In this holiday gift ideas segment, I will include some simple ideas which made thoughtful and personal gifts for family and friends. Some of these ideas incorporate the use of altered art, decoupage,papercrafts and stencilling.

Christmas Elves

Things you need :

Round wooden spoon
Red felt
Small golden bells
Black markers ( waterproof )
Acrylic paint ( flesh tone and red )
Red pipe cleaners
Red wooden beads, orange wooden beads
Christmas ornament
Glue guns
Silver or gold ribbons

Steps

Paint the wooden spoon red except for the top round end.
On the protruded sides of both spoons, paint a 4.5 cm diameter circle with fresh tone.
For better coverage, you need to paint 2 layers. ( refer to painting tips )
Cut the red pipe cleaner to a length of 15cm.
Using a black marker, draw in the eyes and smiling mouths.
Cut a triangle from the red felt ( approx. 13 x 13) cm.
Fold felt into cone shape (making a hat for the elf )
Attach hats on the elves' head with a glue gun.
Chain 2 orange beads into the red pipe cleaners. (refer to picture)
Attach "nose" onto the "face"
Attach red pipe cleaners ( with beads ) onto the spoon.
Attach Christmas ornament on the handle of spoon.
Tie the ribbon on the handle of the spoon.
Your friends will be pleased to have these adorable and festive elves.

 

 

Many exciting gift ideas awaiting you in the following pages:

Refer to Christmas stain glass ornaments, tea light glasses ideas in glass painting page
Make your own gift bags in papercraft page.
Looking for hands- on creative workshops, to learn how to make handmade gifts, go to workshops page.
Looking for gifts for all occasion, go to items for sale.

Christmas gift tags

Materials you need:

5.5" x3.5" cardstock ribbon christmas rubber stamp StazOn-timber brown gold vellum 2"x 2.5" embossing tool foam mat scissors glue tape glittery glue pop dots brown cardstock

Steps

Stamp on the right side of the vellum, that has a sheen.
Place the stamped image right side down on a foam mat.
Draw the embossing tool over the vellum, pressing down gently to a whitish mark.

Emboss all the winter clothes,including the boots.
Mat the vellum with cardstock, leaving about
2mm all round. Refer matting.
Fold the cardstock into half. Refer to
card folding.
Attach the cardstock with pop dots
Apply glittery glue on the borders of cardstock.
Tie ribbon around the card front in a bow.

I really love this effect and tried a few more gift tags as well. Refer to stamping.

 

Snowman

What you need

die-cut snowman and woman acrylic paints; DecoArt buttermilk, french blue, country red, burnt umber, sable brown, light buttermilk , yellow ochre, midnight blue,white; Delta Creamcoat spice tan texture paste multi-surface sealer Loew Cornell brushes; no.4 flat brush, 1/2" flat brush, no. 10 flat brush or no.8 filbert brush, no. 2 round brush, no.10/0 liner, 1/2" mop brush, 1/2" angular brush, bristle brush sandpaper satin varnish tracing

Steps for snowman

Sand the wood before basecoating on both sides with buttermilk. Refer to painting on wood.
When dry, trace pattern over the surface.
Basecoat the hat, "nose", fruit, country red; shawl and straps on hat- french blue; basket- sable brown; Cloth and top hat - light buttermilk, using a no.8 filbert brush or no. 10 flat brush.
Use 1/2" brush , load with spice tan, shade the snowman. To shade, wet your brush,pat lightly on paper towel. Load half the brush with paint and blend it on palette paper to soften the colour.
Using the same technique, shade the shawl, basket, red hat, the fruit with burnt umber; highlight with light buttermilk.
Use a liner to paint the lineworks.
Paint the eyes with burnt umber using a no. 2 round brush.
Load no.4 flat brush with country red, paint the red stripes on the hat.
Use a bristle brush, fly some speckles on the snowman.
Apply texture paste on top of hat to create 3-D effects for snow. When dry, paint with white.

The die-cut snowman can be purchased through orders. ( only local). Each snowman cost S$15. Just email me your orders.