DIY Gift Guide: Gifts Kids Can Make and Give this Holiday Season

DIY Gifts Kids Can Make for Family and Friends

We’ve pulled together our favorite kid-friendly DIY gift ideas for everyone on your list so you can make it a handmade holiday! Handmade gifts are special, less expensive and a great chance to teach your kids the meaning of the holidays. Plus kids enjoy being creative with some hands-on activity time! Here are our picks, both simple and more complex, for brothers and sisters, cousins, teachers, aunts and uncles, and grandparents:

Gifts for Siblings

Tulle Dress for Girls and Dolls

This is a simple, no-sew tutorial for making tulle dresses for both girls and dolls. What girl wouldn’t be thrilled to have one of these dresses for themselves or their doll?

Handprint Animal Artwork

Using paint, have kids create handprints onto white cardstock (or if you’re really brave, directly onto a small canvas). Once it dries, decorate them to create animals or other fun creatures inspired by their sibling’s favorite animals or storybook creatures. Here is some inspiration from LollyJane.com who uploaded the handprint designs to Snapfish and had them printed on canvas.

Gift Certificates

While this is a really simple idea, the teaching element is so valuable and the end result is sure to be a keepsake. Ask your children to think about some things that their sibling would love – for example: using their favorite toy, making a fort, playing their favorite game, etc. Select the ones their sibling would like best and then write them on separate pieces of paper and decorate, then staple, sew or bind them together to form a booklet. You can also download templates online, like this simple one from Frugal-Mama.com.

Gifts for Cousins

Rainbow Science Box

We heard from lots of subscribers that the Painted Hand Print Rainbow they made with our Rainbow Science Box is going to make a great gift this year for loved ones!

Story or Coloring Books

This is a great teaching activity for your kids and creates a really special gift that their cousins are sure to love. If you’re short on time, the easiest way to create a storybook is to have kids create their stories on index cards, which you can then insert into a small (4”x6” photo album). We liked this tutorial from ImaginationSoup which has a download for holiday themed ‘story starter’ images. (For more images, you can pick up free clip art right here.)

Gifts for Teachers

Monogram Mugs or Decorated Pencil Cups

These projects require a lot of adult supervision due to the materials involved and the complexity of the project, but can be a lot of fun and make a great impression.

Decorating a pencil cup is another great idea and decoupage gives lots of options. Have kids use different colors of tissue paper to play with color mixing. We’ve also seen some great ideas using scrap fabric (including lace) and simple Sharpie markers.DesignMom has a great tutorial for creating monogram mugs using a porcelaine pen. Fill these with marshmallows, hot chocolate mix or a gift card to a coffee shop.

Monogram Wall Decor

Create a personalized wall decoration using shadow box frames and broken bits of crayons or buttons.

For Aunts & Auncles

Star Shaped Desk Calendar

This is a great way to share some of your favorite photos from the 2012, and is a wonderful gift for any family member. The tutorial at AnOunceOfCreativityalso has a download for the calendar piece.

Gifts for Grandparents

Helping Hands Oven Mitts

This adorable oven mitt project is a wonderful gift idea for Grandma!

Family Handprint Art Collection

Grandparents would love this series of handprint art from the entire family! Or on second thought, you might want to keep this one for yourself.

Handprint Masterpiece

Handprint art is also a favorite for grandparents and we’ve yet to see anything more beautiful than this fabric hand tree. More complex, but definitely worth the effort.