The perfect Christmas gifts for your children are not always the ones that cost the most, but can be the ones that you make with your own hands.
With a little bit of creativity and effort on your part, you can add a personal touch to the holiday by treating your kids with a personalized gift, made just for them.
Here are some inexpensive, easy ideas for making personalized gifts for your children this Christmas.
Hair Barrettes and Pins
What’s your daughter’s favorite snack? You can turn a potato chip, pretzel, cracker or other snack food into a durable, wearable pin or hair barrette with just a few simple supplies.
Buy a bottle of Golden’s Polymer Medium, available at most craft stores, or use clear nail polish. Dig through your snack cupboard and find a perfect potato chip, Dorito, Sun Chip, pretzel, animal cracker, saltine cracker or any other snack food. Brush on a thick coat of the polymer and allow to dry. Attach a pin back or barrette back, also found in craft stores.
If candy is your child’s thing, you can do the same with a fun-sized candy bar wrapper. Carefully remove the candy bar from the wrapper, leaving the wrapper as intact as possible. Stuff it full of cotton balls and glue it shut. Paint with polymer and add the pin or barrette back.
If your child is a dog lover, you can do the same with a dog biscuit.
Picture Friendship Bracelet
Take a photo of your child and a few friends standing in a line, shoulder to shoulder. From the photo print, cut out a strip of just the faces. Wrap the photo strip in clear contact paper, attach a Velcro dot to each end and it’s a friendship bracelet.
Personalize Photo Frames
Does your child have a favorite photo? Maybe one of him with Grandma and Grandpa? A picture of him with friends from graduation? A basketball team photo? Put the photo in a plain, clear Lucite frame and glue embellishments around the edges.
For decorations, check out the craft store aisles, scrapbooking supplies, beads and buttons.
Think 3-D! You can glue coins, game pieces, soda bottle tops, dice, ticket stubs, jigsaw puzzle pieces, jewelry and lots of other things to a frame.
Make a Scrapbook
If your child is involved in a sport, club or other activity, make a scrapbook with things you’ve saved. Newspaper clippings, programs, score sheets, photographs and other mementos are special when they’re bound in a book made by you.
Leave some empty pages at the end of the scrapbook for your child to continue keeping memories.
Make a Puzzle
Make a puzzle out of a large class photo or team photo. PositivelyPuzzled.com will take your photograph and turn it into a jigsaw puzzle. The company offers different sizes and for different ages, for $10-$30.
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