or you can design and print it yourself with a Word template. *Really cheap online right now with coupons/buy 1 get 2 free etc…
- clearlyunclear answered: Make sure to put some cute flipflops in the caddy! An over the door storage hanger! with small gifts like tissues and highlighters in it!
- 4-get-me-not answered: Cute laptop/bookbags are always a handy, stylish gift. :)
- procraftinate said: Printer ink. Or detergent Drops!
- laquinn answered: something for her jewelry…
fuxwitutoo asked you: 2012-02-21 16:29
So my little sister is graduating high school soon and I wanted to get a jump on making her a present. I wanted to make her something that she might actually be able to use at college though, not just something pretty. Do you have any ideas for a pretty but still useful thing for a new college kid?
My answer:
I emailed some friends in college and their moms because I was stumped by this question. Also, I don’t know what your skill set is crafting wise. Their suggestions:
- Throw pillow for dorm bed. You could iron on anything you wanted using an injet printer and inkjet fusible fabric.
- Laundry sack - a good drawstring bag tutorial just came up yesterday by The Gunny Sack and has the trendy red cross on it here.
- Some sort of decorative carrier for toiletries since you have to schelp them to the bathroom. You could buy a generic one from the Dollar Store (even one to hold cleaning supplies) and paint it, add stickers, etc…
- Small Decorative bulletin board/white erase board you can buy at the Dollar Store and then decorate.
- One mom said she bought her daughter “Stay Calm and Carry on” stuff because her daughter is always so stressed out. You could generate your own with the keep calm generator I posted about here, and again use fusible fabric (from staples, Michaels, etc…) you run through your inkjet printer to put on pillows, laundry bags etc…
- Small Jewelry Box/Makeup Organizer. Look in hardware stores (small tackle boxes are good), Michaels etc… and personalize it.
- Small Photo Album of friends, family and pets she’ll miss - also Dollar Store or Michaels with coupon.
Suggestions from my incredibly crafty friends?
- sherlockcat answered: Fleece knotted fringe blankets in her new college colors. The kind where you take two layers of polar fleece, fringe the edges and knot!
- maniacalmadhra said: Patchwork quilt are always cute and very home like :) my friend is making one for me when I move.
- beatingheart answered: Paint or mod podge a wood storage box (shoebox size to trunk size) & fill w/ her favorite goodies. Then she can reuse for her own purposes.
- coraforest answered: Photo calendars are a great way to display photos, they can be made online, or you can design and print it yourself with a Word template. *Really cheap online right now with coupons/buy 1 get 2 free etc…
- clearlyunclear answered: Make sure to put some cute flipflops in the caddy! An over the door storage hanger! with small gifts like tissues and highlighters in it!
- 4-get-me-not answered: Cute laptop/bookbags are always a handy, stylish gift. :)
high res ►
DIY Fancy Bows. I love bows and used to live near a ribbon manufacturer’s outlet so I have tons of ribbon, and this is the last tutorial I will ever need on tying different bows: tulle, pompom, simple, fancy, fluffy, pipe cleaners etc… Tons of photos and clear instructions at Miss Lovie here.
I always made all my Holiday gifts for friends and family (except little kids - they want toys. From a store.). For the people that didn’t appreciate my handmade gifts, I usually just bought them something on sale like really cheap jewelry or something that I didn’t put much care into. I mean why put your time and love into something that isn’t appreciated? What it comes down to is I only make things for people I care about. So it isn’t just about saving money - because you can go to the Dollar Store for that or go to Costco and buy their homemade breads and repackage them in dollar store containers and pretend like you made them yourself. Below are some of the things I actually made that were great successes.
My favorite site to get photo books published and by the far the cheapest and best quality is viovio.com. I have made numerous books - some cheap and some expensive depending on the number of pages. They use acid free paper and have a zillion size/paper finish options. This is where I print out clients’ books. For lesser quality I use winkflash and get their 100 page deal that generally runs about $20 with $6 shipping.
Flannel Shoe Bags. Sounds boring, right? Wrong! Women put jewelry, cosmetics, etc… in them as well as shoes. And I picked out “manly prints” for the guys. I had 30 people on my list that year and made 90 pairs. Lots of people use cotton, but flannel is more durable and won’t show dirt. I wrapped them up with cute ribbon and I still get comments about how much they’ve been used.
Pine cones fire starters dipped in wax with a little bit of glitter. I live in an area full of pines, so thus the cones. I bought the cheapest burlap and sewed up the sides to put the pine cones in, and threaded red ribbon through cut slots around the top. Then Home Depot for (at the time) cheap large galvanized buckets to put the bag in. Lot of praise for that gift!
Photo Calenders. Artscow.com has specials ALL THE TIME (also cheap playing cards etc…). Like them on FB or go to their site to see their amazing deals. I paid about $5 total a calendar last year (but since the stuff is coming from Hong Kong you have to order about 6 weeks a head of time. I wasn’t thrilled with the quality - I usually upload things LIGHTER than what you see on your screen because they print darker - and I didn’t do it with these calendars). They seem a bit uneven in quality so you get super positive and negative comments - but their prices cannot be beat. I also like Costco.com for calendars. You can now put photos in the date boxes, select your own font, type messages, birthdays etc… and I always insert photos into almost every date box to get the maximum number of images I can in - even if they are clip art.
I also go to Good Will or the Salvation Army to make my own Paperwhite Bulb Kits. I try to get really tall vases (because I hate the ones in the catalogues where the vases look pretty but are worthless), making sure the bulbs will fit, fill the bottom with white pebbles, and then tie the vases with white ribbon. I used to buy my Paperwhite Bulbs at Kmart, but you can get them anywhere - the cheaper the better. Also buy them well before Christmas, because they sell out.
Lemon filled cut glass bowls. I have also bought cheap cut glass bowls and elevated candy dishes at thrift stores and filled them with lemons. Lovely present.
Rice “Therapy” Bags with essential oils. Tutorials all over the internet. People really liked these. Don’t pick out boring fabric. But actually I would use Cherry Pits now and there is a good tutorial at Martha Stewart here.
Homemade Vinegar infused with different herbs. This stuff lasts forever and the bottles and corks are super cheap. So is the vinegar! Lots of free printable labels and recipes on the internet. I made one with regular herbs and added a small amount of raspberries to the other - which created a blood red dramatic presentation.
I always tell my well traveled, arachnophobic friend that if someone doesn’t appreciate a thoughtful, handmade gift - especially in these horrible scary economic times, then may be they shouldn’t be your friend. For real.
