Home/Hand made Christmas gifts. Show us yours.

[grizz]

A quick update on this thread.

I am very sure this is old hat.... but it is the first time I have gone to the effort to dismantle some E-Waste as I think it is called.



I have always wanted to see what is inside a keyboard.

Just need to say, it was disappointing and amazing all at the same time.... with printed circuits, soft touch silicone inners etc.... all I really salvaged from there were the letters.

Then there were some optical mouse's which yielded a bit more interesting circuitry and the little wheels may end up somewhere some time.



I grew up in the time of valves and stripped many a broken radio/radiogram as a kid, winding up rolls of copper wire, to be used later etc.
No I know how electronics have shrunk and shrunk over time, but again, I was amazed at just how small and complex these things have become.

Yesterday afternoon I stripped the Router which yielded a very nice motherboard......



So I showed it to Nicola last night, and was going to toss it on the fire to see if anything went " POP!!" Ultimately I did not, as it could of course create all sorts of havoc having to explain to an insurance company why you lobbed a router onto your indoors fire.

This morning we cut back the garden for winter and cleared all the hanging baskets etc..... soon the job was completed.... Nicola went indoors to have a bath and then clean the house, which left me at a loose end.

Which is when I decided to start dismantling some old computer powerpacks, keyboards, mouses to see what they contained. I already had the motherboard from the router and Ideas began to form in my head.

In the end I decided to see if I could make Nicola a picture frame using the bits from the bin. I have bottled all the letters from the keyboard.... Scrabble anyone ?

So some measuring, marking and a Dremmel with diamond cutting blade later......



The stand may have been part of a multiple USB box, it came out of the pile of E-Waste Mickey next door had generated.

When he does any sort of office or other clearance he cuts all the wires back and weighs them in, often netting £300 to pay his bar bill with.
It often hurts me to see the perfectly good stuff he kills just to get to the copper wire inside.

So before cutting I tried it all out to see if it would work once I had modded the stand so that I could slot the motherboard onto it.




Then the fun began..... I have to say, I am petrified of this little whining blade.... it could hurt you before you realized what happened.

For a change I used more than my usual safety gear, both Mask and Glasses.





Much cutting later, there was a hole and I had the rear supports where the photo will be slotting into cut and ground. I also decided to use part of a mouse motherboard just to tidy up the front of the stand.

Then the hot glue gun was tested. I actually bought it for the Steampunk build.



DONE !!




Then I bought it indoors and took a pic from a TV magazine to see what it looked like......

Nicola has seen this one now, and seems happy (or is that tolerant as she always is of my builds) I did offer to wrap it for Christmas, but it seems I wont be getting away that easily.





Now I need to pull my finger and start making up the Steampunk Tophat.......

[grizz]

Well, after yesterdays snow flurry, it is bloody freezing out there, so I guess it is time to get on with all the bits I have collected to create Nicola's Steampunk tophat.



It will still be a bit of a hit and miss thing as some look great and I have an idea of what I want to make, but Nicola already poo poo'd some of the ideas I passed by here.

Some of the bits I have gathered to use.

£5 for a another broken mantle clock for spares n bits n bobs.



Freecycle Freebie......





Vintage Tophat for restoration £17.00 off Ebay (Paid too much, but they never come cheaply)




Brand new Brown Tophat bought in the end for £24.00 off Ebay shop. Great hat and good quality. To be used as the base for Nicola's gift.



Lastly, a solid brass carriage clock, broken, bought from Red Cross Charity shop rubble box for £3.00

Decided not to break it up in the end and to shove in on Ebay as "Broken, for spares or repairs only"
It made £43.00 in the end.... which means all the bits purchased for this build are kinda "Free"




That brings us to today.....

Time to pull finger and start getting creative.

What I will be working with.




Updates later, hopefully when I am done.

[pete42]

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

My late wife loved to make quilts she was working on a full size and two twin size quilts
made from pieces cut by my greatgrandmother, sewed into squares by my grandmother and quilted by Shirley
she sadly didn't get to finish it before the cancer got her only had small amount to finish onfull size one
my nephew's girlfriend who lives in west Virgina took it home with her she had a lady there finish it
It along with the two twin size ones now rest on beds at my sister-in-laws
the only time in 50 plus years I ever saw my sister-in-law cry was the day I gave them to her.
I still have two of Shirley's quilts one folded away the other a "wedding ring" one on the spare bed.
I know your's will be greatly appriciated in the years to come.

pete

[Dean in Ct.]

