Homemade Christmas gifts 101

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

I wanted to share with everyone some of the Christmas gifts that I made for friends and family! I LOVE making gifts. Not only is it usually cheaper for me then something bought in the store, but it's personalized, and means alot more to the recipient :) This year I made soy candles with different essential oil aromas, whipped coconut body butter, wine cork drink trays, cookies, fudge, and ornaments w Max's picture inside! They were all pretty easy to make, and super fun and creative! Everyone really loved these gifts this year and it filled me with HOLIDAY JOY! :D 

-Heres the breakdown of what you need, around how much it cost, and how easy it really is! 

Soy Wax Candle: relatively easy, cost around $8 to make each. What you need: bag of soy flakes (found @Hobby Lobby-used 40% coupon on website), Glass jars (HL during 50% off glass sale), wicks (HL) and essential oil of your choice- I chose lemongrass and cinnamon/apple. The candles I made took about 3 1/2 C soy flakes to make each and an entire bottle of essential oil (or half and half if you're mixing two scents) each. Once you have your jar, attach your wick with hot glue or all purpose craft glue and let dry. Using a microwave safe bowl cook your soy flakes for 3 minutes, stopping a few times to stir. Once completed liquified add essential oil and pour into jar slowly. I put a spoon on the side of the wick to make sure it stayed straight while drying. Once dried, trim wick and cover! Easy! And AWESOME!

cooling/hardening

                                                                                                                           

all finished! EASY!

Whipped organic coconut oil body butter: ridiculously easy! I purchased a large container of coconut oil at Super Supplements (around $20), flip lid jars at Hobby Lobby (during 50%off glass sale). You can add essential oil if you'd like, I didn't because the coconut oil smells great alone. All you have to do is put all of your coconut oil in your KitchenAid mixer for 15ish minutes and VOILA! You have body butter! Coconut oil is very stable (so it lasts at room temperature for a long time) or you could keep it in the fridge if you'd like. Anyone could use this gift! It's sooo moisturizing! Love this one! And its "organic" for those crunchy friends! ;)

brand i used

whip it up for 15 minutes and VOILA!

Cork tray: Easy/time consuming/could be FREE! So drink up! And save your corks from your wine bottles! Or ask around to friends, families, bars etc to start saving them for you. I made two trays-one custom, one vintage. Dustin built the tray for my custom sized one I needed for my mom, and I found the second tray at a thrift store (vintage yay!) Lay out your corks in whatever pattern you LOVE, and hot glue down. This is great for a coffee table, ottoman, ANYWHERE! Downsize and make coasters instead for a spin on my idea! My mom and sister loved theirs!! Ho! Ho! Ho!

custom tray built by my man and whitewashed

finished product! Gorgeous!

So now EVERYONE has some ideas for gifts throughout this year or can get started early on Christmas gifts for 2013!!! All of these were super fun and pretty EASY! And Max was able to help with all of them!

Happy Crafting!
XOXO LOVE,
Super Crafty Mumma