5 Simple and Cheap DIY Christmas Gifts

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Are you looking for a quick and inexpensive gift for the holidays? Well I have rounded up five of best holiday DIY projects of the year. I hope you find some inspiration from these and have tons of fun making them for the people you love.

1. Personalized Sharpie Mugs: These mugs are fun to make, are an inexpensive personalized gift and are sure to impress your friends and family. This DIY gift is best for people who have large groups of people they want to get gifts for and is perfect is you have a large family, an athletic team or a lot of friends. The more mugs you create, the cheaper the individual mugs get. The price of the materials always depends on where you shop and how big of a pack of markers or stickers you purchase.

Materials:

  • Sharpie oil based markers from Michael’s Craft Store $5-10
  • Coffee mug (preferably white) from the Dollar Tree $1
  • Oven $0
  • Scrapbook stickers for stencils from the dollar tree or craft store $1-3
  • Hot Chocolate packets or tea packets $3
    • TOTAL = (1 mug = $10 each) and (10 mugs = $2.60 each)

Procedure:

  1. Wash and dry mugs to ensure that you have a blank slate to create your personalized message, quote, drawing or bible verse
  2. Using a pencil design your mug or use letter stencils. Once design has been perfected trace over design with the oil based sharpies or paint pens.
  3. Leave paint to dry for a few minutes and without touching the mug’s designs place on a cookie sheet in cold oven
  4. Now heat oven to 350 degrees. Once the oven is fully heated, set a timer for thirty minutes
  5. Once timer goes off shut oven off, but do not remove mugs (**Any sudden change in temperature can cause the mug to shatter)
  6. After a few hours you may take your mugs out of the oven
  7. Adding a hot chocolate packet or a few tea bags into the mug also helps to personalize the gift

Below are a few of my favorite mugs, I hope they give you inspiration. Visit Glued to My Crafts Blog by Stacey to see her tutorial on how to do the personalized letter “g” mug.

362348930

2. Rudolph’s Nose Christmas Gift: This craft is very simple and is super cute! It is perfect for any lady in your life, what girl doesn’t love Eos (Evolution of smooth) brand lip balm? They come in a variety of flavors and adorable colors. For kids you could also exchange the lip balm for a large red bouncy ball.

Materials:

  • Printable Rudolph card printable $0
  • Clear cellophane bags with twist ties from the Dollar Tree (25ct.) $1
  • Eos Lip balm (red= summer fruit) from Wal-Mart $3
  • Scissors $0
    • TOTAL = $4

Procedure:

  1. Print the Rudolph card
  2. With scissors cut out the card and then with an X-acto knife or scissors, cut out Rudolph’s nose
  3. Insert the lip balm in the circle where Rudolph’s nose was
  4. Write your name on the “From:” line on the bottom of the card
  5. Place card into cellophane bag and wrap twist tie around the top of the bag to close securely

The link is listed above in the materials, but here is a picture of the finished product using the print out.

Rudolph-Easy-Christmas-Gift-SM2-5

3. Thanks a Latte Gift: Is there anyone you know who you are very thankful for this holiday season? Does that person also adore coffee, tea, Starbucks or Dutch Brothers? Then this is the perfect gift to send a sincere thank you to a coach, teacher, friend or family members.

Materials:

  • A gift card from preferred coffee shop $5-25
  • “Thanks a Latte” printable $0
  • Coffee sleeve from desired coffee shop $0
  • Ribbon or twine for decoration from Wal-Mart $1
  • Glue from Wal-Mart $1
    • TOTAL = ($7 with $5 gift card) or ($27 with $25 gift card), depending on how much money put on the gift card!

Procedure:

  1. Go to coffee shop of choice and buy a gift card and grab a coffee sleeve
  2. Print out the “Thanks a Latte” template
  3. Cut out the card
  4. Glue the coffee sleeve to the center of the card
  5. Write your name on the “From:” line on the bottom of the card
  6. Insert coffee shop gift card to the coffee cup sleeve
  7. Cut ribbon or twine and tie around the coffee sleeve to add more security

Any coffee shop lover will go nuts over the hard work you put into saying “Thanks,” but in reality it was cheap, simple and painless.

thanks a latte collage

4. Hot Coco Mix Ornaments: Ornaments are a Christmas tradition and are a classic gift, but what’s even better than some homemade ceramic ornament? A hot coco mix ornament. These ornaments are perfect as small, inexpensive gifts for friends or family members because you can personalize them or make a large batch of the same kind. You could easily pair this with the DIY personalized sharpie mugs, to create a wonderful, cozy winter gift. Like the mugs these are also very costly individually if you just make one and are made more for large group gifts.

Materials:

  • Clear, plastic round ornaments with removable top from the Dollar Tree sold individually for $1
  • Box of hot chocolate packets from Wal-Mart (30 ct.) for $3
  • Jet-Puffed brand “Mallow Bits Marshmallows” from Wal-Mart for $2
  • Chocolate Chips from Wal-Mart for $2
  • Holiday colored sprinkles from Wal-Mart $2
  • Bag of peppermint candies from Dollar tree $1
  • Blender or electronic chopping appliance such as the “Ninja” $0
  • Empty egg carton $0
    • TOTAL = (1 = $11 each ) while (30 ornaments = $1.50 each)

Procedure:

  1. Empty the bag of peppermint candies into the appliance until very small chunks of peppermint occur
  2. Grab the plastic ornament and remove the top
  3. Dump one packet of hot coco mix inside
  4. Continue to layer and personalize the ornament with chocolate chips, peppermint pieces, mini mallows and sprinkles until it is full
  5. Once finished place the top back on the ornament and set in the egg carton until you wrap or deliver the gift. This is because you do not want the ornaments to get mixed up because it is far less pretty

I found the idea on the Bubbly Nature Creations blog where she shows different ways to make these with white chocolate, dark chocolate and peppermint milk chocolate hot coco mix.

Hot-Cocoa-Mix-Ornaments1 HOT COCO

5. Holiday Candle Decoration: Moms everywhere love candles, actually let me rephrase that, women in general love candles. This gift is great because once again because you can personalize it for whom you are giving it to. The most important thing to remember is to find a scent that the person receiving the candle would love. These candles are a fast and easy gift and are perfect if you want to give out a lot of gifts for cheap.

Materials:

  • Holiday scented candle ( my choice = peppermint) from Dollar Tree $1
  • Glass candle holder from Dollar Tree $1
  • Bag of peppermint candies from Dollar Tree $1
  • Holiday ribbon from Dollar Tree $1
  • Scissors $0
    • TOTAL= (1=$4 each) while (10 =$2.20 each)

Procedure:

  1. Unwrap the candles plastic label and put it into the glass jar
  2. Open bag of peppermints and dump as much as desired around the candle
  3. Cut a large section of holiday ribbon and tie it around the jar as a decorative accent

I adapted this idea from a decorative piece I saw on Wal-Mart’s website using supplies from their store, but the materials are much cheaper and easier to find at the Dollar Tree.

candle

 

Category : Activities, DIY, Helpful