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- Homemade Jewelry: Homemade jewelry does require some skill to make, especially more intricate pieces, but jewelry is a notoriously heartfelt gift, even more so if it is personally crafted. Craft supply stores feature a wealth of beautiful beads and materials for earring, necklaces and bracelets. If you don’t feel comfortable making your own jewelry cites such as Etsy are great ways to find hand-made crafts and gifts from individual artisans. Not only will you receive a completely unique gift, but you’ll also be supporting small craftspeople and local economies.
- Do-It-Yourself Baking Jars: A common holiday gift is baking jars. You can buy a 12-pack of Ball canning jars at most any grocery store. Measure and pour all the dry ingredients in a recipe of your choosing into unique patterns inside the jar. Then make copies of the complete recipe to distribute with your jars so that your recipients can complete the baking. What’s great about these gifts is they leave almost no unused waste. Your recipient will be glad to enjoy these easy and fresh baked goods, while the jar can be used over and over for anything from a pencil holder to preserving dry ingredients. What’s more is you can choose any eco-friendly baking recipe you want, from low-sugar cookies to low-fat scones (a personal favorite). You need never worry about your gift going stale either! Dry ingredients stored in air-tight canning jars can last as long as a year.
- Rummage Sales: When all else fails, yard and rummage sales are great ways to find unique gifts at reduced cost. With the cold weather coming in, yard sales are on the decline, but local indoor flea markets can be found using a variety of search engines. The best thing about these sales is the spirit of recycling used merchandise. Everything from vinyl records to storm lamps can turn up, you may find a gift you never even imagined! Plus you’ll feel great giving new life to an old item.
When you find just the right thing, don’t forget your options for eco-friendly wrapping to avoid purchasing and discarding unnecessary wrapping paper.
So have fun on the gift hunt this season, and keep your eyes open for those eco-friendly finds.
17 Comments so far!!
I think a home made gift can be much more personal than a bought gift. My children made me a scrap book for my birthday and I love it.
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I like to make gifts for the holidays. I make food gifts and personal type gifts. I like to make body oils, body butters and bath salts.
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I totally love the idea of baking jars! I think it is actually the greatest thing that everybody can use. And about wrapping paper, I've been very inventive in the past few years. I've used paper from old magazines and Newspapers with headlines that I've saved because I found funny. My gifts are very original!
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jewelry does require some skill to make, especially more intricate pieces, but jewelry is a notoriously heartfelt gift, even more so if it is personally crafted. Yes the personal type gifts that made by yourself is more significative to your friends.
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I gave my girlfriend a bottle of wine with her own label that I printed for her. Fortunately she liked this wine that I found and it was relatively cheap, I put the bottle under water and peeled off the original label. Then I made something for her very personal, and glued to the bottle. After drinking the wine, she keeps it as a flower holder.
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I've got food allergies, so my friends often don't buy me commercially prepared treats but create home-made goodies instead. They require a lot more thought when adjusted to my dietary restrictions, so I really appreciate them.
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I make a lot of my Christmas gifts, most everyone can count on a knitted scarf or felted tote from me and they always love them.
And never underestimate the power of regifting ; )
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Re-gifting.. heheh.. the art of giving that unwanted hideous green woolly scarf from auntie ethel, to cousin violet who is colour blind and feels the cold a lot...
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I really like the idea of turning shells or pebbles into home made jewellry. There are so many poisons invloved in gold mining that I wouldn't even mind a wedding band made from alternative material.
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Baking jars are great but you can put all sorts of other things in jars, I love making journal jars and survival kit jars are fun to make too.
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What fun ideas these are! I especially like the baking jar idea. I had to look up the "journal jar" someone mentioned, but that looks like a fabulous idea, too!
Seems that there's no end to great ideas when it comes to homemade gifts that are more meaningful because they're given from the heart.
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These tips are very interesting, I love the idea of making my own gifts, at least personal thought goes into it.
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These are some great ideas! Also remember that, if you're making your own lotions or cosmetics, those could be great gifts, too.
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These are some great ideas! Also remember that, if you're making your own lotions or cosmetics, those could be great gifts, too.
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I think that the worse the economy gets, the more people will start seeing the wisdom in giving handmade gifts. Maybe 2009 will be a true "old fashioned Christmas."
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Every year around the end of Thanksgiving, the women's club of our church has a wonderful holiday bazaar where I do the bulk of my Xmas shopping. Hand mad jewelry, stuffed toys, baking jar gifts, plants, lots of stuff! Take a chance at a church or club lady's club bazaars. Lots of good stuff you won't expect!
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My sister made a homemade necklace, bracelet, and earrings for me and they were quite beautiful
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kernow says:
This is a great article, you are absolutely right about reasons for...L.Angelina says:
Well I wouldn't say they are cheap but they can be affordable. I...chris1203 says:
I think that these sound very nice. What are the price tags on...Nancy,Baltimore... says:
Reuse those old buttons and stray beads by wiring them onto a old...k says:
@stav- seems to show us that if someone or some organization...stav says:
Fascinating. Who would have thought this was even possible? It just...Ken says:
Definitely sounds good. How can I help in this effort?
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