Hello Sunny Siders, happy Blogmas day 3! Gift giving can be so stressful and expensive this time of year. It sometimes feels virtually impossible to balance showing your friends and family you care while also staying on budget. That is why this year I thought it’d be fun to share some DIY more affordable gift ideas to help make that balance more feasible!
DIY Gift Ideas
Handmade cards/card boxes – Not only to people love receiving cards, but having a stock of cards on hand for the year to come is so helpful. Design, print, or draw greeting cards for various holidays throughout the year and package them in a box to serve as a stock for the person you are gifting to!
Personalized drawings (thrift a picture frame for an added touch) – If you are in to art, drawing something meaningful to the person you are gifting is a great option. I have done this for birthdays and holidays in years past, and it is even more fun when you find a nice picture frame to elevate it.
Handwritten letters (thrift a picture frame for an added touch) – As simple as it sounds, write a nice letter to someone you love. You can jazz it up with thick paper or even a nice frame.
Coupon book – Make coupons of things/experiences your person can cash in when they want at a later time. This could be for simple things like a movie night at home, breakfast in bed, or even something fancier like an evening night out at their favorite restaurant.
Write a poem – My Grandma has been doing this for years as birthday gifts and trust me when I say people are more excited and appreciative of her poems than anything else they are gifted. I have witnessed first hand my aunts and uncles sob tears of joy reading her poems. Truly, a great and meaningful gift idea.
Themed dinner night at home – Don’t have the means to go out? Not a problem! Make a themed meal at home. This can be tied to their favorite cuisine or even a book or show they enjoy. Set the table and plate it up like you are one of those master chefs!
Cook a loved one their favorite meal – If theming seems too much, simply cooking someone’s favorite meal is sure to be appreciated. I know anytime I get to savor my mom’s homemade Mac n Cheese or my Grandmas pierogis it makes me feel so nostalgic and at peace.
Handmade baked goods box – If you enjoy baking, this is a perfect time to bake some treats and pack them up in a festive tin. Expanding on this you could do themed boxes to breads, adding homemade jams to the box. Or, make a coffee themed box, with homemade syrups and coffee grounds.
Scrapbook/dump journal – Turn those memories you’ve made into a scrapbook that your person can look back on when they need a smile. I did this for my friend when we graduated High School, for my fiancé when we had been dating for a year, and for my Grandma’s birthday. Something simpler would be to keep hold of little things like concert tickets, movie tickets, and other little paper goods from events or experiences you’ve attended with that person and turn it into a dump journal.
Personalized photo calendar – My family has been doing photo calendars for as long as I can remember. We used to do it as our entire extended family, and I would get so excited seeing what photos made the cut. Now, I make one for my parents and my brother every year focused on our family.
Family recipe book – I received one of these for my High School graduation and to this day it is still one of my most used gifts. My mom asked family members and friends to share the recipes for my favorite treats they make and compiled it into a book. Now, whenever I am craving comfort food from my childhood, I can open the recipe book and get cooking!
Bracelets – Grab some beads and string and make some bracelets. I love making bracelets focused on words of the year. A few years ago there was a trend to get beads that look like your eye color and that of your family, and I had a blast making those too!
Thankful jar – I have been doing a thankful jar for the past 4 years and I think gifting someone one would make a great gift. Take any jar, I used an old peanut butter jar that I washed, and decorate it. Include a pack of sticky notes along with it. The goal is to write one thing you are thankful for each week and put it in the jar. At the end of the year you have 52 memories to make you smile.
I hope these DIY gift ideas give you some inspiration on fun ways to show your appreciation to those you love while also not breaking the bank. Let me know if you decide to give any of these a try!
Sunny Side Up With Siri 