10 Easy Handmade Gifts for Friends with Step-by-Step Directions and Video Tutorials (2018)

Bath Bombs

• 8 oz baking soda
• 4 oz Epsom salt
• 4 oz corn starch
• 4 oz citric acid
• A large bowl
• A whisk
• Some dried flower petals (optional)
• 2 ½ tablespoons of vegetable or coconut oil
• A tablespoon (tbsp) of water
• 2 teaspoons (tsp) of essential oil of your choice (for fragrance)
• 4-6 drops of food coloring (the more drops you put, the deeper the color)
• A small jar or bowl, and
• 12-18 silicone molds

• In a large bowl, begin with mixing the dry elements (baking soda, Epsom salt, corn starch and citric acid) with a whisk for a lump-free blend.
• Next, mix the wet elements of oil, water, essential oil and the food color separately from the dry elements.
• Now add the wet blend to the dry mix slowly, 1 tsp at a time, stirring it continuously. If it starts getting frothier, then slow the pace down further. Continue whisking till you have the mix as damp sand.
• Now fill the silicone molds with the mix one by one, but quickly to avoid drying it up. Press the mix down into the molds firmly and let it dry for at least a day, and then pop them out of the molds.

Making the mug:

• Wash your mug in warm water with soap and dry it completely.
• Then with some warm water in a disposable container filled till at least ½ of the cup size, pour some nail polish into it. Quickly swirl the polish in the water with a toothpick, to avoid letting it set and then dip the cup into it.
• While dipping the cup, be sure to do it at an angle to avoid the polish getting stuck at the bottom!
• Keep the mug to dry and then wrap it up nicely for your friend.

Easy String Art

• A wooden block
• Printed letters
• Small nails
• A hammer
• Some embroidery threads
• Scissors
• Glue or a double-sided tape

• To create a lovely pop up piece of wall décor, just print a large letter of your choice, perhaps your friend’s name’s first letter. You can also print off a small pattern, a date or any other simple outline.
• Using this pattern for a design, hammer the nails around its outline and remove the pair on completing the process.
• Now, tie a knot around a corner nail to secure one end of the string to the board, then moving from one nail to another, wrap the thread in a random pattern till you’ve reached the end of the design.
• You can mix and match the strings as you go along and as you reach the end just tie a knot on the last nail and voila, your string art décor is ready!

Glow-in-the-Dark Mason Jars

• A mason jar or any other glass bottle
• A glow stick
• Glitter and scissors

• To avoid creating a mess, put a newspaper on the surface you will be working on. Open the glass jar and place a spare or old strainer on it.
• Glow sticks come inside a glass tube, when you cut it open from the top or snap it in half, you may end up the glass pieces around you. The sieve can help avoid that.
• Before you handle a glow stick, it would be wise to wear gloves, so that the chemicals from the sticks don’t irritate your skin.
• Snip the top of the glow stick and empty its contents into the jar by turning it upside down.
• If you’re planning to gift more than one jar to your jar, you can use different colors for different jars, one color for each jar.
• You can then add some glitter to the jar to make it even more appealing and then put the lid on the jar, shaking the contents, allowing the liquid from the sticks to coat the glass jar from the inside.

Washi Tape Photo Frame

• Craft or pop sickle sticks
• Some washi tape
• Scissors
• A glue stick
• Ribbon

• Begin with covering the sticks with washi tape, unroll it, and tear it to a length slightly longer than the stick and place it on the table adhesive side facing up.
• Then put the craft stick on top and fold the tape edge on the other side of the stick. Repeat the step till you have your desired number of sticks ready to make a frame.
• For a pallet style frame – take a plan stick as a base and glue other washi taped sticks on top of it until the length of the plain stick is filled.
• Finish it by putting a ribbon at the back of the frame to hang it.

DIY Terrarium

• A medium sized glass container with an open top
• 1 to 1½ layer of small rocks
• Potting soil appropriate for succulents
• White sand
• A spoon

• Take the glass container and fill the bottom up with 1 ½ layer of pebbles to collect the draining water.
• Then add a layer of potting soil appropriate for planting succulents, which is deep enough to root, say 2½ inches approximately.
• Now, remove the largest plant from its original container and dust off any extra soil off its roots, and using the end of a spoon, make a hole in the new container big enough for the plant’s roots and nestle it inside the soil, patting it firmly to hold the plant in place.
• Continue planting other succulents moving from the largest to the smallest one, mixing up different shapes, sizes and colors – starting off from the back of the vessel, working all the way forward.
• Plan for approximately 1 plant per inch of container diameter.
• Once you’ve finished planting, add ¼ inch layer of white sand around the plants and a few rocks around them from a décor perspective.

DIY Easy Jewellery Clay Dish

• Oven hardening clay (Staedtler Fimo Soft Clay)
• Paint, markers or glitter
• A cookie cutter
• A rolling pin
• An oven

• Roll the clay on a flat surface and use a cookie cutter to get your desired shape.
• With your fingertips, gently press all around the edge to give it a subtle lift and then bake it in the oven per your manufacturer’s instruction booklet.
• After the dish is ready, let it cool then, roughly around an hour or so and then embellish or color it as you’d like to.

Quilled Pendant

• Quilling strips in 3 or 5mm in colors of your choice
• A 6mm jump ring
• A quilling tool
• Craft glue
• Clear varnish
• A memory wire or a cotton or organza cord

• To create the necklace you just need to make some closed coils of different shapes, arrange them together to form a pattern for a pendant.
• Apply some craft glue in between the coils to stick them together and then apply a couple of varnish coatings to the pendant to make it water resistant.
• When it is dry, attach the jump ring on one of the coils and roll it inside a cord to make a lovely neck piece.

Tea Wreath

• 2 pieces of cardboard measuring 12 x 12 cm
• Some patterned paper
• Clothespins
• Glue
• A ribbon to hang the wreath

• Begin by cutting the cardboard pieces into 2 circle shapes, with the wreath portion as thick as a clothespin.
• Then cover the circles with differently designed papers, also putting them on the clothespins or painting or covering them with glitter.
• Now glue the pegs to your wreath evenly spaced, with the mouth of the pegs facing outwards.
• You can attach an assortment of tea bags to the wreath now and attach a ribbon at the back for easy hanging.