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Free Homemade Gift Ideas
This collection of easy-to-make, free homemade gift ideas will save you money and spread your love around.
(Use only for deserving folks!)
It's a long page, so if you would like to skip directly to the free homemade gift ideas of your choice, here are the links:
Rum Balls
Silhouettes
Special Notebook
Handmade Doorstop
To check out all of the projects and the bonus material, just read on!
The free homemade gift ideas on this page make inexpensive Christmas gifts. But they are not limited to "that" time of the year (except for the rum balls).
Even if you don't think
of yourself as "crafty", you can create truly you-nique homemade holiday gifts. You can either ...
... make the entire present yourself, or
... buy something and add a tiny, creative, handmade item as a 'bonus' present, or
... buy a present and customize it by adding a small personal touch – a special gift tag, a bit of 'jewelry', a monogram (you'll find several suggestions for this as you read on).
Free Homemade Gift Ideas, #1:
Sweeten Someone's Life
 I have never met anyone who didn't love my Mom's Christmas Rum Balls. In our family, they're the stuff of legend.
Everyone used to wait for the first batch to come out of her kitchen on Nikolaustag (that's December 6, "Santa Claus Day" in Germany). I'm sure she's now making them in Heaven.
Rum Balls are fantastically easy to produce, and they're a great, last-minute, (almost) free homemade gift idea.
Below is my Mom's original recipe, both in her handwriting and in my translation (you'll notice that this is not health food. Relax, it's for a good cause!)
The recipe yields 30-50 Rum Balls.
To Make:
1. Drop the following ingredients into a mixing bowl:- 500g/1 pound confectioners' sugar, sifted
- 125g/1 stick/4 oz unsalted butter
- 2 heaped tablespoons pure, unsweetened cocoa powder (take only high-quality, fragrant, bitter-tasting stuff; don't use powdered 'drinking chocolate', it won't work!)
- 2-3 tablespoons rum
2. Wash hands, take off rings (ahem!), knead contents of bowl into a brown, gooey mess.
 3. Pinch off pieces the size of smallish walnuts (or XXL hazelnuts), and roll into balls.
4. Coat the rum balls with cocoa powder, chocolate flakes or toasted, chopped nuts for added flavor. Leave to dry for an hour or so, then place in an airtight container and keep in a cool place.
Ideas for Packaging:
1. Fill into cellophane bags, add lush bows and handmade nametags. Or …
2. Recycle a marmalade glass and cover the lid with a circular piece of pretty fabric.
 As an alternative to fabric, you could use color photocopies. Think along the lines of copying, for example,- your favorite striped shirt, or
- a piece of embroidery, or
- a photo of something that's perfectly round - say, an antique porcelain plate or a funky brooch or a flower head (there's no limit here to your own free homemade gift ideas!)
3. Cut out a circle that's 2in wider than the lid itself, smooth it over & tuck under the lid before screwing it on, and complete the gift with a nametag. 
4. Or, instead of a nametag, how about a label for the container? Make it special by hand-writing a line from the person's favorite poem or song, or a few words that say how much you appreciate having them in your life.
Rum balls make perfect Christmas homemade food gifts, but they're also a great (and easy, and almost ...) free homemade gift idea for birthdays, housewarming parties, and similar occasions - as long as you stick to the winter months, for obvious reasons ;-)
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Free Homemade Gift Ideas, #2:
Paint a Portrait
Being van Gogh is not required for this project. In fact, it would probably get in the way!
While it's not always a good idea to give people things in frames (they feel they have to hang those things up in their homes), this one may well get you a rapturous response.
 It's both the cheapest and the most sophisticated-looking free homemade gift idea on this page, particularly if you're going to create a series of silhouettes for a whole family.
You will need: - a camera
- access to a quality photocopier (or a scanner) with a scaling function
- a pair of scissors
- white paper/card
- black india ink or paint
- bleed-proof transparent paper for type layout
To Make:
1. Make up an excuse for photographing the intended recipient in profile, against a light, plain background. - Tell him or her not to smile, whatever they do. Or try to be really boring. (If they smile it will scrunch up their profile)
- Hold the camera level with their head and check that the profile is in focus.
- Take several pictures to ensure that one of them comes out perfect.
(If you know this person doesn't like their own profile, pick another free homemade gift idea for them. Or create a silhouette of their spouse - or their kids/grandkids/dachshund.)
2. Scale the photo up to A4/letter size on a black-and-white photocopier.
3. Now choose option "a" or "b":
a. Overlay the photocopy with a sheet of bleed-proof transparent paper for type layout, and draw along the profile. Try to clean up a few things as you go along – straighten the nose just a little, firm up the chin, fluff the hair – tiny "corrections" that the recipient might appreciate. Next, fill in the outline with black India ink, or other black paint that won't run.
b. Alternatively, cut the profile out of the photocopy with a pair of scissors or a craft knife, "edit" where you think necessary, and then (spray-) paint the head shape completely black. Don't worry if you haven't cut entirely smooth lines: almost all blemishes will disappear in the next step.
4. Once the black paint is dry, photocopy again, with clean white paper for a background – and this time scale it down to 1/4 of the size, so that the silhouette would fit nicely onto an A4/letter sheet that's twice been folded in half. Use "business" weight paper for this photocopy (at least 80g/m2), or go for ivory-colored, velvety stationery card, which will look much more elegant.
5. Frame & wrap, or present unframed in a flat box. You never know – it may hang in their ancestor gallery next time you visit.
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Free Homemade Gift Ideas, #3:
Special Occasion Notebook
 Make someone a little booklet for jotting down private thoughts and ruminations, or lay it out as a photo album, diary, or mini scrapbook. It's a very inexpensive homemade (Christmas) gift to make.
