When having young children or teens, it can be hard to come up with homemade gift ideas that are not..well. Blah. Better to use your time and money on something that will not end up in the closet unused or the goodwill bin. Do not give something just for the sake of giving. Put feeling behind it and be sure to cater each gift to the individual. THAT is how you make it special.
Encourage the lesson of what the Holidays SHOULD be all about. It can be hard with the push of media to buy. buy. buy. It seems so many children (and adults) are in a mind frame of materialistic give me's. By instituting the love of giving in a child as young as possible. Showing them the worth of personalizing gifts instead of the mainstream expected to give or receive outlook. It's not about the latest and greatest. It's not all about it's monetary worth. It's about loving your friends and family. Appreciation and togetherness.
How about making a few bookmarks or bracelets with beads, fabric and/or leather to go with a book gift or book store gift card. Add something more personalized to a gift that would other wise seem as though you have just placed money in a card with very little thought.
Make a few the velvet flowers. Then hand sew beads in groups of 3 to 4 beads a strip around the center where I put a folded over ribbon (long enough for an average book size marker to hang out) on one end. The beads are a clear shiny color which made perfect for dew drops. The Bee is actually a button I found in of course, the Button section of my local sewing store. A pack of 3 for $1.99 and that was during their buy one get one sale so it was more like $1 for that card. Use imagination. Browse the net for more ideas to spark your flower creations.
I found a fantastic tutorial for the flowers and decided " Why redo what is already perfect?".:http://ribbonflowers.blogspot.com/2009/01/how-to-make-5-petal-ribbon-flower.html
She gives a very nice illustrated and explicit tutorial on making the 5 point ribbon flowers. BUT I will add that you can make them with fabric like I have. I could not find velvet ribbon in a color I wanted so I used the velvet fabric instead, cut to the dimensions she shares.You will find she lists 2 ways to do them. Go past her first bit to midway down for the sewing how to.
How about making a few bookmarks or bracelets with beads, fabric and/or leather to go with a book gift or book store gift card. Add something more personalized to a gift that would other wise seem as though you have just placed money in a card with very little thought.
Make a few the velvet flowers. Then hand sew beads in groups of 3 to 4 beads a strip around the center where I put a folded over ribbon (long enough for an average book size marker to hang out) on one end. The beads are a clear shiny color which made perfect for dew drops. The Bee is actually a button I found in of course, the Button section of my local sewing store. A pack of 3 for $1.99 and that was during their buy one get one sale so it was more like $1 for that card. Use imagination. Browse the net for more ideas to spark your flower creations.
I found a fantastic tutorial for the flowers and decided " Why redo what is already perfect?".:http://ribbonflowers.blogspot.com/2009/01/how-to-make-5-petal-ribbon-flower.html
She gives a very nice illustrated and explicit tutorial on making the 5 point ribbon flowers. BUT I will add that you can make them with fabric like I have. I could not find velvet ribbon in a color I wanted so I used the velvet fabric instead, cut to the dimensions she shares.You will find she lists 2 ways to do them. Go past her first bit to midway down for the sewing how to.
Now for the leather bracelet my Lil Man made for Panda. I cut a suede leather strip long enough to fit around his wrist plus added 4to 5 inches to the length for tying. Be sure to use a wrist of comparable size to your recipient when measuring out your strip. The width will be up to you. Make a "cuff" style with 3 inches wide or make a bracelet style with 1 inch or smaller for the width, being sure it is sized right for any charm you add.
A simple Star charm found in the jewelry making section for the middle. Silver beads sewn on with thread as close in color to the suede as possible was used. These may appear simple or easy for some but for a 7 year old boy just learning to sew, this was a big deal.
The pride they receive from making such trendy and skilled gifts will make it all worth any frustrating "hovering" you may need to do. Like re threading a needle for the above bracelet 4 times. Push said needle back through the hole in the suede 7 times because thread is wrapped around the side and control all feelings of taking over and just do it yourself every minute of the half hour it took for him to make his idea a fruitful reality.
~Sweet dreams,
Tammie
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