Artsy gift ideas with a creative theme

For Christmas 2007, I got creative with my family photos and turned them into a photo book, posting the best from each month with a short blurb about what we were doing that month. I had one printed for us and one for each set of parents. That went over well. :-)  It’s a great idea for parents or if you’re a grandparent, do one of your grandchildren to give to their parents. There are many places online that have set up themed formats where you only have to upload and arrange your photos and they print it into a book. I use Lulu.com because I have an account there but look around online. They’re easy to find now. If you do paperback version full page size, it should be around $15 for a 20 page album book, hardback can add $10 to that. There are also less expensive smaller sizes. Mine actually turned into New Year’s gifts since I didn’t get them finished early enough in December to have it delivered and then sent out before Christmas, but that’s nice, too – something  a little unexpected in the early January winter days.

~~~
Something else I used to do for a few years was to cut out a dove pattern in white felt (bunches of them), paint them with clear sparkling craft paint and let dry, then used needle and thread and metallic gold or silver string to turn them into Christmas ornaments. Time-involved but very inexpensive. And very appreciated by those I shared some with. Simple and beautiful. Dove patterns should be easily found online.

~~~
Another ornament idea is to get red and green pipe cleaners and round pretty clear beads. Push the beads onto the green pipe cleaner, make it into a circle and wrap the ends together. Then use a red one to shape into a bow that ties around the wrapped ends.

And/or get white or blue pipe cleaners and starred beads in different sizes. Start with the smallest size and wrap the end of the pipe cleaner around it to hold, the keep adding them in increased sizes, leaving room at the top to loop back on itself. These make gorgeous icicles for your tree, or someone else’s. Mom did a bunch of these for us several years back and they’re among my favorite ornaments.

~~~
Many of those sites will also create calendars from your photos. Use family pics or travel pics and share a one-of-kind year-round gift from your creative heart!

~~~
Feel free to add your own crafty ideas in the comments. :-)
--