Seeking Inexpensive Do-it-yourself Keepsake for Xmas Presents

Go to Hobby Lobby and look thru all the DIY stuff...they have a ton!!! We have done those for grandparents a lot and my daughter loved doing it! They have stepping stones, candles, vases, etc. And they all cost $10!

This is a nice little sentiment that everyone loves to receive. You can make a small box, or buy one and decorate it, wrap it, whatever, depending on how fancy or home made you want it to be. Just tie a ribbon around it and make it personal. Then attach a tag with one of the following poems:

We took an ordinary box,
as empty as can be.
We filled it with a special gift,
And wrapped it carefully.
No need to ever open it.
Just leave the ribbon tied.
And hold it tightly to your heart,
because our love for you's inside.

Another:

This is a very special gift,
That you can never see.
The reason it's so special is,
It's just for you, from me.
Whenever you are lonely,
Or even feeling blue,
You only have to hold this gift,
And know I think of you.
You never can unwrap it.
Please leave the ribbon tied.
Just hold the box close to your heart.
It's filled with love inside.

There is also an angel feather ornament. The ornament is the same and there are many poems to go with it. In this case, it would come from your daughter as their "angel." You take a simple white feather, put it in a clear glass christmas bulb, attach a ribbon around the top with a tag and the proper poem. If you want to use this idea, let me know and I'll get you the poem. (Don't have it here at work, and many of the versions online are for those who have passed away.)

If you go to http://boards.hgtv.com/eve/forums/a/cfrm/f/2894011632
You will get more ideas than you can imagine. You can read through the message boards without being a member, but if you sign up (it's free) you can post your question there and get lots of ideas (I'd suggest the Holiday Craft board). It is actually really addicting once you get the hang of the message board. Have fun and let me know if you have any questions...

A couple years ago we came up with a really neat one, personalized coloring pages!!! Some computer software programs can turn photos into coloring pages. Someone gave me this software. I found photos of each grandparent with my kids and turned them into coloring pages, had my kids color them and then we framed them and gave them away as gifts. It was a HUGE hit!!! Its a GREAT gift for those people who have everything too. Since then, I have turned it into a side business for those people that don't know how to do it or don't have the software. It is cheap once I do a photo, you can print off as many copies as you want.

Go to: www.dreamzandthingz.com to see some examples and for more information.

I am a photographer and I always say... Photos are the BEST gifts!! So any form of those is a GREAT idea in my opinion!! :-)

H S.,

Go to one of those paint your own pottery places, select a 4" tile, put your daughter's hand print on it. It is the best gift we have given our sets of grandparents. They love them dearly.
Where we did it, the tile cost $6, there was a sitting fee of $15.

If this doesn't work, make something similar at home. I once traced all the grandkids' (my children and my nephews) hands and feet onto fabric, cut them out, and made a mobile. I finished edges with my sewing maching, but I'm sure there's fabric glue out there! Each hand was three layers, to give it stiffness; the outsides were fun fabrics and the inside was just filler.

Good Luck!
A.

Check you www.verybestkids.com. They have great projects to do with your child that a inexpensive and fun. You can also get good coupons for Nestle products, since it's a Nestle sponsored website.

Hello S.,

How about making pillows out of old pillow cases/sheets/towels(whatever you have on hand) and allowing your daughter to use fabric paints and markers to decorate them?
What about collecting some leaves and using crayon shavings to make a colorful ornament?- your child can put the leaves between 2 pieces of wax paper, add some crayon shavings, and you can put the wax paper between 2 paper towls and iron until crayon melts
soem websites: livingonadime.com, orientaltradingcompany.com, familyfun.com
Hope this helps :0)

Try Christrmas tree Ornaments! You can make the the dough yourself then bake it.
4 cups unstifted all-purpose flour
1 cup salt
1 1/2 cups water
Blend flour and salt, add water and stir. When water is mixed in, work dough into a ball. Knead dough 5 minutes, or until consistency is smooth and pliable. Add more flour if dough is sticky, or more water if dough is dry and crumbly. Roll dough out on lightly floured surface to 1/8". cut out (cookie cutters are great) and place on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for approximantely 20-25 minutes. With spatula, remove baked pieces to cooling rack and allow to cool completely. Store inised dough in plastic wrap. Makes approximately 3 dozen shapes. make sure to cut a small hole at the top before baking if your using for ornaments.
After they have cooled, let you little ones paint them for the grandparents. It's cheap and you more then likely have the stuff already at home. It's something that is fun to do and the kids feel proud of themselves when they get to give them for christmas. I hope this is helpful!

