DIY Gifts Giude 12 Amazing Gift Ideas for Any Occasion

Introduction

Purchasing gifts for other people, whether it’s your spouse or a sibling can be tough. Sometimes, it can be difficult to know what gifts a person would appreciate, and secondly, budgetary constraints can limit the gift options you have available. One of the best types of gifts you can give to others, regardless of age, gender, or occasion is a DIY gift. DIY gifts are thoughtful and personal. They will always make more of an impression on the recipient than a store bought gift will. Making your own gifts doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact, even if you aren’t an artistic person, you can still make wonderful looking homemade gifts, to suit a wide range of occasions. You also don’t need to spend a great deal of money to make your own gifts. In fact, making your own gifts can be much cheaper than purchasing them from a store.

Chapter 1 – Pampering and Beauty Gifts

Everyone loves to treat themselves every now and then, but going to the spa or the beauty store can be expensive. Giving someone a beauty gift is a fantastic idea. Whether you are looking for the perfect mother’s day present, or the ideal pampering gift for your spouse, a DIY beauty gift can be the perfect choice.

1. Homemade Sugar Scrub A homemade sugar scrub can make the perfect gift for a number of different occasions, from birthdays to Christmas. Scrubs are a very easy and inexpensive to make at home, but they are a very luxurious gift. Almost anyone can make a scrub at home.

How to Make a Sugar Scrub at Home

Step One: Purchase a nice jar, like the ones you use to store preserves, which you can put your scrub into, and a bow or ribbon to tie around it when you are finished.

Step Two: Select a good sugar. For a scrub, you want to use a fine, or soft sugar, like standard table sugar, or brown sugar. This is because you don’t want the sugar granules to be too big or rough, or they can be harsh on the skin.

Step Three: Select a base oil to mix the sugar with. The oil will act as a moisturizer, and will allow the recipient to smooth the scrub over their skin with ease. Baby oil is a good option, as it’s fairly inexpensive, it’s perfect for all skin types, and it mixes easily with other products. You could also use coconut oil.

Step Four: In a mixing bowl, mix 1 part sugar with 1 part oil. Make sure that you thoroughly mix your ingredients together, but don’t worry if the sugar sinks to the bottom of the mixture.

Step Five: For the last step, choose a scented oil, like lavender oil or peppermint oil, or an extract, like vanilla extract, to add a nice fragrance to your scrub. Add five to ten drops of your extract or oil to the mixture.

Step Six: Spoon the mixture into your jar and close it. As an extra step, consider attaching a little note that instructs the recipient on how to use the scrub. It should read “Open the jar and mix the scrub well with a spoon. Then spoon part of the mixture onto the palms of your hands, and rub them together to warm the scrub a little. Then, using your hands or a loofah mitt, gently work the scrub onto damp, warm skin, using circular motions. Rinse thoroughly.

2. Homemade Bath Salts

Homemade bath salts are the perfect anniversary gift, but they are also ideal for birthdays and holidays.

How to make Homemade Bath Salts

Step One: Purchase a nice jar that you can store the bath salts in.

Step Two: Purchase some Epsom salts and some coarse sea salt, which will act as your base. Then, in a large bowl, mix three parts Epsom salts with six parts sea salt, and one part baking soda.

Step Three: Next, select an essential oil. This will give your bath salts a fragrance, and make them even more luxurious. Lavender, peppermint, citrus, lilac and rose oils are all great choices, and they will give your bath salts a lovely fragrance. Add a few drops of the oil to your salt and baking soda mix.

Step Four: Combine all of the ingredients and mix them thoroughly. Then, pour or spoon your salts into your jar.

3. Homemade Vanilla Body Butter

A truly luxurious gift, a homemade body is the perfect present for birthdays and holidays, and it can also be the perfect anniversary gift. Making your own body butter is fairly inexpensive and easy.

How to make a Homemade Vanilla Body Butter

Step One: Purchase a nice jar to store your body butter in when you are finished making it.

Step Two: In a pan, heat 1 cup of raw cocoa butter with ½ a cup of coconut oil until it melts. Then, remove the pan from the heat, and leave the mixture to cool for half an hour.

Step Three: In a coffee grinder, food processor or blender or using a pestle and mortar, grind one vanilla bean. Then, add the ground vanilla bean and ½ a cup of almond oil to your cocoa butter and coconut oil mix.

Step Four: Stir the mixture well and then place it into the freezer for about twenty minutes. Then, using a food process, blender or an electric mixer, process the mixture until it develops a buttery consistency.

Step Five: Spoon the body butter into the jar that you purchased earlier, and store it in the refrigerator, until you give it to the recipient. Make sure that you let the recipient of the gift know that the body butter needs to be stored in the refrigerator.

