Gift Ideas to make. I have a 17 year old nephew, 14 year old niece, and 10 year old niece. I am making all homemade gift this year due to finances. But I have no idea what to make for these kids.
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I am not sure about what to make a 17 yr old boy besides a cd of his favorite music. If he is anticipating moving to college soon you could also start a recipe book for him. Gifts for the girls can be made very easily and cheaply. Jewelry making is very easy and you can buy beautiful beads very cheaply at you local craft store. There are tons of how to guides available online.
I suggest making a jean quilt. It is very easy. What I did was purchase used jeans from thrift stores. I then washed them and cut them into squares to be sewn together to form a rectangle the size would depend on the size bed that the individual has. When I cut the jean up I was careful to keep intack the pockets and zippers. When the rectangle is the right size I then used an old blanket for the batting and a sheet for the back. Sandwhich these three together keeping right sides of the jean quilt and the sheet then the blanket, sew these three together on the outside edges then turn right side out.
How about making all of them those fleece blankets. It takes about 2 yards of each fleece. One for a printed side and the other of a solid. The younger ones I would go with 1 yard and a half. Google is your best friend. Look for how to make fleece tie blankets. The most you would pay is $15...most of the time, they are on sale at Hancock Fabrics or even Walmart. Good luck. My boys love them..They have all sorts of prints from sports, NFL, girly, and etc.
How about a scrapbook-You do the pages, and perhaps a few photos and let them fill in the rest. You could date the scrapbook for net year, and have sections for the holidays, their club or activities, then they put in their own photos as the year progresses.
Another really good (and easy) quilt idea is a t-shirt quilt. There are instructions all over the web. Pay attention to what they and their friends are wearing. My daughter and her friends are into the "retro hippy" look. They made blue jeans into bags, so I'm macrameing a strap for my daughter.
I'm making flannel pillowcases for lots of kids this year and using my embroidery machine to decorate and personalize them. Even if you don't have the machine, you can hand embroider or decorate them. Kids love them - and they love pajama pants - I'm making lots of those this year. They tell me they can never have too many - any age!! There are cute slipper patterns on the internet that are easy to make. Fleece blankets are always good. I made some quilt tops and used fleece for the back and quilted them on the machine - Nice!! Give them your TIME - offer to teach them how to make some things they like - homemade buns, cookies, bars, candy, jewelry from odds and ends like old buttons or broken pieces of jewelry, simple sewing, like pj pants. Teach them to knit or crochet simple projects.
Last year I took my 2 granddaughters, each 11 years old on a trip down "memory lane" and shared stories and places of my childhood. I bought them each a digital camera to take pictures of whatever they wanted and then I developed them. They picked up rocks and other "souvenirs" along the way and to this day, they remember the things I told them. Special and precious to all 3 of us! They learned a lot of family history that day and about how grampa and I met (roller skating). There are SO many things you can give that are almost cost free and can bring you closer together!! Try it, you'll all love it and appreciate it!!
I just wanted to say Thank You so very much for all of the beautiful ideas!!! Thank You to everyone. I think it is contagious. My family, my sisters and their kids, don't have much money either, so my nieces and nephews are now making all of their gifts to people!!
How about their favorite snacks. I make chocolate coated marshmallows and nuts for my cousins. They also like the brownie and trail mix that grandma makes.
Those darned kids nowadays seem to have all these "ee-lek-tron-ik" gadgets...how about a case for some of them? :)
If you sew, try using funky-patterned fleece. Slap on some trendy appliques and crank up the hip-factor!
If you knit or crochet, get wild and crazy with those yarn colors and textures! If you're more talented than I am, you can stitch a cute emblem onto it (the logo of the device, maybe)?
For the guys, you might want to keep the colors, patterns, and designs a bit more "macho" and "grunge-ified." For the girls, you can get a bit more flippant.
Possibilities include holders for: iPods and other media players, handheld game systems (like PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS or GameBoyAdvance), laptops, netbooks, CD cases, holders for flash drives (honestly, those things accumulate like old magazines after a while),
For example, I couldn't find a decent slipcase for my laptop, so I crocheted one using a few balls of black cotton yarn. I was at a get together when a couple of older ladies asked what I was crocheting. They got a big laugh when I told them it was a slipcase for my laptop! A couple of twentysomething guys in one of my computer user groups couldn't get over the fact that I was *making* a laptop case! This project can be as much fun to make as it is to give!
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