Hi S.,
For my Mother-In-Law's birthday, I bought an inexpensive wood serving tray and a couple of sheets of scrapbook paper in colors she likes. I traced my kids hands (I have two kids which is why I bought two diffent sheets of scrapbook paper), cut them out, and used Mod Podge to "glue" them on the tray. I also used some other designs I found in the scrapbook aisle to decorate the tray. Then I applied several more coats of the Mod Podge. She loved it and can actually use it. I wouldn't suggest using stickers though. They bubble under the Mod Podge.
ps. Thanks for asking this question. The answers have given me lots of good ideas for crafts for my kids!

Do you know those pens you find at the doctor office that have the big flowers on them so no one will steal them, well I made them for my friends for x-mas one year and it was a hit. They were teachers so it worked to put them on their desk and let the kids borrow them if they forgot a pen or pencil. However, my sister gave me a pot for my office and I love it. It adds color and I always know where to reach for a pen. She also has one at work and at her home desk. It cost about five dollars. You just need a pack of 99cent pens, a cheap yet pretty bunch of fake flowers, green floral tape, little rocks or beans to stick pens in, and a pot which your daughter can decorate with paint and her hand prints. Good Luck!

What about a garden or stepping stone? You can buy kits for about $20 or buy the parts you need and do it yourself. You could do your daughter's handprints in it, add pretty stones or buy mosaic pieces. I'd recommend using the letter stamps over just writing them yourself. There's a TON of stuff you can do to make them personal. Only downside is if you have to mail it... then it's a rotten idea!!

My daughter made this in 2nd grade and I love it, still use it all the time, although we had to replace the lights.

Fill a jar with potpourri and a string of Christmas lights mixed together. White looks classier, but colored lights would work too. Then cover it with a piece of lace fabric and tie with a ribbon around the edge. You'll have to leave the plug hanging out so you can plug it in. When the lights heat up, the potpourri smells good. :)

how about "hand prints"....pour a thick plaster of paris in the lid of a cottage cheese tub or other appropriately sized shallow container.... and have your little one press her hand into it (you can coat her hand with baby oil to keep it from sticking)....i have hand prints of all my kids and am looking forward to getting them from my grandkids....my kids still periodically look at them and measure their hands against them....when it's dry you can paint it or tuck little things around the edges of the 'still not set plaster' for decoration....write her name and the date on the back....

you could do a larger one and have a hand and a foot too!!

i tried doing it once with home made flour and salt clay but after a number of years it disintegrated so i don't recommend that....

they have expensive kits in stores that pretty much do the same thing but with fancy dishes etc...plaster is cheap...you can make bunches of them for very little $$....you could save the dry (unmixed)plaster from year to year and make hand prints each year to show how she's grown....

enjoy!! D.

S.,
In the past we have used the soft crayola modeling clay to do handprints of our kid's hands and added string for an ornament. We have also done one of those clear Christmas ball ornaments and put fake snow in it and then put a picture of our kids in it. You just have to loosely roll the picture and then use tweezers to get it in place then, put the top back on with some ribbon and it is another ornament grandparents can enjoy forever. Another great place to check out if FamilyFun.com or look at the magazine at the library they always have great ideas. Also, you can try oriental express which you can find online. They always have crafts and gift ideas.

Hope you have great holidays and good luck.

A.

Michaels does kids crafts on Saturdays as well, but I think it is like $2 or something like that.

Also another idea is to get a foil pie tin and some plaster. Mix the plaster and pour it into the pie tin and have your daughter put her hand (or both hands if they will fit) and then you write her name on it.

We did this when I was in kindergarten and we still have it. I think we used styrofoam plates or something like that and we put something in the top to make a hole to put yarn through after it dried. My name was written on the back with a sharpie and the date. It is too heavy to hang on the tree, but it could be hung on the wall or even put on a plate stand on the entertainment center (or shelf). (the plate stands that you'd use for a collector plate would work great for that)

I don't know if you like to scrapbook but I found this free software at Scrapbook Flair. I am going to make for my mom a memories keepsake book for christmas. The website has all of the decorative paper and all you need to do is put in your pictures and then print. I bought some 5 x 7 plain white cards at Wal-mart (pack of 50 for $5.00 or so)for the covers and then I am going to attach them with ribbon. Something that she can keep forever and doesn't cost me a lot to make.

Something my husband and I have done with all three of our kids was to purchase glass ornament balls, put craft paint of your choice on a foam plate, then dip their hands in it and "stamp" it on the ornament and let them dry. They turn out beautiful and Grandparents love them. I also make one for myself and i have a full tree of their memories every year.

Blessings,

P.

