Christmas will be here before you know it, why not get ahead of the game this year and start the pressie planning early - here's how you can add a little sparkle to your homemade gifts. Better yet, with school holidays coming up, these are kid-friendly craft ideas that will keep them occupied for hours and get you ready for the silly season EARLY.
Make Your DIY Gifts Sparkle
The oh-so-important packaging for your DIY gifts. As any great marketing protege' will know, the packaging is everything, baby. First thing's first: if you're looking for a container to store any homemade creams or bath salts, look no further than your pantry cupboard. Yep, you read that right. Save any glass jars and bottles, give them a good old clean-out (no one needs any left-over pasta sauce in their beauty products!) and reuse the jars. Wah-lah! Doing your bit for the environment, while also keeping things very chic. On a more serious note, you don't want to pass on any nasty germs in your recycled, but oh-so-chic, jars. So be sure to sterilise them properly before you add any creams or other bath products. This can be done pretty simply with boiling water but for more advice, checkout this video courtesy of Jamie Oliver.
If your cupboard pantry looks nothing like ours and you don't have 500 almost-empty-glass-jars floating about, then head to your local op shop or Vinnies store. They have so many cutesy jars that some wonderful people decided were too cutesy to throw out. Op shops are a gold mind for reused storage containers, clothes, jewellery... everything really. Scratch our previous advice, whether you've got glass jars or not, get yourself to an op shop ASAP and check out all of the goodies.
Chic Labels and Cards
Packaging under wraps, now you need to label and attach gift cards to the kids DIY creations. For a super-sweet and simple style, grab some twine and have the kids make their own labels. Simply attach their label to the containers with the twine. Alternately, grab some blank stickers from your local store and have the kids draw up something sweet.
Better yet, keep old cards and wrapping paper and use these for labels. Gift cards are nice to keep but, realistically, you can only keep so many. Rather than throwing them out, keep the card, chop it in half and use the side with the image to create a brand new card. The kids can write on the back and just punch a hole in the corner to secure it with twine. Old wrapping paper laying around? You can use this too, to decorate containers with double sided tape.
DIY Bath & Beauty Recipes We LOVE
These are simple, yet satisfyingly indulgent bath and beauty products that you can easily make at home. Use our advice above to decorate them with a little sparkle to turn them into an extra special gift.
Not only are these homemade bath products great gift ideas, they're a great school holiday activity. Let us know in the comments below which homemade bath products are your favourite!
