Home/Hand made Christmas gifts. Show us yours.

[grizz]

With finances getting tighter and tighter for many people, I suspect some of us will be reverting to handmade gifts.

From a handmade card, a knitted scarf to a handbuilt Teardrop trailer or in my case a kitchen rebuild (we have agreed its our prezzie to each other as it had to be done some time) well, really what I am doing is to turn some bits on the lathe for Nicola and will be making her a Steampunk tophat.

Show us or tell what you are getting up to in the run up to Christmas.

[BobBash]

Greetings from Maine , USA . Last year my family & I cut down a small birch tree , took a roughly 3" diameter branch & sliced it into 3/8" thick pieces . From these we cut in ( with a scroll saw ) or burned in ( using a soldering iron ) different Christmas designs , added a little ribbon or bow , maybe a couple of acorns , added a hook on top & had some very nice homemade ornaments . We put numerous coats of poly over the ornaments ( gloss ) . It made a personal touch seeing as our family collected all of the natural materials from our property . It was very cheap to mail them & everyone that got them not only loved them but gave us suggestions for this year . We had a lot of fun making them as well ............

Happy holidays !

Bob

[eamarquardt]

Greetings from Maine , USA . Last year my family & I cut down a small birch tree , took a roughly 3" diameter branch & sliced it into 3/8" thick pieces . From these we cut in ( with a scroll saw ) or burned in ( using a soldering iron ) different Christmas designs , added a little ribbon or bow , maybe a couple of acorns , added a hook on top & had some very nice homemade ornaments . We put numerous coats of poly over the ornaments ( gloss ) . It made a personal touch seeing as our family collected all of the natural materials from our property . It was very cheap to mail them & everyone that got them not only loved them but gave us suggestions for this year . We had a lot of fun making them as well ............ Happy holidays ! Bob

Suzy is in charge of Christmas presents for all but me and her. I buy my presents. I'm already done with my shopping. She says I used up my budget in February! I do get exactly what I want though. I buy her presents if she provides make, model, color AND SERIAL NUMBER. Just so I get it right. I will buy a few "guy things" for my boys. Mostly they get what Suzy thinks they would like but the often don't agree with their mother. They do, to their credit, keep quiet about it.

Anyway, I digress. I hate conventional Christmas Tree ornaments. All though my youth I got "yelled at" because we'd bump he tree, the ornaments would fall off the tree, hit the hardwood floor, and BREAK. Breaking Christmas tree ornaments permanently damaged my psyche. So, I wanted some nice UNBREAKABLE ornaments. I got some foam (a friend was building a commercial fishing boat) and cut it into small blocks. Then I went to a fabric store (yeah, I know it's a girl store but none rubbed off on me) and got lots of different "Christmassy" fabrics, some yarn, gold and silver cord, and other stuff to tie bows out of. Then I made little UNBREAKABLE Christmas tree ornaments that are, IMHO, really cute and cool. I think Suzy allowed me to put them on the tree one year before she went back to her breakable "girl stuff" ornaments. Anybody want some cute UNBREAKABLE ornaments?

Gus

[nevadatear]

I just finished my first homemade christmas present for the year. An advent calendar for our youngest son's family. I made two of a different design two years for each of our oldest girl and boy's families when their kids were two. Now it is time for the next two year old. We have one more child to go who is pregnant thus year. She will get her advent calendar quilt when the baby is 2. We have four kids between us and currently 5 grandkids and two more on the way. Each of the squares in santa's pack is a little pocket for a treat.

About 10 years ago we started making handmade tree ornaments. Randy makes a wooden one, often with wood from a special trip, like koa from hawaii, and i make a quilted one for each of our kids and our parents. Oh and us. After 30 plus years, our tree is now either all handmade (i have made many other kinds over the years) ones we have picked up as a memento of our travels. For example we have a small blue footed boobie from the galapagos islands. We love how it only reflects special things with meaning to us, not just "pretty" things.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1352587599.688856.jpg (118.21 KiB) Viewed 1803 times

[VijayGupta]

One of two dressers, first installment on a bedroom suite (bed, nightstand, dressers)

I would have liked to use quartersawn, but my supplier doesn't carry q/s ash. Grain gets a little wild in parts.

[nevadatear]

Beautiful! I love the crazy grain!