You can pick-up T-shirts at a hobby store usually pretty inexpensive around 4-5 dollars/shirt. Use fabric paints and place handprints on the t-shirts. Totebags work well also. You can use spare-buttons to sew decorations on for added pizzazz. Another idea is to use tissue paper or pictures of your child and using modge-podge -decoupage a box which is availble at craft stores.

Something we did last year was make a stepping stone. I had the girls each put their hand prints in the stone and they each helped put the stones in. I got it at Michaels for under $20.00. This year we are making a picture book. I am going to blow up a few photographs of the kids and have them each help me scrapbook. I had a friend take some black and white pictures and the others I am taking to Walgreens to duplicate.

You could make puzzle piece picture ornaments. She can help stick the pieces together. Have fun.

I am always a big fan of the picture calendars. We make one every year for the Grandparents. That way they can enjoy the pictures and get to see a new one every month. Instead of one picture on every page, I actually made a collage with pictures and sayings or quotes about grandparents on a piece of paper. I made 12 of these and then took them to Office Depot to photocopy and make into a calendar. Your daughter could also color a picture or do whatever she wanted on a piece of paper, and you could make that one of the pages in the calendar too. Not every page needs to be a picture. I think that they cost approx. $20.00.

I also just made a bracelet at a store called Beads Etc. I made it for my cousins 21st birthday, but you could make one for anything. I made a bracelet with 21 beads, since it was her 21st birthday, and I attached a note with 21 birthday wishes that we created for her! Each bead on the bracelet represented a wish for her birthday! It was beautiful, she loved it, and she can wear it all the time and know that we love her! You could just make one for your grandparents with each bead representing something that you love about them. My bracelet cost $27.00. I don't know how much you want to spend, but the beads range in price from very little to alot! It all depends which beads you pick out!

Let us know what you decide to do! This was a great question. I think a lot of us are getting some great ideas for personal gifts!

S.

Someone mentioned something similar to this already. The handprint wreath with their thumprints as Holly berries. We went to a carpet store and got cheap remnant squares and then made a mat out of it for Christmas gifts. We did the same thing on construction paper and then laminated it for placemats.

Another thing that might sound kind of silly....we went to Chuck E. Cheese and they have a picture booth thing there. (1 token or 25 cents) It takes your picture, but when it prints out, it looks like a sketch. Chuck E. talks and pretends that he is drawing your picture. It has an ugly border around it, but we cut it off and then we made a little scrap book out of them for my mom. She loved it. We put the sketch in, a handprint, a footprint, the year and then had each child write their name. All the things that change so frequently.

Good luck!

We make ornaments that incorporate the kids picture. Or create a calendar with their pics and bdays lists. We are all about trying to stay away from the zillion store bought things and making it personal. You can literally have a field day in places like Hobby lobby or Michaels.

How about personalized T-Shirts? You can pick up t's pretty cheap and then your daughter can decorate them with fabric paints or pens? Add the date and you have something they can look back on and remember.
Have fun, also, what a great question! It has given me tons of ideas for my own kids Grandparents and other family members, so Thanks!
Shane.

We do something with our kids hands every year. Whether it be they paint them and put them on paper plates or make ornaments out of them. The grandparents have loved them every year, becuase they can see how much they have grown.
We also add alittle poem I found online about look and see how much I have grown, and handprints on the wall. Not sure the website though. SORRY!

I always go to Hobby Lobby to pick up a craft or I go on Oriental Trading to get crafts. I run a in home daycare so every holiday we do these things. The most favorite of my parents and grandparents is what we did last year. I bought cheap little doorway rugs and had the kids make wreaths with using paint and their hands. My own mother in law with my son's put hers on the wall because it was to cute to let someone put their feet on. There are tons of different things you really make. Hobby Lobby and Oriental trading are great with different ideas for you. Also just for fun for you and your daughter to make for a at home decoration is a Graham cracker gingerbread house. Those make great fun and decorations for home.

S.,
This isn't a craft project but something I wanted to share. My husband's family started this tradition nearly 50 years ago. Each Christmas every child got an ornament for the tree that was symbolic of something they did, experienced, saw etc during that year. Each was labeled with the year. When each child was grown and had a place of their own, the collection was given to them for their own tree. When we were first married, I opened the box and it was a wonderful insight to my husband's history - a drum in 1979 was for drum lessons, a small alligator was for a trip to Florida, etc. It was a wonderful gift. My profession is in theater and when we have a show opening, I but and label ornaments for the cast and share this tradition.

One other idea is a tree skirt - buy or make a plain skirt and each year trace your child's hands out of felt and then glue or stitch to the skirt. Felt is very inexpensive and is often on sale near the holidays. It is neat to see how they grow and makes a wonderful conversation piece during the holidays, before the gifts are under the tree.

Hope this helps!

Best Wishes,
J.

