DIY Christmas Gifts for Kiddos

Looking for simple, inexpensive gifts for adults and kiddos on your Christmas list? Here is a round-up of the gifts I made over the past year for Sweet P, friends and family. Click on the links for detailed posts.

For Kiddos:
Felt Car Mat: By far my favorite item. This is easily personalized for any child on your list, made with a glue gun and doesn't take as long as it looks.


Felt Fish Magnetic Game: I love these little fish and they can be used for so many different learning activities (counting, color matching, etc.). Somewhat time consuming and tedious, but well worth it.


T-Shirt Quilt: Take your kiddos' old t-shirts (sports, etc.) and turn them into a keepsake! T-shirt material is super forgiving and again, if I can make them, you can too. The LSU quilt was my 3rd!


DIY Felt Food: By far the easiest and cheapest gift you'll ever make/give.


Hopefully these homemade gifts inspire you to make something homemade for your kiddos or other kiddos in your life this year. If you haven't noticed, I LOVE felt. It's super cheap and easy to work with (what's not to love!?).

Please comment if you try any of these projects! I'd love to see pictures!

Felt Coffee Collar

We decided not to exchange gifts this year unless they were homemade. (the rest of the gifts you bought yourself and showed to everyone else, sounds silly, but really we did not need one.single.thing.) Since I've often thought of myself as the least crafty of the 3 of us, I had to dig deep ya'll. Real deep (that's Texas talk). But in the end, I made some stuff I think they all liked (at least they said they did...). I also made these items for Gammie as well.

There were 3 things and the first of the 3 was a Felt Coffee Collar. I was super proud of these and super mad at TK (Auntie K) for figuring it out (okay, I was making them with her nearby). She'd already guessed "bracelet?" "headband?" and then in the car on the way to pick up Auntie Rosita and Unka Will "coffee collars?! Are they coffee collars?" to which I scowled, "NO." Meh, I guess it was scowly enough for her to believe me because boy was she surprised on Christmas morning, "They ARE coffee collars?! I was kidding!" Yep. Whew, I'm long winded today. Without further ado:

(the CC pictured is Auntie Rosita's. She was kind enough to take pictures of hers (although TK offered as well) and send them my way since I was a ding-a-ling and forgot to do it myself. There are no pictures of the collar lying flat, so I did my best to explain the process.)

The Craft: Coffee Collar

What you need:

1 rectangle of felt (as in the large rectangles they sell at Hobby Lobby, Joann's or Michael's, in color of your choice)

1 small piece of felt (in different color of your choice)

embroider floss (1 or 2 colors)

1 cute as a button, well, button

1 small piece of ribbon

scissors

embroidery needle

Cut a small bird, heart, star, any doodad of your choice out of your small piece of felt. Put to side.

I used a Starbuck's coffee collar for measurement since I wasn't about to freehand that bad boy. I doubled up the piece of rectangle felt and cut 2 pieces for the collar. I pulled the pieces apart and stitched the bird onto the front piece of the collar. I used a regular stitch on the bird.

Then, pressing the 2 collar pieces of felt together, I sewed a whip stitch around the edges, stopping at each end (leave the needle/floss attached...don't tie off because you'll keep going with it) to put on the button and the ribbon.

I had a grande sized coffee cup on hand to measure around it to make sure I got my button and ribbon in the right place. Pull the collar tight around the cup and mark where you want put your button. Sew on your button using embroidery floss. Sew up that end and keep whip stitching until you get to the other side. Then, put the collar back around the cup to decide where you want your ribbon. I made a loop in the ribbon, attached it around the button and then cut it where I needed it. Sew the ribbon to the inside of the collar (you'll see some embroidery floss, but it's still cute. Stitch up that end and Wah-la! Coffee collar! Simple as that.

Use it with your favorite cup of coffee.

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Felt Fish

My second handmade gift for Sweet P was a set of felt fish and a fishing pole. I saw these somewhere a few months ago, but wherever that was took me to Counting Coconuts where I found more details about this neat project.

I used some felt scraps I had lying around and decided to make 10. As far as embellishments go, I didn't have much at home so I bought a pack of wooden beads and added 1-10 on each fish.

I tried to make each fish a different color, but ended up with 2 pinks (but that's ok for my girly girl!). I free handed each fish and I must admit they looked a little funny in the beginning (the Farmer said so too). But I think they ended up looking pretty good!

Each fish has a white eye, except the white fish who needed more color! The pole is made from a small dowel rod, yarn, a small magnet and some hot glue. And each fish has a washer as its mouth so that it easily picked up by the magnet.

My pictures of her playing with them are still on the camera (waiting on Gammie to send the cord since I left it there), but these are going to be great for color and number games as well as gross motor skill development. Auntie Kannon's cat also loved this gift.