Handmade – Simply Made Kitchen and Crafts

I enjoy making handmade gifts so I’ve been crocheting items for the holiday season. Recently, I visited a local craft store to find buttons that would adorn some of my crocheted cowls and book covers. I was thoroughly disappointed with the selection and voiced my concern to my hubby. He quickly gathered up some fallen branches from our forested property and made me these fabulous buttons. He used a vice to hold the branch (circumference about 1”) and a hand saw to carefully cut the 1/4” buttons. Then he drilled holes using a 1/8 bradpoint drill bit to secure the buttons with yarn. (He often uses a radial arm saw to quickly made several buttons.). He then sanded the face and edges of each button. I will lightly finish these with mineral oil and our beeswax. I am in love with this rustic look! Can’t wait to attach them to my latest creations…

In the midst of all of the holiday hoopla and Christmas shopping, I realized that there may be a load of practical gift cards that might be received far better than any piece of clothing or fancy kitchen gadget. For students, especially those living in highly populated cities, transportation can be an issue. Gift cards focused on shuttling a person from one destination to another might be much more appreciated versus a piece of clothing. Train passes, Uber gift cards, bus passes, etc. are all good ideas. Last year my sister in law gave my children transportation gift cards and they were used to shuttle them to the local grocery store, to the airport, and home from the local burger and brew joint. (Each of my children are in college and over the age of 21.). They also received gift cards from the local drug store where they were able to by toiletries, milk, and basic groceries while on campus. Another great idea for college students, gifts cards for sandwich shops and local eateries. Many dorm cafeterias are closed on Sunday evenings so having a gift card for a local diner is always appreciated.

Be creative as you think of ways to “wrap” your gift cards. Think of using beautiful paper scraps, college themed papers, Christmas wrap, or themed scrap book papers. I recently purchased some high-end soap from a local discount store. The soap was wrapped in a beautiful heavy weight paper that I just couldn’t throw away. This gave me the idea to use the paper as a wrap for a small gift; hence, a gift wrap for the gift card. Here’s what I did…

I found a template here. Or, Google various gift card envelope images for the shape you prefer.

I gathered an assortment of scrap paper, and the beautiful wrapping paper found on some milled soaps.

I printed the template and traced the outline on various scraps.I penciled in some fold lines.

I thought it might be nice to have a contrasting liner.Using a few paper punches, I fashioned a gift tag.

Use Christmas paper, shopping bags, newspaper… Whatever you like.This is an enjoyable way to personize and make personal, an ordinary, yet purposeful gift card.