I’ve made Christmas ornaments before using simple origami shapes and aluminum (from cans) as the paper. I used THIS technique to make a box. You have to be able to cut an aluminum can and make square sheets to start from. I then cut thin strips out to make “ribbon” for the box and it looks like a miniature Christmas present (which it will become). Apply a hook with fishing line or anything that looks good. Make a test one from paper that matches the maximum size you can get from a can to practice on.
And food is always good or a combination of food and an ornament.
For grownups, you can also make infused vodkas or flavored oils for cooking by immersing herbs, fruit rinds, etc. in liquor or oil that you decant into beautiful (thrift store) bottles. With a pretty tag and a ribbon, it makes a nice gift. Vodka with cranberries and a sprig of rosemary would be really pretty for Christmas.
la choy rice noodles, any sort of nut [she made them with broken macadamia nuts for me once, fantastic but peanuts, mixed nuts or cashews work great], peanut butter chips or butterscotch ships[my favorite] mixed into melted chocolate and dropped by the tablespoon onto waxed paper to cool in little spiky piles, sort of like chocolate covered dead spiders
I think she got the original recipe from some womans magazine back in the early 70s as a halloween no bake cookie sort of thing. She had made them with milk chocolate, and the really good dark chocolate - the only things that need to be in it are the noodles, some form of nut, some form of chip and the coating chocolate. I suppose you could use the colored white chocolate enrobing in red and green.
Yeah, I spread Mod Podge on the flat side of the marble-glass-thingy (what is the real term for these things anyway?:p), then press the picture face up onto it. Sometimes there are air bubbles or whatever, so I just press on the back of the picture to smooth it out until it looks good through the rounded side…did that make sense or did I make it more confusing?
Also, if the white glue/Mod Podge stuff gets onto the top of the glass, it’s easy to clean off with a damp cloth.
I think most people would understand times are tough all over and a simple card is enough. But if you must give something, go with cookies, you can’t go wrong with cookies, except for fig newtons, the world’s only awful cookie
How about telling everyone instead of presents ( which if you think about it, what does anyone really need?) everyone gives the gift of time and a dish to pass at a Christmas get together at your place. You will clean and stuff for everyone and let them come to your place. That will be your present to them and the bonus is you will get leftovers!!!
I made a present once for an adult friend of mine. She’s into Snoopy, so a month before her birthday I began downloading Peanuts comics. I looked at the pictures and made a personalized story with Snoopy in it by copying and pasting the drawings out. I had about 30 days worth of comics so I had a lot of pictures to work off of. Then I printed out the finished comics, glued them to a little book/folder thing, and put backgrounds of Peanuts characters as the wallpaper. She liked it
Here’s how we made unique and rustic Christmas ornaments. You will, however, need a saw, or someone to wield a saw. When we used to get a real pine for a Christmas tree, we’d have to saw off part of the trunk, which was usually too long, to fit it into the holder. So we’d have a bark covered pine log about a foot long and 6 inches in diameter. Mr. Sali would get out the saw and slice the log into thin rounds and we’d let them dry out for a few days in a warm place. Then we would make a small hole at the top and thread a piece of wire or ribbon for hanging. On the round of wood we would glue a picture, usually a photograph, and using a sharpie on the back write the year and the name of the person in the photo, where it was taken, etc. and it was ready for hanging! We have a stack of photo ornaments taken over the years and they are really nice keepsakes. I guess you could paint some kind of decoupage glue over them to preserve them.
If you’re giving home-made gifts like cookies and such, Goodwill and other thrift stores are great places to get tins! Even tins that would cost a buck at the Dollar Tree are maybe thirty-five cents. If you’re doing a lot of these tins, that little bit of price break can make a big difference!
I’m ashamed to admit I did not read the whole thread, but did anyone mention “home-made” hot chocolate mix? It should be pretty easy to Google the recipe; it’s basically powdered milk, cocoa and sugar. If you decide to do something like this, again, I’d look for pretty jars at thrift stores/Goodwill stores.
Something a family member did a few years ago was collect a favorite recipe from each member of the family and put them all together in a family cook book. Easy to put togther and print from your computer.
My wife once had a business for a while that consisted of writing short biographies of people, and turning the stories, including scanned old photos, into gift books. People gave these as birthday, anniversary and wedding gifts or gave books of family stories to their children as keepsakes. This might be something you could do for family members or friends. “Memories of Good Times Together” or “Uncle Billy’s Silliest Moments” or whatever.
