As well as festive Fridays I also wanted to do a series of posts devoted to the joy of hand-making items for Christmas. I always love adding my personal touch to Christmas, whether it’s homemade decorations, DIY gifts, creative gift wrap or home-baked festive food, so this series is all about that. I hope you enjoy it and feel inspired to add some homemade elements to your Christmas too!
Today’s post is a nice gift idea as I’ve always loved putting together gift hampers. I feel that I can do this myself much better than any shop-bought ones because I know the person I’m buying for and can tailor it specifically to them. I’ve previously done several foodie hampers for various people, but have also considered beauty/pampering hampers and baking-themed ones. And these cute gift jars are just another development of that idea.
The jars themselves are just empty coffee jars (we buy the biggest jars of coffee available because the empty jars are so useful). Then the idea is to fill them with a bit of padding and cute little gift items, perhaps around a theme (e.g. baking), or perhaps just full of personal items you know they’ll love. Then when it’s full, pop the lid on, wrap a ribbon around the neck of the jar and tie on a cute trinket relating to the contents or one that gives it a Christmas look.
Idea 1: pamper gift jar:
Fill the jar with miniature beauty products from your favourite brands, a face mask, a nail polish and nail file, perhaps an eye mask or some cosy socks, an aromatherapy candle, and anything else that takes your fancy.
Idea 2: baking gift jar:
Write out your favourite cookie recipe onto a nice card and fill the jar with the key ingredients. Of course not the staple ingredients (flour, butter, sugar) but all the extra bits, such as sachets of cinnamon or ground ginger, whole nutmeg, a bottle of vanilla extract, chocolate drops, dried cherries – whatever the recipe requires. It’s also a nice idea to add a cute cookie cutter to the jar.
(If you like the look of the gingerbread man decoration, my next post will be on making these from inedible dough)
More ideas:
Treat jar: Fill with edible treats such as packets of retro sweets, individually wrapped chocolates, a candy cane, a hot chocolate stirrer, mini marshmallows etc.
Gardening gift jar: A roll of garden twine, packets of seeds, plant markers, a mini garden journal and a seasonal planting guide.
Foodie gift jar: Sachets of herbs and spices, a tea towel, recipe cards of your favourite dishes and miniatures of unusual sauces.
Crafty gift jar: A crafty person like me would love a jar filled with unusual ribbons, beads, embellishments and threads, plus other items to inspire crafting such as fabric paints or pretty rubber stamps.
I think gift jars are a nice idea that shows you’ve put a lot of thought into a person’s Christmas present without breaking the bank. What do you think?
English Rose from Manchester's Blog 
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