7 Quick but Tasteful Ideas

Well it seems like a lot of people are still looking for ideas, so I thought I'd list some of the things I made for people last Christmas. These can all be finished relatively quickly (excluding the last one) so if you find yourself running out of time, these might be an option. There is no sewing/knitting/crocheting involved in any of these, so that should save some time. Obviously there are many other easy ideas that have been posted here already, but I don't think I've ever seen these on here before.



7 Ideas under the cut.


As usual, I forgot to take pictures :( but I found some examples online that are pretty similar to the ones I made.

I didn't use any tutorials, so I can't link you any, but if you really need help, I can write you one. Most of these ideas are probably pretty self-explanatory though.

1.
- clay baked pens (I used Sculpey and other random packs of polymer clay I had lying around)
examples:



To give you a realistic idea, my pens weren't nearly as nice (or metallic) as the second picture, but probably cleaner than the first one. Shapes are always fun to add as well.

2.
- paper rolled photo-pencils
example:



Edit: TUTORIAL!

3.
- puzzle piece magnets
I commented about this earlier, so sorry if you have to see this twice.

examples:




Link to more gorgeous examples here <--- not magnets though.


You can also add photos or small knick-knacks to yours. I bought a 99 cents kids puzzle (with the big pieces) for this, but if you want, you can always cut out your own puzzle. Makes a cute collection as you can piece them all together and take them apart.

TIP: Before you glue the puzzle piece to any paper, trace the outline of the puzzle piece on the paper first and cut that out. Then glue the cut out paper onto the piece. This way you will avoid messy edges.

4.
- decorated mouse pad
examples:





(this one made me laugh xD)

I kept mine simple and just drew on it, but I bet you could get pretty wild with shapes and various materials and such.

5.
- personalized post-its or notepad
I can't find any good examples of what I did, but I thought these were cute alternatives.





Basically, I drew on the corners or added sequins, scraps, and other cute materials to them. And then I made a box to go with it :).

6.
- homemade wind chime
examples:






(I made mine with seashells.)

7.
- slide show
A very sweet and personal gift. I don't know how many people are familiar with Sony Vegas or Adobe After Effects, but if you are willing to go a little less fancy, Windows Movie Maker should suffice, and everyone who uses Windows should have it already installed. WARNING: VERY TIME CONSUMING if you go for the fancy effects, which I love :).

Hope this helped some!