I have found tiny needlepoint kits with all sorts of themes and subjects that are very inexpensive ($3-$4 range) and everyone seems to enjoy them. (I finish them before giving---but in some cases the recipient might want the "kit" itself and not the finished product!)
There are many sites online where you supply the ingredients for cakes, hot cocoa, puddings, and several other things with dry ingredients---that you can wrap beautifully in a jar or a tin and include directions on how to make them. They stay indefinitely on the shelf and are ready in a jiffy when one wants to make them.
I've been assembling tiny birdhouses I found in the craft section at Walmart, and I was given some beautiful scrap wood (cedar) last summer that I tucked away. I've been gluing the brightly painted birdhouses like tiny villages on 15"x3" slats of wood and painting litle trees and flowers after they're glued on.
I bought a few bottles of that "puff paint" and have painted sheep on more of these same pieces of cedar, with tiny painted wooden hearts that say "I love ewe" on them, for my grand daughters and my nieces.
I had mentioned before on another thread, that I have been collecting pine cones and acorns and driftwood as long as I can remember.....and keep it all in clear boxes for times like this. The only "expense" is buying the small birds to glue onto the driftwood and I add shells, pinecones and whatever looks good to me at the time. Sometimes I add a touch of paint or a small amount of glitter to "glamorize" the pieces especially for the holidays!
I've been making wreaths by pretty much the same method, just bigger, LOL! I usually just work in miniatures though.
That's about it for now....
hugs,
Annie
