The True Spirit of Giving: 5 Thoughtful (and Easy) Kid-Made Gifts

There’s no better way to express our love for family than giving a gift that truly comes from the heart. These five easy handmade gifts are particularly soulful—because they are gifts kids can make (with a little help from you, perhaps).

Even if they look a little less than perfect, these inexpensive, DIY handmade gifts are perfect for teaching the true spirit of giving.

1. Homemade Gifts for Grandparents: A Box Full of Art

Sometimes the most special gifts are also the simplest. Using a shoebox or photo-storage box, collect a series of your child’s artwork from the past year. (If your family is like most families with young children, you have a sizable art pile in your home!) Have your kids decorate the box, wrap it up, and give your grandparents the wonderful gift of creativity!

2. For Young Cousins: A Bagful of Crazy Crayons

This is a great way to reuse broken or short crayons. In just 20 minutes, you’ll have great, repurposed, crazy crayons in cute shapes and sizes!

Materials:

• Broken or leftover crayons
• Silicone molds in fun shapes

Directions:

1. Crumble your crayon pieces into the silicone mold.
2. Place in oven at 230°F for 15 minutes.
3. Let cool and remove.

3. Homemade Gifts for Mother’s Day (or Father’s): Popsicle-Stick Frames

Materials:

• Popsicle sticks (regular or jumbo size)
• Printed photo
• Washi tape or markers (or anything you’d like to decorate the frame with)
• Glue (or a hot-glue gun)
• Magnets

Directions:

1. Glue four Popsicle sticks into a square and let it dry.
2. Glue or tape a photo to the back of the frame.
3. Glue the magnet to the back center of the top stick.
4. Decorate with washi tape, markers, sequins, glitter, or whatever your child likes!

4. For the Quirky Aunt: Handprint Coasters

Materials:

• Pencil
• Cardstock paper
• Double-sided Fusible Stiff Interfacing
• Brightly colored fabric
• Iron

Directions:

1. Have your child trace their hand on a piece of cardstock paper and then cut out.
2. Cut out 2 layers of rectangular shaped Interfacing and fabric. (Make them large enough to just cover the entire cardstock hand cutout.)
3. Adults: Iron the fabric and interfacing onto the cardstock. This will make your coaster smooth, flat, and stiffer.
4. Your child can then cut the excess fabric off, following the cardstock hand shape.

5. For Friends: Homemade Erector Set

Use Popsicle sticks, bottle caps, and Velcro to keep little builders occupied for hours!

Materials:

• Large Popsicle sticks (24 or more)
• Circular Velcro
• Glue (a hot-glue gun works best; be sure to supervise!)
• Bottle caps

Directions:

1. Glue Velcro to the ends of each Popsicle stick.
2. Glue Velcro to the bottle caps.
3. Build a tower, a cabin, or any kind of sculpture!