Homemade Christmas Gifts

This year for Christmas I made a couple of homemade gifts. It was fun plus it saved me a little money.  I got ideas from different places like Michaels/Hobby Lobby, online, and from some of my own gifts I've gotten in the past.  All of the projects below were super easy and took very little time.

Votive Candle Holders

I saw this idea in one of the free project pamphlets at Michaels Craft Store.  It was so easy and you can decorate however you want. I made these for my boss.

1. Measure the ribbon around the votive holder and cut it.
2. Measure and cut some clear doublesided tape the same length as the ribbon (found next to the photo/scrapbooking tape-I got a small roll of it)
3. Stick onto votive holder where you want it
4. Peel off the top layer and stick ribbon onto it
5.Hot glue any accessories you want

For the third one, I just bought some decorative stickers that were on sale

Apron

One of my co-workers had told me she was starting to cook/bake more and she has been making bread from scratch ever since she was a little.  My mom had made me an apron for christmas 2 years ago so I thought I would give it a shot. I don't have an embroidery machine and I didn't have a ton of money so I just bought a plain apron at Jo-Anns, a couple iron on applicaques, some thin ribbon and some iron-on letters. I had some lace at home and added that too. I really had no idea how it would turn out, but I was pretty happy with it. She seemed to like it too. Iron-ons don't always stay on forever, so hopefully it will hold up for at least a few uses.  I attached the lace and the ribbon using this stuff called "Stitch Witchery" that bonds things together also with an iron.

Reindeer Food

I made this for my former boss who has a 6 year old son. I actually had some other ideas on how to decorate this, but Nathan gave me this idea.  Just a mason jar, some eyes, a red pom-pom, and pipe cleaners. The Reindeer Food was super easy too. 6 Cups of rice chex, 1 bag of melted vanilla baking chips, 1/3 cup of crushed candy canes. Mix all together and spread onto baking sheet lined with foil or wax paper, then break up into pieces.