What to Present? Ideas of Original (Handmade) Presents

Christmas and St. Valentine’s Day were celebrated not long ago but new holidays are already on the way, for example Women’s Day/Mother’s Day. During several months you have to generate a bunch of ideas on what to give your dearest and nearest ones. We will help you in that!

“My girlfriend has her birthday coming soon but I’ve got no idea what to present her with. She’s got everything!”, “And what should I do with these goblets?! I’ve got too many of them already!”, “A nice thing but there is no space on the shelves left… but I can’t just put it into the garbage”, – we are sure such contemplations are known to many of you. At least, they were known to us.

One eight-years-old girl was asked what to do to feel joy. One of the answers suggested by her was the following: “you may give presents”. As for us, we cannot say what brings us more joy: to give or get presents. But we know for sure that most joy and a great sense of content we get from making presents.

First, it is interesting to make presents with your own hands. Not long ago, there were ribbons, beads, and pieces of cloth on the table but now they have turned into an elegant handbag, a nice hat or a fur toy-mouse.

Second, it is a good way to express your individuality. Exclusive things can be bought either for much money or done by you. In the second case you’ll get the colour, size and style which will fit and match exactly you.

Third, making something with your own hands you put one special thing into it which can not be bought for any money – you fill it with your love.

And fourth, you may involve children, from babies to teenagers, into the process! A child who has not reached 3 years old will only watch and touch the “ingredients” but at that time the creative images will be leaving their trace in his visual memory. Moreover, when the thing is ready, he will have a feeling that he has taken part in the creation of “beauty”!

What is so special about the present? The thing we give is not as important as the attention! Thus, handmade presents are considered the most valuable.

In the past, the idea that a present can be not only bought but also made somehow skipped our mind. It took us much time to, finally, invent what to give a person for that thing to be useful and not commonplace. And now we simply do not have such a question – ideas come long time before the event (if not – read further ). All you need is a little bit of imagination and creativity.

When we make presents, we, usually, either paint, or take pics with a camera, or write, or knit, or everything mentioned and something else .

What else can be made with one’s own hands? Judging by our own experience and the experience of our friends, one can:

- write a poem, a fairy-tale or even a book and then, having decorated it with illustrations, have it bound;

- make a card with an appliqué from dried flowers and then put some lacquer onto it;

- model a toy from clay and special plastic material and then colour it;

An elephant made of clay with amber grains as “needles”

A dog made of clay

- carve something from wood or paint something on a wooden object bought in advance (for example, a masher for the kitchen, a wooden egg for Easter, a casket for the earrings or paper) – don’t forget to lacquer it!

A trivet for a cup

- make trinkets, pendants, earrings and bracelets from plastic and then paint them with acrylics and decorate with beads;

A pendant-elephant

- crochet a placemat or make an embroidery on the placemat;

- knit socks of a scarf;

A male and female variants of socks

Socks for babies

- make a calendar or a card based on (your own) pics and photos;

- sew something for the kitchen (an apron, a towel, etc) or for the sitting-room (a decorative cushion);

- make a cake or very tasty jam…

An painted egg (the content of which has been taken out)

One of our friends presented his girlfriend with a website (devoted to her) on her birthday.

An example of an uncommon present decorating a shelf is a little matchbox painted by our friend from England. How much love there is in it!

Natalie presented Anastasia and her husband with white T-shirts where there were pictures and words made by her (the picture drawn by her was scanned and worked on at the computer and then the image printed out on a special paper was applied to the T-shirts).

Female and Male Kinds of T-shirts

A couple of months ago Natalie brought the family of Anastasia a handmade lightening fitting made from vegetable sponge (by the way, you will soon learn from one of our next posts how to make it).

And Anastasia, in return, presented Natalie’s family with a framed cross-stitched picture.

When babies apperared in our families, we started making presents for them (and for the kids of our friends as well) – developing toys:

A ring with different kinds of groats inside to develop fine motor skills of the baby

Beads crocheted round for fine motor skills

If you cannot make a present with your own hands, you can decorate it creatively as there are lots of different materials both in nature and in the store now.

Often people present each other with things which they do not need themselves. We cannot say that it does not happen in our life. However, if many do it to get rid of things, we’ve got another approach to it: if we do not need some thing, it is quite possible that somebody else may need it and, in such a way, the thing, sooner or later, will find its true owner. Moreover, one can add some zest into it. Why not turn a transparent glass into a vase with a stained picture? Why not change the style of a shirt or decorate it with an embroidery? Why not paint a one-colour tea set with acrylics…

Everything mentioned is just a few ideas. And creativity has no bounds! Handmade presents are truly valuable because of one more thing: we not only make something pleasant to a person but also develop ourselves.

What presents have you made? We would love to read your ideas in the comments!

Anastasia and Natalie

Next time you will learn what to do with a child’s hat if its inner seams are too big and stiff.

Illustrations used

A picture by a Korean artist; photods by Anastasia and Natalie