DIY Christmas presents

Hi guys,

I know I’ve not posted much this week, stuff has just got in the way and I’ve been really anxious. I’m going to try harder to be better organised next week. In the meantime I thought I would post about the presents that I made my friends and family last Christmas as it’s February tomorrow and it’s far too late to be posting about it but oh well!

One of the easiest things I made was these sock snowmen, all I needed was some white socks (4 for 99p), some cheap rice, old sewing pins and buttons which I had lying around and some tartan which I got for free. If you want to see the video I watched in order to make these I will leave the link here.

I got the tartan and several other pieces of fabric online as free samples, and used many of pieces I received to make a pillow. I stuffed it with the insides of some old pillows and some straw to bulk it out. As you can see from the photos sewing is not exactly my forte but I was proud of the end product.

Additionally I used some of the fabric samples to line an old crate I had, not my best work but I think it has it’s charm.

 

I also tried upcycling some glass bottles with a little paint and some artificial flowers. I used copper and blue acrylic paint, with tape to try and keep the lines clean.

Another little gift I made was these glass pebbles, I painted the underside with some Models Own nail polish and set it with clear polish and hairspray. I really liked the effect.

This frame is just one of many I made this year, the frames were inexpensive and I just printed out appropriate images for each recipient and popped them inside. This could be a great way to cheaply decorate a house and I’ll be making some for myself when I’m able to move.

Now onto the beauty DIYs. This year I attempted, and once again failed, at making bath bombs. I used a new recipe which I found here. It seemed straightforward enough but when I left them out to dry they started to swell. Fail.

After days of trying to manage the situation, dry them out (almost impossible in a damp house), and salvage something from the mixture, this is what I ended up with. Note the self depreciating tag line, haha.

They had noticeable air pockets and were a bit crumbly but I did try a couple and they maintained a little of their fizz. At this point they were probably better for having a nice smelling essential oil bath, rather than a magical bath time spectacle a la Lush.

I also made a few different varieties of facial and body sugar scrubs. The first was this green tea scrub.

The next variety was this lemon sugar body scrub.

The last recipe I used was this coffee scrub which I added sugar to as the coffee I used wasn’t textured enough for a scrub.

After using a few recipes I went on to make a ylang ylang and rose facial scrub.

And a ylang ylang body scrub.

I also made a couple of lip scrubs, one with fresh blackberries and one with vanilla and peppermint. I LOVE these cute little tubs!

I then went on to make some bath salts, all of which were made from this base recipe, with tweaks to the ingredients and colours.

I made this blue variety with lavender.

This rose variety with real rose petals and no added colour.

I also made another version of this with some added vanilla extract.

Finally, I made a red coloured variety with lavender and benzoin essential oils and some added dried flowers.

The last thing I made was a couple of products for applying to the face, astringent and toner. Both were very simple recipes, the astringent had an apple cider vinegar base, recipe here. The toner was made with witch hazel and green tea, recipe here. I added some essential oils for an added boost to the skin, and for a pleasant scent.

Here’s a little image of my first batch of gifts all together.

The things I learnt from this process are that people appreciate the effort that goes into homemade gifts, especially when they know that you couldn’t afford to buy something. I should also prepare much more in advance by stocking up on what I need and obtaining containers. I need to practice making certain things so that the end product is better, and I need a better and thinner chalk pen for writing labels because mine were quite messy.

Hope you’ve had a great weekend.