Christmas Present Crafts - Three Original Gifts For Kids To Make And Give

Are you looking for new Christmas crafts - something different? Here are three fresh ideas to get keep and your kids busy and creative.

Christmas Ornaments with Kids' Photos

Your children will love giving these to their grandparents each year.

To make one, cut two identical stars from cardboard. Cut a hole the right size to frame your child's photograph in the centre of one of them. Decorate the stars by painting them gold or silver and gluing on craft jewels and sequins. Use a black marker pen to write the year in the centre of the star that has no hole in it. Once the stars are dry, glue your child's photo into its star frame. Arrange the two stars back-to-back, with the decorated sides facing out, and glue together. Punch a hole in the top and add a loop of silver or gold cord to hang it by.

Your home-made Christmas gifts will decorate the tree each year, and be treasured as your children grow up.

Christmas Candy Crafts

These make a wonderful Christmas gift for a family. Make cookies on sticks, like lollipops, and give them happy faces with candy. Here's how:

Use any chocolate chip cookie recipe. Put balls of cookie dough onto non-stick baking paper on a baking tray, and poke a lollipop stick horizontally into each cookie before baking it. Once the cookies are cool, lift each one by its stick, dip it into melted chocolate and then coloured sprinkles to make the hair, and stick candy on with chocolate for the eyes and mouth. Wrap in small cellophane bags, one for each member of the family. Tie ribbons around the tops, and attach a gift tag with each person's name. Delicious!

The Great Christmas Candy Chase

This Home-made Christmas gift will be a hit! It's also a cool present to give a family.

Buy a large men's shirt, preferably in bright red or green, from a second hand shop. Wash and dry it. Using a hot glue gun, glue wrapped lollies and candy about every 5cm (2 inches), all over it. Fold it, and wrap it up along with these instructions:

"The Great Christmas Candy Chase: On Christmas Day, Dad needs to put this shirt on, shout, 'Ho, Ho, Ho!', and run away. This is the signal for all the kids to chase him and get the candy!"

If Dad isn't fit now, he soon will be!

I hope you enjoy these new Christmas crafts, and the pleasure of those who receive your gifts. Happy Christmas!

The author of this article is Giselle from Original-Kids-Crafts.com.

Original Kids Crafts for Every Season and Occasion - everything from juggling balls to horse chestnut animals.

Check us out for more original craft ideas.

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Fun Ideas to Create A Unique Baby Gift Basket

There are some gifts that allow us to be as creative as we want, such as gift baskets. So if you are going to a baby shower, you may want to consider making your own baby gift basket for the mom-to-be. There are fun ideas you can think of to make your baby gift basket unique. Below are some that you can choose from.

A unique baby gift basket can be a lot fun to put together, especially when gift items are made personalized. If you know how to embroider manually or if you have an embroidery machine at home, why not consider to personalize a few soft baby blankets or newborn clothes for the baby. All you need to do is to include the baby's embroidered name or initials onto the clothing or even the birth date. There are also local tailors who can do the job for you in case you cannot or don't have a machine to use.

Embroidered gifts would also be great such as baby's first Christmas ornament with his/her engraved name or initials, or you might want also to include engraved baby bottles, sippy cups and other personalized feeding supplies that the mom can be used to feed her precious little one. You can put these personalize gifts in whatever container you want to use and organize them in a way that the personalized details are obvious. You can wrap the entire gift with clear cellophane or you can leave it open, depending on your choice. You can also use a bow or a pastel ribbon to decorate the gift basket.

Sewing or making hand-crafted gift items make a thoughtful gift idea. Instead of using a traditional wicker basket, why not sew a diaper tote bag where gift items will be placed. This is one way to customize a baby shower gift and may also include other hand-crafted ideas such as cloth diapers, baby blankets, baby clothes, burp cloths, bibs, baby booties and the like. These custom presents will round out the customized gift basket you specially made for the mom-to-be and her baby.

You can think of a theme for the gift basket. This adds more fun and can make the present more creative and unique. One of the most popular themes is the color theme. This can be a single color or a combination of multiple colors that is suitable to the gender of the child. If it is a baby boy, the color themes you may want to use can be mint green, blue, light blue, brown, or yellow. But if it is a baby girl, you can use colors like pink, lavender, or orange. To further decorate the basket, you can use fabrics that match the nursery theme or reflect the mom's favorite colors, prints, or characters.

