Handmade Gifts for Your Teen This Christmas

I myself love to make homemade gifts, not only for my teen children but also for all my friends and family. I find that it is more personal and lets the receiver know how much you truly love them to have taken the time to make something by hand for them. I find that when I give someone one of my hand crafted gifts; I usually get a response of " well you did not have to go through so much trouble." I just tell them that it is a gift from the heart and will keep on giving the more you use them. The first gift idea for your teen is a fleece pillow. Being that I do not have a sewing machine, I like to keep things simple. See red plaid pillow in above photograph.

Materials you will need

• 1 yard fleece (your choice color or pattern)

• Scissors

• Thread and Needle (or sewing machine if you have)

• Morning Glory Polyester Fiber Fill (found at any Walmart)

Cut material into desired size square, sometimes I like to different shapes such as hearts. Sew all four sides of the material together using a good cross-stitch, leaving one corner big enough to be able to fit your hand all the way into it. Turn the sewn shell right side out to hide the stitching and fill with the Morning Glory Fiber Fill to desired firmness and finish by sewing the last corner of the pillow and you are finished with the pillow.

The second idea I have is a very simple one that anyone could do. This is the fleece blanket.

Materials you will need

• 2 yards of fleece fabric

• Scissors

Depending on how big the child is that is going to be for you would cut the fabric according to their size. My teenagers happen to be amazons so I need to use the entire 2 years of fabric. Lay the fabric out on flat surface making sure that it is completely laid out with no wrinkles in it. Take you scissors and make ½ to 1-inch wide strips that are between 8-10 inches in length. Now take the strips you have made and tie knots on them and you may repeat this process on the other end of the blanket but I prefer to leave it alone. See the plain red blanket in above photograph. I make all the pillows and blankets shown in these photos.

The next idea for handcrafted gifts for your teens is a Carved Print. This one requires a little more supplies from the craft store.

Materials you will need

• Linoleum block (found at any craft store)

• Carving utensils (found at any craft store)

• Colored Construction Paper (found at any craft store)

• Black Ink not Paint (found at any craft store)

• 8" by 10" Sheet of Plexiglas (found at any craft store)

• Brier (found at any craft store)

Take the linoleum block you got from the craft store and place the block on a strong flat surface. Draw an expressive design on the block. Now take your carving utensils you got from the craft store and carve out the design you have just drawn, always carve AWAY from yourself. Only carve out what you did not draw. Take the Plexiglas and put your ink on it and take the brier and roll it onto the Plexiglas in a back and forth motion until the brier is completely covered. Next you roll the ink-covered brier over the print you have just carved until the ink has been distributed evenly. Then firmly with even pressure (may use a rolling pin for this part) press the block onto your choice of colored construction paper, let dry. Now take the finished print and matte and frame it and you are done. Pictured in the above photograph is a print my son did for Halloween.

References for this article came from Craftster.org and Craftstylish.com