Chapter 2 – Kitchen and Food Gifts

People who love to cook will absolutely adore DIY kitchen and home gifts. You can make a plethora of kitchen and cooking gifts. Gifts for the kitchen are ideal for birthdays and holidays, ranging from mother’s day to Christmas. They are easy, and inexpensive to make too, which means that even if you are on a budget, you can still make a fantastic gift.

4. DIY Recipe Book

For people who love cooking, a DIY recipe book is the perfect gift. It’s useful, yet personal, and it’s definitely a gift that’s sure to make an impression. Making a recipe book is fairly time consuming, but it is easy and inexpensive.

Step One: Purchase a nice notebook, which is at least an A5 notebook.

Step Two: Write a list of potential recipes that you would like to include in your book. Try to get a few themes for your book. You could decide to focus your book on family recipes alone, or deserts or a particular cuisine. For example, your whole recipe book could be recipes for Mexican food, and then you could divide the book up into sections like appetizers, main meals and deserts.

Step Three: Create a layout in the book for your recipes, so that you know where to place your recipes. Make a plan of where you want each recipe to appear in the

book. Write out a contents page for your recipe page, for your own reference, and then, also include this contents page in your book.

Step Four: Then take some colored paper, and then write, or print your recipes onto this paper. It can be a good idea to choose a color scheme for your paper. You could use the same colored paper throughout your book, or your could use a mix of different colors. Proofread your recipes.

Step Four: Then, stick your recipes into the notebook, ensuring that you place each recipe in the right section.

5. Mexican Spice Rub in a Jar

A Mexican spice rub, which can also double as a seasoning for many Mexican dishes can make a fantastic gift, especially those who love cooking. It’s a really useful gift that many people will truly cherish. It’s an ideal gift for numerous holidays, from Father’s Day to Christmas.

How to make your own Mexican Spice Rub in a Jar

Step One: Place the following ingredients in a mixing bowl:

1 teaspoon red chili flakes, 1 tablespoon chili powder

½ teaspoon cayenne pepper 1 tablespoon cumin ¼ teaspoon onion powder 1 teaspoon oregano ½ teaspoon black pepper ½ teaspoon ground cilantro

Step Two: Mix all of the spices together thoroughly.

Step Three: Pour all of the spices into a sealable glass jar, and tie a bow or a ribbon around the jar. If you want to , you can also pace a label or gift tag on the jar, and write something

like “Mexican spice rub” or “homemade Mexican

seasoning”.

6. Painted Wooden Bowls Set

For house proud people, and those who love unique and original home décor pieces, a painted wooden bowls set can make the perfect gift. These painted wooden bowls are incredibly easy to make, even for people that aren’t particularly artistic. They require few items, and little cash to make.

How to make Painted Wooden Bowls

Step One: Purchase a set of wooden bowls from the store. You can get these really cheap from supermarkets and other home décor stores.

Step Two: Decide on a color scheme for your bowl. Think about what types of colors the recipient of your gift likes. For example, you could choose a turquoise and blue color scheme or an orange and green color scheme.

Step Three: Choose a design. Simple shapes like triangles and stripes work, particularly well. If you have a steady hand, or if you are an artistic person, then paint your design straight onto the bowl. You could also use a stencil to ensure that your designs are neat and tidy.

You can find many stencils online and you can even make your own in programs like Microsoft Word. Alternatively, you can simply stick the tape onto your bowl, in the shape that you want, and then paint your bowl. Once the paint is dry, remove the tape, and you will be left with a clean, neat design.

Chapter 3 – Photo Based DIY Gifts

Whether it’s much cherished childhood photos, or photos from a recent trip abroad, DIY gifts that incorporate photos are always well-received, Photos have a great deal of meaning, so utilizing them in your DIY gift is the perfect way to create a thoughtful and sentimental present, which will surely be cherished, for years to come. There are many ways in which you can use photos to create a special gift.

7. Photo Bracelet

Photo bracelets are not only beautiful, but they are very sentimental too. If you want a gift that mixed beauty with personality, a photo bracelet is an ideal choice.

How to make a Photo Bracelet

Step One: Choose an old watch, or purchase a cheap watch that you think will suit the style of the recipient.

Step Two: Choose a photo that is meaningful to the recipient. If you are making the photo bracelet for your mom, then a photo of you and your mom together, or you as a child, for example would be a good idea. Measure the photo and ensure that it will fit into your watch.

Step Three: Take the back off of the watch using a small screwdriver. Most watch backs come off very easily.

Step Four: Cut out your image and place it into your watch frame. Then, screw the back of the watch back into place.

8. Photo Coasters

Want a sentimental, yet useful gift, then why not make a set of photo coasters. Easy to make, useful and incredibly thoughtful, photo coasters make a great gift for a number of occasions. They are perfect for mother’s day, father’s day, and birthdays, but they also make a great anniversary gift.

