Five Great DIY Gift Ideas for your Family
Whenever I try to come up with DIY gift ideas, I get this picture of Homer Simpson injuring himself in my head. Maybe I watched too much TV as a kid, but I seriously doubt my own ability to make things with my own two hands. Without a doubt, creating things with your own hands besides peanut butter sandwiches can be dangerous.
But I think we've been conditioned to think that most DIY gift ideas are out of our creative reach and boggling to our terrible hand-eye coordination. In this post, I intend to present a counter to the point that we're all destined to glue ourselves to the kitchen table if we try to make our own Christmas gifts for our families. So put on your safety goggles and take a look:
Original T-Shirt: A Cheap DIY Gift Idea
If you're short on dough this holiday season, remember that it's most important to save as much money for yourself as possible. Your family and friends are certainly important, but let's get real. You've gotta eat (foie gras) and drive (your Audi) to work every day. If they really love you, your friends and family will understand if you don't spend an arm and a leg on them. With this in mind, one of the most thoughtful gift ideas you can come up with is an original t-shirt. Homemade t-shirts can be funny, sentimental, or downright outrageous. While they don't take a very long time to create, they show that you cared enough about a person to make them something completely unique.
If you don't have a silk-screen setup at home (which is a bit difficult to assemble), just pick up a set of iron-on transfers. Most of these kits cost less than $19.95 and allow you to make a bunch of shirts. Next, you've just got to buy a few Hanes or Fruit of the Loom 100% cotton t-shirts and get to work.
If you're at a loss for what to put on the t-shirt, you could use one of the following ideas:
1. Pictures of Family
2. Embarassing Pictures of the Person You're Giving the Gift to, with the caption "World's Best Popcorn Eater" or some inside joke.
3. Their Favorite Things (Ice Cream, Wolves, Jack Daniels, etc.)
As long as you don't make something that will set on fire or cause a shock, it's also a cool idea to attach some sort of lighting system to the shirt. For instance, a few years back I saw a wolf t-shirt that had flashing red light bulbs for eyes. I wish somebody would have given me that shirt.
Homemade Fishing Lures: A DIY Gift Idea That Makes Lazy People Feel Active!
According to a recent survey, 63% of Americans have, in their homes, a picture of someone grinning while holding a fish flopping on a hook. It matters little that only .04% of Americans actually fish more than once every 5 years. Men simply love the idea that they are adventurous outdoorsmen at heart.
While it may seem like a dangerous endeavor, as long as you don't try to make homemade fishing lures when you're drunk or hung over (unfortunately, this eliminates you, college students), you'll probably escape with both of your eyes intact.
The bigger danger here is getting roped into actually going fishing. As we all know, fishing is one of the most boring "sports" on the planet, next to curling, cross-country skiing and blogging.
Sock Puppets: An EASY DIY Gift Idea
This a perfect DIY Gift Idea for any hipster because it's so sentimental and childish. It's also perfect if you're a hipster with a ton of colorful socks to spare. Simply buy a few plastic eyeballs at an art store, glue them to a bunch of socks, and sew on some red mouths. If you want to go nuts, make one of them a cyclops and call it Richard.
Pies and Other Baked Goods: Timeless Homemade Gifts, Always Appreciated
Although they take a few hours to make, pies are relatively easy to make. If you're at a loss of how to start, though, call your mother. She'll do one of two things:
1. Insist on making the pie for you (win!)
2. Be touched that you asked her for help and then insist on making the pie for you (win win!!)
Just make sure the gift recipient isn't allergic to boysenberries before you get your mom to whip up one of her New Hampshire State Fair winning pie. Otherwise, you'll just look like a jerk who made a pie for himself.
Knitted Scarves, Hats or Socks: DIY Gift Ideas for the Whole Family
Unless you've got a lot of time on your hands, it's better not to try your hand at knitting. However, if you can manage to put your hands together and get handy with a ball of yarn and some sticks, this is a very cool gift idea. Just make sure it doesn't look like a hand-me-down, handywoman.
More DIY Gift Ideas for your Melon!
In case you missed our first installment of great DIY gift ideas, you should be ashamed of yourself. They're much better than these ones.
[...] looking for a Hail Mary and you’ve got some spare time, you could try one of these DIY gift ideas. People are usually so impressed that you spent some time on them that they won’t care [...]