Unique baby gift baskets are just one of the most creative ideas for baby shower gifts that people can choose from. They are also available in many different selections in the market or online that suitable for a variety of baby shower themes that are popular nowadays.

Janet is an author for a variety of lifestyle issues and topics including weddings. If you're looking for personalized baby gifts, visit the website Prettybabygifts.com and browse their extensive collection. Find baby gifts more online!

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Candy Wedding Favors

By far one of the most popular wedding favors is candy. The versatility of candy and the ability to coordinate it to just about any wedding makes it a guaranteed winner with brides and guests alike!

Here are just a few great candy favors ideas for your wedding:

o Buy large colorful lollipops as favors and place them in your table centers or arrange them as your table centers! Your guests can then help themselves to one as they like.
o Again give lollipops but have your guests names 'iced' onto each one. You can then use them as name cards as well.
o Visit a wholesaler and purchase candies in a range of different colors and shapes or coordinate them to your wedding colors (if possible). Present them in clear plastic boxes or mini glass sweet jars for a colorful favor!
o Remember all those great candies from your childhood? Well give your guests a trip down memory lane with some retro candies.
o Mix together candies and chocolates for a colorful favor with a touch of luxury!
o For a cheap and cheerful favor, package colorful jelly beans in a cellophane bag and tie up with curling ribbon. Or put them into clear plastic favor boxes for something a little more stylish!
o Have candies made (or make your own) in shapes and colors to coordinate with your wedding, for instance, starfish and sea shells for a beach wedding.
o A popular trend for wedding receptions in recent years has been the candy bar. A buffet style table set up with jars, bowls and dishes of different candies in coordinating colors or simply just a mix of favorites. Add in some little scoops and bags and your guests can help themselves to their wedding favors!
o Coordinate your candies to your wedding theme or season, flowers and butterflies for a summer or garden wedding; pumpkins and leaves for a fall wedding.
o Create personalized favors by having your names and wedding date 'iced' onto large candies.
o Create goody bags with other favors such as soaps, candles, mini photograph frames etc and top them up with a selection of candies.
o Be innovative with your packaging - a selection of candies in a clear topped aluminum tin looks far more stylish than candies wrapped in a bit of tulle!
o Give candy coated chocolates as an accompaniment to some thing else, for instance, a sachet of hot chocolate mix and some candy coated chocolate hearts.
o Candy coated almonds make for a modern twist on a traditional favor. Give them in threes or fives to represent health, wealth, happiness, longevity and fertility.

Mae Andrea is a professional writer who collects wedding favors and wedding related articles. She is working with a wedding planning social networking company that caters to all the wedding needs of brides in almost every major center in America.

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Make Gift Baskets For Fun & Profit

Putting together lovely gift baskets is the way to give a memorable gift to anyone at any time of the year. Now you can assemble gift baskets, and at a very low price! Baskets come in a variety of shapes from traditional round to oval, square, heart-shaped, and circular. Some have a couple of handles, others are colored brightly, while still more baskets are as natural as the reeds that make them up. Of course not all baskets are made from reeds; you'll find those made from plastic, metal, tin, fabric, or combinations thereof.

Basic Baskets

Decide what item[s] will be going into that gift basket.

Group the items together. It is best if the largest items are in the center or at the back, so it creates a pyramid shape. If in doubt about sizing your gifts to your basket, just measure the tallest part and the circumference of your gift items.

Make sure your basket will be a bit larger than the items.

Decide what you will fill your basket with: plastic grass, tissue paper, raffia, crinkled or shredded paper or a towel.

Add your items carefully and securely.

You might be able to find a cellophane bag that is large enough to cover a gift basket and add that.

If using cello wrap, make sure you have a large enough piece. Using clear tape, apply to the bottom of the basket to help secure it. Sometimes it may be necessary to tape around the width of the basket. If so, please use invisible tape!

Tightly gather the ends of the cello wrap and tie together tightly with a twist tie. Then add a bow, making sure it's securely attached.

Adding a gift card is always a nice idea. Your gift card should have a loop in which you add a short length of ribbon or elasticized band which you then attach to the perimeter of the ribbon or twist tie.