Every year for about the past 18 I make a run of wooden Christmas ornaments for the tree, and late on Christmas Eve I place them on the front door knobs of a select group of friends and family. Some even leave cookies or beer for Santa!
Last year was this striped oval


The year before was a Peace sign, ushering in my experimentation with laminated pieces, previous to that they have been solid shapes.

Here's the whole collection, hung horizontally

[grizz]

Every year for about the past 18 I make a run of wooden Christmas ornaments for the tree, and late on Christmas Eve I place them on the front door knobs of a select group of friends and family. Some even leave cookies or beer for Santa!
Last year was this striped oval


The year before was a Peace sign, ushering in my experimentation with laminated pieces, previous to that they have been solid shapes.

Here's the whole collection, hung horizontally

Now those are lovely.

I was going to make Nicola some hearts etc but your designs rock.

[Alleged User]

So creative, people. I love handmade gifts. Love those wood ornaments...beautiful.

SInce I have a houseful of scarves I've knit, and my loved ones are all scarfed out, I've turned to ornaments this year.

I've been having a ball with homemade cornstarch clay, and salt dough. Costs next to nothing for salt, corn starch, and flour, although I've developed a rubber stamp addiction that I really need to kick.

[Wimperdink]

Those are fantastic. I love the lil lanterns.

[nevadatear]

Kelly that gives me an idea. I have those samp teardrop and road trip stamps! I can use them for more than our build scrapbook!

[Alleged User]

Thanks, folks!

Debbie, aren't those road trip stamps great? Had to have them. Bust out some ornies and gift tags! Even cookies, sans ink of course. For a really quick fix, you could also buy air-dry clay to make them with...Crayola sells a tub of it at Wally's or Target. I make my own for the fun of it, and because I'm cheap.

Bizie, no, I don't paint them...yet. I like the rustic look of the natural salt dough with the brown stamped ink. For the cornstarch clay snowflakes, I like their natural porcelain white finish. I use jute twine to hang them. I let them all air dry, and then sand the edges lightly.

I need to experiment with sealers. I did brush a couple of test ornaments with ModPodge, and the ink discolored a bit and the images lost some of the crispness in the detail. Some of the ornaments take days to dry completely, so to speed up the process, I'm going to try placing some in a semi-covered container with a tub of Damp Rid. I don't like to bake them, because they always discolor and do weird things.

Keep the homemade ideas coming. Love to see people creating.

[prohandyman]

This is what Laura is making for all the girls in the fam...texting gloves

[nevadatear]

So here is what I made last weekend and the one before. Car organizers for each of the kids, a new stocking for the newest of grand babies, and birth ornaments.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1355238323.499162.jpg (124.86 KiB) Viewed 1174 times

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1355238340.603391.jpg (115.95 KiB) Viewed 1174 times

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1355238359.621025.jpg (141.55 KiB) Viewed 1174 times

[nevadatear]

I also got started on my annual tree ornaments. I made six each year, for each kid, my mom, and us. Here is ours, the only one finished so far, and a pic of our tree with many of our home made ornaments. I made the quilts of course, the quilted balks, the crocheted flower balls, and the felt and embroidered nutcracker ones. Some are more than 30 years old. Randy made the wood ones.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1355238631.538766.jpg (142.04 KiB) Viewed 1171 times

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1355238726.224707.jpg (154.47 KiB) Viewed 1171 times

The only non homemade ornaments on our tree are those representing nurses that i have collected over the years.

[grizz]

Some great stuff there all.

Thanks for sharing.

[gregp136]

When I was entering high school in the early 70's, my mother came home from work one day and announced that Christmas was too commercial, and that we (me, mom and dad, and my 4 brothers and sisters) all would draw names to buy only one gift, but we would make one for everyone. This has continued, with a change as we all reached adulthood where we now draw two names, one made and one bought. As spouses joined, they too were added to the drawing, making us all look for spouses who were creative enough to join in the Christmas tradition.

Greg

[CAJUN LADY]

What great ideas you all have! I wish I could do woodworking - such a beautiful talent! In the meantime, I'd like to do something as easy as the salt dough ornaments. Kelly, would you mind sharing your recipe and instructions to make those? I think I'd like to do that this week. I saw where someone had painted and sealed theirs (not on this forum...Pinterest I think). What kind of paint would someone use?