Homemade Gifts for Kids to Make

Holidays, birthdays and anniversaries become extra special with homemade gifts that kids spend time making and creating. Children as young as  2-year olds can make sweet and personal little gifts for friends and family. Here are some simple, easy to make homemade gift ideas for kids of all ages.

Personalized Photo Frames

Children, including toddlers and preschoolers, can easily personalize inexpensive, plain, wooden or ceramic photo frames by sticking on stickers or colored bits of glossy paper. Older kids can enjoy painting them with acrylic or ceramic paints and adding a special message to the bottom of each frame. Choose the colors used to decorate the frame according to the occasion. Christmas frames, for instance, can be painted red or green while frames for Halloween can have a ghostly theme.

Older children can also make their own photo frames by using a stencil to cut out shapes from pieces of colored craft foam or felt and then, decorating them. For instance, kids can use a large star-shaped stencil to cut out two star frames. Cut out a round in the middle of each star for the photograph. Add the photograph, after cutting it to fit. Glue the stars to each other, with the photo showing in the middle. You can even stick a magnet onto the back to turn it into a fridge photo frame.

Handpainted Bookmarks

Bookmarks are a useful and practical gift that are easy-to-make and personalize. Children of all ages can make bookmarks out of construction paper and then, color them or decorate them with rubber stamp patterns, beads, ribbons and stickers. Bookmarks can also be decorated with a photo collage making it truly personal. Parents can help young children with cutting out the bookmarks. Older kids can make a book worm bookmark by painting eyes, sticking on a red colored pompom nose and adding black wire antennae.

Homemade Coasters and Placemats

Another useful gift for all occasions is homemade coasters and placemats. For place mats, kids can color sheets of craft paper, cut to size, and then, have them laminated. Paint-dipped hand imprints are a wonderful way of personalizing coasters for toddlers. Use a standard coaster to cut construction paper to the right size and then, let your toddlers and preschoolers leave their imprint on each.

Cakes and Cookies

Baked goods are a great homemade gift idea that kids can easily make. While toddlers and preschoolers can cut out cookie shapes and decorate cupcakes and cookies, older kids can easily bake and decorate a full cake with some adult supervision. Toddlers and preschoolers can decorate readymade cupcakes with some frosting, sprinkles and chocolate chips and older children can use a cake mix or even, a simple cake recipe to bake a yummy chocolate cake from scratch.