Step One: Purchase plain tiles or cheap pain coasters. Then find some photos that would be meaningful to the recipient of the gift. Measure your photos to ensure that they will fit onto the front of your tile or coaster. You may have to resize your images on your PC.

Step Two: Next, you want to cover your coasters in plain fabric. Glue this fabric onto your coaster or tile.

Step Three: Next, glue your photo onto your coaster, ensuring that it fits properly. Leave the coasters to dry.

9. Pull Out Photo Album

Easy to make, but very thoughtful, a pull out photo album is a great gift for a range of occasions. Whether it’s mother’s day or your anniversary, a pull out photo album is a great choice.

Step One: Purchase an inexpensive wooden box. Then, measure this box to determine what size photos you can fit into it.

Step Two: Select photos that are meaningful to the recipient of your gift. Then, gather a collection of photos that are the same size, and will fit into the measurements of the box you purchased. You may need to resize your photos on your computer, to ensure that they are all the same size.

Step Three: Purchase a long piece of card. It must be long enough to accommodate all of your images. Then, mark this card where your images will go, and create a fold at each mark.

Step Four: Stick your images onto the card and stick a piece of ribbon at the top of the card. Then, place the card in your box.

Chapter 4 – Monogramed and Personalized Gifts

Monogramed and personalized gifts make incredibly thoughtful gifts.

10. Monogramed Journal

A monogramed journal is a personal, and easy to make gift. Perfect for people of all ages, a monogramed journal is a versatile gift, and it’s easy to make too.

Step One: Purchase a journal, dairy or notebook. Then, use a large elastic band, a binder clip, or a small clamp to keep the journal closed and the pages tightly together.

Step Two: The, if your penmanship is good, simply write the letters of the recipient’s name on the page ends with a pen in a color of your choosing. Alternatively, for a neater, more professional look, use alphabet stamps to stamp the letters onto the page ends. Then, once dry, remove the elastic bands, clips or clamps that were holding the notebook together.

Step Three: You could also monogram the corner of each page in the journal, or every ten, or twenty pages, whichever you prefer. If you are going to stamp inside, make sure that you use a ruler to position the monogram, so that it appears uniformly throughout the journal.

11. Monogramed Soap Bottle

A monogramed soap bottle is the perfect home décor gift. It’s perfect to give to friends and family members, for a number of occasions.

Step One: Purchase a cheap hand sanitizer or an empty pump dispenser bottle. If you have purchased a hand sanitizer, rather than an empty bottle, then you will need to remove the label from the bottle. Most labels will simply peel off, or you can cut them off with scissors. If you are left with any sticky reside or label residue, then rinse it off with soap and warm water.

Step Two: Go online, and find a monogram. You can find monograms on Google.com, by doing a quick search for the terms “monograms” or “monogram fonts”, but you can also visit a website called the Idea Room, as they have templates available too. Save one of the fonts you find to your computer.

Step Three: Measure your soap bottle, to see what size the monogram needs to be. Then open up a Microsoft word document and either paste the image into a blank document, or insert it using the “Insert”, then “Picture” tabs. Scale the image to the measurements you need.

Step Four: Next print your word document onto transparent overhead paper, using a laser printer. Carefully cut out your monogram, and insert it into your hand sanitizer or soap dispenser bottle. Position the paper so that the monogram is at the center, at the front of the dispenser. Then fill the bottle with soap, to press the monogram to the bottle.

12. Personalized Sharpie Mug

If you are an artistic person, and even if you are not, a personalized sharpie mug can make a fantastic and thoughtful gift for a friend or family member. This is a simple DIY gift, which requires little equipment.

How to make a DIY Sharpie Mug

Step One: Decide on a design. You could opt for a simple monogram design, or to use a simple phrase. You could also incorporate flowers and other patterns into your design. Alternatively, you could add a drawing to the mug. Just make sure that it’s meaningful to the recipient of the gift.

Step Two: Choose your color scheme that you want to use in your design. It could be black and white, pink and purple, or whatever you want. Then, purchase sharpies in many colors.

Step Three: If you are a good artist or have nice penmanship, then you could draw or write straight onto the mug. If not, then use a stencil template. You can easily make stencils in word that you can print out, and you can find them online too.

Step Four: Leave your design to dry completely. Then place the mug into an oven and bake it for thirty minutes, at around 350°F. Do not preheat the oven before

you put the mug in there. Then your mug is complete. Please note that DIY sharpie mugs are not suitable for the dishwasher.

Conclusion

Making your own gifts may take more time, but overall, homemade gifts are much less expensive, and most importantly, much more thoughtful than traditional gifts are. You don’t need to be artistic to make your own gifts, and you don’t need lots of equipment to make them either. All you need is a little time. Making your own gifts can be quick and simple.