[jeffmutch]

I have a strange obsession with Dream Catchers... It started with making them for my own decorations but ended up making a dozen or more so I started giving them as gifts. I try to use the recipient's favorite colors, or make it personal somehow. I do everything from cutting the leather strips, bending the rings, finding feathers and pendants to dangle, etc.

Everyone seems to enjoy them; though I doubt they'd tell me if they didn't...

[grizz]

I have a plan to make Nicola a hat.....


In the mean time, Hannah, our daughter has started to make her Christmas goodies.
I was really impressed with this item.

Rather than a picture in a frame, she has printed off photos of her boyfriends mums dog and applied them to a paper mache dog.

[grizz]

In the mean time..... I am sure most of you will guess the direction in which I will be headed for my Christmas prezzie making this year.

I have started to collect bits that will form part of the Christmas prezzie I am planning on making for Nicola as I know what she likes and wants.

At midnight last night I had dug this out of the fire wood bin, took what I wanted and then returned the rest to the bin.



First bit of stashed treasure.



Can you tell...... ?


Here is the next clue.....

I now have to measure her head and order in a decent quality tophat.



Not sure if Brown or green are the answer... but leaning toward brown at the moment.





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Right, got started today.....

Bid on a few items on Ebay, no guarantee of course, but started.

Then went to Rochester High street, antiques and charity shops.

The result of 3 hours worth of trawling was a callback for next Thursday for a mantle clock that came out of a house clearance the weekend. If he cannot get it working, it will be mine for around £5.00

I am also looking for older cameras, especially the ol Russian style ones with a lot of mechanical parts.

I did get to find one clock, actually very pretty for £5.00 at the Red Cross charity shop.....the manager was hard as nails and would not budge on the price ;D ;D






As bought. Also no winding key with it.



Pics speak a thousand words.

I do love my little petrol-head woman.




Well, that was £5.00 well spent.

I did suggest making another lunch box from the case, but she was not interested.

Any ideas???






So the parts for my Steampunk Top hat for Nicola are coming together.

Just need to win a sensibly priced Top hat on Ebay now.

[grizz]

Anyone on here make Coin rings before ??

I want to try make a few.









RIGHT.....


Based on this post, I now want to try make some rings too..... 8-)

I have some old coins from around the world, collected over time.



Many fit the bill.



The potential candidates are these......



Reduced to these three.



Now to choose one to start with.

As there are different ways of doing these....ie edge hammering and spreading, or drilling a hole and then turning the coin "sideways" over a tool like these Jewelers Ring Poles, in steel that is..... or having a tool turned by someone on a lathe.

I want to try both styles, as they are very different.

I quite like the style of hammering the edge and then removing the centre and working it back, but the tapered rod is an easier way.



So does anyone know where I could buy a STEEL Ring Pole ?

Used would be fine.

[grizz]

Well, there seems to be two main ways of making coin rings.

I thought I would try them both.....

Firstly the edge beating with a hammer style ones, where you really need to be patient and have a gentle hand ( I did not)

First thing was to create a decent Anvil type surface.

A few years ago Woodsie brought me a section of railway line to use as an anvil, as my dad used to have a 150mm section.
Mine is a bit longer and a two handed job.

I took my woodwork belt sander to it first, to create a smooth surface, followed by the hammers.








I decided to use a 1957 vintage Spanish 25 Peseta coin.



Gently tap/hit the edge of the coin, going round and round.....





Gently does it.... at this point it was all going Ok.



A bit later, the one side.





Inside my ring, for perspective.



Pilot drill , followed by larger size.

Due to distortion that came in when I got impatient, the drilling did not quite get to the centre.... which means I will have more hand finishing to do tomorrow.



As I finished tonight.....

[grizz]

Went Charity shops walkabout with Nicola today.

Found a couple of Half Crowns an a pair of French Francs in two shops today as well.

I hope the Half Crowns are workable, as they are Nicola and my birth year coins.

[mobile camper]

I came up with an idea of making earrings for my wife. This is what I ended up with. I hope she will like them.



Steve G

[grizz]

Steve, those earrings look lovely..

I suspect they would sell well.

[mikeschn]

One of two dressers, first installment on a bedroom suite (bed, nightstand, dressers)

I would have liked to use quartersawn, but my supplier doesn't carry q/s ash. Grain gets a little wild in parts.

Nice shaker style dresser. I did one almost like that!

Mike...