Monday, October 22, 2007

Brainstorming gift ideas

I'm starting to devise a decent list of things to make for the bigger kids for Chanukah. I'll share my ideas thus far, but please feel free to comment with any other ideas you may have.

Now, let's review: I'm boycotting Matel after all the recent recalls. I'm also trying to avoid any plastic toys for the kids. I'd like to be a bit more earth friendly. Most of the toys I love that lack plastic are insanely expensive. So I figured I'd try to make more things myself (extra points if they contain recycled components).

Here's what I plan om doing:

More felt food. I want to do sushi, a cupcake, more fries, sliced bread and cheese slices. What else? I need some simple ideas. I already made one egg, cookies, a single fry and a pancake.

Felt hair clips. I just love these and these and I think I can manage a simple version of those myself.

Jewelry. I LOVE the jewlery here, but after really looking at it, I realized I could make something similar from femo, existing beads, buttons and clear nail-polish covered pictures (stickers, printouts, fabric scraps and magazine cut outs).

Some more stenciled clothing. I figure I could recycle some of their existing clothes. I'm going to hit a garage sale type thing where they always have tons of kids' clothes, so maybe I could stash some of those away and decorate them. I'm also planning on making some iron-on transfers of different images including this one:

128297679281407500halpamnot4.jpg

As much as I don't want the kids to have more stuffed toys (they have way too many), I'm thinking I may make some felt plush toys for them. I found some very simple patterns that I could do.

So, now, does anyone have any other suggestions? What on earth can I make for the wee one? I have a bunch of ideas for the big kids, but none at all for TheBoy. Feel free to throw some ideas at me.

4 comments:

Krissy said...

My mom made me barrettes where she took a few different colors of ribbon, braided them, glued them on the barrettes, left some of the ribbons dangle off the end and tie some beads at the end of them. They were my FAVORITE barrettes for the longest time.

Also, instead of getting them jewelryy, you could get them a kit where they can make their own jewelry.

Will def keep brainstorming for ya!

Pixie LaRouge said...

I'm making chairs for the big kids this year (theoretically speaking. This all depends on if I can get pesimst to be a bit more "optimstic" about helping with housework...)

I'm also contemplating photo albums of family that's far away and making sock puppets (can't remember where I saw the directions, but I'll try to send them your way). If the faces were stitched instead of glued (that is, fake embroidery), they would even work for the baby. Maybe I could make sock puppets of family that's far away. The bald brother would be particularly entertaining...

I'd also like to make matching movie-watching blankets and popcorn bowls. Fleece blankets require no sewing. Or what about hats and scarves out of fleece. Also (nearly) no sewing (remind me to show you Tyrannosaurus's Cub's hat with the poof on top).

Your ideas kick buttocks. You're too creative by half. If you got all the creativity, can I have a bit of the height???

Reiza said...

Krissy, I'm not buying jewelry. I'm making it from found items. Although, I completely forgot that they got a set of Chanukah beads last year that they never made into anything. Hmmmm...me thinks it may be time to regift.

Ohhhh and puppets are a good idea. I could use fabric paint instead of sewing the faces. I found some finger puppets I want to make for the big kids, but I hadn't even thought about sock puppets for the wee one.

Anonymous said...

How about making The Boy some kind of magnets? A set of alpha magnets or number magnets out of felt or river rocks? Downloaded images or paper doll things or pics of family members as magnets? How about making up a story for him and "illustrating" it with magazine cutouts? I keep meaning to do this for my kids.

Leah