1. Buy a small, plain paperback sketchbook or notebook.
2. Wrap the cover in - heavy-quality giftwrap, or
- a large-scale photo/photocopy, or
- a beautiful page from a calendar or fashion magazine, or
- a map of Paris, or
- bits from a foreign-language newspaper, or
- fabric.
3. Measure a length of ribbon by wrapping it once around the book and then adding 15cm/6in to that.
4. Glue the ribbon down around the middle of the book, starting 1 inch from the front edge, round the back and all the way to the front edge of the back cover, leaving the surplus length of strip dangling.
5. For the closure, choose a few materials that look good together (like card, fabric, felt or lace). Cut these into round, or otherwise pleasing shapes, and layer them up to form an ornate 'button'. You could top it off with a real button if that works for the design.
Alternatively, choose a single, large (bought) button instead of creating one yourself from a stack of materials. Fabric-covered buttons will look particularly nice.
6. To prevent the booklet from ripping where the button is attached, put a patch of strong sticky tape on the outside and inside of the front cover where the button (stack) will go. Then stitch the button (stack) onto the booklet with strong sewing thread.
7. Close the book by sliding the ribbon under the bottom (layer) of the button, and twisting it round once or twice.
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Free Homemade Gift Ideas, #3:
Bonus Material
Other gifts you could buy & personalize:- Stamp/stencil some stationery with an ornament, or with the person's monogram. Make colorful envelopes from magazine pages.
- Buy a tote bag and add a bit of 'jewelry' to one of the handles, for example a little mascot, or felted pom-poms that you've adorned with a generous amount of glitzy Swarovski-style crystals.
- Add a customized fabric label to a garment, bag, or notebook that you have been messing with. Print the label with the recipient's signature (using heat transfer paper), then stitch it on.
- Embellish a simple t-shirt, a fabric purse or a belt with a few lines of running stitch, or add a cluster of pretty (antique) buttons.
- If you have access to one of the 'treasure chests' of needleworking former generations, then there's almost no limit to producing free homemade gift ideas!
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Free Homemade Gift Ideas, #4:
Giftwrap a Kilo of Sand
 I know – you were with me up to this point, but now you're really wondering whether I'm a case of seasonal (pre-Christmas) madness.
Well, please bear with me for a moment longer. This is a cool, even cute, way to embellish someone's Great Indoors whilst keeping their back door open. It's a quick, no-sew, (more or less) free homemade gift idea, just in case you're pressed for time or strapped for cash.
You'll need- a kilo or two of sand (I used 3 pounds for the doorstop in the photo)
- a soft plastic bag with absolutely no holes in it (not even tiny ones),
- 40x80cm nice looking fabric. Vintage fabric can look very good here; you may not need all of the 80cm, depending on the fabric thickness and the way you do the closure at the top.
- iron-on hem adhesive
- a piece of cardboard the size and shape of a CD.
To Make:
1. Cut a line from the outside of the cardboard "CD" into the middle, and cut a nickel-sized piece out of the center.
2. Using the hem adhesive, iron the fabric into a tube that's 19cm wide (if in doubt, measure & make sure it fits snugly around the 'CD'-shaped cardboard) and 80 cm long.
3. Turn the tube wrong side out, and close the bottom off with a tight knot.
4. Slide the knot through the slit, into the center hole of the cardboard (widen the hole if you need to). This will be the bottom plate inside your doorstop; the knot will disappear under the sand you fill in.
 5. Now push the cardboard back into the tube, so the right side of the fabric shows. Fill a plastic bag with sand and place it onto the cardboard bottom, right over the knot. Carefully shake & knead the sand until the shape is right and the sand has filled any empty spaces. Then seal the plastic bag securely (you don't want to turn someone's living room into a beach).
6. Now fold the upper part of the fabric down into the tube. Either close the doorstop off with a knot, or shorten the fabric before gathering and tying it together with string. Finish off with some nice ribbon.
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Free Homemade Gift Ideas, #4:
Bonus Material
Variatons on the Theme:
A nameless kilo of sand may not be immediately understood as a gift from the heart. So go ahead and prettify your doorstop by adding: - some 'bag jewelry' (see above)
- a few appliquéd fabric scraps (e.g. flower prints)
- tassels or pom-poms
- beadwork
- simple embroidery, like cross-stitch (Complete all embroidery before you start making the 'hose'.)
A Sophisticated Version
If you like the general idea of a doorstop, but you'd prefer something slightly more cultured than the above, find a lovely antique handbag at a flea market or second-hand shop. Make sure the material is still in good nick – you don't want the bag to fall apart as soon as the thank-you note is in the mail.
Then re-purpose the bag: - line it with plastic,
- fill with sand or pebbles and seal the plastic lining securely,
- make sure the handbag will stay closed when it gets scuffed around (it's safest to sew/stitch it shut!).
There. Give it a go. Experiment, tap into your own natural creativity, and have fun. It only takes a small personal touch to warm someone's heart with your homemade holiday gift.
Further Reading
You'll find more free homemade gift ideas under the following links:
Paper Lanterns - 3 free craft patterns that make great homemade holiday gift ideas for sending in the mail
Cards/Notes/Seals can be adapted to lots of occasions - includes 2 free printable Christmas patterns.
Paper-cut Winter Window Decorations - another easy homemade gift idea; makes a great addition to holiday greeting cards. Includes 5 free printable cutting patterns.
The following are free Christmas craft ideas that make nice Christmas presents:
Homemade Christmas Lights & Decorations
Christmas Tree Craft Ideas
How to Make Christmas Tree Balls
Christmas Table Decor
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