If you have the time, I hear Home Depot does crafts for kids on Saturdays- and they are free. I haven't been there yet but since this is going to be a tight Christmas, I think I had better check it out myself

Hi S.,

Mine is Christmas related... I bought my mom a sweatshirt, but this could be done on any fabric. I lay it flat on newspaper, paint my child's hand with green fabric paint, and use the prints in a circle to make a wreath out of her hand prints. Then, let it dry, paint her feet red, use her feet as the 'bow'. Thumbprints dipped in red make the berries. Then I used glitter paint to paint the year and their name in the middle. When I did it with my own kids, I had more than one child, so we varied it slightly. Of course, it's messy!! Mine did not mind, but some kids aren't cool with it. I also did this on paper and framed it for my daycare families.

In some craft stores, as well as stores like Walmart, they have this white clay like stuff that you can make handprints/footprints of your child with. That would make a nice inexpensive gift if they don't have anything like that.

Adding to the pen with the flower on top. If you pick a daisy or a sunflower, you can put a picture of your child's face in the center of the flower. My 2nd grade daughter's class did this for the mothers on Mother's Day. It is really cute. I had to make a matching one of my other daughter and both are in a small planter.

I know you said "not made of paper" but my sister and her kids made stationary sets one year and they did cards for year round. Some were done with sponge painting (red cardstock with white snowmen), another was springtime (handdrawn stems and leaves but the flowers were scrap pieces of cloth), another was fall (traced hand cut out of construction paper to make a turkey). I loved the stationary set I got- it was so handy to have around and added a special touch to whoever I was sending the card to. Also, a friend does this thing where she will draw with chalk "thank you" or "happy birthday" then take a digital picture of her child sitting or standing with the chalk writing- then uses the picture on a front of a card. Not really a keepsake- but very useful gift.

I had this idea to get for my mom for christmas.. I was gonna make her one of them fleece blankets that you just tie the pieces together and then i was gonna figure out a way to get a picture of my mom and my son transfered onto the blanket ( or even do a small collage instead of just one picture) .. i dont think you can do iron ons , on fleece so i was gonna take a piece of plain fabric to put the picture on and then sew that in the middle of the fleece...and the blankets are inexpensive to make depending on the fabric print you choose.. i also had the idea of getting a picture on a coffee mug and you can do that at walmart for less the $20 i think its like $10 or something...maybe even try personalized ornaments or snow globes.or what about ( not sure how much this is ) but making your own candles so you can do multiple gifts that way and just personalize with different things depending on what the person is interested in ... hope this helps ...
J.

We did reusable snake picture frames with polymer clay when my son was one. My dad still has his and my sons 7 now .I can send you the direction if this something you mite want to do. There are other shapes too, but we did snake because they were easy for him to roll out
S.

Hi,
I don't know how much money you have...but this is pretty inexpensive. If you have a digital camera, you can take tons of pictures of your daughter and on kodak.com you can make anything from photo books to mugs for under $20.
Have fun
M.

You could make them a homemade picture frame- decorate it with A theme: "x-mas" or just a general message on it- like "Best Grandma & Grandpa in the World!" with a picture of her in it of course- or a family picture.
I've also made homemade tree ornaments with my children and put thier pic's on them- like a frame with a little circle cut-out of the middle for the picture. then can make a new one each year and give to the grandparents, put the YEAR on it somewhere and NAME"- so if they get more & more grandchildren, they can look back at them every year- or put them ALL on their tree. i get alot of ideas from Family Fun magazine or Parenting magzines.

We discovered a great alternative to using paper for crafts, that will last and be usable year after year. We use "foam sheets" instead. In the craft area of most any store you are likely to find it in all shapes and sizes. Hobby Lobby is a good place to find it in the standard sheet of paper size, as well as the different "kits" for making things and buckets of pre-cuts shapes, letters, etc. that have adhesive backs.

Now...for a really precious treasure for the grandparents, or other family: a Handprint Wreath. It is super easy, and done with the foam can be displayed for years to come.

Needed:
1. GREEN foam sheets (in different shades, if you choose)
2. Foam "stickers" (can get these in holiday shapes like ornaments and stuff)
3. Green styrofoam plate (with butter bowl-sized hole cut out of the center)
4. Glue
5. Optional...sequins, glitter, etc.

Trace childs hand (with fingers spread out wide) on green foam sheet repeatedly. You will have enough, when there are enough little hands cut out to go all the way around the outside edge of the plate, overlapped. Space them apart just enough to create a wreathy appearance with the fingers. You can also pick up a piece of red ribbon to create a nice bow to finish it off.

I hope this was descriptive enough--good luck! Blessings! ~Enchantress