The other week I set about decluttering my studio and in the process set myself a task to digging around to see what wonders I already had at my finger tips with making Christmas in mind. I always make my own gifts as I like make something that will be useful or beautiful without trailing around the shops or spending a fortune in money and resources. The Christmas consumer mayhem gets me down and makes me feel lacking and I prefer to feel abundant instead.
If you've read PART 1, you'll have noticed that the box full of stuff that I gathered was overflowing, but in the end I was never going to use it all and I had to be honest with myself that I didn't have time to make what I had in mind for some of the materials. They were put aside for another gift making opportunity. So I settled for a smaller selection of materials to get me started of and to keep it simple.
Here are some of the gifts I made.
Air-drying clay was rolled and stamped with letter stamps to make herb plant markers
Merino wool roving was felted onto fair trade soap to make felted soap and also rolled up and threaded onto elastic to make felt ball jewellery.
Old jars, Letter stamps, ink and scraps of card were transformed into containers for spice mixes.
I excluded the fennel seeds and loose black tea from the recipe and instead included fair trade black teabags. I also bought some small reusable spice bags to contain the spices for each brew.
Check out this recipe for making your own Chai Spice Kit.
Wood slices, twine and buttons were turned into decorations
I cut these discs from a fallen branch, drilled a hole in the top of each for the twine and button to thread through. You may need to sand the surface if your cut wasn't smooth.
Using a permanent marker, I decided to write inspiring quotes on each so they can be enjoyed all year round.
Old-t-shirts were made into t-shirt yarn and then turned into coasters and potholders by weaving or plaiting them.
Weaving a Potholder
Try this tshirt yarn making tutorial and this plaited coaster making tutorial
AND
Perfectly good unread books were taken off my shelves and wrapped up, ready to become part of someone else’s imagination.
These aren't all my Christmas gifts this year, only the ones I already had some of the supplies for, and I did go and buy some new supplies along the way, but overall I think we've only spent just over £100 on Christmas gifts this year! So satisfying and I feel so abundant in being able to give with more than my spending power, but my time and making power instead and the reminder that the essence of a meaningful gift = LOVE
Happy Holidays
With warmth and wonder
Jaimie x