I love arts and crafts and I wanna make my friends a little something for christmas... but what?!
Do yall have any ideas besides the standard construction paper christmas card?

I actually made these really beautiful Christmas decorations once...

In some craft stores you can get those clear glass bulb ornaments. Get a bunch of acrylic paints, preferably some pretty metallic ones.

What you do is pour the different colors of paint into the glass bulb (after taking out the little metal piece on the top that allows it to hang) and kind of swirl it around inside to make this interesting effect.

You let it dry and then put the little metal thingy back on and voila! Beautiful Christmas ornaments! ^^;

oooooh! I've totally seen that done before, but completely forgot about it! That'd be super cute.

I don't have an answer, but I was wondering the same thing. I don't have a lot of money this year, so if anyone could come up with some relatively inexpensive craft ideas too, that'd be cool.

Christmas decorations. Anything from bulbs, to santas, to gnomes. They're really fun.

I've stumbled upon a few ideas since posting this.
My friend is making customized tshirts for the people on his christmas list using iron-ons, which is a pretty cute idea. I might do something similar but sew little felt animals or flowers or what have you onto the tshirts? Or maybe onto some plain old scarves?
AND! I found some ceramic cookie jars at Hobby Lobby! I was thinking about painting one and stocking it with cookies, and giving it to a group of friends that shares an apartment.

I made my friends a Christmas vest and bought some of those little blank ornaments and painted them. I've also made ornaments out of clay and painted them before.

@Hallinda I think the cookies would be a great gift.

As for other ideas to save on gifts, I would look at old Family Fun or other craft magazines. One of the best gifts that I have received was a photo album filled with photos of my friends and I. Brings back a lot of good memories when ever I flip through it. It wasn't overly fancy just a book with photos in it. Home made food items are the best as they come packed with love and are not just going to lay about after the holiday.

Make a snowman with cotton balls?

An idea that I have used a few times so far, that has been met with good results, is to buy a wood and glass box. It sounds like you have a Hobby Lobby, so they should sell them. And just paint it. I painted magnolias onto one for my brother and he used it as a flower pot to grow the flowers I sent him. The really cool thing was the sides were glass too so he could see the roots as they grew in the soil. And I painted stars on another for my dear friend. That will be going out for Christmas. I am hoping she can find a good use for it. But anyone would love something like that and boxes have so many uses too. It isn't hard, just transporting it would be a bit of a pain. In any case, I suggest just taking ordinary, every day items and putting a personal, special touch to them. You would be surprised what great gifts they make! I also took a normal lighter and painted it for a friend of mine who likes candles, so you can really make some cool gifts out of just about anything. Good luck!

in my leadership 2 class we made little reindeers out of candy canes and little googly eyes. we added some stuff for antlers and put ribbon on them ^^

Last year I used scrap fabrics and made little plushies of each of them. It was really easy, since I have a sewing machine and most of them ended up on their dashboard/rearview mirror!

If you're not sewing inclined raid the bead section at Jo Ann's and make jewlery!

I just saw some pictures of chocolate mice. And they look like great gift ideas. Heres a website that shows how to make them. http://www.blackwidowbakery.com/demo...ice/index.html

It seems pretty easy. You just need cherries, chocolate, almond slices, and either hershey kisses or chocolate chips. They come out adorable. If I like chocolate covered cherries, I would make some.

Wow, those mice are really cute. I might make those for friends.

@kerryfox: photoalbum would definatley be a good idea. especially for friends that I've known longer. I could slip some old pictures in there. :)

@Kierys: One year I made my dad a little box for his guitar picks and he really liked it. I bet other people would like stuff like that. very useful.

@Leda_et_al: eee! I have lots of felt lying around! Little plushies would be totally cute and cost me absolutley nil- two things I look for when making presents.

@Sho-Shonojo: OH my GOD. Those are the most adorable things I've ever seen. Even if I don't make them for gifts I'm totally making some to have around the house.

I've been making these knitted cats for about eight years now. They're customizible and a lot of fun to make, but they take a lot of time (~3 hours).

Supplies: yarn, yarn/darning needle (plastic, eye big enough to squeeze yarn through), stuffing, pony beads, anything else you feel like putting on a cat ^o^

Total pieces of knitting: 4

Steps:

1. Choose yarn and knit 20 stitches across until it's a long rectangle. You should be able to crease each of the four corners evenly towards the middle, with some extra room for the stomach. Leave a long strand after you tie off to sew the body together with.

2. Knit 10 stitches into a perfect square. Then tie off and knit another, slightly longer square of 12 stitches. The square will be the face, and the rectangle will be the back of the head. Leave a long strand after you tie off to sew the head to the body with.

3. Knit 20 stitches, and knit only a row or two before tying off. This will be the tail, so again leave a long strand to sew the tail to the back of the body with.

*all the pieces are knitted*

4. Start sewing the body together, working from the corner where you left a long string towards where, if you fold both corners on the long end equally down their centers, they will meet. This should be an equal length from both the left and the right side of the cat. Then sew it up, pinch the other two corners together the same way, and sew the stomach to the other point. Then sew up one of the legs, and pause to fill the body evenly with stuffing before sewing up the last leg. The body is done!

5. Take the longish-square (the back of the head) and arch it into a half-circle where you think the back of the neck should be (on one of the long ends, whichever one looks least like a butt to you... it's hard to tell at this point, xD) and sew it into place. When that's set, take the face square and arch it into the other half of the flat semicircle outlined by the back of the head, then sew it in. You should have a puffy body with a back of the head and a front of the head flopping over in their respective directions.