Make Your Own Shredded Paper

All you need is a nice quality paper shredder and some plain colored paper and you have your own basket lining at virtually no cost, and no effort!

Basket Themes

Creativity rules here when it comes to what you can add to a gift basket! Determine whom you will be giving this basket to, if this person is male or female, and what their interests are. Here are just a few ideas to get you started.

Baby ~ Stuffed toy, blanket, booties, cap, bib, baby powder, mobile, pacifier, books, blocks, toys, bath & body items, music CD, and baby shop gift certificate.

Bath & Body ~ Soap, loofah sponge, lotion, shampoo & conditioner, whipped shea butter, bath salts, sugar scrub, aromatherapy bath oils, bubble bath, washcloth, rubber ducky, spa gift certificate, relaxing music CD, and scented candles.

Birthday ~ Balloons, candles, stickers, bubbles, toys, games, teddy bears, dolls, jewelry, books, gift certificates, cookies, candies, and fruit.

Bon Voyage ~ Travel guides, maps, compass, travel diary, passport holder, atlas, travel size toiletries, and gift certificates.

Bridal ~ Scented candles, bath & body products, spa gift certificate, gourmet chocolate, flowers, lingerie, champagne, wine, crystal, other gift certificates.

Chocolate Lover ~ Chocolate bars, chocolate candy/bon-bons, chocolate cookies, hot chocolate mix, cocoa butter lip balm, cheesecake, chocolate scented bath & body products, chocolate candy, and gift certificates.

Coffee Lover ~ Sometimes you can combine this with the Tea Lover gift basket. Varieties of coffee, honey, creamer, sweetener, coffee mugs, coffee pot, Thermos, coffee-scented soap, coffee sugar scrub, coffee-scented candles, coffee shop gift certificates.

Corporate/Executive ~ Wine, spirits, gourmet foods, imported chocolate, personalized gifts bearing company logo, cheesecake, fully stocked picnic basket, and gift certificates.

Gourmet ~ Pancake mix, imported jams, cheesecake, candies, cookies, cheese, chocolate, condiments, teas, coffee, fruits, syrup, smoked salmon, truffles, olive oil, imported vinegars, pasta, biscotti and gift certificates.

Sports Lover ~ Sports Lovers baskets can include a variety of general sports, or specialize in one sport like golf, football, hockey, etc. Including tickets to a game, a stopwatch, popcorn, nuts, wine, beer, snacks, cheese, toys, t-shirts, baseball cap, autographed team/sport merchandise, and gift certificates.

Tea Lover ~ Sometimes you can combine this with the Coffee Lover gift basket. Varieties of tea bags, tea cups/mugs, honey, teapot, tea infuser, blocks of tea, tea cakes, wafers, cookies, tea-scented soap, tea-scented candles and gift certificates.

Wine & Cheese ~ Fine wine, wine glasses, champagne, napkins, cheese, cheeseballs, cheese spread, crackers, biscuits, wine soap, and gift certificates.

Other Theme Ideas ~ Movie Lover, Congratulations, Easter, Pet Lover, Retirement, Anniversary, 21st Birthday, Sweet 16, Game Lover, Music Lover, Gardener, Book Lover, etc.

Buying Your Gift Basket & Accessories

Finding an excellent bargain for the basket itself is quite easy. You can locate them at your local dollar store, Goodwill, Salvation Army, thrift shops, flea markets, swap meets, garage sales, craft stores, discount stores and online.

Also, don't be afraid to be creative when selecting a basket. You can easily find other sizes/shapes that will perfectly match your theme. A Christmas sleigh for Christmas presents is an obvious choice. But how about a bucket, mailbox, birdhouse, birdcage, or large mug to name just a few alternative basket ideas?

Cellophane, organza bags, tissue paper, ribbon/bows and plastic grass/shredded paper, can be located at discount stores, drug stores, craft stores, packing suppliers, and online.

Once you've made your first gift basket you might be hooked to this creative way to give gifts and will make many more! Gift basket assembling is a profitable business that can be started right in your own home. Make certain you have enough storage space for all your baskets and supplies! Investigate wholesale options for the products you will be adding to gift baskets. And make sure you do your research about starting a small home-based business.

