Friday, November 27, 2009

Do It Yourself Stocking Stuffers, Part the Second


[Click here to enter my ongoing giveaway of stocking stuffers for men. Giveaway ends Saturday Nov. 28, 2009! Apologies, but U.S. residents only.]

Usually for Fridays I post a "luxury stocking stuffer." But in real life, I do not spend the day after Thanksgiving going Black Friday shopping -- instead, I celebrate a personal "Buy Nothing" day. It's not that I have a problem with people shopping for bargains, especially in these economic times, but I dislike the way the retailers and the media try to whip people up in a frenzy, and I'd rather not participate in it myself.

So, instead of a luxury stocking stuffer today, here are links to a few more do it yourself stocking stuffers:

  • Pretzel Birch Logs, from Anne Reeves' Moments of Delight blog. These would work for any holiday, of course. For Christmas you can go with the pretty and traditional "birch" look, or you might choose to use milk or dark chocolate instead of white chocolate, decorate with red, white, and green jimmies or sugar crystals, and so on. Wrap in cellophane and tie up with a pretty curling ribbon, and you're all set.

  • Another food-related idea is to take whole walnuts, carefully open the shells and remove the nuts, put in small charms or a fortune cookie type message, re-glue them closed, and decorate the outside with glitter or pipe cleaners or any scrap materials. I came across this idea as a 2004 post on GetCrafty.com, posted by someone with the username "Felt" (although I have been unable to locate the specific post again). You can also take the actual nuts and package them up in a pretty little bag for someone's stocking, getting two stocking stuffers for the price of one!

  • Do-it-yourself Batman or other soap, as posted by Lesley on the Pink Toque blog. I'm sometimes a little intimidated by trying new crafts, but Lesley's tutorial makes this look super easy, and it can be adapted in many ways, such as using the recipient's initials instead of a Batman or other logo.

  • Where the Wild Things Are characters out of toilet paper rolls, as shown on the Wes Funderberg blog. Scroll down to the second photo to see the book characters specifically. Unfortunately, after following the link to Katie Steurnagle's blog, I was unable to find an entry there with any kind of tutorial, but I believe I could make these characters from toilet paper rolls based just on the photo.

  • Homemade sidewalk chalk using toilet paper or paper towel rolls, from the Mad Maggie Designs blog. You could also try finding a smaller tube of some kind if you want pieces that aren't so big around, but I kind of like the big pieces.

I hope you find something here that inspires you, and that you had a lovely Thanksgiving yesterday!


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