6. Pull the tops of the back of the head out into ear shapes (this part is a little more sculpture than knitting) and begin sewing up one side of the head. Once you reach the bottom of where the ear should be, pull it out and sew below it so that the ear sticks out separate from the head. Do the same to the other ear, and don't forget to stuff the head before sewing the rest.

7. Sew the tail on between the two back legs.

8. Pony beads make great eyes because they're round, simple, and easy to thread with yarn. I usually just buy a pack of black and white for high contrast, and if you buy a color you'll end up only using it for a few projects and then throwing out the rest. Take the pony beads and string one onto a separate, cut-off piece of yarn. Then take the yarn needle and poke maybe a hole to the left of where you want the eye to be (plan where you'll put the other one before you string in one eye, or otherwise it'll look a little odd...) once you've gotten that through, the other end should just be hanging loose with the pony bead attached. Thread the other end through the needle and push it through, about a hole to the right of where you want the eye to be. Adjust as needed, it's hard to get it right the first time. When the eye is where you want it to be, tie the ends together with a simple double-knot. Then do the same with the next eye.

ET LE CHAT EST FINIS!

... pardon my French (it's been three years xD). So, I hope this was of some use, even if a little long and involved. Usually the materials aren't too expensive, just around four bucks for yarn... and the other stuff you usually only have to buy once (or once in a while, in the case of the stuffing). It takes a long time, but I swear it really is fun. This year I'm making a lot of anime themed cats for my friends... Haruhi, Edward Elric (that one turned out awesome!), Inuyasha, also a bunch of other non-anime themed ones... you can also embroid things onto the cats with a different color yarn, which is a way to make them a little more complex and interesting...

eh. If you're interested, I could take some pictures or draw up a blueprint or two... it's hard to describe it in words, but it's easier than you probably think ^^; So pm me if you want to know more!

My mom likes to do felt crafts. We usually see her making hats, stockings, and little bags this time of year. i like to draw x-mas cards and wrap gifts with things i find around the house as well.

Originally Posted by Sho-Shonojo

I just saw some pictures of chocolate mice. And they look like great gift ideas. Heres a website that shows how to make them. http://www.blackwidowbakery.com/demo...ice/index.html

It seems pretty easy. You just need cherries, chocolate, almond slices, and either Hershey kisses or chocolate chips. They come out adorable. If I like chocolate covered cherries, I would make some.

I made those before! Mine were brown though. They're super easy to make, but they're a bit messy. I would use a big hershey kiss instead of those mini ones because they're easier to work with.

Try gluing together Popsicle sticks into the shape of a sled and paint it gold, silver, red or green! I did that when I was really little and I think it's one of the cutest ornaments I ever made. ^.^ If you're giving them away to friends you could paint their name and/or a special message for them on it too. <3

A snowflake crystal. They sell kits at crafts shops so you could try making that in your friend's favourite colour.

Also, making a christmas card from scratch could be cool as well.

Well my family is doing a crafty christmas, and what I did was make 'survival kits'. You see I had to come up with 6 gifts and I searched and found this great idea. Just come up with random things, even candy, and write a silly cute thing to with it.
Ex: A Nail File - for all those times you smoothed things over for me, so I wouldn't get in trouble.

You can use a lot of cute things and sayings for ideas. Good Luck!

If you can crochet, you could always find instructions on the internet to make a blanket, a scarf, or maybe a hat if you are a little more accomplished at it. :)

Or, if you really are good with it, you can crochet names for people, then sew it on a soft blanket. That was a Christmas present I received last year that I really enjoyed.

Hmm, I suppose my craft that I'm doing for Christmas this year is a bit on the expensive side, but it's worth it. There's this product called ArtClay. It's precious metals in clay form. They have gold and silver. Basically, you have clay that you can make into whatever you want--pendants, earrings, charms--you fire them, and it's gold or silver. The gold clay requires a kiln, but you can just use one of those creme brulee torches for the silver clay. It's really cool. You can make one of a kind jewelry that's actually 99% silver. I love the stuff.

However, it's a bit pricey. My start up kit was $100 (it has the torch, a bunch of other stuff you'll need, and some clay to start with), and the clay is $16 for 10g. But it's so cool! I decided that I wanted to give my friends that for Christmas, but then I realized that by the time the clay got here, I wouldn't have enough time to make it and deliver it. ...but I'm making them anyways! Presents will just be late this year. Eheh.

Get some of that plastic canvas stuff from the craft department, some yarn, and a yarn needle...

You have to cut three even-sized squares of the plastic mesh. (It's a stiff material, decent sized boxes in it.) Trim it up so that there are no little nubs left on the edges, then using the needle, fill in the boxes with your favorite yarn leaving the edges uncovered.

Once all three squares are done, you will stitch one side of two of them together, then one side of the remaining square to one of them. You'll have something that looks like a very pointy heart when you get them in place. Carefully fold them down and sew the sides that are closest together to one another. You will have two points that are still free when the thing looks like a three-sided diamond. You don't stitch these together, instead, you wrap the edges individually.

Now you can either attach google-eyes or put a loop on one of the corners. When you press the two opposing corners, the side left disconnected will open like a coin purse. You can use it to put small gifts or candies into, depending on the size of the squares you started with. You can give them as toys with Hershey's Kisses in them with a tag reading "Squeeze my cheeks and I'll give you a kiss." or you can use them as ornaments or decorations for your tree or stocking stuffers.

My grandmother used to make them all the time. We used different colors of yarn, pipe cleaners, pom-pom balls, and google eyes to make little elves, santas, and reindeer.

Well, I finally did it. I actually made a Christmas craft. It was out of wood, and I spent about three hours on it. It's this little fish thingy which you use to pull out and push in the oven rack.