Today I am so happy to have Rachael from Little Red Farm doing a guest post. Rachael is a Mom to two young children and loves to make homemade crafts & projects. She spends most of her time on the other side of the ocean from me – in England, France, or Sweden. Rachael’s blog is filled with wonderful ideas for making your own homemade fun. See what I mean below and then head on over to her blog & let her know you are visiting from Living Life Intentionally!
Hello to you all and thank you Beth for giving me the opportunity to guest post here on Living Life Intentionally. I found this site about a month ago and have enjoyed linking up each week with the TGIF link party especially as Beth always visits each participant and leaves a comment.... mmmmmm comments [Homer Simpson style].
Anyway, my name is Rachael and I blog over at Little Red Farm. My blog is about raising babies and toddlers and my love of art and crafts. Each night when my children are asleep I sneak into my craft room to put together something fun for the next day. I have no interest in buying lots of expensive toys when I can throw together something fun myself with things I have around the house.
This year I am attempting to make all of my Christmas gifts by hand and you can follow my progress over at my blog (where I will also give detailed instructions to make things yourself). I thought that I would share a few of my already completed gifts with you here.....
Gift tags
This year I have made salt dough gift tags for all of my presents. I use a simple recipe of 1 cup salt, 1 cup warm water and 2 cups flour.
Homemade Marmalade
Every morning we eat freshly baked bread smothered in chunky orange marmalade so I decided to knock up a large batch and give it as a gift to my neighbours.
I used glass storage jars from IKEA and made salt dough gift tags which say 'mar-mal-ade' on them. If you cook salt dough for a short time at a high temperature that turn a lovely brown colour (yes that's right - brown not burnt).
The jar is then finished off with an orange sparkly ribbon.
Rainbow Scarf
If something stays in one place for a long time in my house there is a real risk that I will crochet a cover for it such is the extent of my love for this craft. It's so easy to learn and great if you are impatient and need to be able to produce things in hours rather than weeks (or years in the case of my yellow knitted jumper).
This beautiful rainbow scarf is took me two evening to make and I chose lovely bright colours in a soft organic yarn.
Grandad Slippers
Regular visitors to my blog will know that I have made a rather tongue-in-cheek gift for my fast car loving brother.
I turned cheap grandad slippers into a comfy pair of logo'd slip-ons fit for the speed demon that he is. I just cut shapes from white and blue craft felt and glued them to the slippers with fabric glue.
Natural teething rings
When you have a toddler and a baby you inevitably get to know a lot of other toddlers and babies so I have been making a lot of different gifts. Here is my favourite gift to give a baby.....a yarn covered teething ring.
These rings make wonderful 'first toys' for babies as they are learning to grasp at around 3 months and then can be used as teething rings when needed. I made these with high quality 100% cotton yarn and natural untreated wood.
I hope you have enjoyed seeing the first of my homemade gifts! Be sure to pop on over to the Little Red Farm to see more details of these and many other ideas.
Thanks Rachael, what a great list of homemade gift ideas! I wish I had seen this about 6 months ago to make the teething ring for my newly teething Tinkerbell! I LOVE homemade gifts ~ they are gifts from the heart!
Here are some of my favorite posts from Little Red Farm:
- Handmade Christmas Part 3: DIY doctor kit (check out the too cute homemade bandages)
- What shall I wear today (helping her son gain independence in dressing himself with drawer labels)
- Boys will be boys (check out the toddler zip line)
- Sewing and Montessori: when two passions meet (super cute activity using colorful thread reels and pencil holders)
