Homemade gifts: great gift ideas

Part of a gift from my daughter

Everyone can make their own homemade gifts, and with a little bit of thought, most people can even come up with great gift ideas on their own. But it's alright for me to say, because I'm quite arty. However surely, without resorting to making something that turns into a chore to produce and gets finished through gritted teeth, and within our most fascinating interests, coupled with our heartfelt desires to share with our loved ones, we can produce an affordable and simple expression of ourselves to give as a gift.

I've always been suspicious of the idea that the Gross Domestic Product is a good indicator of a country's standard of living, because most of the best things in life are free or relatively cheap. For example, if more people gardened at home, then we wouldn't be buying as much produce and the GDP would be lower than it would if we all went out and only bought our fruit and vegetables.

And then there's the amount of money people spend on gifts (some people that is, not me). How about if we bucked that trend and thoughtfully bought second-hand goods for gifts, or second-hand goods that were upscaled and given away as gifts (think of the popularity of all things retro, or vintage) or thought of what we could produce ourselves from our own ideas to give as gifts. I should have called this post "How to adversely affect the GDP". Both of these activities, homemade gift-making and gardening (and home cooking too) cause a great deal of pleasure, yet supposedly indicate we have a lower standard of living. Whose standards exactly? Don't get me started...

So, back to topic, how does a person come up with some great gift ideas for homemade gifts?

This is how I do it.

I start with my list of recipients. Yes, it seems strange to start at the end, but if I have a list of loved ones, it provides a great deal of motivation. Someone great (who?) once said that the difference between the successful and others is that they can all hear great advice, but it is the successful that act on it. I often hear that quote nowadays, usually when I am attending a free webinar or something and just before they are trying to sell me something (after they have just given away a bunch of free information which was the hook to get you to attend the webinar.) But of course that is true. You can have an idea or hear some great advice, but if you don't act on it, it stays a fantasy, and never turns itself into matter. And that's why I write my list of loved ones who I want to make something for. It is great to have that there at every stage of the project, including at the end when I need one last push to get me to finish things.

As well as that, having a list of recipients helps me decide how big the project should be. For example, if I have 10 people on the list, it is not such a big deal to make a small book, such as my Every Leaf a Miracle project. Although, you would be surprised how tiring it can be to write even a small 16 page book ten times. And before I did the writing, I had to paint each page's water colour background one colour at a time, obviously one side at a time and when that had dried, paint the other side. Carrying out this process times ten is a lot! So having the list handy reminds you that it is worth it for each and every recipient on the list.

However, if you have a project where you have twenty recipients on the list, it may need to be scaled right back, or have part of it computerised, for example, I could have printed it out on the computer, then cut up the pages, and then gently created the page background images with a light crayon. Or you could choose a different project, like cookies wrapped up beautifully, or Julianne's Miracle Cream in little jars from Arthur Holmes or something which you can do for multiple recipients much more easily - these are great stocking fillers or little gifts suitable for teachers, or the postie, or mothers of your children's friends, the ones you've always liked but never really got to know except when dropping your child off here or there.

On the other hand, there are gifts which take a lot more effort and expense, such as a funky apron, which, if one was to make ten of them, would cause far too much stress than is warranted, although I am speaking for myself here. And to have to make ten of them in time for Christmas would cause me so much pain, that to give it to my loved ones would be such a transfer of negative energy that it would negate my reasons for giving to my list of loved ones in the first place. That's why the planning and advanced thinking of the gift starting with the list of recipients and then figuring out the effort and expense of materials is essential at the beginning.

So how can you come up with your own great gift ideas now that you have a list of recipients? The next bit in the process is to Know Thyself. This includes ones capabilities. After all, if you have difficulty sewing a straight line, own a machine from the middle ages which is stored at the top of your linen cupboard behind five winter duvets and you're not sure if you have spare needles, don't know how to adjust the tension, and your memories from school sewing class fill you with fear, rushing out and spending $200 on enough fabric for an apron project (no matter how amazing, as Olive Juice's all are) for ten people is not wise. Also, if this is your first homemade gift project and you are not sure if you will last the distance, it's best to start small and simple.

Could you start with a set of bookmarks made from beautiful card, with amazing quotes or poems on them, and with stunning photographs from a beautiful recycled calendar glued to the other side? Or your very favourite recipe, the one that everyone loves and could maybe even include the odd family secret (like my mum's to die for scone recipe, and her special trick of grating the butter into the flour instead of "cutting it in"), printed out beautifully with an amazing photo of the finished product and maybe even a short piece about how this recipe came into your hands or other fascinating historical information?

Then there are the old favourites (well, they were favourites in the 80s), "mix tapes", collections of your favourite music on CD. I still have one given to me by an old boyfriend - to this day, every time I hear any of those songs I think of him painstakingly compiling the "mix tape" for me and the strange cover art he photocopied for the CD. I like to think he put a lot of thought into it and that's why each song is special now. Maybe I wasn't even the only girl he gave that mix tape too. It makes no difference to me, I still love his selection.

Anyway, this post is already a bit long. I have another coming up soon on managing the cost of homemade gifts, particularly when I think one should invest in the best quality materials available.

I would love to hear what kind of homemade gift ideas others come up with, or have even tried yourself. Please leave your comments.