Christmas is just days away, but there's still time to create last-minute holiday gift projects that come straight from the heart.
Ellen Vigna, manager of Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft store in Roseville, says that personalized Christmas stockings and matching Christmas outfits are always popular handmade gift items.
Many of Vigna's customers request items to paint by hand.
"There are a lot of unfinished wood-type projects," said Vigna, who also sells a lot of clear glass ornaments. "They paint ornaments for the tree, especially the ones that they can pass onto their children and grandchildren."
At the University of California Cooperative Extension office in Auburn, 4-H adviser June Stewart has lots of ideas for creating your own gifts.
"We have had our "You Make It" craft expo for 12 years now," Stewart said. "We bring in new projects each year, but some of them are just family favorites that have been around for many years."
Here are a few quick and easy craft projects that families can make together. Most of them can be made with materials found around the house, or purchased inexpensively at a craft store:
- Snowman doorstop: Apply two coats of white latex paint to a paver brick (approximately 9-inch by 5-inch base with a 3-inch by 3-inch top). For the face, apply glue-on wiggle eyes and buttons. Wrap a 2.5-inch by 3.5-inch strip of polar fleece between the two paver sections for the scarf. Apply a vertical row of buttons to the front, and top the snowman with a hat made from a child's sock. Glue a 3.5-inch by 2.25-inch piece of felt at the bottom to prevent floor scratches.
- Potpourri. Not sure what to do with those leftover bouquets of flowers? Let them dry completely. Then combine them with dried orange peels, whole cloves, cinnamon sticks and liquid-amber seed balls for an inexpensive potpourri.
- Fill a jar with dry cookie (see sample recipe) or quick-bread mix: Layer each ingredient, and decorate the jar with a holiday ribbon.
- Chocolate-dipped pretzels, cookies, or butter crackers: Microwave semi-sweet, white or milk chocolate 30 seconds at a time, until melted. Dip pretzels or cookies, one piece at a time, and dry in a single layer on a cookie sheet lined with waxed paper.
Be creative: Apply a thin layer of peanut butter to the butter crackers before dipping, top cookies with candy sprinkles or crushed peppermint, or apply a few drops of peppermint extract to the chocolate. (Be careful not to overheat the chocolate.)
- Gel candles: Secure a candlewick on the inside bottom of a glass container. Fill the container with a layer of sand, and arrange shells or colorful marbles on top of the sand. Melt gel wax in a crock pot set to medium heat, and then carefully spoon the wax into the container over the sand and shells.
- Wax-bead candles: Secure a candlewick on the inside bottom of a glass container. Fill with assorted colorful wax beads, and then melt the beads with a heat gun or blow dryer set to low heat.
- Painted ornaments: Remove the hanger and cap from a clear glass ornament. Pour a small amount of rubbing alcohol into the ornament ball, and carefully shake it to distribute the alcohol.
Pour out the excess alcohol, and let it dry completely. Squeeze lines of acrylic paint down into the inner sides of the ornament, using one color at a time.
Repeat with alternating colors, rotate, and tilt the ornament a quarter turn every five to 10 minutes to create a swirl design.
Set the ornament upside down in a paper cup for about 15-20 minutes to drain any excess paint. Rotate the ornaments every few hours for a couple of days, until the paint is completely dried.
Each year, Auburn area organizations create and distribute handmade craft items to families in need throughout the foothills and beyond. Children in Africa and Afghanistan, veterans hospitals and women's shelters are just a few of the groups that also benefit from these handmade gifts.
Vigna orders extra fleece and flannel for customers to make blankets and no-sew throws each year for the homeless, and for children in Africa.
4-H members are making seven dozen jars of cookie mix that they will donate to various community agencies.
"We have done it for several years for the Children's Receiving Home," Stewart said. "It is just really a great thing for the youth to be involved in making cookies, and they kind of get their minds off of the problems they are having."