About The Author

Lisa Maliga, owner of Everything Shea Aromatic Creations http://www.everythingshea.com offers a fragrant selection of designer shea butter glycerin soaps, exclusive Whipped Shea Butter, & unique SoapCakes personalized for any happy occasion. Visit http://www.lisamaliga.com/giftbaskets.htm.

Lisa_Maliga@msn.com

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Craft Bazaar Best Sellers

Many groups and organizations use craft bazaars to sell items their member's make to increase funds. The items can be as simple as coffee mugs filled with wrapped candy, or business items for desks. A mug full of paper clips might make its way to a secretary's office. Give a mug cake with icing on top to someone in your department at work. You don't even have to bake one in the cup unless you want to. Just purchase a double pack of cupcakes, and set them down in two mugs to give away! Wrap them in clear, or colored, cellophane for sanitary reasons. Decorate a card with the recipe on it to hang around the jar lid if more ingredients must be added to the contents of what is inside. Or print some labels with a special quote from you on them to attach to all the gifts you make.

The mugs are a fun project for scouts or 4-H groups to raise funds for their treasury. You can purchase a box full of coffee mugs at thrift or consignments shops very reasonably. Fill them with what you like, and business sales will boom.

Sit down with paper and pen, and think of all the wonderful handmade gifts that were given to you as you were growing up. If you can remember what they looked like, most of the time you, or someone else, will be able to find instructions on how the craft item was made.

Marking each craft item with the sale price is essential. No one likes to ask the prices of everything they look at. Make it easier on the customer, and save yourself valuable time, by pricing each item you have available for purchase. You may have three customers at once, and you don't want all of them waiting in line just to ask the sale price of an item. Walk up to the front of your display and pretend to be a customer. Are you pleased with the way each item is placed on your table? Can the display be improved in some way? Working problems out ahead of business hours will save both you and your clients time and money.

Find more information on country crafts [http://www.carolscountrycorner.com/category/crafts/] at my website Carol's Country Corner [http://www.carolscountrycorner.com/]

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Making Your Own Potpourri

Making your own potpourri is easy and fun. It can be as simple as a bowl of lavender buds, or a mass of different dried botanicals with fragrance oils. Any craft store will carry a selection of dried botanicals that you can use, along with fragrance oils. You can use potpourri oil, candle scent or soap scent for your potpourri.

Think about the size of the container you need to fill. Larger dried flowers such as globe flowers or strawflowers will take up more space than chamomile or lavender. You can either use all natural botanicals, or dyed varieties, depending on what you want the finished look to be. For more inexpensive potpourri, you can use filler made of wood chips, or wood curls. These will soak up scent and cost less than the dried florals. Common scent fixatives used in potpourri are orris root, oakmoss or cellulose fiber. These absorbent materials will soak up your fragrance and you don't have to worry about oil spots on delicate botanicals.

Here are several recipes and design ideas for your own potpourri.

Rose Garden. Use a quarter cup of fixative (orris root, oak moss or cellulose fiber) and mix with a teaspoon of rose fragrance oil. Let this sit and absorb while you mix the rest of the botanicals. In another bowl, toss together one cup of whole rose buds (any color), one cup of rose petals (any color), half cup of chamomile flowers, half cup of white statice, one quarter cup of rosehips and a handful of eucalyptus leaves for green color. Blend with the fixative.

Holiday Pine. Mix a quarter cup of fixative with a teaspoon of pine fragrance and set aside. For the botanical mix, use 1 cup of miniature pine cones, quarter cup of rosemary leaves, half cup of rose hips and colored globe flowers in red and green. For an extra festive touch, spray paint half of the miniature pine cones with gold spray paint.

Lavender sachet. For this, you need to purchase some tulle circles or sachet bags at a craft store. Mix an eighth cup of fixative with half teaspoon of lavender essential oil. For the sachet, you want small pieces of botanicals, since they aren't very big. Mix together one cup of lavender buds, half cup of chamomile flowers and add the fixative. Pour into the sachet bag, or for the tulle circle, place the potpourri in the center of the circle, gather it up and tie with a pretty ribbon. You can use these sachets in closets or a dresser drawer.

