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Need inspiration for a handmade Valentine gift idea? I’ve put together a little collection of Valentine’s Day inspired handmade tutorials from around the net.

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I made up some hampers for Christmas this year. The hampers had an ‘afternoon tea’ theme and included a plate, a hand designed and embroidered tea cloth, some fresh QLD coffee beans, Northern NSW English Breakfast tea, homemade choc-chip cookies and homemade caramel filled truffles. To give the hamper a sense of unity I used the same paper to make all the packets. The labels were created using GIMP.

Homemade hampers are an inexpensive, personalised gift for any occasion. While they may not cost a lot, a lot of time, thought and effort goes into making these. The key to making them great is having quality ingredients inside all the fancy packaging.

So I thought that I would share how to make up these pretty packets and boxes.

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It’s easy to buy all our Christmas decorations, but we can extend the fun of Christmas by making some decorations in the weeks before. I’ve put together a collection of Christmas decoration tutorials covering a whole range of craft techniques that will, I hope, inspire.

An easy ornament that my grandmother used to make was wrapping pine cones with tinsel and putting these on the windowsill.

A great source of inspiration is the shops. There displays can be amazing and the ornaments lovely, but usually I think, “I can make that.”

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Stuck for a Chrissy gift idea? On a budget? Why not make your own Christmas gifts. I’ve put together a series of articles with ideas to help you get inspired. There are thousands of patterns and tutorials on the net, these are just a taster for inspiration.

If you haven’t already check out Part 1 – Bath and Body , Part 2 – Home and Garden, Part 3 – Accessories and Part4 – Food gifts.

A great way to gift your handmade goodies is to package them all together in a gift basket or hamper, or just a beautifully made gift box. One one hand I’m not keen on commercial gift hampers, but personalised handmade hampers are a totally different thing. I prefer not to use baskets but something that is going to be used.

One of the things that I like to do is to collect a few ideas such as hand embroidered napkins with homemade biscuits and personalised gift packed coffee on a inexpensive serving plate with matching mugs.

Themed hampers work well too, like spa hampers or baby hampers or garden hampers.

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Stuck for a Chrissy gift idea? On a budget? Why not make your own Christmas gifts. I’ve put together a series of articles with ideas to help you get inspired. There are thousands of patterns and tutorials on the net, these are just a taster for inspiration.

If you haven’t already check out Part 1 – Bath and Body, Part 2 – Home and Garden and Part 3 – Accessories.

For some of these recipes you will need to sterilise jars and bottles and possibly preserve using a water bath.

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Stuck for a Chrissy gift idea? On a budget? Why not make your own Christmas gifts. I’ve put together a series of articles with ideas to help you get inspired. There are thousands of patterns and tutorials on the net, these are just a taster for inspiration.

If you haven’t already check out Part 1 – Bath and Body and Part 2 – Home and Garden.

(more…)

Stuck for a Chrissy gift idea? On a budget? Why not make your own Christmas gifts. I’ve put together a series of articles with ideas to help you get inspired. There are thousands of patterns and tutorials on the net, these are just a taster for inspiration.

If you haven’t already check out Part 1 – Bath and Body.

(more…)

Stuck for a Chrissy gift idea? On a budget? Why not make your own Christmas gifts. I’ve put together a series of articles with ideas and inspiration to help get you started.

There is nothing more special than a gift handcrafted with love. Rather than just buying whatever, something at the last minute that is mass-produced and anonymous, you’ve spent time and effort in making a thoughtful and personal gift that should mean so much more to the recipient.

Some of these gift ideas require some handmade skill, others involve buying select products that have the recipient in mind and putting them together in a unique and attractive way.

While there are thousands of patterns, recipes and tutorials on the web, I’ve selected just a few as a starter.

These are some of the easier personal care products to make. The key making a great gift is the packaging and presentation. Nice jars, either recycled (coffee jars work well) or cheap jars or pump packs from the $2 shop and ribbons and wrapping will make attractive, professional looking gifts for less. Bath Products are great to make up as a hamper with a face washer (hand embroidered?) or loafer or towel on a soap dish or plate. Most of the ingredients can be bought at the chemist or health food shop, or you could try online soap suppliers.

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