Tuesday

{Homespun Christmas Gifts II}



I'm excited to share a couple more creative and easy Homespun Christmas Gifts with you today. These are also very inexpensive! 

Personalized gifts are the best! I love using names or sending special messages to the ones I love.

Idea #1 Personalized Family Trees

You will need the following: 
  • artist canvas from craft store (You can use any size, but I used 8x8 canvases from Hobby Lobby, 2 come in a package and the set cost around $5). 
  • Craft paint 
  • Paint brush
  • Leaf-shaped stickers 
  • Thin point Sharpee marker
  • Frame the size of canvas (I bought document frames, much cheaper and sold in this square size).

Before I even begin, let me say that YOU CAN DO THIS. I am not an artist. I am not a painter. I am a thief of good ideas. I got this idea when I saw a whimsical clip art tree and just did something similar. Or you can use a tree stencil like this.

Draw a tree onto the canvas with a pencil. Paint over it with black paint.


I wanted to make a tree for each side of my family, so I did another variety of tree (I think this one was a little easier).


Let the canvas dry. You will probably have to go over branches a couple of times. My limbs kept growing with my fine painting skills!

I found these cute leaf-shaped stickers in the craft section of WalMart, from The Martha Stewart line. I love this stuff.  And who knew Martha shopped at Wal Mart?



I wrote the names of family members with a Sharpee on the leaf stickers and placed them on the branches:

I painted our family name on the corner too.


I put it in the frame (if you buy the size of the canvas, it doesn't need a mat) and stuck it on an 
easel!


For the other part of the family, I made leaves out of green paper (felt would be cool too) and I put the leaves on raised stickers to make them look dimensional.  Here's how it looks in a frame:



Idea #2   A Personalized Christmas Message

I saw this idea in a GooberPatch Christmas book I have.  I thought it was such a frugal and simple idea, I decided to give it a try and I love it!  I think it will make a great gift and it cost less than $5 to make!

You will need: a hinged frame, either 4x6 or 5x7. (I found plastic ones and they worked great.) An ornament, a Christmas card with a thoughtful expression or pretty Christmas scrap paper and some buttons.  And hot glue.  

Most of the items, I found at The Dollar Store (God bless the $ store!)

Take the glass and backing off the frames. Insert the Christmas card into one of the openings (I had to cut mine down). Leave the glass out, you can replace the back of this one side.  

You can also personalize this even more by printing a message or poem on pretty paper instead of using a card.  I like it easy, plus I'm out of ink.


Next, take your yummy ornament and hot glue the string it hangs from to the inside of the other framed opening:


I took part of the message from my card and glued it to the back:

I added some cute gold buttons and look at this little gift:


The possibilities are endless-different colored frames, ornaments, cards, scrapbooking paper....

Cute, huh?

For more great tips, visit Works for Me Wednesday.

38 comments:

Julie said...

i love this and I am soooo gonna do this frame as gifts for the boys sunday school teachers! i found some stuff over at www.executivehomemaker.com that gives stories,meanings and traditions behind some of the different symbols of christmas. wouldn't it be cute to put a star ornament(or any other symbol you choose) in one side and the story or meaning beautifully decorated on the other side??? thank you for the great idea - i do soooo love the ideas you give!!! i am very crafty but i am not good at coming up with ideas - i am only good at copying or expanding on other peoples ideas!!! i am so grateful for all your wonderful ideas!!!

Melissa @ The Inspired Room said...

Oh, you are on a roll! Love your cute & frugal gift ideas! Thanks for the inspiration. I am just starting my holiday shopping/making/decorating this week. Better late than never? :-)

blessings,
melissa

Dawn @ simply transparent said...

great job, again!

Unknown said...

I really love the hinged frame idea - thanks for sharing.

D... said...

Seriously, I am in awe of your talents.

Jessica said...

Uber Cute!!!! The family tree idea is a fantastic gift idea!!!! (and super easy)

Stef Layton said...

great frame!

Amanda said...

Oh my gosh!! you are the craft master- I LOVE both of those ideas! what a great job!!! You so want to make me get my crafty-on

Pam said...

Love love love the tree idea. I think I could do that!

Unknown said...

I really like the framed card and ornament. I would like to make one for my self!

Mr. and Mrs. Nurse Boy said...

I LOVE both of these ideas! Thanks for the ideas!!!

Mrs. Nurse Boy

Colleen - Mommy Always Wins said...

Wow you're awesome!

We'll be making fleece scarves (if I can get to it sometime soon). They're a much needed accessory in this part of the world!

marky said...

I love that!

Angela @ Nine More Months said...

Thanks for the great ideas! You're quite talented!

DairyQueen said...

very cute ideas!

Anonymous said...

Homemade gifts are the *BEST*!! Thanks for the ideas!

Angie @ Many Little Blessings said...

Super duper cute ideas! I really love the family trees!

TuTu's Bliss said...

I really like this idea. I think I am going to do it on a piece of tile. It is very pretty. Thanks, Jen

ohAmanda said...

I LOVE the frame idea. I think I have a few old double frames laying around...

Marina Berryman said...

These are fantastic! I think I'll try the tree first - if all goes well, I'll attempt the framed ornament. Thanks for jumpstarting my creativity this morning!!

Patois42 said...

Those are such great ideas. I love them both.

Sherry @ Lamp Unto My Feet said...

What a cute idea!! :D

Steph said...

Love the frames! So clever! The family tree's are awesome too!

Valarie Lea said...

Loving them both!!!! I am going to have to take a week off from work, just to get all these thing done!!

Wani said...

Cute Crafts!!

Midwest Mom said...

I love the Clark tree! (and Martha is everywhere, isn't she?) ;)

Great post!

Audra Krell said...

Really great ideas, I love your pictures. You could make a mosaic of words on the frame. The idea being that you think about the recipient and cut out words that describe them and their likes. It would be a personal, wonderful gift.

Happy Mommy said...

I just love the tree idea! The picture frame is great! You have the greatest ideas!

Jenn said...

Love the family trees!! I might just have to do that for my mom. Can you tell me...are those canvases on wood stretcher frames? I'm having a hard time picturing a canvas IN a frame...know what I mean? Thanks so much for the inspiration!

Kristen said...

Just to clarify--I didn't use the canvas stretched on wood, but that would work too. I used just the flat (cheap) canvas with the cardboard backing.

Lynn said...

I love the family tree idea. That is really neat. Thanks for sharing.

Tammy said...

Such cute ideas....light years ahead of this lack of cute ideas gal. My Christmas tree is still nekkid for crying out loud. But I have good intentions as I wander around Hobby Lobby and Michaels looking for inspiration.

Jamie {See Jamie blog} said...

Love the family tree thing. May just have to make that myself! Thanks!

Unknown said...

Those are so cute! What great ideas!

Mel said...

What a nifty Idea! I love the family tree's and believe it or not I was a Clark common, I know, I just thought it was Ironic.

Anonymous said...

The family trees look wonderful! I can't believe how easy it was to make! Great job!
-Kim

Unknown said...

I had to come back just to say I had a new thought on the hinged frame idea - one for the kitchen. You could put a decorated, much-loved sugar cookie recipe in one side and hang a cookie cutter in the other!

Randi~Dukes and Duchesses said...

The family tree idea is amazing. Years ago I paid big bucks for a kit that wasn't even as cute as your handmade ones. Thanks for sharing!