How much do you spend on Christmas Gifts each year? Wouldn't it be great to finish your Holiday Gift list with all Handmade items? By making your own gifts this year, you can not only save lots of cash, but, you will give something beautifully handmade and sure to be treasured by it's recipient! I love getting handmade gifts because it shows the gifter has spent their precious time thinking of me and crafting a gift specially suited to me. There is nothing more precious in this harried life style than time!
Here are a few ideas to use your paper crafting stash to make handmade gifts that are sure to please your pocketbook and their recipient!
Personalized Recipe Book
If one of your recipients is a vegetarian or has a penchant for curry, loves anything with tomatoes in or is a sucker for chocolate, make use of the fact by making a personalized recipe book. Start collecting appropriate recipes from books or magazines and purchase a small, inexpensive book to write them in. 
Another idea is to create a book of family traditional recipes. Who wouldn't love a copy of grandmoms chicken potpie or Aunt Bernie's Shoe Fly Pie? Copy them out in your neatest handwriting or use calligraphy if you are talented. If you have artistic flair, you can also include illustrations! What a delight this would be to the avid cook or foodlover.
Homemade Stationary
Break out those beautiful stamps and create homemade stationary. This is a great gift for a teacher, someone who works from a home office, or even a traditionalist who still love the touch of sending snail mail. What about that family who has a loved one deployed or a loved one who is bed ridden or not computer savvy. Surely there is someone on your gift list who would love some personalized stationary. How about your teenager, who writes to pen pals?
Check out these great Samples I found online!
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Decoupage Box
I have made these several times for my kids, Great little personalize decoupaged boxes for their trinkets and treasures. Decoupage is very simple and you can use pringles cans, coffee cans, cigar boxes or even purchase a great book shaped box or jewelery box at your local craft store. All kids love to hide their treasures in a special place be it a teenager and her jewelery or a young boy and his little rock collection, there are plenty of uses for these boxes. You can also make some great personalized packing for your gifts with the same techniques! How about a decoupaged box filled with those charachter (yu-gi-oh, Pokemon) cards your pre-teen is into?
Here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing:
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Beautiful Wall hanging
Take your paper stash, an old frame, or one you find at a discount or thrift store, stamps, stickers, paint and your embellishment stash and you can create a one of a kind wall hanging! I bet once you get a look at these, you will have a ton of ideas of your own. What lucky lady or teenager wouldnt love a personalized way to pretty up their room?
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Stamped candle
Teachers, co-workers, mom's, lots of folks will love to get these beautiful candles, you can make with your stamp stash.
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Decorated Coffee Jar
Don't throw out your coffee, jam or pickle jars, especially if they are those really beautifully shaped ones that you get nowadays. You can use scrapbook supplies or stamps to decorate it and fill it with cookes, pasta, sauce, cake mix or anything you can imagine and wala, a great gift! . Tie a silver or gold bow round the neck of the jar.
Hand Decorated Ceramics or coasters
If you are artistic, why not purchase a set of plain white ceramic egg cups, tea cups or plain glasses which are extremely inexpensive. Using a bottle of ceramic paint decorate by hand or stencil or stamp on each one to make them unique. If possible find out before hand the colour scheme preferred.
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A Set Of Fridge Magnets
Decide who you are going to give fridge magnets to earlier on in the year and take some photos of either the person or their children. Make small squares or circles out of cardboard and stick the photos onto the card. Decorate with your scrapbook papers or embellishments. Finish by attaching small magnets to the backs.
Personalized Photo Album
Photograph albums can be picked up for dollars, especially when sold together in bulk; i.e. three or five sets cellophaned together. Cover the albums with pretty fabric or lace and stencil the recipient's initials on the front to personalize it. You can even make all the pages for them complete with places to put their photos and their own journaling.
Stamped Bookmarks Have an avid reader on your list, how about some beautiful hand stampred book marks?
Take a look at your craft stash, look around your local thrift store and see what you can find! If you can alter it, if it will hold glue, the possibilities are endless! Take a look at a few more altered art items and then go dig through your stash and see what you can come up with!
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What did you create? Do you love altered art as much as I do? Show me what you came up with after reading this article! I just might have some candy to add to your stash! I will select a winner at the end of the year, hurry and get yourself creating gifts with your stash!
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