You can package your potpourri as gifts in either gusseted cellophane bags tied with a pretty ribbon, or a fancy glass jar with a lid. To get the most out of your potpourri, keep it in a covered container until you want to scent the room, then remove the cover. This will preserve the scent for a longer time. As the scent fades on your potpourri, you can place it in a zip top bag and add fifteen to twenty drops of fragrance oil to the material. Shake well and let it sit overnight before placing back in your container.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Crafts

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Great Cookie Wedding Favor Ideas

What better way to say thank you to wedding guests then a wonderful cookie wedding favor. However, the question in most people's mind is what are some good ideas for a cookie wedding favor. You do not want the cookie wedding favor to be to simple and homemade looking that others will laugh but you also do not want it to look commercial and mass produced. So there is a delicate balance that must be held with all wedding favors.

By following some of the ideas below you can easily select a fun cookie wedding favor that will please everyone.

Less is more

This is really true when it comes to cookies. You do not want to overload the guest with a huge bag of 25 chocolate chips cookies placed in a zip lock back. You will want to go for a more sophisticated taste in cookies for a wedding favor. So instead of piling on tons of cookies go with just a few very elegant cookies. Less is truly more, more elegant, more savored, and more of a cookie wedding favor.

Unique cookies

Touched on this concept a little bit in the above paragraph but when putting together a wedding favor made up of cookies it is important to chose very fancy cookies. You do not want simple chocolate chip cookies. It can be helpful to do some search online and in cookbooks to find some classic cookie recipies. One way to keep them unique is to do a few different types of cookies and then place only one or two of each type of cookie in the wedding favor. This means there will only be a total of maybe 6 or 8 cookies but they will all be very unique.

It's all in the wrapping

Presentation of the cookie wedding favor is also very important. No simple zip lock bag will work for this situation. The time of year, type of cookie and theme of the wedding will really dictate the wrapping. For example if it is a autumn wedding favor a pale pink tissue paper will be to subtle for the season. So try to think about all three things, theme, time, and cookies when putting the wrapping together.

Below are some sample ideas that can work well. However none of these are set in stone and it is more important to use these as suggestions only and then be creative and see what works for your situation.

Fortune Cookies

These are an easy old stand by cookie that has quickly become a very popular wedding favor item. What makes them so fun is the ability to individualize the fortune inside. Also they are easily wrapped in Chinese to go box. These can be dressed up and made more elegant by dipping them in chocolate or even dipping them in white chocolate. Also a white chocolate with orange flavoring can be a nice touch. Wrapping them in gold, silver or bronze foil can also dress your basic fortune cookie up. As for the package it is very easy to find a Chinese food carton in a variety of colors. Just make sure to think about the colors of the wedding and try to tie these in to the favor as well. A simple personalized wedding label or tag can be a nice addition to round the gift off.

Wedding Cake Cookies

Want a little more whimsical and fun cookie wedding favor? Then a cookie shaped and decorated like a wedding gift can be the perfect touch. You can easily order these online or make them yourselves. Any recipie that uses shaped cookies like sugar cookies will do the trick. Then frost them in a white and add some cake decoration with the frosting. Adding personalized touches can really make these cookies become showstoppers. For example decorating each cookie in a unique individual way so no two are the same really helps. Also adding a personalized message to the guest can be a very classy addition. You will want to display the wonderful artwork of the cookie and display the effort that has gone into making these wonderful gifts. Therefore place these in small cellophane see through bags. Then tie them off at the top with a gold ribbon and a customized wedding label or tag.

These are just two very simple ideas and it would be easy to think of a lot of others. Again by contemplating on the wedding theme, time of year, significant colors and so on you can easily derive a very creative or classic cookie wedding favor. By taking the time and planning before hand you can easily purchase the materials you need online or at your local craft store. If you decide that there is no time for homemade cookies and want to purchase them again you can do this easily online. Many people also like to go with a combination of purchasing cookies and then personalizing them with a label or wrapping. Just make sure you leave yourself enough time and plan ahead. This should be a lot of fun and if you give yourself the time to be creative you will end up with a wonderful cookie wedding favor.

Chris Ryerson is the owner of Plan Best Wedding [http://www.planbestwedding.com]. A great resource for: wedding planning articles including wedding music, wedding favors, wedding gift [http://www.planbestwedding.com] and more. Read this article on Cookie Wedding Favors [http://www.planbestwedding.com/great-cookie-wedding-favor-ideas.htm]

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