I make Christmas gifts for nieces, nephews, and step-grandchildren. I need help in coming up with ideas for a 12 year old and a 10 year old who live in Arizona. Knitted hats and scarves or quilts and blankets just don't work in their climate. My 2009 gifts were toss pillows and pillowcases, now I'm on the hunt for 2010 ideas. Help.
By RoAnn from Waterboro, ME
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Girls that age love hair accessories, earrings and and bracelets.
Boys and Girls around that age love clothing.
If you want to try something different, maybe you could make them some cool t-shirts & tank tops with their favorite hobby, celebrity or animated character on front or back of them.
Or, a giant sized poster containing their photo alongside a photo of the favorite tv personality.
(They could hang it up in their room)
Even a scrapbook of sorts with losts of pictures of them, their friends, favorite activities, etc.
A singer/actress (Photo's of them and Mylie Cyrus, Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift, Raven Symone, etc)
You should consider their favorite color(s) when making any of the above.
Hope This Helps!
Plastic Canvas crafts are what mymother is into. She makes gifts for people at our church all year long.
She made the pastor's wife bookends that looked like a church.
She made a young girl a fancy looking jewelry box.
She made another young lady a cover for her bible.
She made another girl a music box ( she found some craft music boxes at a yard sale once but you should be able to get some at a craft store or on the internet).
Actually, I live in AZ and we do use hats and scarves, just not all winter. With their popularity these days, everyone is wearing them just as a fashion statement even if they are not "needed" (if they are girls). Boys could use mittens when they go to Flagstaff to play in the snow. and we did have a cold spell last wk, it was 50-60 and I wore my hat a scarf a lot! we need it since our blood is thin!
My friend made me a felted purse last year. Whenever I use the purse, people always say they love it. This year she made me a sweater that I wear all the time.
Do you sew? You could cruise your local fabric and quilting shops (or the fabric section at your local Walmart), pick up remnants throughout the year, and then make them some cool shorts and shirts! Shorts don't take much fabric, and if you have patch pockets, etc., you can mix and match your fabrics. Same goes for basic shirts- you can do entire sections (depending on the pattern) with coordinated, but dissimilar, fabrics, and remnants are dirt cheap, compared to buying yardage.
How about a personalized journal? You can make one using recycled paper (google for instructions) and then cover it with pictures of their current interests, fav colors, etc.
Or a totebag or hand bag. Or on a smaller scale, a bag to hold electronics (phones, games, ipods)
Dreamcatchers are fun for me, personally, to make, and here's a good website to show you how to do the webbing:
www.nativetech.org/
You can use anything for a hoop and the webbing and the decorations. Like...this is one I've made:
hyenacub.deviantart.com/
There are also things like simple rag dolls, I am sure you could find instructions for online if they like that sort of thing. Costumes for Renaissance Faires if they're into that. Hope this helps!
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